Sad Songs

[tinyshoes]

Speaking of Johnny and June, on that tribute for him, she sang "Ring of Fire" and man did it choke me up. Talk about enduring love.

[dancedancexenu]

I think "Expecting to Fly" by Buffalo Springfield is just so heartbreaking. I can't even really pinpoint why, it's just so... resigned. I love the song, and I love Buffalo Springfield, but I find it really hard to listen to that song without crying.

I also think that Better than Ezra's "At the Stars" is depressing too. I guess because I understand driving around aimlessly because it's depressing to go home and realize that you're not living the rock star lifestyle you were promised when you were 12. It's really a shattered adolescent dreams song.

"Dover, Delaware" by The Duhks also gets me. I think I'm just always choked up by waiting-for-your-lover-unsure-of-whether-or-not-he-or-she-loves-you-as-much-as-you-do songs. And this one is just so slow and sad, and I love songs where both men and women sing.

And (of course I have more!) "Wheat Kings" by the Tragically Hip also gets me. I didn't care for it until a friend told me it was about David Milgaard. Now whenever I hear "No one is interested in something you didn't do" I tear up. And then at "Walls are lined all yellow grey and sinister/hung with pictures of our parents' Prime Ministers" I just burst into tears. It's just one of the most perfect songs about misjustice.

And, rounding out the unhappiness, Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" is just heartbreaking. I've never even been cheated on, and it still gets me every time.

[clementine74]

95% of the Rufus Wainwright catalog. Special mention to Poses, Go or Go Ahead and the one that sticks a knife in my heart, Dinner at Eight. I covered that song after my estranged father died and never got through it without sobbing.
To add to the Radiohead love, I nominate Bulletproof (I Wish I Was)

[mrspickles]

I know this will sound trite, but "The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald" tears me up. Especially after I saw "The Perfect Storm."

And "I Will Always Love You " (The real version by Dolly, of course) is SO sweet and wonderful that it makes me cry.

"Go Rest High Upon that Mountain" by Vince Gill.

"Whiskey Lullaby" by Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss (that woman has the voice of an angel!)

"Empty Garden" by Elton John- gets me far more than Daniel. Good thing it isn't played much.

[Deleted]

Against All Odds by Phil Collins. I can't help it, I'm a sucker for sappy 80s ballads.

[dwanollah]

I'm blasting some classical music, and I'd forgotten how many pieces from Swan Lake just get me all choked up.

[dancedancexenu]

mrspickles said:

I know this will sound trite, but "The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald" tears me up. Especially after I saw "The Perfect Storm."

If you like the "songs about nautical disasters that tear me up" genre, you would love, love, love, LOVE James Keelaghan's "Captan Torres." It's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

Other sad nautical songs:

"Nautical Disaster" The Tragically Hip
"Wave After Wave" Strippers Union Local 518
"Jeannie C" Stan Rogers

I guess Canadians are totally into bumming listeners out with shipwrecks.

[luciano]

Alice In Chains has a bunch of sad songs, but Down In A Hole really sticks out, especially if one saw the Unplugged performance of it. Nutshell is another song of theirs that is just heartbreaking. Layne Staley combined with those lyrics is just a depressing combination.

Then there is Pearl Jam's Black [especially the line: I know some day you'll have a beautiful life/ I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky/ But why, why, why can't it be mine?] and Temple Of The Dog's Say Hello 2 Heaven - the latter song dealt with the death of Andrew Wood and the lyrics really got to me after I went through the death of a close relative. I remember playing that song and Metallica's cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Tuesday's Gone over and over again during that time.

[Deleted]

Adding another one to the sad Radiohead song collection: Street Spirit (Fade Out).

[Deleted]

Sarah McLachlan's cover of "Gloomy Sunday" is particularly haunting. The song's "happy ending" doesn't quite erase the feeling of loss and just plain emptiness...

Sade's "King of Sorrow" is another perfectly depressing song:
"I'm crying everyone's tears / I have already paid for all my future sins"

While the music isn't all that depressing, the lyrics to Van Morrison's "Sweet Thing" still manage to pack a wallop:

"And you shall take me strongly
In your arms again
And I will not remember
That I even felt the pain.
We shall walk and talk
In gardens all misty and wet with rain
And I will never, never, never
Grow so old again."