# Songs you can't sing

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 4, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059 "2008-05-04T23:42:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Dottygumdrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Dottygumdrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dottygumdrop)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/21 "2008-06-11T12:41:44Z")

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**Wendy Matthews - _The Day You Went Away_:**

> [@](#):
>
> Hey, there’s not a cloud in sight  
> it’s as blue as your blue goodbye  
> and I thought it would rain  
> the day you went away

I don’t know why, but this song always makes me fearful of the day that one of my parents will pass away, which just chokes me up.  
**Eric Bogle - _The Band Played Waltzing Matilda_:**

> [@](#):
>
> They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed  
> And they shipped us back home to Australia  
> The armless, the legless, the blind and the insane  
> Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla  
> And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay  
> I looked at the place where me legs used to be  
> And thanked Christ there was no one there waiting for me  
> To grieve and to mourn and to pity

Whenever I hear this, or try to sing even the smallest part, particularly on Anzac Day, I just cry.

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**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/22 "2008-06-11T16:23:08Z")

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R.E.M.'s [“Find the River”](http://video.aol.com/video-detail/rem--find-the-river--parallel-video-version--music-video/2764948875) (off _Automatic for the People_). I can sometimes do all right until the lines, “The river to the ocean goes/A fortune for the undertow”, and then I lose it completely.

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/23 "2008-06-11T16:28:06Z")

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_John Doe No. 24_ by Mary Chapin Carpenter. I have learned the guitar part, and all the lyrics, and can put them together fine in bits, but if I start singing the whole song, I just lose it.

I was standing on the sidewalk  
In 1945  
In Jacksonville Illinois.  
When asked what my name was  
There came no reply.  
They said I was a deaf and sightless  
Halfwit boy.  
But Louis was my name  
Though I couldn’t say it… (cue **jjimm** ’s voice wavering and cracking uncontrollably)

(tries to get through the rest of the song)

While I drew breath, noone missed me  
So they won’t on the day that I cease.  
Put a sprig of crepe jasmine with me  
To remind me of New Orleans… (cue **jjimm** breaking down into floods of tears)

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**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/24 "2008-06-11T16:56:51Z")

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Mitch Benn’s [A Minutes Noise for John](http://www.mitchbenn.org/aminutesnoiseforjohn.htm)

Let’s have a minute’s racket, though he isn’t coming coming back it  
Seems we understand the need to play something loud and at the wrong speed.  
Cos a minute’s silence wouldn’t show him how we feel,  
Let’s have a minute’s noise for Peel

That’s verse three, I challenge anyone who grew up with Peely to make it though verse one.

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