CCKMP (Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain) by **Steve Earle **is another for me. I’m linking the lyrics but without the droning backing music, well,… just doesn’t do it justice. There’s a different version on YouTube but just not as sad as the album cut.
A sadder ode to heroin addiction I’ve never heard.
I was going to post Seasons in the Sun also, but I’ve seen a lot of people here call that song super cheesy and not actually depressing, so I refrained.
For me, when I’m in that “wanna wallow in it” frame of mind, I listen to Roy Orbison. His voice is so haunting. In particular, “In the Real World” (from his last album, “Mystery Girl”) really tears my heart out.
On a somewhat related note, does anyone know how to combine two songs on Windows Media Player ver. 10? Specifically, Goodbye Blue Sky and Empty Spaces.
Something I Can Never Have-Nine Inch Nails Where Does Love Go When It Dies? and** Love** from Def Leppard Hurt-Johnny Cash’s version
**Wish You Were Here-**Pink Floyd
**The Dance-**Garth Brooks
I just listened to most of the songs on the first page and all I can say is that none of them made me as sad as my mom did a few minutes ago.
I was having a snack to recuperate from all those songs and she was telling me her hands hurt and “… I’m getting old.”
And it broke my heart. All I can think of is that at one point in time she was my age. Young, energetic, healthy and so many years ahead of her.
Now it’s all the opposite. She’s not energetic, not as heathy as before and she’s been alive for longer than the amount of time she has left, likely.
And what’s killing me is that I’ll be there too some day, telling my offspring that my hands hurt and they didn’t used to when I was young and healthy. Shit.
Hoyt Axton guest starred on Bonanza and sang a song called “Dead and Gone.” Will absolutely break your heart. Seems most of his stuff was heart breaking. (I can’t find a video of the particular song)
Helen Reddy has a lot of songs of broken women. “Delta Dawn”, “Angie Baby”, “Peaceful”
Elton John “Daniel” and “Grey Seal” get me every time.
Going beyond the English language, the saddest song I know in *any *language is probably “Yossi the Parrot”, sung hereby Arik Einstein. Here’s my translation of the first few verses (Mods, feel free to delete if it’s too much):
*I’ll buy myself a parrot and his name will be Yossi
I’ll talk to him when there’s no-one around
And then I’ll tell him, I’ll say:
Sadness is like a cup
Filled with bitter wine
From the grapes of the soul
Do you know, parrot Yossi, you’re a lyrical child
You’ll die a quiet death
So quiet
And them I, filled with sadness
Will whisper to the walls: Yossi’s dead,
Yossi’s dead.
And your ashes shall return from your cage to your homeland
From white cage to yellow dust
Alone, with no parrot wife and children
A parrot like you isn’t allowed to love.*
There are plenty of other sad Hebrew songs (it’s sort of a speciality of ours), but that’s probably the saddest of the lot.
