I was about to comment that no one had mentioned “Sam Stone”, until I found it had been mentioned by, oddly enough, Sam Stone. I agree that Prine’s greatest hits album is stuffed to the gills with tear-jerkers.
I’ll also lend my support for “Fourth of July” by Ani Difranco (“I had your back, now you’d better have mine”) and “Jacksonville Skyline” by Ryan Adams/Whiskeytown (“Jacksonville’s a city with a hopeless streetlight/seems like you’re lucky if it ever change from red to green”).
I’ll add “Jacob Green” or “The Wall” by Johnny Cash.
I love sad songs, so this thread is almost like a music shopping list for me. I’ve also thought of one more - Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music, particularly as sung by Judi Dench.
Holy shit! Here I was racking my brain for candidates, but I don’t think I could beat this one. In fact, I’ve got brewski in hand right now and I think I’m going to dig this one out and get a bit lush tonight.
Other candidates -
Tons of Guy Clark:
[ul]
[li]Let Him Roll[/li][li]Fort Worth Blues[/li][li]The Randall Knife[/li][/ul]
“Try a Little Tenderness” Otis Redding
“Girl From the North Country” by pretty much anyone (Roy Harper’s version being my favorite)
“Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac (can’t believe I admitted to that one)
“God Moving Over the Face of the Waters” by Moby (I’m an atheist and I loathe Moby as a person)
“Straight To You” by Nick Cave
“Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen
and maybe…
“Rain Song” by Led Zeppelin… haven’t heard it in a long while, but back in HS that and numerous cuts off The Wall were my choice anthems of romantic estrangement.
Freddie never said when his illness was discovered. AFAIK, the rest of the band never broke their vows of silence, either. Indeed, the fact that he had AIDS was not officially admitted to the public until the day before he died.
one that i thought of was “emmaline” by hot chocolate. hmmm…‘mother and child reunion’ by paul simon seems to me to be pretty sad also. ‘for yasgur’s farm’, ‘one last cold kiss’ and ‘pride and passion’ all by mountain.
Just discovered a very touching one tonight that moved me to tears. “Down in the Valley So Shady” by Tourdion. Starts with the singer recalling his childhood days playing war, then as a young man chasing girls, then as a warrior on a battlefield, and back to the valley - in his grave.
Also another on a more personal note. This song moved me to tears before the following experience, by the pure power of the song alone, and now compels me to even more tears because of this experience, so it fits in the question of the OP.
When the movie had first came out (Oh Brother Where Art Thou) my mother bought the soundtrack. We played the tape all the way through on one side… flip it over, play it on the other. We love that kinda music down here in the South. Well, one song struck our hearts unlike any other. Allison Kraus’s ** Down By the River** . For a solid week we listened to that song whenever we could, absolutely loved it.
Right around when we quit obsessing over the song, I got word a friend of mine from school crashed his motorcycle and died at age 17. I attended one or two days of the services, I can’t remember, although I remember I was there on the day of the burial. That day, right before the last pass around the coffin, someone brought a tiny, humble, boombox out, sat it down, and pushed play. Said they wanted to play the song Chris loved the most. I sang Down By the River as clearly as I could through the tears. Makes it hard to listen to now, but it’s still so beautiful.
For absolutely relentless depressingness, I’m going to have to second Coldy’s mention of Bruce Springsteen. The River is my personal choice for most depressing song EVER.
Pink Floyd comes in a close second, though. The Wall/Dark Side of the Moon/Wish You Were Here troika is wonderful music to be miserable by.
Some more:
“I am Waiting” by the Rolling Stones, but maybe that’s just because it’s in Rushmore. Actually, the whole soundtrack can move me to tears, goodness knows why.
“Everybody Hurts” by REM. Has this been mentioned yet? It seems almost too obvious.
I second the Belly song, and recommend Star and King (albus) to everyone.
“Leader of the Band,” by Dan Fogelberg. The whole song is about a music teacher who has made a huge impact on the writer of the song, but now is growing old and can’t do what he used to. Then, when the song is almost over, the lyrics throw a last curve at you:
"Thank you for the music,
And your stories of the road;
I thank you for the freedom
When it came my time to go;
Thank you for the kindness,
And the times when you got tough;
And Poppa, I don’t think I said
‘I love you’ near enough…"
