Saddest songs thread

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 The Potato 15 Jan 2021

Sometimes a sad depressing song is just what you need to hear, I can think of a few but this one seems to hurt more as I get older.

I'll start the list off with the classic Time by Pink Floyd

 chadogrady 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Billie Holiday - Gloomy Sunday 

Portishead - Roads 

Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang (the original not any of the silly remixes) 

Susie Suh - Petrified to be god-like

Johnny Cash - Hurt (NIN version is great too) 

Swans - Failure 

The National - About Today

TV On The Radio - Dreams

Lucy Rose - Shiver

The Cardigans - And then you kissed me 

PJ Harvey - This mess we're in

OP The Potato 15 Jan 2021
In reply to chadogrady:

I've not heard most of those, Johnny cash version is great

1
 Pbob 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Childhood's End?  and Alone Again in the Lap of Luxury both Marillion.

Do you know the way to San Jose by Dionne Warwick

 chadogrady 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Enjoy, don't expect to be in a good mood after that lot though. 

 Blue Straggler 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Tender is the Night (The Long Fidelity) by The Triffids

 Harry Jarvis 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Billy Mackenzie's Winter Academy always gets to me.

youtube.com/watch?v=C0nTuMxe99w&

I think part of the reason it affects me so much is that I always associate it with is suicide, which seemed such a terrible waste. Likewise, his 'Beyond the Sun' tugs at the heartstrings. 

youtube.com/watch?v=_YmBYcEGlok&

Harder to find is Trigger's cover of 'Sometimes it snows in April'. Again, the poignancy comes from the fact that it was recorded as a tribute to one of the band members who died tragically early. 

OP The Potato 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Pbob:

> Childhood's End?  and Alone Again in the Lap of Luxury both Marillion.

> Do you know the way to San Jose by Dionne Warwick

I was thinking iron maiden childhoods end, that makes more sense though

In reply to The Potato:

Codeine - loss leader

Radiohead - how to disappear completely 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Moya

Low - lullaby (but then anything on the first 3 records would suffice)

Songs:Ohia - nay tis not death

Nina Nistasia - You Her and me (the first half of Run to Ruin is pretty bleak)

The Cure - The Figurehead

 Phil1919 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Desperado.........The  Eagles

Who wants to live forever.......Queen

Both of those always do it for me.

OP The Potato 15 Jan 2021
In reply to goodmorningcaptain:

Oh I'd forgotten about godspeed, wicked album

OP The Potato 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Phil1919:

> Desperado.........The  Eagles

> Who wants to live forever.......Queen

> Both of those always do it for me.

Who wants to live forever is a good song but only hits the feels if you've seen highlander.

And really, desperado? I would have thought lying eyes if anything, both great songs though

 Blue Straggler 15 Jan 2021
In reply to goodmorningcaptain:

Ah Nina Nastasia is SO good. I think I have fallen behind, need to catch up a bit. 

In reply to The Potato:

first time I saw them live the friend I was with sobbed through the entire 2.5/3hr gig so I guess they fit the 'depressing' tag, I'd also say there's often a difference between a depressing song and a sad song.

Leonard Cohen - avalanche (depressing)

Grouper - living room (sad)

if your into emo/scremo there's an entire sub genre of depressing band names; I hate myself, I would set myself on fire for you, saddest landscape.

oh and if you want dour Scottish drinking music you can't go far wrong with the early Arab Strap and Mogwai stuff (although there's a far amount of black humour in Aiden Moffats lyrics)

 Rob Parsons 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

> Sometimes a sad depressing song is just what you need to hear, I can think of a few but this one seems to hurt more as I get older.

For the real Hall of Pain, look no further than (good) country music. It's all there - murder, cheating, lost love, shitty cars, etc. - and all still done with a rhythm you can dance to.

 C Witter 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Some good Dylan ones:

- Don't Think Twice
- Spanish Boots
- It Ain't Me Babe
- North Country Fair
- I'll Keep it with Mine

Nico:
-These Days

Nina Simone:
- I'll Look Around

Tim Buckley
- Once I Was
- Dream Letter
- Sing A Song for You

Tom Waits:
- Blue Valentine
- The Piano Has Been Drinking, Not Me

Plenty of Joni, obviously! I always liked 'River' and 'Last Time I Saw Richard'

 

 crustypunkuk 15 Jan 2021
In reply to chadogrady:

> Billie Holiday - Gloomy Sunday 

Was that not a cover of the original Hungarian suicide song? Seem to remember an urban legend about being the cause of hundreds of suicides after its release in the 1930's, although i'm not sure of the veracity of those claims.

I would also suggest just about any song by mad season would fit the bill.

Post edited at 18:19
 WaterMonkey 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Johnny Cash or NIN - Hurt as has been said, also REM - Everybody hurts

 tspoon1981 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Chris Garneau - We don't try

Felice Brothers - The ballad of Lou the welterweight 

Antony Hegarty covering If it be your will

Anything by Elliot Smith

 tspoon1981 15 Jan 2021
In reply to tspoon1981:

Lyrically Barry Manilows- Copacabana has to up there as one of the saddest songs, even though the melody is so upbeat

 Andy Clarke 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

The ultimate country tear-jerker by a master of the art: George Jones: He Stopped Loving Her Today

More gorgeous country melancholy by one of the greatest of songwriters: Hank Williams: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (also available in a cover by the dream pairing of Johnny Cash and Nick Cave - and JC's cover of Desperado is on the same superb album)

Another classic from Cash: Long Black Veil

Got to have one from the great poet of broken blue collar dreams: Bruce Springsteen: The River

Finally, I can think of little more genuinely tragic than Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart

 kipper12 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

 A shout for turn of the century, by yes.  

 Sl@te Head 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

One Day - The Verve

The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve

+ many more by The Verve...

2
 Myfyr Tomos 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Windmills Of Your Mind. - Noel Harrison.

 Herdwickmatt 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Sufjan Stevens - Casmiri Pulaski Day about a girl during of cancer and her young boyfriends prayers being unanswered. Absolutely gut wrenching

 marsbar 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

youtube.com/watch?v=5ivKzieP9ZU&

This came out just as my premature niece should have been born.

It hit me hard the first time I heard it, all the stored worry I'd been keeping inside came pouring out. 

But it was ok in the end. 

 Andy Clarke 15 Jan 2021
In reply to C Witter:

> Plenty of Joni, obviously! I always liked 'River' and 'Last Time I Saw Richard'

There's also an existential sadness in what I think is my favourite Joni track, the beautifully complex and poetic Refuge of the Roads, from Hejira.

 Rob Parsons 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

> Another classic from Cash: Long Black Veil

Just to note that Lefty Frizzell had the original hit on that (great) song: Cash's was a cover version.

Post edited at 18:41
 John Lyall 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

 philipivan 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Ballad - new model army

Show must go on - queen

Romeo and juliette and telegraph Road - dire straits

 Lankyman 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Phil1919:

> Who wants to live forever.......Queen


There's a roadside memorial just up the road from me with lyrics from this. Two young people. Very sad to see.

 cragtyke 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Robert Wyatt's cover of Shipbuilding.

In reply to The Potato:

I've found alot of the angsty songs I related to in my younger life not hit quite the same way they used to and now gravitate to grittier stuff might I suggest Bruce Springsteen the river.

Made a friend cry once playing her Sophie Zelmani's I'll remember you for the first time.

 plyometrics 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

These are the days of our lives - Queen

A better place - Glen Campbell

 Andy Clarke 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Rob Parsons:

> Just to note that Lefty Frizzell had the original hit on that (great) song: Cash's was a cover version.

Yes - one of many over the decades. But my favourite I think - along with that by The Band, who absolutely make it their own.

And on the subject of great cover versions of classic tragedy: June Tabor & The Oyster Band doing Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Post edited at 19:16
 kwoods 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Steven Wilson - Routine

Watch it with the video:

youtube.com/watch?v=sh5mWzKlhQY&

 The Norris 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Probably a teenage angst thing but Swallowed by Bush always suits my gloom

In reply to Andy Clarke:

> Got to have one from the great poet of broken blue collar dreams: Bruce Springsteen: The River

Of course, although I might vote for "racing in the street" He writes a song superfically about something I have no interest in but captures so much saddness about love and broken dreams:

now there's wrinkles around my baby's eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When I come home the house is dark
She sighs "Baby did you make it all right"


She sits on the porch of her daddy's house
But all her pretty dreams are torn
She stares off alone into the night
With the eyes of one who aches for just being born

And of course the UK's own poet of broken blue collar dreams, Billy Bragg, plenty in his catalouge, but I'd probably go with "the world turned upside down"

 The Norris 15 Jan 2021
In reply to kwoods:

> Steven Wilson - Routine

> Watch it with the video:

That's stunning, thanks for sharing.

Good thread OP!

 Neil Williams 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

The Beatles - She's Leaving Home.  One of the few that actually make me cry.

Post edited at 19:33
Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Caroline says (2). In fact the album it comes from is a bit of a wrist slasher in total, but undoubtedly is Lou Reeds masterpiece (Berlin)

 Bob Kemp 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Mount Eerie- Two Ravens

Or anything off that ‘A Crow Looked at Me’ album.

youtube.com/watch?v=H2R2Ck8qKWM&

Not the kind of thing I want to listen too too often really. 

 Lrunner 15 Jan 2021

There's a folk song called "they don't cut the peat in new york" about a family getting forced off their land on uist. Makes me cry every time. I think t was written by Paul Crichton.

LR

 The Norris 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Some songs in this thread reminded me of gravenhurst... absolutely amazing, and very sad. 

youtube.com/watch?v=j-bQBlZgU8g&

 Andy Clarke 15 Jan 2021
In reply to mountain.martin

> And of course the UK's own poet of broken blue collar dreams, Billy Bragg, plenty in his catalouge, but I'd probably go with "the world turned upside down"

Great shout. For me, one of the few songs that will always brings a slight misting of the eye, because of its sheer nobility and humanity - qualities desperately absent from our current politics - is Billy's Between The Wars. "Sweet moderation, heart of this nation..." What could be more heart-breakingly sad than to lose that?

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Neil Young -Powderfinger

Joni Mitchell-The Magdelena Laundries

 Cobra_Head 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Birmingham Sunday - Rhiannon Giddens

She didn't write it but it's the best version.

Souvla Bay?? (War song - thing it's Australian, but don't know who it's by)

A Change Gonna Come - Sam Cooke.

Almost any Martin Luther King Jr. speech.

Give Peace A Chance - Lennon

Post edited at 20:05
 deacondeacon 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

I love a good sad song!

Can't wait to go through these. 

I've been learning to play piano for the last year or so and sad songs are always the best to play. 

I Giorni by Einaudi is my fave at the minute. 

In reply to Andy Clarke:

I had thought of the Joy Division classic but never heard this version before. Much as I love the voice of june Tabor I think this version is much too pretty and doesn't come near the industrial angst of Ian Curtis vocals and Stephen Morris drumming. Ian & Stephen were both prefects at King's School Macclesfield - my old school.
Thanks for the link, it is always good to hear new versions of stuff.

In reply to cragtyke:

This is superb and a track that I love, however I listened again to the Elvis version with trumpet solo from Chet Baker and that is equally haunting but in a different way. Robert Wyatts biography is a good read btw.

Post edited at 20:06
 toad 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Porcupine Tree Stop Swimming

Steve Wilson Routine

Chris Wood Hollowpoint, although that mostly makes me angry

 mike123 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato: most of Springsteen Nebraska when I'm in the mood but the saddest of sad songs has to be Townes van zandt s Marie , Townes has some pretty sad songs but Marie is probably the saddest . In that very strange way , like much of  joy division , makes me feel better . 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pXJPVRw3hmk&feature=youtu.be

and maybe even sadder than waitin around to die 

youtube.com/watch?v=v-Rq-4spRz4&

Post edited at 20:12
 ChrisBrooke 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Stina Nordenstam - Soon After Christmas

youtube.com/watch?v=nPsWT_3ypmo&

One of my most listened-to songs.

 Myfyr Tomos 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

How about "Ernie.-The Fastest Milkman in the West" by Benny Hill?

Now Susie ran between them and tried to keep 'em apart,

And Ernie, he pushed her aside and a rockcake caught him underneath his heart.

And he looked up, in pained surprise, as the concrete hardened crust

Of a stale pork pie caught him in the eye and Ernie bit the dust.

Poor Ernie...  (Ernieeeeee)

OP The Potato 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

So many replies and so many I've never heard!

I guess the pogues also stand out once you listen to the lyrics, and the band played waltzing Matilda, thousands are sailing etc

 Tom Valentine 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Sweet Old World - Lucinda Williams.

" See what you lost when you left this world, this sweet old world...."

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

This guy might just have cornered the market:

youtube.com/watch?v=unRfN9whFq0&

 dbapaul 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Hollow Point by Chris Wood (as mentioned above). Also by Chris Wood - Albion

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Bogle. Covered excellently by June Tabor. And also The Pogues.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

And the story behind it is tragic. There is a great version by EmmyLou Harris with Lucinda that is also very good. Neil Young plays harmonica on it.

Post edited at 20:42
 mike123 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine: qalways thought that was by Emmy lou Harris , well there you go , great version by the pair of them 

> Sweet Old World - Lucinda Williams.

> " See what you lost when you left this world, this sweet old world...."

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Removed User:

And another, in fact the whole album might just get you:

youtube.com/watch?v=Wettgk2FzbA&

If the links don't work then look up Jeffrey Martin

Post edited at 20:43
 Tom Valentine 15 Jan 2021
In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

I first heard it on Emmylou's "Wrecking Ball" and reading the notes on the song is what got me  listening to Lucinda. "Drunken Angel" has some sad history to it as well. 

On a different tack, Dixie Chicks' "Silent House"  might not be about suicide/untimely death but it is a sad song about premature loss all the same.

 freeflyer 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Autumn Leaves, the cover by Eva Cassidy: youtube.com/watch?v=xXBNlApwh0c&

And on a lighter note, I sometimes put the album The Voice by Alison Moyet on in the car, and it usually takes about two tracks before the passengers lose the will to live and demand a change For example the classic Dido's Lament: youtube.com/watch?v=8EIrvGro3n8&

Great thread.

 Tom Valentine 15 Jan 2021
In reply to dbapaul:

If you want a sad June Tabor song listen to "The Four Loom Weaver" in duet with Maddy Prior. 

 mike123 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato: has to be something by nick cave on the list , hard to describe as truly sad , but uplifting melancholy ?

youtube.com/watch?v=rKlaV-9Vzsk&

or maybe a bit sadder 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jwv5oQPlrbw&ebc=ANyPxKpImqFUheFmNTpfSBQo_...

Post edited at 21:28
In reply to Tom Valentine:

I have just listened to this on youtube and it is magnificent - thanks. My Mum was a weaver in the 1930's in Colne, Lancashire and I do recall her saying she tended four looms at a time, but I think the wages were rather better by then. A great piece of history, that only folk music can bring to life.

 Hat Dude 15 Jan 2021
In reply to C Witter:

> Plenty of Joni, obviously! I always liked 'River' and 'Last Time I Saw Richard'

Blue the song and most of the album

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

No Townes Van Zandt yet? All of his stuff is ridden with sorrow and woe,

Tecumseh Valley is a very sad tale in the folk tradition youtube.com/watch?v=cWoVnvl9aYc&

Other classics might be 'Waiting around to die' and 'If I needed you' but there are countless others.

Listening to TVZ always makes me want to drink...

Post edited at 21:45
 Bobling 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

> Who wants to live forever is a good song but only hits the feels if you've seen highlander.

Not so!  I was playing Aeronautica Imperialis with the biggest child (9) and he got all misty eyed and told me that was exactly the right song if you were an Imperial pilot.  He's deffo never seen Highlander.

 Tom Valentine 15 Jan 2021
In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

The textile industry has produced some good songs and it doesn't all have to be dreary : one of my favourites is Edwin Waugh's "The Little Doffer". Great dialect poetry and even funnier when you hear a robot voice trying to translate it into Standard English.

Post edited at 22:06
 Rob Parsons 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Removed User:

> No Townes Van Zandt yet? ...

> Other classics might be 'Waiting around to die'  ...

Have you seen this clip from 'Heartworn Highways'? youtube.com/watch?v=vASFMouQwxE&

The tears from Uncle Seymour Washington - 'The Walking Blacksmith' - are real: he knew what was coming.

 Hat Dude 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

The ultimate country song 

"My Grandaddy's car went over a cliff and landed on my poor old dog"

Originally suggested by Billy Connolly I think

Post edited at 22:13
 Ceiriog Chris 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Some great suggestions there like The River by Springsteen and Cortez by Neil Young, but for me  the song with the saddest feel to it by far is  Man Of The World by  Peter Green

 Shani 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

> Sometimes a sad depressing song is just what you need to hear, I can think of a few but this one seems to hurt more as I get older.

> I'll start the list off with the classic Time by Pink Floyd

I love Time. Terrifying lyrically, and only moreso as time goes on!

However, the saddest song is anything in Dm, "The saddest of all keys..." IYKYK!

 Bobling 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Mad World, Gary Jules from the Donnie Darko film.   youtube.com/watch?v=jS3SxWnSbtY&.

The morning after we'd lost a student to suicide this came on my iPod on random play, first time I'd heard it for ages and suddenly I really heard it for the first time, and realised it's about suicide.  Had me sobbing on Bristol Bridge.

Honourable mention for Society by Eddie Vedder from the Into the Wild Soundtrack - the rejection of 'Society' is a bit bleak  youtube.com/watch?v=cl4cLEToPfc&, also Guaranteed from the same soundtrack (in fact the whole thing is pretty good)   youtube.com/watch?v=Mwx3RvDWvDM&.  Worth listening through the 30 seconds or so of silence in the middle to hear Eddie humming and strumming at the end.

That was a good film, one of the few that lived up to the book.

 Bobling 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Last one "If you could read my mind" Gordon Lightfoot.   youtube.com/watch?v=v5tr_L31StI&  reminds me of a very particular time in my life when I'd just left the TA, and was very conflicted about it, and my Grandad had just died.  Props to Trigger Happy TV for introducing me to this song.

God this thread is mining a rich vein.

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Removed User:

> No Townes Van Zandt yet? All of his stuff is ridden with sorrow and woe,

> Tecumseh Valley is a very sad tale in the folk tradition youtube.com/watch?v=cWoVnvl9aYc&

> Other classics might be 'Waiting around to die' and 'If I needed you' but there are countless others.

> Listening to TVZ always makes me want to drink...

I think someone else mentioned him further up the thread. Interestingly, Justin "Townes" Earl recently died. He was the son of Steve Earl and was named after TVZ and, I guess, followed his lead.

 Bobling 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

I lied.  Bang up to date with this one Taylor Swift "Epiphany".  It's about COVID (I think) and will always for me be about a close friend and colleague whose Mum died of COVID in April, the trauma is ongoing.

youtube.com/watch?v=DUnDkI7l9LQ&

"Something med-school did not cover.  Someone's daughter, someone's mother.  Holds your hand through plastic now. Doc I think she's crashing out. And some things you just can't speak about."

Gone for good 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Cobra_Head:

Suvla Bay was part of the song 'And the Band played Waltzing Matilda' sang by the Pogues on Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. 

And no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
To the green bushes so far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded and maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The legless, the armless, the blind and insane
Those proud wounded heroes of suvla
And as our ship pulled into circular quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Rob Parsons:

It's a great film, really showcases the other side of Nashville and Country music.

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Removed User:

Justin Earl was a casualty of some very bad parenting and maybe a serious predisposition (given his Dad's habits) I guess? What little I've heard I've liked - quite a unique guitar style.

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Removed User:

Yes, I quite like his style....sometimes. I suspect there was no parenting although I notice Steve has recently covered some of his son's stuff.

 Tom Last 15 Jan 2021
In reply to philipivan:

> Ballad - new model army

Oh good shout! 

Post edited at 22:59
 Shani 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Blur and 'Sing'. Immortalised in Trainspotting and bookended the loss of my dad - 95 - 96 was a crazy ride; I was not so much on a road to destruction but simply embedded in a landscape of oblivion - risk & nihilism being the key words here. Hellhounds are still on my trail....but I'm outrunning them, just.

youtube.com/watch?v=YdrFpPJgxC4&

Two songs that are also emotionally connected to his death:

Yes and 'Soon' - the opening slide guitar moves me to tears still.

youtube.com/watch?v=cGtjr-U5bT4&

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms. The lyrics about "mist covered mountains" reminds me of childhood climbing trips to both Cloggy and The Cromlech:

youtube.com/watch?v=Wu4oy1IRTh8&

Damn those whiskys I've downed tonight. I think I've got something in my eye...

Post edited at 23:29
 Hooo 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

A couple that always make me well up, I think knowing that they are true stories makes them hit harder.

The thrills have gone, by Alabama 3. With a monologue by Paddy Hill of the Birmingham 6.

Me and a gun, Tori Amos.

And Tom Waits, A little rain:

She was fifteen years old and she'd never seen the ocean, so she climbed into a van with a vagabond. And the last thing she said was I love you mama. A little rain never hurt no-one.

 Tom Last 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Who Knows Where the Time Goes by Sandy Denny was to my mind the absokute saddest.

May have been overtaken by The West Coast of Claire by Planxty however

 Dave Todd 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Mount Eerie already mentioned, but 'Tintin in Tibet' is something that I can't forget, nor listen to regularly.  Being a parent with young(ish) children and hearing these lyric...

Right before you died thirteen years later in our house I remember
through your gasping for oxygen you explained that you were thinking
about that high cold air wrapping the globe.
Singing above the mountains of the gods.And I do picture you there: molecules dancing.

But I’d rather you were in the house watching the unfolding
everyday life of this good daughter we made
instead of being scattered by the wind for no reason
so I sing to you.

youtube.com/watch?v=pnoFUqgsZ8Q&

Also: Mountain Goats - Shadow Song.

youtube.com/watch?v=RY3B_0t8rBA&

 Tom Valentine 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Last:

Been trawling through the old folk songs i used to listen to and I think "The Butcher Boy" is one of the saddest.

There are plenty more in a similar vein and it's laughable that anyone should deride country music for its sad material when you look back at British folk music and modern offshoots of it. 

Post edited at 23:16
 Ceiriog Chris 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

That just reminded me of that folky song by Steeleye  Span   You will burn, I cant imagine it was much fun to be burnt because you didn't fit in 

 TechnoJim 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

'Into Dust' - Mazzy Star

'Grace Cathedral Park' - Red House Painters

'Cody' - Mogwai

'Pink Frost' - The Chills

'What Part of Me' - Low

Post edited at 23:15
 Andy Clarke 15 Jan 2021
In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

> I had thought of the Joy Division classic but never heard this version before. Much as I love the voice of june Tabor I think this version is much too pretty and doesn't come near the industrial angst of Ian Curtis vocals and Stephen Morris drumming. Ian & Stephen were both prefects at King's School Macclesfield - my old school.

> Thanks for the link, it is always good to hear new versions of stuff.

I wonder if another cover on the same Tabor/Oysterband album might be more to your taste: Polly Jean's That Was My Veil, another tragic tale. I love PJH, but she doesn't get many covers. Tabor does have immaculate taste.

 Ceiriog Chris 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Shani:

> Yes and 'Soon' - the opening slide guitar move me to tears still.

Used to love this, must revisit it 

 Tom Last 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

Agree entirely. In a folk vein, another for consideration is The Snow it Melts the Soonest, but as you know, there really are so many. 

 Tom Last 15 Jan 2021
In reply to TechnoJim:

> 'Into Dust' - Mazzy Star

Fade Into You for that matter. I'm still devastated since the nineties that I haven't yet married Hope Sandoval either. 

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to TechnoJim:

> 'Into Dust' - Mazzy Star

More "haunting" I'd say

 Shani 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

No mention of Nick Drake yet.

The ying/yang of 'Things Behind the Sun' perfectly marries sadness and euphoric uplift, but for sombre bleakness 'Black Eyed Dog' is up there with Robert Johnson's 'Hellhounds on my Trail' and then some.

youtube.com/watch?v=PabxhKTkE0U&

 Ian W 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Jolene

Indigo Girls - Keeper of my Heart

Johnny Cash - Hurt

New Model Army - One Bullet (but try listening to the Red Sky Coven version)

Removed User 15 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

I posted this the other day but got no bites. I think this fits with "sad".

It's Gregory Alan Isakov's cover of the Iron and Wine song "The Trapeze Swinger"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USom8PhOXgs&list=RDUSom8PhOXgs&star...

 Hat Dude 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Hat Dude:

> The ultimate country song 

> "My Grandaddy's car went over a cliff and landed on my poor old dog"

> Originally suggested by Billy Connolly I think

Just remembered, that should be 

"A bus load of cripples went over a cliff and landed on my poor old dog"

 Rob Parsons 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

> Yes - one of many over the decades. But my favourite I think - along with that by The Band, who absolutely make it their own.

Check out Dale Watson's version if you haven't heard it. (It never got an official release in its original form, but there are versions on-line.) It's the apotheosis of the honky tonk style: lyrics of murder, cheating and death - all set to a great danceable shuffle beat.

Post edited at 23:50
 Rob Parsons 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

> ... it's laughable that anyone should deride country music for its sad material ...

Country is the white man's blues. Of course it can be sad: it reflects real life.

Sometimes, admittedly, the lyrics can be larger than life - but at least it's life they're larger than.

People who deride country probably haven't heard much of the real stuff - you will struggle to find it on the radio here, or in the US. But real music is out there, and real people are still making it.

Post edited at 23:58
 Cobra_Head 15 Jan 2021
In reply to Gone for good:

Cheers.

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

The ending of The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades always gets me.

You could also pick Death With Dignity, Should Have Known Better or John My Beloved, all from the Carrie and Lowell album. All great for a good wallow

 BFG 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Hate, Rain on Me - Andrew Jackson Jihad     youtube.com/watch?v=H9o8XGkHSps&

A Better Place, A Better Time - Toh Kay      youtube.com/watch?v=OV1tntEzt94&

Bear - The Antlers    youtube.com/watch?v=YESdx5AHyJc&

Skinny Love - Bon Iver     youtube.com/watch?v=UrMmr1oMPGA&

King's Crossing - Elliott Smith     youtube.com/watch?v=LmoPKlWDKRE&

Brick - Ben Folds Five     youtube.com/watch?v=7NJMTmz7pkg&

The Dead Flag Blues - Godspeeed You! Black Emperor     youtube.com/watch?v=XVekJTmtwqM&

God there's some good music that's been suggested so far.

Post edited at 00:08
 Hooo 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Rob Parsons:

I think some people deride country because they're ashamed to admit that it moves them. I don't mind admitting on here that I'm one of them. There is some great country music, but it is so uncool to admit to liking it. I saw Billy Bragg doing a bit of country. He called it "Americana" so it sounds trendy and makes it OK. It is country though, and it's good.

 Rob Parsons 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Removed User:

> Yes, I quite like his style....sometimes. I suspect there was no parenting although I notice Steve has recently covered some of his son's stuff.

I wouldn't say 'covered' in the usual sense: the record 'J.T.' is a tribute from the father to his dead son; it's also, obviously, a catharsis.

100% of the proceeds and royalties are going to a trust fund for Justin Townes Earle's three-year old daughter.


(For the sake of this thread, it's 'Earle' by the way, not 'Earl.')

Post edited at 00:20
 Dan Arkle 16 Jan 2021
In reply to all:

Some great suggestions here, and some ones to chase up. 

My housemate at Uni explained that all the best songs are about angst and pain - then he got a girlfriend, got happy and we got on less well! 

Anyway, I give you Ider - Does She Even Know. A modern soundscape of loss.

youtube.com/watch?v=uQCTbN8PdWk&

 Rob Parsons 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Hooo:

> I think some people deride country because they're ashamed to admit that it moves them. I don't mind admitting on here that I'm one of them. There is some great country music, but it is so uncool to admit to liking it. I saw Billy Bragg doing a bit of country. He called it "Americana" so it sounds trendy and makes it OK. It is country though, and it's good.


Probably. I never worry about what other people think is 'cool' or not.

'Country' can admittedly be a toxic brand - commercial 'pop' country has nothing to do with the real thing, but it is churned out and dominates what passes as 'country radio' because it obviously makes money. You have to make some effort to hear the good stuff - but, if you keep your ears and your heart open, you'll know it when you hear it.

Removed User 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Rob Parsons:

> I wouldn't say 'covered' in the usual sense: the record 'J.T.' is a tribute from the father to his dead son; it's also, obviously, a catharsis.

> 100% of the proceeds and royalties are going to a trust fund for Justin Townes Earle's three-year old daughter.

> (For the sake of this thread, it's 'Earle' by the way, not 'Earl.')

Yes, and apologies for the spelling, I did know that. 

FWIW, I think Justin's death was an accidental OD. He was a troubled man but not suicidal.

 TechnoJim 16 Jan 2021
In reply to BFG:

Good shout on 'Dead Flag Blues'. I was playing that a lot last year.

"We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death".

Aye. 

Removed User 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Rob Parsons:

That's exactly it.

Country is just a part of America's folk tradition. Country & Western and all that awful shite isn't really Country music. So much good American Rock is tinged with Country just as we have Folk influenced Rock over here.

 smallclimber 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Cats in the cradle, Harry Chapin.

Messing up in your life or your romantic relationship is one thing. Messing up your relationship with your child is a whole new level of sadness.

Post edited at 03:37
 Andy Clarke 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

> Been trawling through the old folk songs i used to listen to and I think "The Butcher Boy" is one of the saddest.

> There are plenty more in a similar vein and it's laughable that anyone should deride country music for its sad material when you look back at British folk music and modern offshoots of it. 

It is laughable - and ironic when you think that country music actually is one of the modern offshoots of British folk. After all, how many ballads, song tunes and jigs and reels crossed back and forth among England, Scotland and Ireland before emigrating to America for a better life and setting up home in the Appalachian mountains, where they mingled with the other immigrants and gave birth to bluegrass?

 Andy Clarke 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Rob Parsons:

> Country is the white man's blues. Of course it can be sad: it reflects real life.

> Sometimes, admittedly, the lyrics can be larger than life - but at least it's life they're larger than.

Couldn't agree more. Thanks for the heads up on the Dale Watson: great guitar.

 Andy Clarke 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Great to see Lucinda Williams getting so many mentions. I guess she owns the title Queen of Americana. Two guys with a claim to being the King...

Jason Isbell: Elephant - another heart-breaker about dying (of cancer)

Son Volt: Tear-Stained Eye - a beautiful, melancholy, wistful, enigmatic song - maybe Jay Farrar reflecting on his break-up with Jeff Tweedy leading to the demise of their seminal band Uncle Tupelo

 Tom Valentine 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Removed User:

i wouldn't be dismissive about country and western being "awful shite", firstly because I 've been struggling for years to understand the difference between C&W and country, and secondly because the music that I do think of as C&W  includes Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and even Willie Nelson. Anyone who calls his guitar Trigger must be giving a nod to Roy Rogers, surely.

I just think the term C&W is losing favour just at the same time as Americana is finding its place.

 Pbob 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Myfyr Tomos:

What about "She was a praying mantis and he was a JCB" or "Dachshunds with erections can't climb stairs" by Les Barker

Removed User 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

I guess I meant it in terms of the commercial stuff beloved by the right wing. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the term.

Cash and Nelson amongst others are often called 'Outlaw Country' which is great term I think!

Post edited at 08:59
 Tom Valentine 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Removed User:

I'm with you there.It's easy  enough to misunderstand a term which plenty of people use contemptuously but no-one seems able to define.

If  country singers don't like being called country and western, maybe they should stop wearing silly cowboy hats.

 Rob Parsons 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

> If  country singers don't like being called country and western, maybe they should stop wearing silly cowboy hats.


The 'western' part of the term specifically relates to the cowboy tradition - there are some brilliant exponents of that, so don't dismiss it.

 mike123 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Rob Parsons:

> The 'western' part of the term specifically relates to the cowboy tradition - there are some brilliant exponents of that, so don't dismiss it.

Sad songs ? Cowboy hats you say ?


cowboy nation , the blizzard 

youtube.com/watch?v=KYqGc4J1kkY&

 mike123 16 Jan 2021
In reply to mike123: an old mate of mine always wanted to form a cowboy nation tribute band

Post edited at 10:01
 Andy Clarke 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

> I'm with you there.It's easy  enough to misunderstand a term which plenty of people use contemptuously but no-one seems able to define.

> If  country singers don't like being called country and western, maybe they should stop wearing silly cowboy hats.

Speaking very broadly, "country" originally referred to (hillbilly) music from the Southern states and "western" to (cowboy) music from the Western states. There's a good example of how most modern country singers feel about the out-dated C&W term in the very enjoyable film Wild Rose. I'm pretty sure Jessie Buckley wears a nice pair of white cowboy boots in it. Can't remember whether there's a hat.

 Lankyman 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

U2: You Don't Have to go it Alone. Any son who locked horns with their father and watched them die will understand.

 mike123 16 Jan 2021
In reply to mike123:

> an old mate of mine always wanted to form a cowboy nation tribute band

the name was unfortunately taken , good sad song though 

youtube.com/watch?v=P4FLuRERcWE&

 felt 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Have we had "Katie Cruel" yet?

youtube.com/watch?v=qwFIPDiMI30&

 Tom Valentine 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

I enjoyed Wild Rose. I watched Broken Circle Breakdown the same week and that has an ending which will  suit people who think country is all tears and regret.

 nufkin 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

'Two Little Boys' used to reduce my sister to tears - seemed funny to sing it to deliberately upset her, without really appreciating that she was imagining my brother and me as the subjects of the song

 Rob Parsons 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

> ... because the music that I do think of as C&W  includes Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and even Willie Nelson. Anyone who calls his guitar Trigger must be giving a nod to Roy Rogers, surely.

You will be pleased to know that Willie had his Covid vaccination yesterday. We have lost a lot of country greats over the past decade or so - but I hope he will be around for a long time yet.

He has also passed on good genes to his son, Lukas. Completely against the grain of this thread, here's an optimistic song from Lukas which contains good advice for all of us living through these crazy times: youtube.com/watch?v=MPrPtDoaB3s&

Post edited at 10:21
 wercat 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

The Furey's did some very sad stuff rather beautifully, and  Silly Wizard have some hauntingly sad ones

Suzanne Vega too

Post edited at 10:29
 Tom Valentine 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Rob Parsons:

I'm not the one being dismissive of C&W music at all: I'm being dismissive of people who have decided that it's not cool to be described as a C&W singer and yet still wear the hat to keep up the western part of the culture.

If the hat fits.....

 Rob Parsons 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

Sure - to hell with the pop country 'hat acts.'

 Dave Garnett 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Emiliana Torrini's Gollum's song somehow transcends the fantasy and CGI and is properly sad:

youtube.com/watch?v=H4Jmg3F0gL8&

Eddi Reader's version of John Anderson My Jo.  Something about this always brings a lump to my throat: 

youtube.com/watch?v=vLuKGirqgIs&

John Mayer's live version of Tom Pretty's Free Fallin'

youtube.com/watch?v=20Ov0cDPZy8&

 Rob Parsons 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

> It is laughable - and ironic when you think that country music actually is one of the modern offshoots of British folk. After all, how many ballads, song tunes and jigs and reels crossed back and forth among England, Scotland and Ireland before emigrating to America for a better life and setting up home in the Appalachian mountains, where they mingled with the other immigrants and gave birth to bluegrass?


The cross-pollination goes both ways. For example, the Shetland style of 'choppy' rhythm guitar playing was directly influenced by American jazz: stylings were exchanged as the whaling boats plyed their trade in the North Atlantic.

Post edited at 11:10
 coldfell 16 Jan 2021
In reply to nufkin: In a similar vein, Puff the Magic Dragon always leaves me teary eyed - long lost childhood and all that. Another vote for Wild Rose - Nick Cave and Kylie! Tragic.

 AllanMac 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Alan Stivell: She Moved Through the Fair:

youtube.com/watch?v=iuzvnQ5NrWc&

10cc: I'm Not In Love

James Taylor: Fire and Rain

Nick Drake: Black Eyed Dog

John Martyn: Don't you Go

Mark Hollis: A New Jerusalem. (especially sad because this was the last song Hollis ever recorded)

Ólafur Arnalds and Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir: Particles:

youtube.com/watch?v=90YvDfb24rw&

 Tom Valentine 16 Jan 2021
In reply to AllanMac:

I prefer "I'm Mandy-Fly Me - .but there's an interesting video about the making of "I'm Not in Love", how they dragged in the office girl to do the "big boys don't cry"  loop.

 Neil Henson 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Surprised no one has mentioned Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven about the tragic death of his child.

In a similar vein is Joe Walsh's Song for Emma.

Both absolutely heartbreaking. 

Bob Dylan's Ballad of Hollis Brown is pretty gut wrenching too, although not based on a real person as far as I am aware.

 Rob Parsons 16 Jan 2021
In reply to mike123:

> Sad songs ? Cowboy hats you say ?

> cowboy nation , the blizzard 


I like cowpunk, and I remember looking forward to that album when it was about to be released - but then being slightly disappointed that it didn't do it for me.

Tony Kinman died of cancer of couple of years ago, sadly.

cb294 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Young when I left home and Chicamauga, both by Willie Tea Taylor. Different topics, but both almost make me want to cry.

CB

edited to add links:

youtube.com/watch?v=oPjbZ0wp0NA&

youtube.com/watch?v=J8t6kB4Ha8w&

Post edited at 12:49
 Bob Kemp 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Jean Ritchie’s ‘The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore’ is an achingly melancholic song about being left behind by economic change:

youtube.com/watch?v=j6nARSpM-0s&

The combined effect of the words and her voice gets me every time. 

In reply to The Potato:

forgot to mention Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley 

 oldie 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

There must be loads of mournful folk songs about death and suffering.

For example The Highland Widow's Lament.

 felt 16 Jan 2021
In reply to coldfell:

> Puff the Magic Dragon always leaves me teary eyed - long lost childhood

Me too, although it also left me teary eyed when I was six or seven. 

Can we have the slow movement from Mozart's clarinet quintet too please?

youtube.com/watch?v=2ZGFL_eBYJI&

 Andy Farnell 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Alice in Chains - Down in a Hole, Rain when I Die ( in fact most of the Dirt album)

Soundgarden - Fell on Black Days, The day I tried to live (or most of Superunknown)

Andy F

 Dave Garnett 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Neil Henson:

> Surprised no one has mentioned Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven about the tragic death of his child.

Yes, it's hard to imagine how he ever managed to get through it live. 

Of course, beyond sad is existential horror and for that you need Leonard Cohen... 

youtube.com/watch?v=v0nmHymgM7Y&

Removed User 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Dave Garnett:

> Yes, it's hard to imagine how he ever managed to get through it live. 

> Of course, beyond sad is existential horror and for that you need Leonard Cohen... 

Naaaa. Dark and perhaps morose but Leonard was never "sad"

 james.slater 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Hurt Less - Julien Baker

Carlo's Song - Noah Kahan

Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors - The Editors

Routine Pain - Spanish Love Songs

Any Frightened Rabbit song!

 Darron 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

DO NOT under any circumstances listen to any of these if you have had a recent relationship breakdown:

It happens everyday, Carly Simon

Sorry, John Denver

God only knows, Beach Boys.

Beyond that:

Everybody Hurts, REM

Hearts of olden glory, Runrig.

 LakesWinter 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Andy Farnell:

> Alice in Chains - Down in a Hole, Rain when I Die ( in fact most of the Dirt album)

> Soundgarden - Fell on Black Days, The day I tried to live (or most of Superunknown)

> Andy F

Beat me to it! 

Could add Hollow and Died by Alice in Chains to that list too

 veteye 16 Jan 2021
In reply to freeflyer:

I also like listening to that CD.

Any version of Purcell's "Dido's Lament", is so spell-binding though, and sends shivers down my spine. It is a combination of the purity of the simple melody, and the intervals used in it, and the clarity of the singer's interpretation, and finally what the song relates to in the operatic story.

In fact I've just started to play it over in my head, and it has affected me.

 Lesdavmor 16 Jan 2021
In reply to veteye:

ae fond kiss  by Rabbie Burns 

without a doubt one of the saddest and most evocative songs ever written

 Wainers44 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

No cool classics from me, I was abused as a child. Hours of being squashed with 3 other siblings on the back seat of dads Austin Maxi. Long drive to Westward Ho! forced to listen endlessly to the cassette  tape of the Carpenters.

So if I want to wallow in sadness I have to admit to listening to them now and Karen Carpenter singing Goodbye to Love gets me every time. Damn parents. 

In March sat in the car outside the supermarket sad in the new mad world of lockdown,  Barcelona by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe came on the radio. As "god willing we will meet again, someday" was sung I fell to bits.....

 hazeysunshine 16 Jan 2021
In reply to veteye:

Yes. Up to now Mary Coughlan's version for me, but recently found Jeff Buckleys version youtube.com/watch?v=sA5UAbl1OWY&

Astonishing

 BrendanO 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Mazzy Star. Fade Into You.

one of those sings that if you’re drunk, you might cry

Gone for good 16 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Jackson Browne wrote and sang some pretty sad songs. Not least Late for the sky.

youtube.com/watch?v=kqYiHkx7ils&

cb294 16 Jan 2021
In reply to BrendanO:

That entire album in unbelievable! Mary of Silence and Into Dust are jsut as good!

CB

 freeflyer 16 Jan 2021
In reply to Wainers44:

> So if I want to wallow in sadness I have to admit to listening to them now and Karen Carpenter singing Goodbye to Love gets me every time. Damn parents. 

I also especially like I can Dream Can't I? from the Horizon album. A perfect song for Karen's voice.

youtube.com/watch?v=UeTXNAyCQAQ&

"I'm aware my life is a sad affair". Can't get much more on topic than that

 oscaig 17 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

For a good wallow I reach for classic American Music Club - The Hula Maiden. Plenty of good material also in the Smiths back catalogue as well as Nick Cave, Frightened Rabbit and Billy Bragg; from which Levi Stubb's Tears is particularly good.       

 Cobra_Head 17 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

When you're Gone - The Proclaimers, both sad and reaffirming.

 veteye 17 Jan 2021
In reply to hazeysunshine:

Indeed. I bought the whole album for that Jeff Buckley version of Dido's Lament: It's how we learn about other songs too.

Essentially, all that time ago Purcell knew how to set us up with the slow tempo, and the perfect sad/wrenching melody, made more profound by the overall beauty of the song.

 toddles 17 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Two of my favourite sad songs:

Ruby's Arms by Tom Waits

youtube.com/watch?v=MmM7B-M3LVg&

and The Song with no Name by Shane Magowan

youtube.com/watch?v=-GZ8ZQvrfJc&

 Tom Valentine 17 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Just remembered a favourite:

"I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love". Rita Coolidge.

For me, a perfect mix of sentiment and melody, combined with Coolidge's brilliant delivery. Written by Carol Beyer Sager.

Post edited at 09:39
In reply to The Potato:

"Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier" sung by James Taylor never fails to bring a tear or two.

In reply to The Potato:

Great songs so far!

A few to add:

* Vincent by Don McLean

* Coat of Many Colours by Dolly Parton

* Down at the Tube Station at Midnight by The Jam - both sad and scary

* Space Oddity by David Bowie

 Rob Parsons 18 Jan 2021
In reply to get to the punchline:

> * Coat of Many Colours by Dolly Parton

 

That's not sad; it's an uplifting song!

 overdrawnboy 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Has anyone mentioned Townes van Zandt's "Marie". A dark dark piece of writing.

 Armadillo 20 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Vic Chestnutt - Flirted with you all my life

 colinakmc 20 Jan 2021
In reply to Mrs Only a Hill:

might I suggest Bruce Springsteen the river.

Stolen car from his Nebraska album is worth a listen too..

 pookie 20 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Great thread and some good suggestions.

My pick: Tom Waits - Take It With Me 

youtube.com/watch?v=oZUGg39nGCc&

I can't make it to the end of this song without welling-up at the lyrics and the slightly rickety old piano on top of his amazing gravelly voice makes it so much more melancholy if that's possible!

 BrendanO 20 Jan 2021
In reply to BrendanO:

New York Doll by Robyn Hitchcock.

Andy Gamisou 21 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

For me it would be the theme to "The Likely Lads", especially when combined with the opening credits.  I grew up in both the environments shown in the opening, and at the same dates they were filmed - the industrial area around Byker and the Quayside in the 60s, then in a terminal decline with whole communities being demolished to make way for the new.  Followed by a "modern" aspirational New Town in the suburbs.  This latter we moved to in the mid 70s, and we lived a couple of hundred yards from where the house used in the credits were - my parents stayed their until around 2010.

Take a song that is very much a "lament", combine it with a very personal recognition of the areas pictured (and the actual streets and houses), being an age, and state of health, where you start to assess your past and wonder about the future, and add in recent loss of both parents and you end up with something that is emotionally (and almost physically) difficult to watch/listen to.

 John H Bull 21 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Anyone mentioned Katy Song by Red House Painters?

 John H Bull 21 Jan 2021
In reply to chadogrady:

Crikey - for about 40 years I thought Gloomy Sunday was an Associates original, and a superb one at that. Oh well... 

 Tom Valentine 21 Jan 2021
In reply to Andy Gamisou:

Great choice. I think I was away at Uni for the original  Likely Lads but Whatever Happened to  is for me the absolute peak of UK comedy scriptwriting., a match for( but very different from) Frasier.

cb294 21 Jan 2021
In reply to colinakmc:

> might I suggest Bruce Springsteen the river.

> Stolen car from his Nebraska album is worth a listen too..

Good call, also Glory Days!

Similar, Bob Seger, Jody Girl

CB

 joem 21 Jan 2021
In reply to james.slater:

> Any Frightened Rabbit song!

I wondered how long it was going to take for someone to mention frightened Rabbit. All the more heart wrenching since Scott left us all. I can only listen to them so much in any one go, I’m currently not as covids getting me down as it is.

 Cobra_Head 21 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Sometimes I Forget · Loudon Wainwright III

youtube.com/watch?v=t7iZv5Bdknk&

 james.slater 23 Jan 2021
In reply to joem:

Indeed, listening to a lot of their material now, and Scotts words particularly, is deeply haunting.

Pedestrian Verse is an absolute masterpiece.

In reply to The Potato:

Hi,

Lisa Gerrard - Sanvean (I Am Your Shadow) youtube.com/watch?v=cl_diN-Midg& (not the official video).

Leonard Cohen:

youtube.com/watch?v=hs5hOhI4pEE& - The Partisan (cover)

&

youtube.com/watch?v=GEmLSmb_2wk& - Seems So Long Ago, Nancy.

Gloomy Sunday has been mentioned. Here's Diamanda Galás' version: youtube.com/watch?v=Hzt0Jeh_NTk&

Thanks,

R

 sandrow 25 Jan 2021
In reply to Tom Last:

> Who Knows Where the Time Goes by Sandy Denny was to my mind the absokute saddest.

I was driving to work feeling depressed at the pointlessness of it all when this came on the radio - I had to stop for a weep...

 Bulls Crack 25 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

King Creosote 'And the Racket they Made'. -bittersweet but definitely sad. youtube.com/watch?v=BQaFxPeI1Vg&

 Rob Exile Ward 26 Jan 2021
In reply to sandrow:

Farewell Farewell does it for me.

In reply to The Potato:

Enola Gay
Is mother proud of little boy today?
Ah-ha this kiss you give
It's never ever gonna fade away

 

Post edited at 16:02
 Billhook 27 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

A sad song about an Irishman gone away from Eire and dreaming of coming home - but a little too late   youtube.com/watch?v=S1kUijTWkSg&  (Carrickfergus)

And another about a man coming across a grave stone from WW 1  Willie Mcbride
youtube.com/watch?v=ofhao4SHXGo&

Post edited at 16:58
 BrendanO 29 Jan 2021
In reply to Cobra_Head:

And Unhappy Anniversary by LW3

 kwoods 29 Jan 2021
In reply to The Potato:

youtube.com/watch?v=Tm8LGxTLtQk&

One More Light, Linkin Park

 Co1in H 20 Feb 2021
In reply to C Witter:

Don't Think Twice was played at a family funeral in the crem, not too long ago. 

It was a surprise, but as I was quietly singing along I thought, Yes, bang on, really hit the spot.

 jockster 20 Feb 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Richard Thompson, 3 from a long possible list,

The End of the Rainbow

Withered and Died

Dimming of the day

 Cobra_Head 20 Feb 2021
In reply to BrendanO:

> And Unhappy Anniversary by LW3


I've never seen this as a sad song, it might be the jaunty tune, but I always thought of it as more of a story.

One more of his that does get me is Human Cannonball, which I'm fine with until the last line.

Post edited at 17:02
 Andy Hardy 20 Feb 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Can I suggest "Who knows where the time goes?" Sandy Denny

 Jonny 21 Feb 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Dylan - Girl from the North Country (finds it way on whenever I miss a girl)

Radiohead - Lucky

Dire Straits - Every Street (there's just something about that outro)

Removed User 04 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

I was only 19. Clip is pretty moving too.

youtube.com/watch?v=1gmgwx77osw&

 Kes 04 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Another vote for A Little Rain by Tom Waits - often have to skip it so it doesn’t ruin my day! - and Waltzing Matilda by the Pogues

Levi Stubbs Tears - Billy Bragg

 Blue Straggler 04 Mar 2021
In reply to Robin Montaigne:

> Hi,

> Lisa Gerrard - Sanvean (I Am Your Shadow) youtube.com/watch?v=cl_diN-Midg& (not the official video).

I love that but I never found it sad, indeed rather uplifting (just musically). Is there something in the lyrics (which I've never paid attention to) that is particularly sad?

 Alex@home 04 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Kaleidoscope by James

youtube.com/watch?v=1KiZflpQy08&

 Carless 04 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Green Fields of France - another great song from Eric Bogle (he also wrote And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda)

Here's a great version from The Men They Couldn't Hang

RIP Cush - thanks for the memories

youtube.com/watch?v=Kr6OzLJrS2k&

 timbers 04 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Tank Park Salute - Billy Bragg

About a young boy who’s dad has been killed.....gets me every time.

 paddledog 05 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Coming in late to this thread and not wanting to take it off in another direction but along with some songs already mentioned Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit is another one that does it for me.

Apologies if it's been already included.

 donrobson 05 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

A few not mentioned that I "enjoy"

King of Bohemia by Richard Thompson

The Great Valerio by Richard and Linda Thompson

Almost Blue by Elvis Costello 

Starless by the Unthanks - cover of King Crimson song

Removed User 05 Mar 2021
In reply to donrobson:

Maybe not the saddest but def the most sentimental 


Tom Waits - Take It With Me

 trouserburp 06 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Fugazi -  I'm so tired (was on that Chris Sharma bouldering video!)

Radiohead Motion Picture Soundtrack

Nick Cave - I need you 

 fred99 06 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Just seen this, was surprised to see no mention of;

"Man of the World" by Fleetwood Mac

(when Peter Green was with them).

In reply to Blue Straggler:

> I love that but I never found it sad, indeed rather uplifting (just musically). Is there something in the lyrics (which I've never paid attention to) that is particularly sad?

Hi,

I’m glad that you love it & find it uplifting. No, I haven't paid attention to the lyrics, either. I guess I find it quite moving (& the same for some of the Dead Can Dance tracks on which she sings). I think the above video – which seems like a good match for the music – is uplifting (though sad, initially) ...

Thanks,
R

Off-topic: I remember your post about the films Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources, a while back. I don't know if you'd be interested in La Gloire de mon père (My Father's Glory) & Le Château de ma mère (My Mother's Castle). Sorry if you already know this - they're also adaptations of Marcel Pagnol (who I haven't read) but are more autobiographical. Daniel Auteuil seems to have been involved in later adaptations.
 

 Blue Straggler 08 Mar 2021
In reply to Robin Montaigne:

Hi Robin. Thanks ...perhaps surprisingly I saw the 1990(ish) films of La Gloire de Mon Pere and Le Chateau de Ma Mere many many years before I got around to watching their more famous mid 1980s predecessors! To be honest I’ve somewhat forgotten the story lines probably because it was pretty much thirty years ago and they are iirc more “slight”, pastoral memoirs rather than the quote intense heavy melodrama of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. 

 Blue Straggler 08 Mar 2021
In reply to Robin Montaigne:

I once had a ticket for a Dead Can Dance concert but I broke my ankle in my first ever trad lead fall, and was unable to go! Luckily I did get to see Lisa Gerrard a couple of years later (and she performed Sanvean).

And actually I did see a Brendan Perry show circa 2000. 

I was listening to the “Wake” DCD compilation recently and you really have to be in a serious mood for it. If you are in a whimsical mood it is very easy to feel that some of the more “mediaeval folk music” excursions are a spoof 😃

In reply to The Potato:

One I suppose that's so obvious that it's likely to be overlooked, is what is often billed as 'Elvis's last song' (when it was in fact several weeks before his final concert): Unchained Melody. Very moving by any standards.  youtube.com/watch?v=AG9ph9xkOrw&

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Hi,

That sounds like it was a bad fall, mate. Sorry it meant you had to miss DCD, too, but it’s good that you got to see LG (performing Sanvean, too – nice!) & BP, in the end. I think they’re hoping to resume their interrupted DCD tour next year. 

Wake looks like a really nice collection. Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, which seems to be well-represented on Wake, is my favourite LP. I have to be in the right mood for some of Spleen & Ideal. Yes, Aion was a surprise!

Thanks,
R
 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Hi,

I did wonder if you might’ve already seen them! Yes, that’s pretty much my recollection, from around the same time, too; much less dramatic than Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources, but still enjoyable, I thought.

Thanks,
R
 

 Blue Straggler 21 Mar 2021
In reply to Robin Montaigne:

It was such a pathetic, embarrassing and avoidable injury! Gear ripped most probably because I didn’t extend the quickdraw, but even then it wasn’t a spectacular fall, just somehow swung awkwardly into the rock (my previous gear held, otherwise it would have been two broken legs) and I had a talus fracture. 

 Dave Hewitt 21 Mar 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

> I first heard it on Emmylou's "Wrecking Ball" and reading the notes on the song is what got me  listening to Lucinda. "Drunken Angel" has some sad history to it as well. 

The whole of Wrecking Ball is great - the CD lives in our car. Blackhawk is a heck of a thing.

 Tom Valentine 21 Mar 2021
In reply to Dave Hewitt:

It was a while before i realised that some of the tracks on Wrecking Ball  reminded me of Time Out of Mind then I realised that Daniel Lanois had produced both of them . A great sound.

 SAF 22 Mar 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Passenger "let her go" was all over the radio at the time my friends baby daughter died, including on the way to the funeral.

"You see her when you close your eyes
Maybe one day you'll understand why"

Still makes be cry at the unbelievable shitness and unfairness of 9 months of pregnancy and no baby do bring home.

 Hat Dude 01 Apr 2021
In reply to Neil Williams:

> The Beatles - She's Leaving Home.  One of the few that actually make me cry.

just listened to this for the first time in a long time

The counterpoint between Paul McCartney's verse and John Lennon's chorus is brilliant

Such great lyrics

Adding " clutching her handkerchief" to what would've been most people's complete line of 

"she goes downstairs to the kitchen" is sublime

 Blue Straggler 01 Apr 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Carole King’s recording of her song “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, already a classic hit single as recorded by The Shirelles some years earlier, is brilliant. It doesn’t obviously lay on the sadness with a trowel like some of the examples on this thread, but its jaded subtext of basically expecting a life of heartbreak after heartbreak, based on experience so far (by a narrator who may be assumed to be a quite young woman), coupled with the exquisite arrangement and performance from King (no mean feat considering that The Shirelles’ recording is ldefinitive”) make for quite a moving song, if you’re in tune with it all. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

This makes me feel so old, so full of nostalgia. I just loved the Shirelles 'Will you still love me tomorrow' when I was 10 years old at a very strange, draconian prep school in Hertfordshire (now a Sue Ryder home). But then there was just so much happening: the year of 'It's now or never' by Elvis and 'Only the lonely' by Orbison. Just massive. And then, like a totally new phenomenon, that just took over the air waves - dawn to dusk - I don't think there'd ever been a pop phenomenon like it before: Chubby Checker and the Twist. The start, really, of a new world. I'll never forget it: the true start of 'the 60s'. And then, 'Let's Twist Again' the following year. Just dominated everything.

Incredibly (because I've never heard of him since) he's still alive and here doing the Twist and Let's Twist Again (starts about 5 mins in) last year at about the age of 80..  youtube.com/watch?v=1paFcll7Tyc&

Post edited at 00:33
 Blue Straggler 02 Apr 2021
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Listen to King’s version. I only heard that classic album Tapestry for the first time last year, the whole thing is of course great hence its 50 year legacy as one of the all time classics, but that song is for me one of the three real standouts. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Thanks a lot for reminding me of Carole King. That version sent the shivers down my spine when I was at university in Cardiff. Wonderful. But then, even bigger, was Melanie's Ruby Tuesday. One of the most evocative songs of my whole life ... made a big impact when I was 20 years old (first falling in love, forlornly.) But the biggest of all around then was Bridge Over Troubled Water – the memories that brings back are just huge.

And to come right back on theme, just why haven't I mentioned Nilsen: the saddest song in the world?

youtube.com/watch?v=2BaaMEoCybQ&

Post edited at 00:51
 Blue Straggler 02 Apr 2021
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

funny you should mention Melanie, I was thinking of her as I was planning to post about Carole. However I felt that - as great as she really was/is (and I do love the Candles in the Rain album which I have on original-release vinyl) Melanie’s delivery in general  always felt slightly detached/cabaret, dare I say almost clinical - not fully “from the heart”. Whereas King’s Tapestry album, even if it is crafted from multiple takes by a perfectionist master craftswoman, feels more like she MEANS it. Again don’t get me wrong, I love Melanie (and have been enjoying her classic album for 8x as long as I’ve been enjoying Tapestry) and it’s definitely not “empty”, just feels more like she’s belting it out energetically rather than pouring her heart out 

Removed User 09 Apr 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Lick My Love Pump. Nigel Tufnel's trilogy in the key of D, it being the saddest note.

 birdie num num 09 Apr 2021
In reply to The Potato:

Van Morrison doing justice to that great Patrick Kavanagh poem, 'On Raglan Road'

 SDM 09 Apr 2021
In reply to SAF:

On a similar theme, June by Idles was written as a coping mechanism after Joe Talbot's daughter was stillborn. It's a short, very simple song but you can really feel how much he was struggling at the time. The line "A stillborn was still born; I am a father" always gets me. It wasn't originally intended for release and I don't think it will ever be played live.

youtube.com/watch?v=TCORxrEgr1o&

Two other songs, also from slightly unlikely artists:

The Green Fields of France - Dropkick Murphys. Also known as No Man's Land or Willie McBride. It was written by Eric Bogle about the futility of war and the anti-Irish feelings in the UK during the 70s. There have been quite a few versions of it but, for me, none of them come close to the Dropkick Murphys version for the raw emotion.

youtube.com/watch?v=zRmJwqVbtQI&

The Magician's Assistant - Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip. A song about the effect of a suicide on the family who are left behind.

youtube.com/watch?v=VH9CxM6o-eI&

 Boomer Doomer 09 Apr 2021
In reply to Removed Userwaitout:

It's more of a Mach piece.

 Andy Clarke 09 Apr 2021
In reply to birdie num num:

> Van Morrison doing justice to that great Patrick Kavanagh poem, 'On Raglan Road'

I think Dick Gaughan's version on Kist o' Gold is equally beautiful. I wish someone would re- release this on CD - my old cassette has long gone. 

 Boomer Doomer 09 Apr 2021
In reply to Andy Clarke:

Can't post the ebay link here as I'm not a paid up member... but there's a copy available on vinyl... posted from the Netherlands. A bit pricey though... will cost you the best part of £35 incl. postage.

Removed User 09 Apr 2021
In reply to Boomer Doomer:

Ha yes, christ I still laugh to tears over 3 decades later watching that. It's that he's actually a fine pianist to support his mash up ideas that does it. Best film ever.

 andrew ogilvie 14 Apr 2021
In reply to The Potato:

I'm a bit surprised that I haven't already replied to this...
 

youtube.com/watch?v=zcKGqgwLzjA& ( Joy Division - The Eternal)

youtube.com/watch?v=01JYYAJ5_o4& ( Fotheringay - Banks of the Nile)

youtube.com/watch?v=0C_9mP9wFtM& ( Janet Baker - Ruckert Lieder)

youtube.com/watch?v=-rGDzbV75EI& ( Paul Simon - Slip Slidin Away)

youtube.com/watch?v=n3SJz9jujEA& ( Jackson Browne - Late for the Sky) ... if you think you know this one it is also the incidental music from the "you lookin at me" scene in Taxi Driver which hardly embues it with anything other than additional sadness

one that has been making me reliably sad for 40 years

youtube.com/watch?v=ndu96lClBIA& ( Van der graaf generator- La Rossa)

not strictly speaking a song but the melodic introduction to this piece is pretty heartbreaking too.

youtube.com/watch?v=h8nK7x7cYjo& ( John Coltrane Quartet - Song of Praise ( live)).

I hope someone else enjoys these too.
A.O 
​​​​​​


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