Sad Songs

[andreajersey]

The Decemberists' "The Crane Wife 1 & 2." He finds a crane in the forest and she's injured, and he helps her and they get married, but she eventually disappears (i think):

We were poorly, our fortunes fading hourly
And how she loved me, she could bring it back
But I was greedy, I was vain and I forced her to weaving
On a cold loom in a closed room, down the hall
Sound the keening bell
And see it's painted red
Soft as fontanelle
The feathers in the thread
And all I ever meant
To do was to keep you

It's so sad & wistful.

[mrpancake]

andreajersey said:

The Decemberists' "The Crane Wife 1 & 2." He finds a crane in the forest and she's injured, and he helps her and they get married, but she eventually disappears (i think):

We were poorly, our fortunes fading hourly
And how she loved me, she could bring it back
But I was greedy, I was vain and I forced her to weaving
On a cold loom in a closed room, down the hall
Sound the keening bell
And see it's painted red
Soft as fontanelle
The feathers in the thread
And all I ever meant
To do was to keep you

It's so sad & wistful.

Oh, Decemberists. They have a lot of good songs which are sad - of course, I won't get into it because my Decemberists obsession is already at a high level.

[Peggy Lane]

Thanks to this thread I've listened to "Can't Cry Hard Enogh" roughly five million times since last night.

[groovethang]

Dust in the Wind by Kansas always makes me sad.

[mariposalabrown]

Gary Jules' version of "Mad World" gets me every time. That was awful for me when it was played all the time in the Gears of War commercial. Also, lately Lily Allen's "Little Things" makes me burst into tears. The lyrics are just so easy to identify with.

[Lisa Miller]

throneoflies said:

Dust in the Wind by Kansas always makes me sad.

Especially Will Ferrell's version from Old School.

"You're my boy, Blue!"

[monkey]

callahan said:

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."

callahan, I love that song. Have you read Lester Bangs' essay on Astral Weeks?

[carrier76]

Dust in the Wind by Kansas always makes me sad.

Oh totally! It's just depressing!

[Deleted]

I'm getting sad just reading this thread! Actually I'm sure this is so cheesy, but "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds always makes me cry, especially the verse that talks about the old man who dies and then his wife dies a few days later. Right now just thinking about it I'm crying.

[crankykate]

I heard "The River" by Bruce Springsteen on the radio the other day for the first time -- not sure how I missed it all these years -- and promptly burst into tears. In the car, in traffic, with my four-year-old. So, so sad:

Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry...

[sniff]