There are two songs that make me sob like a hungry little girl caught in a bear trap. One is Winter from Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes. Whenever I hear it I want to retreat to my father’s arms and then I can’t help but think of the awful, inevitable day when he is no longer here. It’s making me cry right now just thinking about it. China from the same album almost does, but not quite.
The other is Save Me by Queen for a multitude of reasons.
Oh, and the entirety of Jeff Buckley’s Grace. I listened to that album every day and felt every word of it. Since he died years ago, I’ve only tried to listen to it once and since then haven’t touched it. I just can’t. It wrecks me, and not in that good kind of sadness that you can wallow in. I don’t know why, but I’m actually afraid of the despair I would feel if I listened to it. I’m not obsessed with the guy or anything, but his songs really touched me.
I need to go hide in the ladies room now so my coworkers don’t think I’m insane sitting here with tears in my eyes . . . I mean so they don’t have to see my red, itchy, watery allergy eyes . . .yeah, that’s it.
A couple of songs by Phil Ochs that are sad to begin with, but even sadder when you know the story behind them: “Rehearsals for Retirement” and “No More Songs.”
The story behind them, for those who do not know. Phil Ochs was one of the brighter stars of the sixties folk/rock genre. His songs touched on many of the era’s issues, including civil rights, the Vietnam war, and the student free speech movement. Unfortunately, Phil’s emotional state began to deteriorate as the sixties turned into the seventies. He apparently had some pre-existing tendencies toward depression, and I believe that his father had some psychological problems so it may have been at least in part genetic. In 1976, Phil Ochs committed suicide.
The two aforementioned songs come from his last two albums. Both are extremely sad, and express quite well the frustration and emptiness he was feeling in the last few years of his life. Just by listening to the songs, one can get a sense of the pain he was in.
The Dance for my late wife, which incredibly sums up the mix of feelings. On the liner notes to the greatest hits CD, Garth Brooks says some great things about the writer.
Twenty Years Ago from Juice Newton’s “Dirty Looks” album. AMG lists the composers as Newton/Noble/Spriggs/Tyler, so it looks like a cooperative effort by the band. Tells the story of someone visiting their old hometown. Some lyrics from memory:
Hold On from Sarah McLachlan’s incredible “Fumbling Toward Ecstasy” CD
I’ve gotta agree with “When I’m Gone” by 3 Doors Down. Esp. when I saw the video, b/c it makes me think of all the military over seas and when they say “I’ll never let you down, even if I could. I’d give up everything, If only for your good”… it really gets me all mushy inside!
Another vote for How Soon Is Now by The Smiths or by t.A.t.u
“There’s a club if you’d like to go
You could meet someone who really loves you
So you go, and you stand on your own
and you leave on your own
and you go home
and you cry and you want to die”
I can’t even listen to “Puff, The Magic Dragon”. I work at a radio station. If it gets on my playlist, it gets cut. Automatically. It’s always depressed me. Even as a child.
Gotta second (third?) The Man in Black’s cover of “hurt”.
“Wildfire” was done by Michael Murphy, sometimes billed as Michael Martin Murphy. I used to get misty at that one, but it does nothing for me anymore.
The first time I heard “I Don’t Like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats, the sheer beauty of the song made me weep. Then, I learned it was about a little girl in England who just went insane one day and killed a bunch of her classmates. When asked why she did it, she replied that “I don’t like Mondays.”
The silicon chip inside her head
gets tripped to overload.
No one’s gonna go to school today,
she’s gonna make them stay at home.
And daddy doesn’t understand it,
he always said she’s as good as gold.
He can see no reasons,
'cause there are no reasons…
Make Our Garden Grow from Candide always struck me as being incredibly sad, mostly for the first verse:
Wynonna Judd’s version of Testify To Love and The Lord’s Prayer from David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus always struck me as being particularly sad, as well.
Actually, all of African Sanctus makes me cry, now that I think of it.
Everybody Hurts? I guess that’s the name of the song by REM. I was in the car coming home from my mom’s funeral when it came on the radio. I totally lost it then, and now, several years later it still gets to me and bad.
They say there?s a place
where dreams have all gone
They never said where
but I think I know
It?s miles through the night
Just over the dawn
On the road that will take me home.
I know in my bones
I?ve been here before
The ground feels the same
Though the land?s been torn
I?ve a long way to go
The stars tell me so
On this road that will take me home.
Love waits for me round the bend
Leads me endlessly on
Surely sorrow shall find an end
And all our troubles will be gone
And I?ll know what I?ve lost
And all that I?ve won
When the road finally takes me home.
~Going Home by Mary Fahl
Where to start? Might as well be more or less chronological. Different stuff got me down at different times.
Is That All There Is - Peggy Lee
Both Sides Now - Judy Collins?
It Was A Very Good Year - Sinatra.
These ones got me when I was a kid. I remember when my grandmother died. I went out and sat on my swings and for some reason I sang “Puff” at the top of my lungs. Can’t hear it now…
During my teens, these ones did it -
Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks - at least the first couple hundred times…
Wildfire - Michael Murphy
Misty Blue - Dorothy Moore - my first bad breakup
Love Will Keep Us Together - Captian and Tenille
As an adult, most of the music has been related to relationships or losses.
Whispering Pines - Johnny Horton
Unchained Melody - Rightious Brothers
End of the World - Skeeter Davis
Dust in the Wind - Kansas
When I Call Out Your Name - ?, but the band at church plays it.
I’ll also throw in votes for most of Jim Croce and John Denver, just because. There’s some Gordon Lightfoot that makes me cry, too.
And finally, I may be the only person on earth to totally fall apart when I hear Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral”. No, it’s not the song, it’s the memories associated with listening to it.
Oh yeah, and the Titanic song. Sappy song, very low point in my life. Ouch.
On the second page of a saddest songs thread and no one mentioned anything by the Cure? I’ll remedy that.
“Love Song” makes me teary, even though the lyrics seem so happy. “Open” also gets the tears flowin’. The lyrics are pretty sad, but it’s mostly a situational thing for me.
And the way the rain comes down hard,
that’s how I feel inside
Oh yeah–and “Sober” by Tool. It’s not just the lyrics; the song sounds so completely desolate.
I am just a worthless liar.
I am just an imbecile.
I will only complicate you.
Trust in me and fall as well.
I will find a center in you.
I will chew it up and leave,
I will work to elevate you
just enough to bring you down.
