Well, it’s not quite as bad as some of the rest of the songs in this thread, but “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town” is pretty maudlin -
YAY! No one beat me to this one.
maud·lin
/ˈmôdlin/
Adjective
Self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness.
Synonyms
sentimental - mawkish
mawk·ish
/ˈmôkiSH/
Adjective
Sentimental in a feeble or sickly way: "a mawkish poem".
Having a faint sickly flavor: "the mawkish smell of warm beer".
Synonyms
maudlin
Once upon a time there was a tavern…
In that vein, “Fancy”. Mom and baby are starving to death so Mom turns out older daughter so at least she will be taken care of.
Gotta throw in my candidates, which I don’t believe have been mentioned yet:
The Oak Ridge Boys, I’ll Be True To You
Debby Boone, You Light Up My Life
Some of you folks are just chippin’. You want maudlin, you got to go for the hard stuff, like Tammy Wynette… e.g.: “Buy Me a Daddy”
I’m So Lonesome I could Cry -Hank Williams
Butterfly Kisses! I missed this one in my list- mainly because most of mine were from the cheesiest decade of all time, the 1970s.
Only discovered this one recently on the Dope, but it rings all the bells. Terry Jacks piece. Dog run over by car. I give you Put the Bone In.
I remember hearing “One More Year of Daddy’s Little Girl” for the first time, the chorus of which goes:
One more year of lollipops
Ice cream cones and soda pop
One more year of daddy’s little girl
One more year of crackerjacks, bubblegum
And sugar smacks
One more year of daddy’s little girl
And thinking “With that diet, no wonder she died.”
I didn’t know it was by Dr. Hook, though, so maybe it was a joke. But with all the other things little girls like, the focus on nothing but sweet foods sounds goofy.
You guys need to listen to Gene Autry singing “I want a Pardon for Daddy”…
Little girl praying outside a prison wall where her daddy has just been…well, de-registered from the living, we’ll say.
sigh…there must be dust in the house…*sniff"
Three pages and no mention of “Same old lang syne?”
Don’t jump off the roof dad
Don’t cry out loud
Three pages in, and no mention of The Green Green Grassof Home by damnnear everybody.
I suppose any song that’s been covered so many times must have some sentimental value, but I could never get past the glurge factor. The only version I enjoy is Roy Clark’s burlesque parody in which “grass” is treated as a synonym for cannabis. (“I got caught smokin’ the green green grass of home”) Can’t find a copy to link to…
In The Baggage Car Ahead (1896)
It’s way out of copyright, so here’s the lyrics:
On a dark and stormy night, as the train rattled on
All the passengers had gone to bed
Except one young man with a babe in his arms
Who sat there with a bowed-down head
The innocent one began crying just then
As though its poor heart would break
One angry man said, Make that child stop its noise
For it’s keeping all of us awake
Put it out, said another, Don’t keep it in here
We’ve paid for our berths and want rest
But never a word said the man with the child
As he fondled it close to his breast
Where is its mother, go take it to her
This a lady then softly said
I wish that I could, was the man’s sad reply
But she’s dead in the coach ahead
While the train rolled onward
A husband sat in tears
Thinking of the happiness
Of just a few short years
For baby’s face brings pictures
Of a cherished hope that’s dead
But baby’s cries can’t waken her
In the baggage coach ahead
Lyrics??? I’ll give you lyrics!
No-one knows what happened that day
How his car overturned in flames
But as they pulled him from the twisted wreck
With his dying breath they heard him say :
“Tell Laura, I love her”
“Tell Laura, I need her”
“Tell Laura, not to cry”
“My love for her will never die”
The Ballad of a Dog Named Staines
Miss that damn dog :(Oh, yes. Yes, they are. Especially the chanson réaliste genre which was popular in the first half of the 20th century.
Take Les Roses Blanches for instance. You’ve got:
- A kid living alone with his mom.
- They’re dirt poor.
- Every Sunday, he buys some white roses for her, instead of toys for himself. (Chorus: Today’s Sunday, my pretty mommy / Here are some white roses, for you who loves them so much / When I’m grown-up, I’ll go and buy / All the white roses for you, my pretty mommy).
- Mom gets sick (of course).
- Kid has no money anymore so he steals some white roses.
- Gets caught (of course).
- The shopkeeper takes pity and lets the kid go, with the flowers.
- Runs to the hospital with a big smile on his face. A nurse tells him: “You’ve got no mommy anymore.”*
- Kid sings his song one more time, with appropriate changes (Today’s Sunday, my pretty mommy / Here are some white roses, for you who loved them so much / When you go to the big garden over there / You’ll take all these white roses with you).
Have a nice day :D.
- Yes, this nurse was probably a Hun or something.
Or maybe “Too many daddies”, D-I-V-O-R-C-E or I don’t want to play house. Wynette also made the only version of “Honey” that you can listen to as it is sung from the perspective of the depressed, suicidal wife.
How about Sonic Youth’s cover of Superstar? the tone completely changes the song.
Also these:
Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have
The Mountain Goats - The Mess Inside
John Grant - Queen of Denmark