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songs of the evening: cryin' edition

Inspired by nothing more than a thread over at Fark looking for the saddest songs ever, two of my choices:

Stabbing Westward - Waking Up Beside You
Weezer - Only in Dreams

And yours?

Comments

two nominees:

Kenny Rogers "Lucille"

Brad Paisley "Whiskey Lulliby"

Radiohead "Fake Plastic Trees"

was that two or three?

Totally agree on Fake Plastic Trees. It doesn't make me cry, it just makes me feel very hollow inside.

Vertical Horizon - Sunrays and Saturdays

It's an unaccompanied acoustic guitar...I've never actually shed tears while listening to it but I have had to step outside for a cigarette once or twice.

Warren Zevon - Reconsider Me

The first that come to mind:

Bob Dylan "It's Not Dark Yet,"

Elvis Costello "Couldn't Call it Unexpected #4" for the pathos. Perfect mixture of music and lyrics.

Johnny Cash "Hurt," Especially in retrospect.

Screeching Weasel "Second Floor East"

Tom Waits "I'm Gonna Take it with Me When I Go."

Cranberries "No Need to Argue"

Dream Theater - Space Dye Vest
While Heaven Wept - From Empires to Oceans

Hmm... for some reason the trackback didn't go through, but my selections are posted here: http://hereticalideas.com/index.php?p=2852

"Fool for Love" by Texas.
Not what I'd call 'sad' in the normal sense...it's her voice that gets me..just stirs stuff up.

I'm a sometime goth, so I'll TRY to limit myself to five -

The Cure, "Same Deep Water As You"
Bonnie Tyler, "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
Joy Division, "The Eternal"
Sunshot, "Stop Me"
Depeche Mode, "Blasphemous Rumours"

(Tyler certainly ain't goth but she's DAMN depressing in that song)

Night Ranger's "Hearts Away"
Little Texas's "What Might Have Been"

Sometimes they just catch you unawares, you know?

Oops, one more: Clandestine's "Cannonball"

First thought was Weezer's Only in Dreams. It's a great song, too.

"She's in the air..."

"Landslide" - Fleetwood Mac

"Nothing Compares 2 U" - Sinead O'Connor

Late for the Sky

Jackson Browne

Tom Traubert's Blues - Tom Waits

Remember Me This Way - Lauren Hill (from Casper)

Send In the Clowns - from A Little Night Music

"Left In The Dark" -- Jim Steinman

That one is sad enough for two. Lyrics here. Every time I listen to this song I cry as though it's me he's singing about.

"Tuesdays Gone" Lynyrd Skynyrd
"For No One" The Beatles

"Shattered" by Remy Zero, more for how it sounds than what it says. Took me forever to find that song online.

Damn this post! It got me to listen to the Dixie Chicks version of Landslide and now I need to double my Prozac.

"I Know She Still Loves Me"

-George Strait

Everyone who nominated a song that isn't country music obviously has obviously never really listened to country music. They have a stranglehold on "sad" down there in Nashville...

I don't know but Pearl Jam's Black makes me feel like slitting my wrists.

"I'll Be Seeing You"
"(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover"
"I Don't Want to Walk Without You"
"Goodnight, Wherever You Are"
"As Time Goes By"
"When the Lights Go On Again (All Over the World)"
"There Goes That Song Again"
"Goodnight Irene"
"Tennessee Waltz"

Those oldies get me every time.

I'll have to throw in The Town I Loved So Well as sung by Ronan Tynan.

A couple are sappy, but they choke me up:

"I'll Always Love You" by Dolly (before Whitney Houston destroyed it)
"The Long and Winding Road" by the Beatles
"Mad World" as it was covered on Donnie Darko
"Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush (the only song I can stand to hear her sing, probably because her voice always sounds like some desperate, cold and ghostly woman rapping at the window...it actually works in the song).
"The Green Green Grass of Home" the way Elvis sang it.
"Baby Mine" by Dumbo's Mom
(No! I don't have a house full of cats and Hummel figurines!)

zuzu - your mention of "Baby Mine" brings back memories for me of taking my younger son to a showing of Dumbo at the local community center back in 1985 (pre-VCR'sin every home).

Cary was always a sensitive soul, and as he sat on my lap and watched Dumbo's mother hug her baby with her trunk through the bars, he began to cry and said, loud enough for everyone to hear,

"He..he wants.....his.....MOTHER!"

Then the poor kid broke into sobs. Disney traumatization strikes again.

Bruce Springsteen - Highway Patrolman

The Replacements - Here Comes A Regular

You might want to check out your site again Michele. I've had two people email me about your site downloading viruses to them.

Naturally they blame me for linking to you in the first place.

Pink Floyd, either something from The Wall or The Final Cut. Or perhaps the song Wish You Were Here.

There's some Rush songs I can hardly remember, like Razor's Edge or uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh that song about the 50 year old arthritic dancer. :(

Metallica's Unforgiven and the Beatle's Eleanor Rigby (too obvious?)

Jolene
If You See Her Say Hello - Dylan
Descent - Remy Zero
Don't Speak - No Fucking Doubt (so yr stuck in a cab in a third world country and they're palying that fucking song on the radio - you kill the cabbie)
and the clinchers - more for yr readers than you -

I’m lying alone with my head on the phone
Thinking of you till it hurts
I know you hurt too but what else can we do
Tormented and torn apart

I wish I could carry your smile in my heart
For times when my life seems so low
It would make me believe what tomorrow could bring
When today doesn’t really know, doesn’t really know

(chorus)
I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you
I know you were right, believing for so long
I’m all out of love, what am I without you
I can’t be too late to say I was so wrong

I want you to come back and carry me home
Away from these long, lonely nights
I’m reaching for you, are you feeling it too?
Does the feeling seem oh, so right?

And what would you say if I called on you now
And said that I can’t hold on?
There’s no easy way, it gets harder each day
Please love me or I’ll be gone, I’ll be gone

(chorus)
Ooh, what are you thinking of
What are you thinking of
What are you thinking of
What are you thinking of
(repeat chorus)

(that repeat chorus thing is important)

and (ooh, jim steinman wrote this? there's a connection between the Loaf of Greatness and the Supply of Airness? I am in awe. Shock and awe. Vigilante Freedom is yet to be approached)

I know just how to whisper,
And I know just how to cry;
I know just where to find the answers;
And I know just how to lie.
I know just how to fake it,
And I know just how to scheme;
I know just when to face the truth,
And then I know just when to dream.
And I know just where to touch you,
And I know just what to prove;
I know when to pull you closer,
And I know when to let you loose.
And I know the night is fading,
And I know that time’s gonna fly;
And I’m never gonna tell you everything
I’ve got to tell you,
But I know I’ve got to give it a try.
And I know the roads to riches,
And I know the ways to fame;
I know all the rules
And then I know how to break ’em
And I always know the name of the game.

But I don’t know how to leave you,
And I’ll never let you fall;
And I don’t know how you do it,
Making love out of nothing at all
(making love)
Out of nothing at all,
(making love)
Out of nothing at all,
(making love)
Out of nothing at all,
(making love)
Out of nothing at all,
(making love)
Out of nothing at all
(making love)
Out of nothing at all.

Every time I see you all the rays of the sun
Are streaming through the waves in your hair;
And every star in the sky is taking aim
At your eyes like a spotlight,
The beating of my heart is a drum, and it’s lost
And it’s looking for a rhythm like you.
You can take the darkness from the pit of the night
And turn into a beacon burning endlessly bright.
I’ve got to follow it, ’cause everything I know, well it’s nothing till I give it to you.

I can make the run or stumble,
I can make the final block;
And I can make every tackle, at the sound of the whistle,
I can make all the stadiums rock.
I can make tonight forever,
Or I can make it disappear by the dawn;
And I can make you every promise that has ever been made,
And I can make all your demons be gone.

But I’m never gonna make it without you,
Do you really want to see me crawl?
And I’m never gonna make it like you do,
Making love out of nothing at all.

(making love)
Out of nothing at all
(making love)
Out of nothing at all
(making love)
Out of nothing at all
(making love)
Out of nothing at all
(making love)
Out of nothing at all
(making love)
Out of nothing at all
(making love)

Ray Charles - That Lucky Old Sun

The words are misery and his voice is agony. Best wallowing song ever.

This is why I publicly declare my undying love for G every few weeks.

Going country...
Alan Jackson:
"Monday Morning Church"
"Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?"
Bonnie Raitt:
"I Can't Make You Love Me"
Kenny Chesney:
"The Good Stuff"

Nobody has mentioned "Townes Van Zandt",
I nominate every single one of his songs I've ever heard.
Or how about some of the cheery "Mazzy Star", just pick a song, any song, yeah, that one will do it's sad, they all are.

This Woman's Work by Kate Bush

can't even make it through the first verse before the tears start to fall. even thinking about the song makes me choke up.

"If you could read my mind" ---Gordon Lightfoot

Anybody who's heard it is saying, right now, that the list is over. THIS is the saddest song ever.

"The Very Last Time" by Alan Parsons.

Lyrics at The Avenue Online.

Richard Marx - "Right Here Waiting for You"

Weezer - "Across the Sea"

Dashboard Confessional - "The Road Song"

For the record, "Only in Dreams" was my wedding song.

I'm not a big country aficionado, but the Dixie Chicks' "Travelling Solder" generally gets me in that place.

Fire and Rain, by James Taylor. I actually heard it on a plane once. shudder

I love Jolene, but then, I have "flaming locks of auburn hair, with ivory skin and eyes of emerald green," so maybe I'm just sadistic.

Pearl Jam - Black
Slipknot - Diluted
As I Lay Dying - Forever
Gary Jules - Mad World (Donnie Darko Version)
40 Below Sumer - Falling Down
Counting Crows - Raining In Baltimore
The Early November - Everything's Too Cold, But Your So Hott
Underoath - Alone In December

Dream Theater's "Dissapear" is by far the saddest i know. its about the singer's mother-in-law or grandma passing away. its off of the CD "Sic Degrees of Inner Turbulence" give it a try and see how you cry. another sad song by them is "Through Her Eyes" off the CD "Scenes From a Memory" best CD ever if you try Through her eyes, listen to the rest of the cd first, the whole cd runs together.

Fear of Flying- Shelly Fairchild
I Can't Make You Love Me- Bonnie Rait
Help Me Hold On- Travis Tritt
In A Pine Box- Doug Stone

I have to say that "In A Pine Box" is the saddest song I have ever heard in my whole life. Not a day goes by that I don't listen to it and cry. Not just cry, but like go hysterical. It is absolutely the saddest. No doubt.

i think Saybia - The Second You Sleep is the saddest. i spent nights crying to this song.

also nobody might not have noticed but if you watched "Crash", the movie 2004, the soundtrack is pretty catchy too. i also listen to this song when i was depressed. it is called Bird York - In The Deep