Its title cements its place in this thread: “The Lonely Man.”
Rod McKuen’s recording isn’t maudlin either. Although it sounds somewhat wistful in places, it ends up very bitter.
Meh. Mac Davis also wrote (he performed it in conceret, but I don’t think he ever actually recorded it) I’ll Be Drinkin’ Christmas Dinner Alone. THAT’S maudlin!
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Wreck on the Highway - Springsteen
I Feel Like Going Home:
Not an upbeat line in the whole song.
Gilbert O’Sullivan-Alone Again
Natalie Merchant The Living
Maudlin doesn’t mean depressing, does it?
And Jacques Brel could do maudlin - consider the pathetic shell of a man sobbing out Ne Me Quitte Pas (and here, much as I love Nina Simone, you have to go with Brel himself for full pathos).
Yeah, some of the suggestions (like the Smiths songs) go a little against what I think of as “maudlin,” typically. To me, it’s an overly sentimental tear-jerker, so it may have an element of depressing to it, but it’s from theatrical over sentimentality. The Terry Jacks take on “Seasons in the Sun” is, for me, the definition of “maudlin.”
I think the whole subgenre of teenage death songs contains a lot of contenders… like “Patches” by Dickey Lee (not the Clarence Carter song, although that one would qualify too) and “Teen Angel”.
The French are very good at maudlin… another example is “It Must Be Him”, an English-language version of which was a hit for Vikki Carr in 1967.
But really, any truly comprehensive list of maudlin songs is going to be dominated by country and Western, the genre that made an art form out of crying in your beer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsOA-5H_L2g Killkelly, Ireland. My son listened to this song and said,“Jesus Christ! This would make goth kids kill themselves!” Do not listen to this if you haven’t talked to your folks in a while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypn9oKaO-3EAt Seventeen. Nothing like teenage loneliness.
I think “Artificial Flowers” in its original form from the musical Tenderloin fits that bill pretty well. Yes, it’s sad, but it’s so over the top in its sadness that it’s a little hard to take seriously.
Then, Bobby Darin turned it into some kind of swinging hepcat anthem, and now it’s hard to take seriously for completely different reasons.
I came in here specifically to mention this particular piece of weepy garbage. I couldn't hate this song more if it kicked my dog.
The best thing I ever heard said about it was in Dave Barry's book of bad songs, where it he said that the song is tolerable if you assume that the "angels" who came and took her away were the Hells Angels.
This song is bad enough but it was the way it was used on the show that made you bawl your eyes out. Sorry about this
No, NO - it’s was the HELL’S Angels. She was kidnapped by a roving gang of bikers, locked in an abandoned garage, and forced to pull the train for three days!
But, eventually she came around, wore leather, got tattooed, cruised with Sonny Barger. Oh, they went by her old place and sawed down that stupid tree!
eta, Ninja’d by Sweetums
Two for your consideration:
Dolly Parton – Coat of Many Colors
Tim McGraw – Don’t Take the Girl
And for you, no charge.
God help me but I like Seasons in the Sun. It’s a good song.