# Songs you find unbearably moving **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 28, 2006, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050 "2006-11-28T10:09:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Black\_Train\_Song](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Black\_Train\_Song](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Train_Song)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/101 "2006-11-29T09:54:34Z")
Abraham, Martin & John is a good one: because it seems the good they die young. Lightning crashes by Live: because it hits home. Fields of gold by Sting: I don’t know why The End by the Doors: mainly because it’s a break-up song at its core, “it hurts to set you free but you’ll never follow me” The boxer by Simon & Garfunkel ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/102 "2006-11-29T09:56:37Z")
Two come to mind (surprised they haven’t been mentioned yet): _ **My Immortal** _ by Evanescence and _ **Joey** _ by Concrete Blonde That second one really so. The lyrics are so simple and yet she sings them with so much emotion (not to mention her breathy, rasping voice). ☹ ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/103 "2006-11-29T13:38:55Z")
[QUOTE=Made in Macau] My question was which songs \*\*\*do you skip \*\* \* \*as they are unbearably moving, as opposed to which songs make you cry; the former category being a tearjerking league above the latter. [/QUOTE] I wallow in Marianne Faithfull’s “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” because it is so brilliantly desperate and sad and real. But it kind of has a happy ending; the woman loses her mind and escapes her misery. ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/104 "2006-11-29T13:49:50Z")
There are several songs that either make me cry OR I can’t listen to them all the way through or I’ll bawl my head out, but the reasons behind them are unclear even to me. “Uninvited” by Alanis Morrisette. “Don’t Let It Bring You Down,” written by Neil Young, as performed by Annie Lennox - “American Beauty” soundtrack “The Lighthouse” by Nickel Creek - on the first few notes from the guitar my eyes well up and I have to leave the room, which really sucks, because I **love** that song. Those three INSTANTLY spring to mind, but there are a truly unnerving number of pieces of music that crank the waterworks on full blast. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/105 "2006-11-29T13:58:03Z")
Another vote for the Gorecki, when the womans voice comes in it’s just the most beautiful thing. Amazing Grace always gets me, doesn’t make me cry but never fails to move. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/106 "2006-11-29T14:16:12Z")
A song that always starts the tears flowing and that I find very hard to listen to is Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s In the Cradel” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/107 "2006-11-29T14:42:04Z")
And for the punch below the belt I nominate _Mother_ by John Lennon. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/108 "2006-11-29T14:55:25Z")
When my son was about 3 years old, he could be brought to tears by someone singing the Hee-Haw song, “Where, Oh Where, Are You Tonight?” We only did it a couple of times, honest. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/109 "2006-11-29T15:30:54Z")
I can add “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough” because it really hit home for me while I was dating a guy that I knew loved me, but I just didn’t feel the same and I knew I was going to break his heart. especially the line - “I don’t want to use you, just to have somebody by my side.” Also, “The Dance” - because said guy decided it was the perfect song for our doomed relationship ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/110 "2006-11-29T15:45:05Z")
“Christmas in Dixie” by Alabama I’m such a sap. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/111 "2006-11-29T15:45:33Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] So is Eric Bogle’s [**No Man’s Land (The Green Fields of France)**](http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/noman.html). The final _“again and again and again and again”_ really puts a serious dent in my day. ☹ [/QUOTE] I was gonna say that! I got to know this song from Gordon Bok’s version. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/112 "2006-11-29T15:49:44Z")
I’ll add one more: “Kilkelly”, by Peter Jones, fashioned from emigrant letters written to a family in America from a family in Ireland from 1850 to 1900. (The version I have is by Mick Moloney). ---
**Author:** ![muzzynyc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@muzzynyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muzzynyc)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/113 "2006-11-29T15:52:24Z")
_ **Fred Jones, Pt. 2** _ by Ben Folds – a kind of _Death of a Salesman_ in a 3-minute pop song Fred sits alone at his desk in the dark There’s an awkward young shadow that waits in the hall He’s cleared all his things and he’s put them in boxes Things that remind him: ‘Life has been good’ Twenty-five years He’s worked at the paper A man’s here to take him downstairs And I’m sorry, Mr. Jones It’s time _ **Martha** _ by Tom Waits _ **It Can’t Rain All The Time** _ by Jane Siberry (from _The Crow_ soundtrack) ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/114 "2006-11-29T16:20:43Z")
I’m a total sap, so I have to admit to finding it hard to choke back the tears when I hear **The Fields of Athenry** , **The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald** and U2’s **Mothers of the Disappeared**. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/115 "2006-11-29T16:31:47Z")
Ok, so I’m going to admit this in public. I’m not sure why, perhaps I just want to hear the mocking sounds of your laughter. I started bawling like a baby last night - I was listening to “Roll On” from Alabama. Then “Carolina Mountain Dew” came on - and it was the end for Missy. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/116 "2006-11-29T16:49:17Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] :eek: Holy snikey! I came in here to mention those\*\* exact two \*\* because they were played at my best childhood friend’s funeral. I was just thinking how I couldn’t make it through them in church. We were around 19 or so when he died but the funeral was in the church we grew up in, and attended as Catholic school kids together. RIP, buddy. The other verses that choke me up are Amazing Grace: “When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun…” and How Great Thou Art: “When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, and take me home, …” [/QUOTE] Those songs get me, too! (sniffle) ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/117 "2006-11-29T16:58:13Z")
_30kft_, be Assemblage 23. I never play it, because I burst into tears. _Eleanor Rigby_ _Vimy_, by Tanglefoot ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/118 "2006-11-29T17:03:28Z")
I usually have to skip “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, and “Kilkelly, Ireland”, which nobody has mentioned - it’s in the form of a bunch of letters to a son who’s gone to America, giving all the updates - obviously he never comes home, and his mother dies. It’s just so, so sad. Oh, and “Cats in the Cradle”. But I actually _threw a cd away_ once because I kept forgetting to skip Emmylou Harris singing “Bang the Drum Slowly”, and it makes me think about how my dad’s getting older and will die one day. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/119 "2006-11-29T17:16:04Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] That one _is_ just about too sad to listen to. So is Eric Bogle’s [**No Man’s Land (The Green Fields of France)**](http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/noman.html). The final _“again and again and again and again”_ really puts a serious dent in my day. [/QUOTE] Yes ☹[more info](http://www.vincentpeters.nl/triskelle/lyrics/greenfieldsoffrance.php?index=080.010.040.010) But here in this graveyard that’s still no-man’s land The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man The whole generation was butchered and damned Did they beat the drums slowly? Did they play the pipes lowly? Did they bugles carry you over as they lowered you down? And did the band play ‘The Last Post’ in chorus? Did the pipes play ‘The Flowers Of The Forest’? **Include too Emmylou Harris’s “Bang the Drum Slowly”:** Gone now is the day and gone the sun There is peace tonight all over Arlington But the songs of my life will still be sung By the light of the moon you hung I meant to ask you how to plow that field I meant to bring you water from the well And be the one beside you when you fell Could you tell Bang the drum slowly play the pipe lowly To dust be returning from dust we begin Bang the drum slowly I’ll speak of things holy Above and below me world without end ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050/120 "2006-11-29T17:17:58Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] “Kilkelly, Ireland”, which nobody has mentioned But I actually _threw a cd away_ once because I kept forgetting to skip Emmylou Harris singing “Bang the Drum Slowly”, and it makes me think about how my dad’s getting older and will die one day. [/QUOTE] You mentioned **JKellyMap** ’s and I mentioned yours! Great minds (and in my case, slow fingers) 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-find-unbearably-moving/382050.md?page=7)