Sad songs (say so much)

[Zalandris]

Because it's Monday...

List your top three all-time, desert island, sad songs. Bonus brownie points if you link the video, so we can share the misery.

3) Yesterday by The Beatles. I don't think anyone else captured heartache as well as Paul did in this simple little song. After a breakup, how many of us are soooo wishing for a time machine so we can go back and make it right again?

2) Mad World by Gary Jules. Has me looking for a rusty spoon to hack at my wrists everytime I hear it. It messed me up in "Donnie Darko" and hasn't lost any of it's punch since then.

1) Hurt by Johnny Cash. I was already a fan of the NIN original but the Man in Black came along and brought this song up to a whole new level of pain. Trent now sounds like a whiny little kid compared to the decades of heartache and disappointment Johnny brings to this song.

[Shawn Powers]

I don't really have 3 songs, but I find it interesting that some folks listen to music to set their mood, and some folks (like me) have to find music that fits their mood. I've actually written about that phenomenon on my site, but I'm too lazy to go find a link.

That said, when I'm blue, I tend to gravitate towards any Carpenters song. Doesn't matter what one.

Feel free to pick one if you want to see a video. I've never actually seen a video of theirs...

[JustAnotherJohn]

I'm not much of a sad song kinda guy. But "I Grieve" by Peter Gabriel always punches me right in the gut. YouTube is blocked for me, here, but check it out. It's incredible in a very painful sad-song kinda way.

[acheron]

I am of the opinion that all great pop (i.e. not classical, jazz, etc) songs are sad or have a 'negative' emotion. You can have a good, happy, song, but not a great one.

Also: "People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss." - Rob in High Fidelity (got that quote from imdb and the movie, but pretty sure it's basically the same in the book).

In any case, I think the saddest song is "Bell Bottom Blues" by Eric Clapton. (Not coincidentally, "Layla", which I consider the greatest song ever, is on that same album.)

"Yesterday" is a good one too. I'll come up with some more later. :)

[Jumper]

My problem with this topic isn't coming up with three songs, but narrowing it down to three. What can I say, I like to wallow. : )


Kansas: Dust in the Wind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbdP7sq0w8

Beautiful song, but God, those clothes! I realize it was the 70's and all, but you think somebody would have told them they looked like a lounge act.


U2: One - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUNdwiWf2Ro

Nobody can sell a sad song like Bono.


Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5JkHBC5lDs

This is one of those instances where the music and the video mesh perfectly. Knopfler's guitar expresses more raw emotion than most singers are capable of.


Hmm, I just realized that all of these are at least 20 years old. Well, the idea was for the best of all time. I'd like to think I'm just going with the classics here, and not showing my age.

[oldsma]

I would just grab Maura O'Connell's Blue is the Colour of Hope. I think every one of my "bad relationship ending badly" breakup songs for the last 15 years is on that album.

MAO

[oldsma]

Kansas: Dust in the Wind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbdP7sq0w8

Beautiful song, but God, those clothes! I realize it was the 70's and all, but you think somebody would have told them they looked like a lounge act.

Reflecting on the horrors of the 70s, I think they could have done a lot worse. At least they weren't wearing quiana pirate shirts and Dingos.

[Tania]

Nice choices. Just to add in a few more that always get me:

Why- Annie Lennox
Don't Let It Show - Alan Parsons Project
I've Never Been To Me - Charlene

Yeah, I know that last one is major cheese. Super duper cheese with an extra side of fromage. But that song has made me feel sad since I was a little kid.

Bonus Tracks for melancholia:
I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt
Hello - Evanescence
Love Hurts - Nazareth
In Germany Before the War - Randy Newman

[Zalandris]

Some great picks here, a lot of these are definitely on my top ten list. I'm not at all surprised that many of the picks are older tunes, but then I'm of the opinion that music peaked in 1978 anyway.

I still have a couple of boxes of tissues left, who has more weepers for me?

p.s. The irony being that really I am the happiest I've been in my life right now, of course.

[PixelFish]

Pictures of Youby the Cure (my best friend had my roommate hide my cure albums from me when my fiance and I broke up.)

When It's Cold (I'd Like To Die) by Moby - this one arrived at a sad and very rough time in my life....and now it reminds me of a relationship I thought would last much longer than it did. It also rather encapsulates how I feel when I'm trying to deal with my clinical depression, which is really a monster sometimes.

A Perfect Blue Sky by Junkie XL (Robert Smith on vocals) - Robert Smith for the win. Is there anything the man can't make melancholy? I love this song....it captures...or tries to... the ephemerality of life. (Also, I first heard it in the week that Mike Ford died, and now the lines "A million stories left untold" make me think of him, though I never knew him in real life.)











(Just to nit-pick: Mad World was Tears for Fears, before Gary Jules covered it for Donnie Darko. But I do like the Gary Jules version almost more than the original. He really invests it with something haunting.)

[oldsma]

I just ran across another one that is going on my sad songs list: "I Don't Need Anymore Friends", on Collective Soul's new album. If it had been written last year, I would have been listening to it steadily all spring while I was in the process of falling out with a group of old friends.

I don't stand a chance
Until you get me out of here.
I just don't have the will to pretend.
I'm running for the door.
Can you get me out of here?
I really don't need anymore friends.

I'm adding it to the official Soundtrack Of My Life anyway.

[Phil]

1) I used to totally groove on dark and brooding songs back in my "needed to be tied up in a mental institution" (yes, really) years. Mostly The Smiths. There was something about Morrissey (when partnered with Johnny Marr --not so keen on the solo stuff) that made me feel like there was at least one other person out there in the world that could relate to me. Weirdly enough, it really was a cathartic experience when I trotted out Louder Than Bombs or Strangeways, Here We Come. For out and out bleakness I'd say this song wins hands down for me:

Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me - Strangeways, Here We Come, The Smiths

These days I only bring out The Smiths for those really black days, which are thankfully rare.

2) Another song that makes me go "How the hell did you crawl into my head". These lyrics (esp the 2nd verse) hit me hard every single time. Disclosure - I suffer from double depression (dysthymia with periodic episodes of major depression)*, but I'm cool. Really. The "Bad Times" were a long time ago. CBT (and some strong meds I've been long since weaned off) worked wonders for me.

Black & Blue - Hard Candy, Counting Crows

3) My last pick on this list has some of the greatest lyrics ever (for a song about opium adiction)

Blue like water
Blue like heaven is
All of the time
I'm all right
I'm just gagging on all the all right
I'm so happy
So happy
I'm in heaven
Yeah heaven
Oh the season's come for opium
Mom...mom
Mom...mom
I'm so happy
So happy
I'm in heaven
Yeah heaven
Oh the seizures come from opium

Opium** - Marcy Playground, Marcy Playground

----
* - It goes without saying that whenever I played The Smiths when I was living with my parents, my mother became very concerned.

** - this is all I could find that wasn't a lame playing-in-my-kitchen cover.

[JerolJ]

I just got the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss CD "Raising Sand". The final track, "Your Long Journey" is a real heartbreaker. The way the Rock God and Bluegrass Icon meld their voices is unbelievable, but especially on this track:

God's given us years of happiness here
Now we must part
And as the angels come and call for you
The pains of grief tug at my heart

Oh my darling
My darling
My heart breaks as you take your long journey

Oh the days will be empty
The nights so long without you my love
And when god calls for you I'm left alone
But we will meet in heaven above

Oh my darling
My darling
My heart breaks as you take your long journey

Fond memories I'll keep of happy ways
That on earth we trod
And when I come we will walk hand in hand
As one in heaven in the family of god

Oh my darling
My darling
My heart breaks as you take your long journey

[Isengrim]

Lots of sad songs here, most of which I have not heard.

Personally I usually listen to country, which has lots of sad songs. You might say it is the foundation of the entire musical style, at least the good parts.

I will, however, confine myself to one song from each performer to keep this interesting. So in increasing order of sadness we have:

Hank Williams Sr. : I'm so lonesome I could cry
I am not a great fan of Hank Williams Sr., but no discussion of sad songs would be complete without mentioning him. This song is the one which sticks in my memory.

Johnny Cash: Sunday Morning Coming Down
Cash has been mentioned earlier, but I don't like the 'Hurt' song so much. This old one however really gives perspective to a sad and pointless existence.

and finally, the great poet of alternative country
Townes van Zandt: Marie
It might be because he suffered from depression for most of his adult life, but most of Van Zandt's songs are either sad or hopeless. This one is both.
If you have not heard it you can check the lyrics here: http://www.risa.co.uk/sla/song.php?songid=21419

[Cindi in CO]

The Pearl and Red Dirt Girl by Emmylou Harris.

[Garret]

Most of the album XO By Elliott Smith is good music for the "my girlfriend just broke up with me so I'll drink whiskey and stare at the wall" sort of melancholies, and Greg Laswell does a good sad song or two on Through Toledo (and his cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" made into a sad song is both astounding and tragic), but I don't think I've ever found a song more effective than "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley.

[Randy H]

It's strange, but the entire second side of Abbey Road makes me melancholy.
I can't help but think of John Lennon and George Harrison when I hear fantastic creativity the group came up with for that album, and that makes me think of the loss to the world when the group broke up, and then worse, when we lost each of them.

The only invidivdual song that makes me sad is Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton. Being a father, it breaks my heart hearing him sing about his little boy he lost and imagining something happening to one of my children.

[PoetGroupie]

"Dude, I Totally Miss You," Tenacious D, The Pick of Destiny soundtrack. I get a lump in my throat just thinking about it.

[DG Lewis]

It's not just the songs, it's the way they bring back memories of certain situations.

I heard Collective Soul's "The World I Know" driving home from the office on September 11, 2001.

I drink myself a newfound pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why

So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself
While the tears roll down
Cause it's the world I know

And I remember playing ball with my son on the front lawn and seeing the plume from the twin towers in the distance.

I was listening to Dave Matthews' Some Devil driving to work while my mother-in-law was in the hospital dying of cancer, and "Stay or Leave" came on. I had to pull off the road.