I'm talking about music that when you're feeling down will make you feel worse. I don't want uplifting or inspirational. Some of Chopin's more melancholic works can do it for me. I don't listen to country, but George Jones singing "It's a good day for the roses" is about as sad a song as you will find. Leonard Cohen's "Alexandra leaving" is another sad song. I have everything Davis and Coltrane recorded, so I'm looking for recommendations for the most beautiful but depressing music you've ever heard. I want to hear a violin, my favorite instrument, that will bring tears to your eyes. I know this is a strange request but some of the best music comes from dark places. Thanks
Has anyone mentioned "Strange Fruit", made famous by Billie Holiday?
I love melancholy music (isn’t melancholia the natural human condition? It’s been mine since watching in horror as my mother slowly, painfully succumbed to brain cancer when I was 14-15), such as "’Til I Die" by Brain Wilson, found on The Beach Boys Surf’s Up album. Quite far removed from his "Fun, Fun, Fun" ;-) . But then those lyrics were written by Mr. Fun himself, Mike Love.
If you would like to listen to a 'lovers break up" sad song, try this. The voice is spectacular. It won the 2020 Germany's Voice competition. She is a Turkish lady singing a Turkish song. Wait for the crescendo for her real talents. The first video is the competition video, the second the published version of the song.
Scrolled through and see someone already mentioned I see a darkness. I would add jesus blood hasn’t failed me yet and the sinking of the titanic by Gavin Bryars. The cure also has some significantly melancholic music. And the bends album by Radiohead.
The 2 songs that come to mind are sad but not depressing. Both are based on true events. "Lorraine" by Lori McKenna" and "John Doe #24 by Mary Chapin Carpenter. It matters not how often I listen to these 2 songs, my heart will swell with sadness.
and the whole genre (EMO) if you have affinity for the music coming out of that era of lostness. Perhaps not the kind of sadness you’re looking for. More meaninglessness than redemption a lot of the time.
Has anyone mentioned the Bacharach/Warwick collaboration? Songs like "Do You Know the Way to San Jose", "Walk On By", "There's Always Something There to Remind Me", and "Reach Out For Me" are melancholic classics.
roxy54...I know you didn't address your post to me, but I want to comment anyway. I can see what you're saying, and I felt that way at first. But then I started thinking about it in a way that draws on your last sentence. "We all find different things sad", and we all have different ways of expressing our sadness. I commend you for not being disagreeable when you disagree.
davehg, I didn't get that feeling from Kasmir Pulaski Day at all. The tune was sort of bouncy, reminded me of a John Sebastian song, and I think that the lyrics were a little awkward and uninspired. It just shows again that we all find different things sad.
davehg...I'm alive. I started watching the video, but couldn't make out all of the lyrics so I downloaded them and watched the video again. Beautifully tragic and sad.
Sorry all but Sufjan Steven’s Casimir Pulaski Day is head and shoulders the saddest song - about the singer’s girlfriend dying of bone cancer. The lyrics are amazing. Why on earth would you ever want to hear this? Because it’s beautifully sung, well recorded, and if you don’t bawl your eyes out you aren’t alive.
Just watched a Rick Beato "What makes this song great" youtube video about Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" probably my favorite song of all time. When Beato breaks it down you can't help but appreciate just how good the song is.
Ray Lamontagne, Shawn Phillips, Lucinda Williams just to name a few off top of my head. My daughter many times will open the door and ask if I'm okay and have to laugh and give her a hug and tell her I'm okay, which I am. Sad music can put me in a strange dark place that I enjoy in a very bizarre way when I zone out alone in a dark room. Okay now it's getting weird.
Colour My World - Chicago 1970 That song would take the funk out of any blue lights in the basement party and for some reason it was so slow it was actually hard to slow dance too!
Wildflower - Skylark 1972 A sad but beautiful song.
(Olivia) Lost and turned out - The Whispers 1978 The title means exactly what you think it does. It was about a pimp prostituting a young girl.
(Olivia the slave) Got distracted on her way To grandmother’s house A wolf in nice clothin’ came Blew her mind and changed her ways And now she turned out - Lost and turned out Lost and turned out - She’s spendin’ most of her time Walkin’ the streets She has a certain quota to fill He wants to buy a new Seville...
Sad indeed...
I think everybody likes a good tear jerker song now and then.
Beatles: She's leaving home, In my life, Elinor Rigby, Yesterday of their many sad songs grip me when down.Especially in my life. The one that gets me to cry every time
Erik Satie - Gymnopédies So simple so intense Another classic tear-jerker Samuel Barbara's - Adagio for Strings Now I'm totally depressed 317,000 and counting, 10 of millions believing in fiction rather than fact and its consequences and implications...
newbee...Irish music is a good example of the beauty that can be inspired by tragedy and hard times. The history of the Great Potato Famine will break your heart, especially because it didn't have to happen.
Many of Stan Rogers songs are considered mini operas. Some really sad stuff like "First Christmas" can leave one feeling melancholy. For a while in the early eighties, I was over listening to this type of music. I had to remind myself that a balance is needed to avoid becoming depressed. Joe
Hi, a few goodish recommendations, but a clear winner is , bonnie 'prince' billy, i see a darkness, so dark, so sad, but utterly great, don't have any rope around when playing it, or you will top yourself, LOL, also Antony and the Johnson's, am a bird now, haunting,
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