The Smiley Smile Message Board

I'm adding this topic here, since it kinda got started in "New Album Info".

I nominate:
Sam Stone - John Prine
When She Loved Me - Jessie the Cowgirl
King's Crossing - Elliott Smith (this goes beyond sadness and into horror for me--I always felt like it was Elliott saying, ha ha, you think you love me, but I'm killing myself and there's nothing you can do about it)

Oh yeah, and Honey - Bobby Goldsboro. (Just kidding. "Hugged my neck" as a rhyme for "what the heck"? Good God.)

Happy, The End by Innocence Mission is the saddest song ever written.  :police:

This is the saddest g*ddamn song I've ever heard. I was taking my son for a walk last week and it came on The Loft on Sirius and I was bawling walking down the street. We lost my dad to cancer when I was 19 and he was 53 so it hits home. I'm a huge Big Al fan as you can see from my avatar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t18SwNOVRYg

Townes Van Zandt comes to mind. Tower Song perhaps?

Here's one many of you may not have heard... and may not get the significance of.  Charlie and Ira Louvin were the Louvin brothers, Ira had this incredibly CRAZY harmony sound.  Anyways they made a bunch of really, really, really rich backwoods gospel/bluegrass music in the 50's, Ira (married several times, notorious wife beater, shot by one wife, etc.) died in a car crash back in the 60's.  Charlie went on without his brother for nearly 50 years, but it was never the same, their harmony was as unmistakeable as the Everly Brothers.  If you're not a fan of theirs you may not appreciate this song, though. 

Anyways, Charlie made a final album a few years ago, and wrote and sang a song called "Ira" that's one of the biggest tear-jerkers I've ever heard.  he passed away about a year later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIT0Xe1qaoI

"One day soon I'll sing with you and the Angels; Hallelujia; Ira"

Great choice, Ron. The Louvin Bros were amazing.

There was an Elliott Smith choice earlier. I've got another of those. This one, Whatever (Folk Song in C) is sad, not in a "s/he broke my heart" kind of way, but in an "i know how this is going to end" kind of way... It's a really simple song, but my favorite of his by far. It wasn't on a proper album, but on the posthumous collection New Moon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drVDhpDe44g

Two weeks since you've gone - Scott Walker

As dumb as this sounds, I would say one of the sadder songs I've heard is Seasons In The Sun. I mean, it's a guy saying goodbye to everybody before commiting suicide.  Here Today by Paul McCcartney is another one. I would have to say that one of the saddest songs I've ever heard is Keep Me In Your Heart For Awhile by Warren Zevon. He recorded the song as he was dying of cancer. The first verse is "Shadows have fallen, and I'm running out of breath. If I leave here it doesn't mean that I love you any less". That's like being punched in the gut, and kicked in the back of the head at the same time.

I like sad music so if given time I could probably think of a lot.  "Magnolia" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers was probably the first song I broke down and cried to.   "The Warmth of The Sun" by The Beach Boys likewise very emotional.  That being said a song doesn't need to necessarily be about something tragic to be emotional.  

"Don't Worry Baby" is a very emotional song for example.  So I think there is a great amount of variety as to what one perceives as being a "sad song" versus what someone else might think.  Brian Wilson has written a ton of sad songs but he's also written a bunch of songs that are very emotional on different levels  "Happy Days" off "Imagination" is a little bit of both.  It really makes you think what he's been through both on what has to be termed a really depressing level and then "Nature oh nature is slow to heal" is just pure emotion.  I mean who hasn't felt that?

Likewise Carl's "I Wish For You" really isn't a sad song in a tragic sense unless you have a grasp of how little time Carl probably had left on this earth when he wrote it.  Then it becomes very sad and very emotional.

True that about Carl's song. 

If you take anybody's last big song, it sounds sad.  I present Roger Miller = River In the Rain.  He wrote this for the "Big River" musical on Broadway, earned a Tony award for it, then left us all a couple years later. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZNwR2maas

Similarly: Roy Orbison's "Mystery Girl", he had already passed away by the time the video came out.  Makes me tear up everytime I hear or see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYmIkiaR9oc

Or how about this one:  Luther Vandross's "Dance With My Father"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgLHVi40Gc8



I think a critical component to that, for me, though, is they have to still be in fine form for me to REALLY get choked up by them.  Roy sounded as great as he ever did, so beautiful, such a loss.  Same thing with Roger Miller, still on top, writing as great as he ever did and singing with the same soul he always had.  Luther sounding as great as he ever did, so beautiful, so sad. 

Whew.  I had forgotten about that line in there "I pray for her even more than me.... I pray for her even more than me....."  So beautiful. 

Well Vandross' song is taken to another level because he was writing about his deceased father and then he himself passed not too long after.  I tend to put grieving songs on a different level than just plain "sad songs" if that makes any sense.  The reason being is if you ever lost someone whom you loved very deeply (as I have) they are always going to reduce you to tears very easily.  That has been my experience anyhow which is why for the most part I try to avoid grieving songs.  That being said Vandross' song is epically beautiful although I personally can't bear to listen to it all that much for the reasons I just explained.

I agree with you, it's actually hard to listen to. 

End of the World, yes! Even more so once you know the context.

More:
Someday My Prince Will Come - Sinead O'Connor - her version turns it from hope to a broken, futile wish

That whole AM/PM Mourning suite from Chicago II, with Terry singing.

Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton. Yeah I know, people bitch about this one a lot. God forbid someone gets tender and expresses real grief publicly. But I remember the first time I heard it, on the car radio, and I had to stop and listen to the whole thing. I thought then--and still think now--that it is a stunning, gentle work. It probably shouldn't have been released as a single--that first time I heard it, I was in a trance from it, especially the very powerful line "I know I don't belong here in heaven", indicating he wants to be with his boy, but he knows he has to go on living. The trance I was in was interrupted by the horrible LA DJ at the end, segueing out with one of those horrible, f***ed-up synth-noise radio bumps, and shouting "HEY, THAT WAS THE LATEST HIT FROM ERIC CLAPTON!" The mood was completely destroyed, and I was cruelly brought back down to earth from that holy little place I had just been. I later felt a string of my own family tragedies, one in particular involving a young nephew who didn't make it, and the sentiments of this song rang even more true then. This is the kind of stuff that belongs in a safer place, not the slam-bang arena of modern radio.

From two of the greatest with many sad songs between them:

Lou...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ztE6-HahQM

And Gary...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM_2ogAxEms

 :'(  :(  :thud

Please could you stay awhile to share my grief....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXkondOj7pg

Fantasia on a Theme - Ralph Vaughn Williams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS8Sd8amxcU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS8Sd8amxcU)
Beethoven's 7th: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfKXHoSvDM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfKXHoSvDM)
Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands - Bob Dylan
A Day In The Life Of A Tree - The Beach Boys

Tim Hardin - How Can We Hang On to a Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJd9TPZEVf0

Country music has a lot of sad ong and especially Kris Kristofferson has a knack for writing some of 'em

"Loving her was easier":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpNd629wcc


"For the good times":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH8odkqsU6Y

"Please don't tell me how the story ends":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLeDe5yRi8s


And besides his dad, Hank Williams Jr. also wrote some sad ones.

"I don't have anymore love songs":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICLIKyc90kA


And of course you have to menton at least his dad's "I'm so lonesome I could cry":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMz5xzdNE7U



And imo the Beach Boys' "Let the wind blow" is a very sad one too. And I love it !

The entirety of Sinatra's In The Wheel Small Hours, Only The Lonely, Where Are You? and No One Cares albums.

'Caroline, No'

'Guess I'm Doing Fine' by Beck

'Bell Bottom Blues' - Derek & The Dominoes

For the moment I offer you this little bit or dreary contemplation: "I Can See Myself Alone Forever" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYsMIDKeMCI) by The Field Mice, from the remastered reissue of their first album, 1989's Snowball.

On a similar note, not many know (I don't think!) that the guy who wrote "I wish it would rain" for the Temptations committed suicide one week after the single was released... he had written it about his wife and him breaking up after he found out she was cheating on him.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM7BRP7uzFk

Some of the realest sh*t EVER WRITTEN

I don't know if people realise just how much "Goodnight Irene" is a sad song. There's no better version than Lead Belly's -- the one from Alan Lomax Collection: Popular Songbook 1933-59, which doesn't seem to be on YouTube -- either, and this (floating verse or his own?) lyrical addition seems often neglected in covers as far as I can tell:

That one always gets me, too. I'll add:

"Sad Song" - Lou Reed
"Shannon" - Henry Gross
"Thoughts Of You" and "Moonshine" - Dennis Wilson
"Baby Blue" - Badfinger
"Forget To Remember" - Frank Sinatra
"Who Are You Now" - Justin Hayward & John Lodge
"Photograph" - Ringo Starr
"Stardust" - Nat "King" Cole
"Cold Irons Bound" - Bob Dylan

Sinatra's album Watertown, in its way more bleak than Only The Lonely.

Pink Floyd's "Jugband Blues" - especially when listened to watching the Youtube clip of the band performing it. The look on Syd's face as he sings the last lines is something that always stays with me.

Scott Walker's "My Way Home" may be the saddest of all his sad songs and, as John Mendelsohn would put it, brother, that's saying one heaping mouthful.

Bobby Goldsboro's "Broomstick Cowboy" is kind of angry and sad at once.

Charlie Rich once remarked, "I don't like happy music because I don't think it really says anything." Dunno if that's true for me.

Haha!

Ben Folds has a knack for writing some pretty sad songs...off the top of my head "Fred Jones, Pt. 2" and "Picture Window (co-written with Nick Hornby)" are both quite heartbreaking.

"Girl In Love"----The Outsiders
"Broken Heart"----Spiritualized

Both in a major key, like most sad songs...

I love sad songs....from brian Wilson to George jones.......

here's a bit of a depressant:

this one cuts me:

hank III: five shots of whiskey


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SHCJKzeeik

it works when your drunk ...  >:D

RickB

I would say Long Black Veil would be one,  any number of Blues tunes, a few Harry Chapin tunes come to mind too.

"Happy, The End" by Innocence Mission has to be one of the saddest songs I own. Great song though.

The Soft Bulletin by the Flaming Lips is one of my all time favorite albums and it contains 2 of the saddest songs I know.

-Waiting For A Superman

-Feeling Yourself Disintegrate

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams is obviously the saddest song ever written. So much sheer despair in so few words.

Without a doubt, this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NhncRGhrbo). More than any other song this makes me completely break down.

That said, I think it's emotional impact is as much in its beauty as its sadness.

 Summer In Paradise



But really.

Sakamoto Ryuichi - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

Elliot Smith - Waltz #2

Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day

Antony and the Johnsons - Hope There's Someone

Owen - Bad News

Bright Eyes - It's Cool We Can Still Be Friends

Not sure if it counts as sad or not but it definitely brings about the feels: Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life

I really recommend listening to all of these if you haven't already heard them and let me know what you think of them.

 The Hollies "Lucy" 1975, "Soldier's Song" 1979
 Dave Clark Five "Julia" 1970
 Dennis Wilson "Thoughts Of You" 1977
 Manfred Mann "Every Day Another Hair Turns Grey" 1968
 Lou Reed "The Bed", "The Kids" 1973
 Supremes "I'm Living In Shame" 1969
 Everly Brothers "Yves" 1970
 John Phillips "Very Dread" 1977
 Mike & The Mechanics "Living Years" 1988
 Crosby & Nash "Carry Me" 1975
 Four Seasons "Saturday's Father" 1968
 The Cowsills "Newspaper Blanket" 1968

Some sad songs from all ranges of my taste

Animal Collective - "Fireworks" and "No More Runnin"
Astrud Gilberto - "In The Wee Small Hours"
The Beatles - "Julia" ... and John Lennon - "Look At Me"
Billie Holiday - "Body And Soul"
Bob Dylan - "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"
The Kinks - "Days"
Nirvana - "All Apologies"
The Notorious BIG - "Everyday Struggle"
The Olivia Tremor Control - "NYC-25"
Simon and Garfunkel - "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright"
Sly and The Family Stone - "Runnin' Away"
The Velvet Underground - "Candy Says"

.

"First of May" is musically sad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDtqZ4-U_6Y

3 live versions by 3 brothers:

Barry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5bz4v3wyKg
Maurice (w/ Lulu): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cNWAtgNCWg
Robin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcojIeORo3o

A few favorites:

Come Home :: Amatorski   (2010)
https://youtu.be/WnxNqS47MaM

Amsterdam :: John Cale (1970)
https://youtu.be/wGCu1okRPcA

Through December :: Laura Veirs (2001)
https://youtu.be/UAGx_1nR-LA

You Cut Her Hair :: Tom McRae    (2000)
https://youtu.be/g-ZlXxd3ra8

Thorn Tree In The Garden :: Bobby Whitlock (1970)
https://youtu.be/hEWvJHd67KE

Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes ::The Korgies (1980)
https://youtu.be/UOqXy64-hTw

Upbeat songs can be sad too. Take Freda Payne's "Band Of Gold":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daxiMb0rITA

"What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" does what "God Only Knows" does----the bass steers clear of the tonic. The difference being that "GOK" is uplifting in the extreme while the Jimmy Ruffin song is just plain heartbreaking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQywZYoGB1g

These are some that aren't objectively the saddest (that'd be impossible anyway, though 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' kinda takes the cake) but these are the songs that even just thinking about them hurt:

'We'll Meet Again'  - Vera Lynn (the second greatest song ever written)
'Gloomy Sunday' - Billie Holiday
'You Need Feet' - Bernard Bresslaw
'Runaway' - Del Shannon
'Hello Stranger' - Barbara Lewis
'Hey Girl' - Freddie Scott (it's the backing vocals)
'Tell Her No'/'Nothings Changed' - The Zombies
'Ooo Baby Baby' - The Miracles
'Caroline, No' - You know
'Femme Fatale' - The Velvet Underground
'Chelsea Girls' - Nico
'Jugband Blues' - Pink Floyd
'Plastic Palace People' - Scott Walker
'Everybody's Talkin' - Harry Nilsson
'Maybe Tomorow' - The Iveys
'Madame George' - Van Morrison
'Look At Your Game Girl' - Charles Manson
'Way To Blue' - Nick Drake
'Penina' - Carlos Mendes (I have no idea why)
'Dark Globe'/'Opel' - Syd Barrett
'A Day In The Life of a Tree'/'Til I Die' - You know
'The Kiss' - Judee Sill
'I'll Slip Away' - Rodriguez (1973 version)
'Black Eyed Dog' - Nick Drake
'Nightime' - Big Star
'Marlene' - Jackson C. Frank
'Ten Years Gone' - Led Zeppelin
'Europa' - Santana
'You And Your Sister' - Chris Bell
'Stardust' - Willie Nelson
'He Stopped Loving Her Today' - George Jones
'Decades' - Joy Division
'Now And Then'/'Grow Old With Me' - John Lennon
'All Those Years Ago' - George Harrison
'Here Today' - Paul McCartney
'Just Another Sucker On The Vine' - Tom Waits
'Back To The Old House (electric version)' - The Smiths (their reputation as a miserable band was given to them by people who don't get them but they do have profoundly melancholy songs and this is the one I'm choosing for this)
'Sixteen Blue' - The Replacements (the single most underrated band of all time (sorry Beach Boys))  (the guitar solo at the end is the most powerful fckin thing ever)
'Our Last Night Together' - Arthur Russell
'Something In The Way' - Nirvana
'Nightswimming' - R.E.M.
'Monster Inside of Me' - Daniel Johnston
'Dumb' - Nirvana
'Katy Song'/'Grace Cathedral Park' - Red House Painters
'Something Changed' - Pulp (the "when we woke up that morning" bit onwards is one of the most painfully bittersweet things I've ever heard even though it's a happy song)
'A Design For Life' - Manic Street Preachers (their album The Holy Bible is the most depressing album ever made, though this isn't from that album)
'Let Down' - Radiohead
'Kiss Me' - Sixpence None the Richer (I admit it)
'Chicken Wire' - The Pernice Brothers (I read this was voted the saddest song somewhere and it's pretty damn sad)
'I Didn't Understand' (Dutch TV version)/'Everything Means Nothing To Me' - Elliott Smith
'Lost Cause' - Beck
'Bird Gerhl' - Antony & The Johnsons
'This Is My House, This Is My Home (alternate version)' - We Were Promised Jetpacks (and the non alternate version for some reason)
'The Nights Are Cold' - Camera Obscura
'Summers Gone' - You know
'Hello Stranger' - Julia Holter

As for the most lifelessly depressing songs that make me wanna die:
'Torn Between Two Lovers' - Mary MacGregor
'Dust In The Wind' - Kansas
'Linger' - The Cranberries
'All For You' - Sister Hazel
'Angel' - Sarah Mclachlan
'Mad World' - Gary Jules
'I Hope You Dance' - whoever does that song
Anything by Dave Matthews
Most of whats on the radio

AC, I'm sure you find the time to smile but looking at your lists I'd be hard pressed to know when.

Just kidding! ;D

Well there's no reason not to be honest haha

I can't listen to this (obviously I heard it once). Any emotional songs about young children and pets finish me off but Ralph McTell's "Old Brown Dog" takes the cake----especially when the guitar solo kicks in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Gke9qekJo

The Byrds' "Old Blue" does similar things to me...

Oh my, that is sad.

Don't know that I have any on that level, but one of my favorite Rick Nelson songs is "Lonesome Town."

Another is the Zombies' "A Rose for Emily" from their incredible Odessey and Oracle album.

These all get my sad stamp of approval.
I would also add "A Butcher's Tale" from the same Zombies album. That one hits me pretty hard.

Yes indeed, "A Butcher's Tale" is very sad. Had me bawling.
I would put songs like that and Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre," which is also gut wrenching, into a special category as they were about actual events. I'd call it the "Sad then Get Mad" category or something.

Obligatory Cats in the Cradle.

I listened to "Liability" by Lorde, and it struck a chord with me. 

Im not sure if this counts, but the score to Field of Dreams gets me. 

The Baltimore Orioles used the music during the closing ceremony at their original home, Memorial Stadium, in 1991.  Granted, I was 11, and only went to about 10 games there.  But to this day, if I watch that ceremony, its Niagra Falls.

Plus, the ending of the movie.  Good god.  Is there any other movie other the last 30 years that brings more grown men to tears?

Piano music to "Harry & Tonto", film about old New Yorker who lives with cat & travels to see his adult kids. The cat in the end dies. :(

Hmm. Good topic and posts so far!



"Got To See If I Can't Get Mommy (To Come Back Home)" - Jerry Butler. Ironically David and Jimmy Ruffin did a shorter but nice version of this too. It pains me, but I have to side with Jerry on this. His deep, aching voice suits this song better than anyone else's. And geez, the lyrics tell just about the saddest story I've ever heard. What hardship.

"Mother and Child Reunion" - Paul Simon. Great poetic lyrics, but sad. I think any song about the relationship between a parent can be sad (see Simon's "Father and Daughter" as well, a much later but equally good companion).

"Since I Lost My Baby" - The Temptations. I don't know if Smokey ever wrote better 'sad' lyrics in his early days than here. And of course David Ruffin's lead is perfect. That call and response bridge just breaks my heart. I could listen to that part a hundred times, like Brian Wilson and Be My Baby.

"Fatherless Son" - The Four Tops. An obscure, previously unreleased track that surfaced fairly recently I believed. Yeah, like some of their stuff, it gets to be a bit overblown by the end, but it's still pretty, and sad. I mean, it technically has some silver linings, but even a happy part in a sad story can reduce you to tears, right? Levi Stubbs delivers the vocals in his usual classy but dramatic fashion.

"Sleep Walk" - Betsy Brye. The vocal version of the famous instrumental hit by Santo and Johnny. Breathtakingly haunting, I actually like it more than the original, but it's certainly a close call. But you want sad? Listen to this part: "Sleep talk/Instead of dreaming I sleep talk/While the memory of you lingers like a song". That would be a part where she could, how do they say nowadays, 'drop the mic'?

"I'll Bet He's Nice" - The Beach Boys. I've always struggled with my feelings with Love You, but this song is in my view undeniably great. A bit simple in it's lyrics, but that's the point too, I guess. The sentiment is melancholy: I'll bet your new boyfriend/husband just rocks, he's probably richer and handsomer and funnier than me. And that crushes my soul. I love the demo of this song better than the studio version, though both are good. I can picture Brian playing this song in one of those sandboxes with a piano in the middle, singing in that raspy, throaty mid-70's voice of his in a big, dark empty room all by himself. So touching.

Smokey could certainly deliver when it came to heartbreak. "Ooh Baby Baby" is another, sung by the man himself and his fellow Miracles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOg9Em_4bew

The mood is perhaps appropriate at this sad time. Poor Manhattan.

When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2 gets me every time!  Great choice!

Keeping with the theme of animated movie songs, I'll add that "Baby Mine" from Dumbo is quite the tearjerker for me as well.

Oh, and "Someday Never Comes" by CCR is just so freaking sad...

Can I nominate any Christmas song played before Thanksgiving?

:lol

Over here we have Sinterklaas on December 5th. No one would dare play a Christmas song before then!

The shops certainly wouldn't----Sinterklaas is far too big a money-spinner for that. ;D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

We have Thanksgiving between Halloween and Christmas.   Unless you're a grocery store, Thanksgiving isn't really a big money maker.   So, most places here go full on Xmas mode after Halloween.  While watching a marathon of Simpsons Halloween episodes yesterday, I saw a Xmas ad for a petstore during every commercial break.

Martha by Tom Waits

Sad Song, Lou Reed...

Rickie Lee Jones "Rainbow Sleeves", Tom Waits-written. Dislike. Hope Tom didn't sing this snoozer.

Against All Odds...……..Phil Collins

Not sure if this one has been mentioned yet. Rick Danko sounds shattered and bewildered in equal measure on The Band's "It Makes No Difference":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRlrVXg0960

I will say this - the Band may be among the few bands where I dislike each vocalist's voice.

RR, do I see a pattern emerging? :lol

Which pattern do you mean? I'm not sure what you talk about.

The pattern where I say I like some artist, song or album and then you say you don't like it! ;D

I believe you, but it's still a repeating pattern. I've come to expect it from you. ;)     

I dislike the artists, songs, albums you like. Then there's the artists, songs, albums I like you like as well. Then there's the artists, songs, albums I like you dislike. Don't forget then there's the artists, songs, albums I dislike you dislike as well. In case you didn't know, it's patterns that take place now & then as well. Anyhoo, it's free board, I can reply I dislike or like sth. to any poster if, of course, the artist, song, album they listed is sth. I did listen too.

Fair?

Topic - "Stradivarius Vivaldius" by New Brothers Channel (local band, again rutube link which will not be available to you, people abroad).

Fair! :)

"Tramp And The Young Girl" is such a sad song--although I'm feeling anything but sad right now.

My flatmates in Notting Hill used to play the album this comes from late at night, armed with a spliff (or two).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L3tlduQ-Rg

https://www.discogs.com/Mark-Almond-Mark-Almond/release/7403572

"Big Bad John" Jimmy Dean
"If It Be Your Will" Leonard Cohen
"Tears in Heaven" Eric Clapton

And then, the Beach Boys "Until I Die"

All of these have made me weep.

That makes me cry too, but for different reasons.

"Empty  Glass" -- Gary Stewart
"Street Hassle"  -- Lou Reed
"When the Spell is Broken" -- Richard Thompson
"I've Been Loving You Too Long" -- Otis Redding
"Independence Day" -- Bruce Springsteen
"In My Room" and "A Day in the Life of a Tree" -- The Beach Boys

Makes me cry for altogether different reasons It's sh*t.

 And I once liked that stupid album out of compulsion. ...and its unplugged Layla and that awful song.
I resit it no matter whether it sways me n weakness or not. It's just as fiendish as "On Eagles Wings" , the most hated hymn in the entire canon for anyone who's ever  lost their family. f*** Tears in Heaven and f*** Eagles Wings.

 Eric Clapton should sell his guitars to addicted barbadian(?) people and enjoy millions of dollars.  Stop blubbering about his son he never would have raised anyhow.

That's silly complaint. How dare you! I think if anything there's to complain about The Band's vocalists it would be their singing, or vocalizing. OR choices as vocalists. Imperfect by design.  How I consider it though.

Really, if the Band's vocalists are the thing turning you off ....is there any other way you can access these handful of perfect songs by Robbie Robertson?
I don't know of better interpretations. Perhaps some fellow board-members can spring some ideas on her.

All of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcg-iCBivbw

Karen Carpenter singing Look to your Dreams.

What a pity she couldn't.

I first heard The Chi Lites' "Have You Seen Her" after a brief hopeless fling in the early '70s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVYxKRXDT2I

Wow, those harmonies in the beginning sure sound like being directly influenced by the "Surfer girl" intro. Beautiful!
And thanks for posting, JK!


And I add these songs:

Jerry Lee Lewis - Would you take another chance on me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcY_ODmTnbw   (check out this live performance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN8rvL5RpT4) as well)



George Jones & Tammy Wynette - I've seen better days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9L7XsdtHdU

No. Why access? Thousands good/ better songs.

"The Saddest Songs" by Joyful Joy-Merrys - joyfully sad song (or sadly joyful song? Anyhoo, fits the thread).

Crazy Horse - I Don't Want To Talk About It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBz_2EqJ5wI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBz_2EqJ5wI)

This is one of the saddest songs I know. I should add that the lyrics do not apply to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olNfWDRuBNY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_and_Gentlemen_We_Are_Floating_in_Space

"Quiet Night" by Anna Ternheim is real late-night missing-someone music. The wordless bits hit home the hardest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmInifeZkzY

Neil Young - Birds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4imn-swb34 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4imn-swb34)

Fantastic lead vocal and beautiful harmonies.

Yes indeed. It's over--just about the saddest words you can ever expect to hear.

This is one that seriously teared me up the one time I heard it a year or so ago, "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS3Lkc6Gzlk

I never thought of this one as a sad song but more as a joyous anthem. But the words on reflection are so sad.

Kim Weston's "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)" has long been my favourite Motown song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVkXrimUidA

Lisa Germano SINGING TO THE BIRDS

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=lisa+germano+hero

Steve, no offence meant but I've linked the track for anyone curious to hear it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HElU_-hb7Cc

Oops. Thanks. :P

Nice archaic song. Zsa Zsa Gabor may be familiar with it as young girl. :3d It ain't sad to these ears but it's got weird bleak back tale. Difficult to believe. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IN-vbMeJBHA

Not technically a song but man is it sad! The Israelite judge Jephtha made a rash vow to God after defeating the Ammonites and had to sacrifice his daughter. This is the heart-breaking "Plorate filii Israel" (weep, you children of Israel), the final lament from Giacomo Carissimi's oratorio on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PLnla_I9gQ

http://www.jamescsliu.com/classical/Carissimi_Jephte.html

Beautiful and heartbreaking, indeed! And a very difficut paragraph in the Bible. Judges 11,29-40



EDIT: I'm constantly replaying this recording. Such incredible and beautiful music and performance. Thanks for the heads-up!

Deleted due nobody checking 5 yt links to songs which could start discussion (don't people like new discussions anyway, why discuss with usual same favorite posters ad infinitum, it's too safe & boring).

You're most welcome. Yes, it's a very emotional listen--and such an early piece too.

The amateur choir I used to accompany at rehearsals performed it on one occasion. Being in the middle of it, so to speak, was even more overwhelming!

I'm not religious but I'd be the first to admit that religion has given birth to the most extraordinary works in music, art and architecture.

Joni Mitchell - Little Green

This is the Everly Brothers' song "It's all over", certainly one of the saddest pieces of Pop music I know. Written by Don Everly. I did read online that this was one of the few songs where Phil Everly took the solo lead, but to me the phrasing sounds more like Don.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNgc_3yAWyg


Well, if this didn't move you, this one will surely break your heart. It's Don's demo, just him and his guitar. It seems to have even more meaning since Phil died.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re5c1jd39RY

Maybe I've already posted this one. Okay, maybe it's a song about falling in love but it's so, so sad. And no, this does not reflect my mood right now! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CTyh5ehsEU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Since_I_Fell_for_You (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Since_I_Fell_for_You)

JK; I'm still not over what a beautiful and emotional piece of music this is! A while ago I found this live performances by the ensemble Vox Luminis. Maybe you like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEk9vLzCPBw

That's beautiful, Rocker. Ich danke dir sehr!

I've been checking out other things by Vox Luminis, most notably this album of music by Buxtehude:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kV38Xp-nuDliFaWbHUQrMQ8fiGHXML1-A

They are definitely up there with the likes of Tenebrae and Voces8. Thank you again!