More sad instrumental music:
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“Stormy Monday” (Allman Brothers Fillmore Album): I can take or leave the rest of the song, but Duane’s incredible guitar solo is the most emotional nonverbal music I’ve ever heard.
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“Ashokan Farewell” (Fiddle Fever): I suspect it’s been made sadder by its association with “Letter To Sarah” in Ken Burns’ Civil War program.
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First Christmas by Stan Rogers.
This song is cheesy as all of Wisconsin, but the first song I think of (next to ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’) is Dick and Janeby Bobby Vinton. It’s such a poignant reminder that everything–and everyone–has an expiration date. Sometimes you know what it is, more often you don’t. Sometimes you get another chance, more often you don’t.
+1. The bulk of the song is trite, 80s country crap, but that refrain…oh, man.
We love the people in our lives, but most of them will be able to take care of themselves if something happens to us. Our pets, on the other hand, really, really need us, and they are always there for us. If something happens to me, I can only pray that someone will take good care of my dog.
For his album The Hill, Richard Buckner put several poems (epitaphs) from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology to music. How does this grab you?
Note to mods, *Spoon River Anthology *is in the public domain, so I don’t think there should be a problem with posting the lyrics here, right?
It’s also called “No Man’s Land”, which may be the original title.
Eric Bogle had a positive genius for writing songs that make me cry. In addition to these two, there’s “The Gift of Years” and the atypically angry “What Kind of Man”, which always makes me think of the Oklahoma City bombing though it was written long before.
Good choice.
The line that resonates with me in that song is,
“Their small-town eyes will gape at you
in dull surprise when payment due
exceeds accounts received at seventeen.”
I always think of my little brother. Good looking, smart, and funny, he got by on his looks and charm all through high school. Goofed off, never studied, never took a job seriously, never kept a promise, and then one day he woke up and he was 25 and had no real education, and had screwed up all the good jobs my dad had helped him get, and had no options left but minimum wage crap, and was too ashamed of himself to come to any of us for help. And he blew his brains out.
Good one. Let me throw in the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony, if played at the proper tempo.
Some really good links here for a bit of a sad fest.
Band Played Waltzing Matilda has always been a favourite song of mine.
For a slightily more recent one, that gets to me every time is
Goodbye My Lover by James Blunt
This song actually makes me laugh, because it’s associated with one of the best outbursts on radio ever. Casey Kasem was recording an episode of his Top 40 radio show. He started to read a request & dedication letter about a family’s dog’s death. The writer requested that they play “Shannon.” The song that led into this segment, the Pointer Sisters’ “Dare Me,” was a bit too uptempo for Casey.
“We’ll Meet Again”-WWII song by Vera Lynn
I thought about mentioning this one. Despite its overuse in the media - both where it’s supposed to be actually sad and where it’s supposed to be a parody of tragedy - it still gets me.
It’s sad because he doesn’t have enough time to be with the person he wants to be with, and because just because he wants to “go through time with” that person, doesn’t mean he’ll get to do it, because they could die anytime. It’s sad because that reality is really heartbreaking.
I can’t watch YouTube videos here, but is this the one where Fry’s dog was waiting for him till its dying day? If so, I don’t remember the lyrics of the song much, but the scene itself had me bawling… never expected that from Futurama.
Again, no YouTube links, only lyrics, but a couple songs by artists that have already been mentioned are on my list:
The Shortest Story by Harry Chapin… this one will kick you in the gut, plain and simple.
Keep Me In Your Heart by Warren Zevon… especially heartbreaking when you realize that Zevon knew he was going to die *very *soon when he wrote and recorded this.
I would have to second Barber’s Adagio for Classical and would like to add The Chills, “Pink Frost” about a guy holding his girlfriend as she died.
Although its glurgy Red Sorvines Teddy Bear always gets to me…
Antoher for Cat’s in the Cradle and also Gypsies Tramps and Thieves…
There’s one more I haven’t heard in years, and can’t remember the title. It is a lady runny away from an abusive husband in the middle of the night - she sings about provoking him to relieve the tension, and also about packing up the kids and getting a neighbour’s help to run away in the middle of the night.
I’m not quite sure what you did there, Pitter Patter, but the coding didn’t work, so I just linked to the YouTube page.
Country music has no lack of sad songs. Two of my favorites:
Bruce Springsteen