# The saddest song in the world **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2002, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793 "2002-09-03T12:56:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/181 "2011-06-10T12:43:24Z")
> [@Imago](#): > > I’ve always interpreted it as major abandonment, it’s definitely not about wanting more sunny days at the beach if you ask me. Seems like the experience of hero-worshiping someone who’s ridiculously self-involved, or perhaps being romantically involved with them, or a daughter trying to get attention from a father of the same description. Someone who only has time for you when their capricious feelings happen to land on your lucky number. I suspect she chose a sun god because he thinks the world revolves around him. The character “I” in the song would bend over backwards for this entity, but Ra clearly does not reciprocate the devotion. I think I’m in love. That’s a great interpretation, thank you for your response. Now I’ll probably cry everytime I hear the song. I’ve always thought it’s possible the child is dead and in the process of being buried, and wondered if you heard it that way too. I have never heard or read anything to support that, just the lyrics “as I am laid to rest” which could be just going to sleep, but she had plenty of other songs about death, so it crossed my mind. Boy would I love to pick your brain about other songs. How did you come to hear the song. How did you discover her? ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/182 "2011-06-10T13:47:34Z")
David Bromberg’s “Ugly Hour” will always bring me down if I’m in danger of having a happy day. And considering I originally started listening to him for the upbeat, blue-grassy stuff, he also has [Mr. Blue](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geW9lUD-Q50), and [Sammy’s Song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AcPWNYwjj4&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![osme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/df788c/32.png) [@osme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/osme)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/183 "2011-06-10T13:49:51Z")
The saddest songs to me are: “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” Hank Williams “He Stopped Loving Her Today” George Jones “For No One” Beatles ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/184 "2011-06-10T14:13:30Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > And on a cinematic note, I’m not sure if someone’s already mentioned this but if [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px0j1EHF8Y0)doesn’t make you cry you are a dead shrivelled husk of a human being. That’s mine. No way in hell am I watching _that_ again! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/185 "2011-06-10T14:16:20Z")
Since this thread has been de-zombified, the song I reference in the OP is now available on YouTube. Put your headphones in, close your eyes, and listen: [_John Doe No. 24_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH9-EVGR3VQ) by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Still gets me. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/186 "2011-06-10T14:29:27Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > That’s mine. No way in hell am I watching _that_ again! I saw an interview with Tom Hanks talking about that. He said that he and Tim Allen both knew the story and what was going to happen, yet by the end of the first screening they were both crying their eyes out. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/187 "2011-06-10T15:12:38Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Although it is mainly because of its link to the ‘Feline Fantasies’ segment in the animated film _Allegro Non Troppo_ (and my love for kitties) I literally cannot hear more than a few notes of Jean Sibelius’ **Valse triste** (Sad waltz) without tearing up (am doing so just writing this :() > > [Saddest piece of media ever…](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Oc_J1Lu-o) > > **Warning:** Once seen it cannot be unseen! That is the most sadistic thing I’ve ever seen. Whoever made it should be taken out and shot. God. I’m in the office as well. Can’t move away from my desk for a little while. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/188 "2011-06-10T15:33:01Z")
[The Lady of Shalott - Loreena McKennitt](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-kp6RDl94) Words by Lord Alfred Tennyson It’s a song over 11 minutes long… at the end you are left with ineffable beauty and sadness over the plight of the doomed Lady. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/189 "2011-06-11T04:32:29Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > I think I’m in love. That’s a great interpretation, thank you for your response. Now I’ll probably cry everytime I hear the song. I’ve always thought it’s possible the child is dead and in the process of being buried, and wondered if you heard it that way too. I have never heard or read anything to support that, just the lyrics “as I am laid to rest” which could be just going to sleep, but she had plenty of other songs about death, so it crossed my mind. Boy would I love to pick your brain about other songs. How did you come to hear the song. How did you discover her? Myself and my best friend have this absolutely disgraceful folk band we created a couple years ago as an excuse to get into a music festival for free, and when we needed a recommendation for a song of a certain mood someone suggested we create a rendition of “Warpaint” on our respective instruments (her imitation pixiephone, my weird harp-like thing I’d made out of a stripped tambourine frame). We looked up the song, and that is how I discovered her, embarrassingly enough. I always heard the lyric as “made to rest” rather than “laid to rest”, thus reinforcing the whole “I’m a mortal and you’re a god” metaphor angle, but both interpretations could really work either way. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/190 "2011-06-11T04:40:36Z")
> [@osme](#): > > The saddest songs to me are: > “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” Hank Williams > “He Stopped Loving Her Today” George Jones > “For No One” Beatles I’m with you on those first two. Don’t know the third so I’ll go look it up. ---
**Author:** ![CyclopticXander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@CyclopticXander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyclopticXander)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/191 "2011-06-11T04:51:21Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > That is the most sadistic thing I’ve ever seen. Whoever made it should be taken out and shot. > > God. > > I’m in the office as well. Can’t move away from my desk for a little while. Can I get a basic synopsis here? I’m all for some animal related emotional release, but I can’t handle it if it it involves any kind of cruelty. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/192 "2011-06-11T07:53:07Z")
> [@CyclopticXander](#): > > Can I get a basic synopsis here? I’m all for some animal related emotional release, but I can’t handle it if it it involves any kind of cruelty. It’s a very artistic cartoon that is mostly psychologically cruel. To the strains of Valse Triste, a cute, big-eyed cat in a derelict building remembers the warmth and happiness of the family with which it presumably used to live there, in repeated visions that it participates in, before they fade away and the cat returns to its bleak reality of loneliness and abandonment. At the end of the piece we see a crane arrive at the house and the wrecking ball swing at it. The image freeze-frames just before the wrecking ball hits, but we hear the house’s violent destruction. It’s just so awful. Even typing that made me tear up. Jesus, it’s completely imaginary, WTF is wrong with me?! ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/193 "2011-06-11T14:05:14Z")
Jjimm - Did you notice that the cat fades and disappears just like all of it’s remembrances did… I’ve always assumed the cat was a ghost haunting the ruins. So it wasn’t killed by the wrecking ball. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/194 "2011-06-11T20:00:11Z")
Ok I have the winner: Cade Calf Call by Mumblin’ Deaf Ro’, You can hear it on his[myspace](http://www.myspace.com/mumblindeafro). ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/195 "2011-06-11T20:13:26Z")
_Space Oddity_, sung by David Bowie. “Tell my wife I love her very much.” “She knows.” _The Blacksmith of Brandywine_, a folk song. “They say on the line at Brandywine you could hear that hammer sing!” ---
**Author:** ![Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/196 "2011-06-11T21:14:50Z")
Nick Cave did great work on the soundtrack of _The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford_. [Titular scene here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPIivI1K6f0&feature=related) The bass is absolutely perfect, IMO. Just enough but not too much. [Cave’s score here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qNVGl_7awY&feature=related) supports the film’s ending/epilogue very well. No “lyrics” as such, but the narrator makes a powerful comparison between the legacy of Jesse and Bob. Reminds me of a Ken Burns film. Before watching this clip, be warned that it gives away a major part of the story (spoilered below). I’d recommend watching the whole movie to get the full impact of these last few scenes before viewing this clip. I posted it for those who’ve seen the film or know their Jesse James history. The shotgun would ignite, and Ella Mae would scream, but Robert Ford would only lay on the floor and look at the ceiling, the light going out of his eyes before he could find the right words. ---
**Author:** ![Romeo\_and\_Whatsherface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Romeo\_and\_Whatsherface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Romeo_and_Whatsherface)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/197 "2011-06-12T02:46:05Z")
If we’re talkin’ sad as in moves me to tears, it’d be “The Dutchman.” If the topic is songs that make you really depressed, it would have to be “Dress Rehearsal Rag” by Leonard Cohen. “Wasn’t it a long way down? Wasn’t it a strange way down?” Ugh. Soundtrack for a suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/198 "2011-06-12T07:28:18Z")
After the “Dion and the Yell-Fonts” controversy, it’s tempting to run “The Saddest Story Ever Told” (which _has_ been set to music) here. It’s Googled easily enough–but _caveat emptor_, _caveat maxime emptor_… ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/199 "2011-06-12T08:26:42Z")
> [@hazel-rah](#): > > Let’s see… Leonard Cohen’s been mentioned (although I think he’s really funny as well as sad), > > “Holocaust” by Big Star > “My Father” by This Mortal Coil > “Northern Country” by Heidi Berry > “Sanvean” by Dead Can Dance > “In a Lonely Place” by New Order (“Ceremony” as well… but you have to know what happened for the real impact) > > -fh > > Have we had this thread before? Yes. Yes, we have. As for me, Concrete Blonde’s [Joey](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpTcvSn8HQ) is pretty sad. Seems to me it’s about someone who feels helpless loving someone who’s depressed. ---
**Author:** ![Nom\_de\_Plume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85f322/32.png) [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793/200 "2011-06-12T13:06:04Z")
When I read the title of this thread, I just assumed it would be about ‘Blue Valentines’ by Tom Waits. Yet, here we are at post 200 with the first reference to it. I agree with the posters who mentioned John Prine as having a catalog full of tear-jerkers. A true American poet. He actually made my wife cry when we saw him live. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-song-in-the-world/126793.md?page=11)