Great thread!
Interesting, how subjective this can be. . .
A few that spring to mind:
Severely underrated, IMHO, Janis Ian has written some devastatingly sad songs. Try "Jessie".
Sandy Denny: I can’t listen to her solo recordings due to the emotionality. Nearly every performance seems laden with despair, whether explicit of implicit. Too dark for me-- I need some light along with the shadows.
Stones: Wild Horses, No Expectations, Let It Loose, I Got the Blues, ("interpreting" Robert Johnson): Love In Vain
Richard Thompson: The End of the Rainbow, Withered and Died, Never Again, Walking On a Wire, When the Spell is Broken, to name but a few.
Jesse Winchester: I Wave Bye Bye
Allmans: Whipping Post, Dreams, Please Call Home, Worried Down With the Blues
Emmy Lou Harris: Too Far Gone, Boulder to Birmingham, Tulsa Queen, to name but three.
John Hiatt: Take It Down, Icy Blue Heart
Janis Joplin: Kozmic Blues, Maybe, Little Girl Blue
Iris Dement; simply the timbre of her voice brings on the tears, so I rarely listen to her.
There are overtly sad songs and then there songs that are "pleasurably sad" ("wistful"?) that which I identify with songs such as "Winter" by the Stones, "Melissa" by the Allmans, "Stella Blue" by the Dead, "All In Love Is Fair" by Stevie Wonder, "The Wind Cries Mary" by Jimi Hendrix.
There are also songs whose theme is surviving sadness and finding some sort of inner strength to move on from it, such as "It Ain’t My Cross To Bear" by the Allmans, "Just Cause I’m In Love With You" by Jesses Winchester, "Walk Away" as sung by Ann Peebles and many others, particularly in the Blues and R&B genres.
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In memory of Mimi Parker of one of my favourite bands, Low, who sadly passed away this week. God Bless ❤️
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Another sad...dish song, this one hit me like a train.... you can turn on English subtitles.
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"Put The Bone In" Terry Jacks. (This was actually on the flip side of "Seasons In The Sun.")
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''Honey'' , by Bobby Goldsboro and ''The First of May'' ,by the Bee Gees.
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Friends - Ryan Adams
About Today - The National
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Poppy Family (featuring the late Susan Jacks): "That’s Where I Went Wrong"
REM: "South Central Rain"
The Strawbs: "Lay Down"
Mike Oldfield: "Crime of Passion" , "Man In The Rain"
Kate Bush: "Giving It All"
Images In Vogue: "(You Mistook My) Lust for Love"
Depeche Mode: "Enjoy The Silence"
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: "Mary Jane’s Last Dance"
Rod Stewart: "Leave Virginia Alone"
Talk Talk: Living In Another World"
Ben Folds Five: Mess
Fleetwood Mac / Christie McVie: "Songbird"
It’s A Beautiful Day: "White Bird"
Burton Cummings: "Take One Away"
Creedence Clearwater Revival "Someday Never Comes"
Sheryl Crowe: "My Favourite Mistake"
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Lots of sad songs out there for sure. Many are great tunes. The only one that seems to really get to me? Terry Jacks: Seasons In the Sun. Dunno why, it just hits that spot.
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Try this instrumental one:
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Excellent thread, though it would seem to be even more appropriate to the 'Music' category than the 'Misc Audio' one - might even get more responses!
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Cowboy Junkies, Come Calling (his Song) and Come Calling (her Song)
A lifetime of love overshadowed by dementia. I wonder what inspired that?
I'll include the "Her" version. You can easily find the "His".
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Crazy Man Michael... Yeah!
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Two from Fairport Convention: Crazy Man Michael and Meet on the Ledge
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Holding back the years- Simply Red
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Elephant- Jason Isbell
Crossing Muddy Waters- John Hiatt
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Great post. Not just that but many meaningful replies. From a classical perspective:
Der Leiermann by Schubert. Just soul crushing.
Death of Melisand by Sibelius. title says it all.
Intermezzo from the Crown of India by Elgar. Surely the most tender and intimate voice of comfort ever written.
To the posters who have suffered loss - thank you for sharing, It is very meaningful.
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I gotta go with @rpeluso. If "No Time To Cry" by Iris DeMent doesn’t produce a lump in your throat and tears on your cheeks, check your pulse.
The song may be found on Iris’ My Life album, currently available on CD only. There was an LP version made available by Plain Recordings in 2013, currently out-of-print. This album alone justifies---in fact mandates!---owning a CD player ;-) .
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From the "Human Remains" CD, "Little Sandy" Terry Allen
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"No Hard Feelings" - Avett Brothers, "Children of Children" - Jason Isbell, "Hallelujah" - Jeff Buckley, "Handbags and Gladrags" - Stereophonics. Each for various reasons make me a bit melancholy.
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The one that gets me is Sufjan Stevens "Casimir Pulaski Day"
In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window
In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March, on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing
All the glory that the Lord has made
And the complications when I see His face
In the morning in the window
All the glory when He took our place
But He took my shoulders and He shook my face
And He takes and He takes and He takes |
I guess this forum population skews toward older demographics. Nonetheless we can consider many songs by Lana Del Rey (thanks to her we have the sub-genre sadcore). Summertime Sadness is an obvious early pick but not the only one. Generally beautiful singing and compositions across many albums. Also many artists she inspired.
Closer to home (mine anyway) we have some excruciatingly sad lo-fi from Lil Bo Weep, especially Sorry. As she's no longer with us I find her stuff way too sad to listen to lately.
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I'm amazed that I am the first one to respond to this post with a "classical music" response, but here it is. Gustav Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder" - "Songs on the Death of Children". His loss is so great that he can envision the lost child entering his room. Now, THAT is sad ! Mahler lost a daughter and the librettist lost two children before the work was written.
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@immatthewj
"Everybody Hurts" REM
This one and "Sweetness Follows." Really struck home when my father died.
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Old, but the best. Frank Sinatra's album "Only the Lonely."
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+1 for Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" and Warren Zevon's "Accidentally Like A Martyr". They were at the top of my list.
Here are a couple more including a few covers I prefer to the originals:
Nils Lofgren- "Little On Up", "I Don't Want to Know", "Moon Tears"
Ricki Lee Jones- "Walk Away Renee"
Jennifer Warnes (and Leonard Cohen)- "Joan of Arc"
Vanilla Fudge- "You Keep Me Hangin' On"
Neil Young- "The Needle and the Damage Done", "Old Man", "Down By the River"
Bloodrock- "D.O.A."
The English Beat- "Can't Get Used to Losing You", "Tears of a Clown" (I love Smokey, but this a great cover of his song).
Smokey Robinson- "Tracks of My Tears"
The Weavers- "Ramblin' Boy"
Joe Cocker- "With a Little Help from My Friends"
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I'll have to contemplate before I can respond on my own behalf; but I know my daughter's choice. When she was about three I was singing lullabies to get her to sleep. For some reason I went into "You are My Sunshine". She started crying inconsolably when I got to
The other night dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head and I cried.
Now after 30 years it has the same effect on her.
Choose any version you like. Even the songwriter(s) is a subject of contention. I always thought it was corny and was very surprised when she started crying.
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vince gill. trying to get over you
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Start to Stop - Martha and the Muffins
Everybody Knows - Leonard Cohen (but I prefer cover by Concrete Blonde)
Lady Grinning Sole - David Bowie
Don’t Get it Back - Veruca Salt
Just about half of the Aimee Mann catalog.
No one said it Would be Easy - Sheryl Crow
Safe and Sound - Sheryl Crow
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“Without You” - Harry Nilsson version
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Hello in There. John Prine
Lilac Wine Nina Simone
**Lorraine Lori McKenna
When I Was a Boy Dar Williams
True Companion Mark Cohen
Atheist Chrismas Vienna Teng
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@switzer145 another vote for "Sweet Old World"! Yes!
However, as much as I like Emmy Lou’s cover of it, I am prejudiced and I love the original by Lucinda Williams.
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Sorry if it has already been mentioned, Kristofferson's Sunday Morning Coming down and Merle Haggard's How Did You Find Me here, off of his second to last album, I am What I Am. Enjoy the music
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Randall Knife, Guy Clark.
First heard several years prior to my father's death. Couldn't listen to it for a long time after. Fair warning.
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A ghost in the house by Alison Krauss – grieving
If Tomorrow never comes by Ronan Keating and also by Brenda Kinnear - The subject is in the title.
Sweet old world by Emmylou Harris – grieving.
Yesterday when I was young by Roy Clark, Dusty Springfield and others – regret.
Try to remember by Jerry Orbach - nostalgia.
If I Loved You by Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae from the show Carousel (and we know how that turned out).
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David Gray has loads - he's rather known - or them but certainly one of the saddest songs ever is "The One I Love."
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Although "Daniel" from "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player" is the saddest-for-me Elton John Song (possibly due to personal family events we were experiencing back then), "Blues For Baby And Me" off the same album always stuck me as melancholy. As did "Rocket Man," also by John/Taupin.
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Perfect - Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill
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"Accidentally Like A Martyr" Warren Zevon (The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder)
"I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford)" Elton John/Bernie Taupin
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The same deep water as you by the The Cure.
Plenty more by Dead Can Dance.
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@waytoomuchstuff and @tooblue,
My heart is heavy for both of you after reading this thread. I have two boys (actually adults of 31 and 28 years old, both teachers in High School and Middle School, but they will always be "my boys"), and I can't bear to envision a World without them. My sympathies to you both and I hope time, memories, and music have helped soothe the scar.
Allen
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Warren Zevon's "Keep Me In Your Heart". The final song on Zevon's 2003 album, "The Wind". Zevon began recording the album shortly after he was diagnosed with inoperable pleural mesothelioma (a cancer of the lining of the lung), and it was released just two weeks before his death on September 7, 2003. I've heard it played an several Memorial Services and it brings the waterworks everytime.
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@waytoomuchstuff , thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing that with me. @ronboco, thank you.
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"Daniel" Elton John/Bernie Taupin
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@tooblue My sincere condolences.
I lost my son in 1994. Our song was Mona, by Quicksilver Messenger Service. I'd drive him to school every day, and start this song when we pulled out of the driveway. Mona has a very long instrumental lead in and we made a game of noting where we were when the vocal started. We could also tell if we were making good time, or bad time on the commute.
Every year on his birthday, I reenact the drive -- noting, of course, where the vocal started.
Losing a child certainly re-calibrates your definition of what a problem is. From that day forward, everything else seems pretty trivial by comparison.
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@cns1946 +1
"The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" Gordon Lightfoot.
I can't listen to this song without getting choaked up a little. My wife and I spent some time in Michigan's Upper Peninsula last year. Being there made the song even more real to me.
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I Can't Make You Love Me as performed by Bonnie Raitt
Saddest song I know.
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Stoned & Alone - Hank III
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