Great music should elicit emotions, deep emotions and nothing is more emotional than sadness. Name 3 songs that in your heart are so emotional that they can and should bring you and others to tears. My 5 - Photograph - Ringo Starr; Seasons in the Sun - Terry jacks; Indiana Wants me - R. Dean Taylor; Don't Expect me to be Your Friend - Lobo; Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton.
Billie Holiday's recording of "Gloomy Sunday", and her rendition of "Strange Fruit" were said to inspire people to commit suicide.
I believe they were recorded in the 1940s
Look Away - Chicago
This was Chicago's last big hit that charted. It is about a guy who went through a break-up, but is still in love with the girl.
https://youtu.be/2uKLTtVqQpE
Adam's Song - Blink-182
This is a song about a teenager committing suicide. Very different from the rest of Blink-182's music.
https://youtu.be/2MRdtXWcgIw
Heavy - Linkin Park
One of many Linkin Park songs about depression. Five months after the song came out, Chester Bennington killed himself.
https://youtu.be/5dmQ3QWpy1Q
From now on the d bag known as Icee will be known as "buzz kill". Never seen such a joyless fuck in my entire life. Icee is the shriveled dick of humanity.
Harry Chapin - Cat’s in the Cradle - full of regret.
For more personal reasons, “Waiting for a Girl Like You” by Foreigner. First girl I really fell for, who I dated a couple times, told me she went to the Foreigner concert with her ex boyfriend (not really ex to my chagrin).
Obviously, she wasn’t that into me. Broke my heart and that song was constantly on the radio. I couldn’t even listen to it.
3rd…
Ode to Billie Joe - Bobby Gentry. Sad, great slice-of-life lyrics that take you to a place and time -
and mysterious - what did they throw off the Talahachi Bridge? Their secret baby? The world may never know.
Elephant by Jason Isbell
Johnny Cash version of Hurt
Don't want to hear either of these songs when I'm whiskey drunk. I might shed that one manly tear and look like that Native American when litter lands at his feet back in the 1970's.
Philistines
Yes - Billie Joe jump off the bridge but the preacher said he had seen Billie Joe and a girl who “looked much like you” throwing something off the T’ Bridge, presumably some days before Billie Joe jumped
Someone mentioned “Cats in the Cradle” Harry Chapin I find his version of “Taxi” to be one of the saddest stories of regret I’ve ever heard, and I also find “Auld Lang Syne” by Dan Fogleberg to be similarly wistful.
^ Great song
Chapin’s “Cat’s” always gets me because my dad and I never really connected - but he was a good responsible man - and I feel like I’m a better dad to my adult children than when they were little kids. I didn’t know what I was doing a lot of the time back then.
Honestly none whatsoever. Maybe I’m just odd but I never really give lyrics too much thought, Music for me it’s all about making you want to move and groove otherwise I just don’t care or ever cared.
I get goosebumps and chills from some songs, but I do not cry (or throw up). I'm just not wired that way. Some pop songs that give me chills (and feel free to laugh, I get it):
Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams
Tears for Fears: Mad World
Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah (not every rendition, just the one that appears on the Watchmen soundtrack)
#1 song that gets me every time: Disturbed (cover): The Sound of Silence
I get it Muddy, I think a lot of people listen like you,but I love the lyrics- always have. I loved when the albums covers had lyrics back in the day (album covers - what a lost piece of artistic expression). To me anyone who doesn’t pay attention to the lyrics is missing out and listening superficially.
Gone Away - The Offspring. One of the most painful songs about losing someone close to you I've ever heard. "And I feel like heaven's so far away. And it feels like the world has grown cold now that you've gone away..."
Sam Stone - John Prine
Whiskey Lullaby - Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss
Travelin' Soldier - I think Dixie Chick did it justice.
I can't write left handed - Bill Withers
Songs about the losses in war get to me the most.
A Whiter Shade of Pale. Not sure what the words are about, but the music feels like the best of Bach: an equal mix of yearning and serenity. That combo makes me weep.
“Streets of Heaven” by Sherrié Austin is a serious tear-jerker. Even after hearing it many times, my eyes often get watery when it pops up on my playlist. Thankfully I don’t have any such experience in my own life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Mokvqv…
However, I closely relate two songs to emotional times in my own life. First: “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” by Meatloaf. My high school GF broke up with me, more or less giving me the reasons outlined in the song. And that morning I had to drive away from her college to my college as the snow turned to cold rain. As I started to drive, that song played on the radio. Sometimes art imitates life too closely, even decades later per the final verse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5hWWe-t…
Second: “Just Give Me A Reason” by P!nk was popular as my relationship with my first OTC fav was disintegrating. I had fallen very hard for her. She relapsed into addiction and rationally Iknew I had to get out. But emotionally I kept trying to hold on. If a couple of things had gone differently, I might have gone Full Gawker. It seemed like that song played on the radio every time we were together durning those last couple of months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQFFLBM…
So many really great sad songs, many about relationships that either never were or went wrong.
My honorable mentions:
The River, the quintessential Springsteen New Jersey Dirge, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. The Harmonica, piano, and outgo are especially painful.
What a Fool Believes, The Doobie Brothers (Michael McDonald) - an imagined relationship
Most anything by Emmy Lou Harris, the woman could evoke tears with Happy Birthday
Angel by Sarah Maclachlan, I always thought she was underrated in a lot of ways
The aforementioned Keep Me in Your Heat by Warren Zevon, particularly give his circumstances at the time (terminally ill)
The Who's The Song is Over -- Townsend's guitar
My top 3, OK 4
1. Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin Every father's sea of pathos. Part of the sadness is Harry's way too early passing,
2. Everybody Hurts by REM
3. Boulder to Birmingham by Emmy Lou Harris.
4. Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. The guitar by itself is haunting.
Have to chime in again with one I just heard on the radio, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, esp. if you think about someone you love who is dead or who you've been separated from.
63 comments
I believe they were recorded in the 1940s
I know exactly what it was about, read the words I wrote your reading comprehension is for shit
Fuckn moron never shuts up
Yesterday- The Beatles
When the Party's Over- Billie Eilish
This was Chicago's last big hit that charted. It is about a guy who went through a break-up, but is still in love with the girl.
https://youtu.be/2uKLTtVqQpE
Adam's Song - Blink-182
This is a song about a teenager committing suicide. Very different from the rest of Blink-182's music.
https://youtu.be/2MRdtXWcgIw
Heavy - Linkin Park
One of many Linkin Park songs about depression. Five months after the song came out, Chester Bennington killed himself.
https://youtu.be/5dmQ3QWpy1Q
For more personal reasons, “Waiting for a Girl Like You” by Foreigner. First girl I really fell for, who I dated a couple times, told me she went to the Foreigner concert with her ex boyfriend (not really ex to my chagrin).
Obviously, she wasn’t that into me. Broke my heart and that song was constantly on the radio. I couldn’t even listen to it.
The song by Mike and the Mechanics - The Living Years is a rough one for me as well.
Ode to Billie Joe - Bobby Gentry. Sad, great slice-of-life lyrics that take you to a place and time -
and mysterious - what did they throw off the Talahachi Bridge? Their secret baby? The world may never know.
Johnny Cash version of Hurt
Don't want to hear either of these songs when I'm whiskey drunk. I might shed that one manly tear and look like that Native American when litter lands at his feet back in the 1970's.
Yes - Billie Joe jump off the bridge but the preacher said he had seen Billie Joe and a girl who “looked much like you” throwing something off the T’ Bridge, presumably some days before Billie Joe jumped
Chapin’s “Cat’s” always gets me because my dad and I never really connected - but he was a good responsible man - and I feel like I’m a better dad to my adult children than when they were little kids. I didn’t know what I was doing a lot of the time back then.
Besides Gloomy Sunday I'll throw in Landslide by Stevie Nicks.
Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams
Tears for Fears: Mad World
Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah (not every rendition, just the one that appears on the Watchmen soundtrack)
#1 song that gets me every time: Disturbed (cover): The Sound of Silence
KISS - “Beth”
But the sing that gets me every time even after all these years is “One Tin Soldier”.
The song plays at the end of “Billy Jack” as the sheriff is taking Billy away in handcuffs
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttzijna8mg…
1000x Broods
waiting for a girl like you… Foreigner.
My heart will go on… Celine Dion. (from Titanic)
Whiskey Lullaby - Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss
Travelin' Soldier - I think Dixie Chick did it justice.
I can't write left handed - Bill Withers
Songs about the losses in war get to me the most.
Cash's version of Hurt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uqbJE5n…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGY9HvC…
SJG
A lot of Leonard Cohen.
https://youtu.be/_NWjehpGSO0
Blue October - Hate Me
https://youtu.be/UIU7Eabredw
Inherently sad songs, but also reminded me of the desperation and the pain I caused my family in the worst days of bipolar depression.
Drake passionfruit
https://youtu.be/uQFVqltOXRg
Cesar Daniel get you
https://youtu.be/WNeLUngb-Xg
Linkin Park in the end remix
21 savage ball w/o you
https://youtu.be/XXYlFuWEuKI
The weeknd save your tears
https://youtu.be/qod03PVTLqk
Elton John cold heart remix
Cypress hill illusions
https://youtu.be/xtIr8k4eC7o
Kendrick lamar sing about me
21 savage rip luv
https://youtu.be/xfdG6vwIGGU
Anuel aa culpables
https://youtu.be/9jI-z9QN6g8
No garcia te bote remix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Mokvqv…
However, I closely relate two songs to emotional times in my own life. First: “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” by Meatloaf. My high school GF broke up with me, more or less giving me the reasons outlined in the song. And that morning I had to drive away from her college to my college as the snow turned to cold rain. As I started to drive, that song played on the radio. Sometimes art imitates life too closely, even decades later per the final verse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5hWWe-t…
Second: “Just Give Me A Reason” by P!nk was popular as my relationship with my first OTC fav was disintegrating. I had fallen very hard for her. She relapsed into addiction and rationally Iknew I had to get out. But emotionally I kept trying to hold on. If a couple of things had gone differently, I might have gone Full Gawker. It seemed like that song played on the radio every time we were together durning those last couple of months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQFFLBM…
My honorable mentions:
The River, the quintessential Springsteen New Jersey Dirge, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. The Harmonica, piano, and outgo are especially painful.
What a Fool Believes, The Doobie Brothers (Michael McDonald) - an imagined relationship
Most anything by Emmy Lou Harris, the woman could evoke tears with Happy Birthday
Angel by Sarah Maclachlan, I always thought she was underrated in a lot of ways
The aforementioned Keep Me in Your Heat by Warren Zevon, particularly give his circumstances at the time (terminally ill)
The Who's The Song is Over -- Townsend's guitar
My top 3, OK 4
1. Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin Every father's sea of pathos. Part of the sadness is Harry's way too early passing,
2. Everybody Hurts by REM
3. Boulder to Birmingham by Emmy Lou Harris.
4. Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. The guitar by itself is haunting.
Warren Zevon - Don't Let Us Get Sick and his cover of Knockin' On Heaven's Door, because when he recorded it, he was.