# The saddest (true) songs in the world
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 22, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737 "2008-06-22T00:59:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/1 "2008-06-22T00:59:36Z")
I know we do “The Saddest Song in the World” every so often, and usually I pop in for “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”, which is kind of unfair because I heard about it in one of these very threads. (Why do I torture myself iTunesing from those lists? I always cry.)
“Kilkelly, Ireland” came up on my iPod today and I didn’t have the good sense to skip it, so I was all in tears on my way to work, 'cause at heart I’m the world’s biggest softie. (Seriously - halfway through watching “Carrier” Himself said, “Will you please stop being so _compassionate_? My dad was in the Navy when I was a kid and I don’t like you crying about it!”) So I was looking up alternate versions to see what they sounded like (I have the Blackthorn version and all the others I found were too overwrought to be as devestating) and found out that it’s from real letters. Well, _great_.
The lyrics are all from letters written by Pat MacNamara as dictated by John Coyne to his son in America.
This might be too specific a category to get results, but I was wondering if there any other really good but also true-story sad, sad songs out there that are personal favorites. So I can buy them and show up at work again with a red nose.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/2 "2008-06-22T01:57:07Z")
Eric Clapton’s _Tears in Heaven_. I can’t imagine how he found the strength to write it.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/3 "2008-06-22T02:16:07Z")
Thread over.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/4 "2008-06-22T03:09:22Z")
I seem to remember hearing that Clapton wrote “Tears in Heaven” before his son died, but most people think he wrote it for him. Seems that I heard that on this very board. Or am I mistaken?
Well, my choice is sorta melodramatic as opposed to true sadness, but I do think of what terror must have gone through the real sailors’ minds as I listen to “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Sir Rhosis
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/5 "2008-06-22T03:14:02Z")
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald isn’t exactly a party.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/6 "2008-06-22T03:15:57Z")
^^^I don’t understand your point. Sorry.
On second check, I was wrong about “Tears in Heaven.” Wikipedia does say it was written for his son.
Again, sorry. Two sorrys in one post!
Sir Rhosis
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/7 "2008-06-22T03:24:36Z")
_When the Tigers Broke Free_ sure ain’t about a circus.
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### Author:  [@BACI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BACI)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/8 "2008-06-22T03:53:04Z")
"I Was Only 19 by Redgum. If you’re going to take responsibility for writing a song about the Vietnam War, you’d better get it right.
These guys did.
M
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/9 "2008-06-22T04:28:40Z")
Bob Dylan/With God On Our Side
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw1f7LTzsd4)
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/10 "2008-06-22T04:54:11Z")
I’ve said it before: the entirety of _Sand and Water_, Beth Nielsen Chapman.
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### Author:  [@Buckler\_of\_Swashing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buckler_of_Swashing)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/11 "2008-06-22T05:28:56Z")
[There Were Roses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Were_Roses)
Originally by Tommy Sands, but there seem to be countless covers. If find the one that makes me sniffle is by Masterless Men.
The lyrics link at to bottom of that article has a few small errors.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/12 "2008-06-22T05:37:02Z")
Oh, how about _The Foggy Dew_? I like the Sinead O’Connor version with the Chieftans.
_And Britannia’s Huns
With their long range guns_
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### Author:  [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/13 "2008-06-22T05:46:09Z")
Paul McCartney’s “Here Today” (written for John Lennon).
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### Author:  [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/14 "2008-06-22T09:48:00Z")
I’ll nominate _Mayn Rue-Platz_, a Yiddish song written by [Morris Rosenfeld](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Rosenfeld) after the 1911 [Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_shirtwaist) in New York:
> [@](#):
>
> The ninth floor had only two doors leading out. One stairwell was already filling with smoke and flames by the time the seamstresses realized the building was on fire. The other door had been locked.
148 garment workers – most of whom were low-wage immigrant women – died either from the flames, from asphyxiation, or by jumping to their deaths.
Lyrics for _Mayn Rue-Platz_, together with the English translation, are at the website of the excellent _“Kitka & Davka: Old and New World Jewish Music”_ concert DVD [here](http://www.forestcreatures.com/lyrics.htm#5):
> [@](#):
>
> Don’t look for me where the myrtles grow
> You will not find me there, my love.
> Where lives wither at machines – that is my resting place.
> Don’t look for me where birds sing, you will not find me there, my love.
> I am a slave, and where chains ring – that is my resting place.
>
> …
>
> And if you love me truly, come lighten my heart and sweeten my resting place.
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### Author:  [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/15 "2008-06-22T11:54:53Z")
Point fingers at me and laugh but I think Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is sea worthy. It makes me cry every time I play it in my whatever whatever rotation.
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### Author:  [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/16 "2008-06-22T12:28:08Z")
[QUOTE=Abby\_Emma\_Sasha]
Point fingers at me and laugh but I think Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is sea worthy. It makes me cry every time I play it in my whatever whatever rotation.
[/QUOTE]
There are a couple lines in that song that have really gotten to me every time I’ve heard it since it was first released. The old cook came on deck…and said “fellas, it’s been good to know ya.” The captain wired in “the good ship and crew was in peril”. It makes me think that they all knew they were doomed.
And I’ll add Al Stewart’s _Roads to Moscow_. All that pain, suffering and hardship, and then, at the moment of victory and deliverance, the ultimate, irrevocable betrayal.
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### Author:  [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/17 "2008-06-22T12:59:45Z")
For some reason I still can’t fathom, in a little primary school in New Zealand we used to sing a very inappropriate song at school assembly.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die
I met her on the mountain
There I took her life
Met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with my knife
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die
This time tomorrow
Reckon where I’ll be
Hadn’t a-been for Grayson
I’d a-been in Tennessee
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you’re bound to die
Maybe it’s because I learnt this song at about 6 yrs old but it still makes me sad.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/18 "2008-06-22T15:24:38Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis]
^^^I don’t understand your point. Sorry.
[/QUOTE]
I think that was just a simulpost. He agrees with you.
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/19 "2008-06-22T19:23:21Z")
**Tears in Heaven** gets my vote.
I watched the memorial service for the bombing victims in Oklahoma City, and _Tears_ was sung at that. The camera cut once to a young woman who was the mother of two children who died in the day care center. Poor gal was clutching their pictures to her chest, doubled over in pain, with long red hair hanging down. I haven’t heard the song since without crying a little.
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### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saddest-true-songs-in-the-world/453737/20 "2008-06-22T19:34:42Z")
“Vimy” by Tanglefoot. All about the Canadian assault on Vimy Ridge in WWI; specifically three guys who participated. The song is told from the point of view of one of them, who assures the others that in spite of the fierce fighting, they will all die in their hometowns. The other two end up being destroyed by shells–and later, the shell craters are named for the guys’ hometowns. The singer’s prediction came true, but not in the way they expected.
Here’s a [link](http://www.tanglefootmusic.com/music/lyrics/mtw.htm#vimy) to the lyrics
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