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How about really really sad songs?
- Thread starter Bard2dbone
- Start date
Forgot about this one. Had to listen to it in my English class this year (we were covering American Literature and relating it to events that went on during certain time periods). Before we read "A Raisin in the Sun" (excellent play, IMO) our teacher made us listen to this to relate it to the Civil Rights Movement/Harlem Renaissance etc.
After it was done playing the whole room was kind of silent and in awe. I actually had goosebumps.
Good pick.
Also, while "Eleanor Rigby" is not technically, "lay-down-on-the-floor-and-never-eat-again" sad (as the OP puts it), I think it deserves a mention.
Come to think of it, "One" isn't "lay-down-on-the-floor-and-never-eat-again" sad either.
Another vote to "He Stopped Loving Her Today" by George Jones (R.I.P). First time I heard it was while driving to a poor town in West Virginia where my church was doing some mission work. The man who was driving me had tons of good music on his iPod (Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin etc.), and after we finished listening to the full "The Wall" album he was like, "do you want to hear what in my opinion is the saddest song of all time?" Then he played this...
After that I played Johnny Cash's cover of hurt, which IMO is even sadder than Trent's original.
Come to think of it, "One" isn't "lay-down-on-the-floor-and-never-eat-again" sad either.
Another vote to "He Stopped Loving Her Today" by George Jones (R.I.P). First time I heard it was while driving to a poor town in West Virginia where my church was doing some mission work. The man who was driving me had tons of good music on his iPod (Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin etc.), and after we finished listening to the full "The Wall" album he was like, "do you want to hear what in my opinion is the saddest song of all time?" Then he played this...
After that I played Johnny Cash's cover of hurt, which IMO is even sadder than Trent's original.
Sorry for the multiple posts, but I'll throw Eminem's "Stan" out there. His merits as an artist are iffy (I personally like him, and he's the only "rap" artist I listen to...that being said, I am an adolescent white girl, so YMMV 
)...regardless, I think it's pretty sad.
)...regardless, I think it's pretty sad.
If These Walls Could Speak
...
If these old fashioned window panes were eyes
I guess they would have seen it all
Each little tear and sigh and footfall
And every dream that we came to seek
Or followed after
If these walls could speak
They would tell you that I owe you
More than I could ever pay
Here's someone who really loves you
Don't ever go away
That's what these walls would say
...
If these old fashioned window panes were eyes
I guess they would have seen it all
Each little tear and sigh and footfall
And every dream that we came to seek
Or followed after
If these walls could speak
They would tell you that I owe you
More than I could ever pay
Here's someone who really loves you
Don't ever go away
That's what these walls would say
One more - For A Dancer by Jackson Browne
...
I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear, playing right in my ear
That I can't sing
But I can't help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing around
Crying as they ease you down
When I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing all our sorrow away
No matter what fate chooses to play
Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours, another's steps have grown
And in the end there is one dance you'll do alone...
...
I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear, playing right in my ear
That I can't sing
But I can't help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing around
Crying as they ease you down
When I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing all our sorrow away
No matter what fate chooses to play
Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours, another's steps have grown
And in the end there is one dance you'll do alone...
Sorry for the multiple posts, but I'll throw Eminem's "Stan" out there. His merits as an artist are iffy (I personally like him, and he's the only "rap" artist I listen to...that being said, I am an adolescent white girl, so YMMV
I always thought it was kinda funny. ...but in a sad sort of way. Never came close to being a tear jerker for me.
Never said, a tear jerker, but it does make me kind of bummed out. Especially this part, where he's like screaming...
For me it's more "sad" thinking about how people get so obsessed over celebrities...and also about how it'd be agonizing to be "responsible" for someone's death like that.
Edit: I guess I have a different gauge for sadness though. A lot of these songs people are posting are like "I'll never be happy again" sad, I guess mine are less so.
I actually love that whole album. He had this weird thing back then of using vehicles as metaphors for relationships and stuff.
But Hurricane is a great song. It's a little depressing, sure. (Spoiler: The girl dies.) But it's well crafted and the creepy sad part is over quick.
Elsewhere on that album is a MUCH more depressing song. He re-used an old English tavern song melody to sing about a female friend of his who was murdered.
Jamie's Secret
Near river bend where the stream runs clear
One winter morning of a day last year
I heard a secret that I now can say
Concerning Jamie, who's past away
If you had known her then you'd agree
Her smiling eyes could make a blind man see
She laughed with innocence and she moved with style
Full grown lover with childlike smile
She moved out West where the air is clean
To study poetry at Evergreen
I thought I'd see her in a year or two
Till we heard rumors
That I feared were true
They never found where she went that night
The man she lived with said they'd had a fight
She left that cabin to walk alone
He kept the light on
But she never came home
She must have gone by the riverside
The searchers say that's how she must have died
The winter water was cold with snow
An icy boulder
And down she'd go
Well I heard the news but I could not cry
I should be shattered but my eyes were dry
To feel no sorrow was my surprise
But the words came easy
For those last goodbyes
Till I took a walk by the river bend
Where once we lingered when she was my friend
I tried to melt the river of tears inside
The river flowed
But joy I cried
She may be gone from this life we know
She may have frozen in the ice and snow
There's a secret that my heart can't tell
Except to say
That she's safe and well
Near river bend where the stream runs clear
One winter morning of a day last year
I heard a secret that I now can say
Concerning Jamie, who's passed away
That's a lot of lyrics to say "I think she's in a happier place.", Isn't it?
rickwebb said:
Me a few days ago said:
ffutterman said:
Me again said:
I found my copy of I Hate Myself And Want To Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard the day after I posted this. I've been re-reading several of the articles in it. I remembered this wrong. The three Teenage Car Crash songs I mentioned are ALL in it. They are in fact, the first three articles.
+1
Reading the lyrics to some of the suggestions in this thread I have to presume that context and/or personal memories, associations, or nostalgia, has a huge impact on what people perceive as "sad" ...so I'll do my best not to judge
But I still have never heard a more bleak, heart-breaking piece of music than Barber's Adagio.
Not sure I ever personally thought of this song as "sad" per se, but at my sister's wedding she & I performed Sunrise, Sunset (from Fiddler On The Roof) and by the time we'd completed the first verse my Mom & Dad were just bawling their eyes out.
Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older
When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday
When they were small?
Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older
When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday
When they were small?
The Mendoza Line - Since I Came
I'll never get out the stench, lose the feathers
They cling and frey, attack the black on my skirt
I'll never know I'm alone when I'm sleeping
You come and go like the ghost of filth and dirt
Now I'm alone
Now I am wondering
Is this the way it's done here
Are you ever gonna stop doing me
The 12th of May, a day of rain, he didn't come home
My husband dead without a service, without grace
Said the machine went down so hard, he didn't feel a thing
What were those knife wounds, what were those bruises on his face
Invisible guilt
Invisible shack back in the trees
If they ever even find me
I haven't had a name since I came
My stomach swells
The putrid smells even worse the past few days
My soul is leaving me
My heart is hiding in his grave
My fear is turned to something worse
Jam the hole with your jagged key
Would you please push me down
Or would you spare the boy in me
Could I have found my way out
Could my two girls grow up to be free
If you ever touch a hair on their heads
If you ever look at them the way you do me
I'll wash away my faith and state in red
I'll never get out the stench, lose the feathers
They cling and frey, attack the black on my skirt
I'll never know I'm alone when I'm sleeping
You come and go like the ghost of filth and dirt
Now I'm alone
Now I am wondering
Is this the way it's done here
Are you ever gonna stop doing me
The 12th of May, a day of rain, he didn't come home
My husband dead without a service, without grace
Said the machine went down so hard, he didn't feel a thing
What were those knife wounds, what were those bruises on his face
Invisible guilt
Invisible shack back in the trees
If they ever even find me
I haven't had a name since I came
My stomach swells
The putrid smells even worse the past few days
My soul is leaving me
My heart is hiding in his grave
My fear is turned to something worse
Jam the hole with your jagged key
Would you please push me down
Or would you spare the boy in me
Could I have found my way out
Could my two girls grow up to be free
If you ever touch a hair on their heads
If you ever look at them the way you do me
I'll wash away my faith and state in red
Never heard the song - but I read this lyric and it messed me up for a day - this is the most gut wrenching thing I've ever read - I still can't shake it
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
"Billie Jean broke my rubber.
He's just a boy who said that I am the one,
Who slipped it up his bum.
Hee, hee. Hee, hee..."
"Billie Jean broke my rubber.
He's just a boy who said that I am the one,
Who slipped it up his bum.
Hee, hee. Hee, hee..."
Never heard the song - but I read this lyric and it messed me up for a day - this is the most gut wrenching thing I've ever read - I still can't shake it
The lyrics don't do anything to me. I'm not saying that a malnourished baby dying isn't sad, but the first person narrative is wrong. It is written from the viewpoint of a 3 week old baby, but a 3 week old baby doesn't understand death. A 3 week old doesn't understand why a bird would be circling overhead. It understands it is hungry and suffering, but ascribing adult understanding to the baby just comes across as heavy handed and cloying to me. Tell me the same story from the mother's point of view and it will hit me much harder.
That's what does it to me though - of course a 3 week old can't comprehend. That is what gets me, it's written in this detached, first person viewpoint. If a 50 year old man is dying of cancer, he can understand that, it is comprehensable to him. A baby experiencing things that it can't comprehend - it's something akin to the look of pain in a dog's eye when it is injured. That innocence and inability to comprehend that what is befalling - that is what gets me.
