Saddest NON-Xmas song?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

Mine is "Jealous Guy" by John Lennon. Yours?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. 'Gloomy Sunday' - the cursed song.

You know about that?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. Nope. I'm curious. (nt)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

5. Known as the suicide song, GS is renowned for being cursed

the composer killed himself, and several people who have covered it have taken their lives (inc Billy MacKenzie of the Associates - covered it in 1982, shot himself at the age of 38 - i was a big fan)

Here's the weird story.
http://www.phespirit.info/gloomysunday/

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Gee, that third stanza feels SO tacked on. (nt)

Like Blade Runner's stupid ending.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

8. Love has died! The world has ended!

You've gotta love the original Hungarian-English translation.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. Now I get the context

This song was written during the rise of Nazism and Fascism, which seem unstoppable and about to conquer the world.

[Dogmudgeon]

55. There's actually TWO "original versions" in Hungarian

One was written by Rezsô Seress, who also wrote the music. The second one, which is considered to be more beautiful and much more despondent, was written by László Jávor, a fairly well-known poet of the time.

Sam M. Lewis did the translation, and added a bridge that gives the song kind of a trick ending to alleviate the hopelessness of the song. Although people like to say "it loses something in translation", I don't agree; Lewis' version is excellent, and the only Hungarian speaker I know concurs.

Seress was a life-long depression sufferer, and jumped to his death from his apartment in 1968.

Here are the two "canonical" versions from Hungarian, with fairly literal English translations.


Rezsô Seress Lyrics:

Ôsz van és peregnek a sárgult levelek
Meghalt a földön az emberi szeretet
Bánatos könnyekkel zokog az öszi szél
Szívem már új tavaszt nem vár és nem remél
Hiába sírok és hiába szenvedek
Szívtelen rosszak és kapzsik az emberek...

Meghalt a szeretet!

Vége a világnak, vége a reménynek
Városok pusztulnak, srapnelek zenélnek
Emberek vérétôl piros a tarka rét
Halottak fekszenek az úton szerteszét
Még egyszer elmondom csendben az imámat:
Uram, az emberek gyarlók és hibáznak...

Vége a világnak!

English Translation:

It is autumn and the leaves are falling
All love has died on earth
The wind is weeping with sorrowful tears
My heart will never hope for a new spring again
My tears and my sorrows are all in vain
People are heartless, greedy and wicked...

Love has died!

The world has come to its end, hope has ceased to have a meaning
Cities are being wiped out, bombs are making music
Meadows are coloured red with human blood
There are dead people on the streets everywhere
I will say another quiet prayer:
People are sinners, Lord, they make mistakes...

The world has ended!

László Jávor lyrics:

Szomorú vasárnap száz fehér virággal
Vártalak kedvesem templomi imával
Álmokat kergetô vasárnap délelôtt
Bánatom hintaja nélküled visszajött
Azóta szomorú mindig a vasárnap

Szomorú vasárnap

Utolsó vasárnap kedvesem gyere el
Pap is lesz, koporsó, ravatal, gyászlepel
Akkor is virág vár, virág és - koporsó
Virágos fák alatt utam az utolsó
Nyitva lesz szemem hogy még egyszer lássalak
Ne félj a szememtôl holtan is áldalak...

Utolsó vasárnap

English Translation:

On a sad Sunday with a hundred white flowers
I was waiting for you my dearest with a prayer
A Sunday morning, chasing after my dreams
The carriage of my sorrow returned to me without you
It is since then that my Sundays have been forever sad

Sad Sunday

This last Sunday, my darling please come to me
There'll be a priest, a coffin, a catafalque and a winding-sheet
There'll be flowers for you, flowers and a coffin
Under the blossoming trees it will be my last journey
My eyes will be open, so that I could see you for a last time
Don't be afraid of my eyes, I'm blessing you even in my death...

The last Sunday

Sam M. Lewis' English lyrics:

Sunday is gloomy
My hours are slumberless
Dearest the shadows
I live with are numberless
Little white flowers
Will never awaken you
Not where the black coach
Of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thoughts
Of ever returning you
Would they be angry
If I thought of joining you?

Gloomy Sunday

Gloomy is Sunday
With shadows I spend it all
My heart and I
Have decided to end it all
Soon there'll be candles
And prayers that are said I know
But let them not weep
Let them know that I'm glad to go
Death is no dream
For in death I'm caressing you
With the last breath of my soul
I'll be blessing you

Gloomy Sunday

Dreaming, I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you asleep
In the deep of my heart here
Darling I hope
That my dream never haunted you
My heart is telling you
How much I wanted you

Gloomy Sunday

---

Yes, I actually took the time to research the song. It certainly is a classic in any language.

--bkl
Dreaming, I was only dreaming ...

[politicat]

30. Wow... 27 different covers, recently, mostly in goth/punk/alt.dot genres..

I'm not surprised it's associated with suicide. The shrink in me goes... "Well, yeah... but it's not the song's fault."

Start with a culture (Hungary) that uses suicide as an "honorable" means of death; making them an oddity in western European culture. Add in the fact that the culture has the highest rates of mental illness and substance abuse per capita of any western nation and a brutal history as South Eastern Europe's tennis ball.

Get the rumor/gossip going that the song is cursed - release it's uncertain history, the fact that the author killed himself (30 years later), that his ex killed herself.... It will attract a certain element of the population who are already distressed. They will identify with the song (and it didn't have to be this one, it could have been any sad, depressing song with a "backstory"), use it as words that mean what they can't say for themselves, and give into the depression.

Others who have come to the healthy decision that suicide is best (as in the terminally ill, the elderly who are done and want to be finished, and others who have made a rational decision while in their right minds) may find the humor ironic or interpret the song as a final elegy, but not mournful. (The Sam Lewis version is sort of that way.)

Self-selecting sample? To an extent. The fact that it has a reputation and is kind of like playing with fire doesn't help.

Funny enough, the Billie Holiday version I'm listening to doesn't seem so gloomy as sensual. Maybe the dark lover concept.

Best, and wishing no one decides to follow the herd,

Politicat

[Dogmudgeon]

57. That Herd

And I'm also addressing the "hardwired" issue.

Hungarian culture doesn't really view suicide as positive; they just have a lot more of it and don't have such an intense taboo against it. But there's something interesting in Hungarian culture that it shares with at least one other major European culture.

Hungary was settled by the Magyars about a thousand years ago. The Magyars were a tribe of the so-called Finno-Ugric peoples who lived in north-central Asia. Another big tribe of the Finno-Ugruc people were, you guessed it, the Finns.

Have you heard any Finnish music? It's every bit as spooky and death-oriented as Hungarian music. Värttinä is probably best-known Finnish folk/pop music group. Around 1996, they had a semi-hit in the USA with a song called Ottajat, which means "someone". It's a rocked-up folk song about a young woman who is lonely and wants a man in her life. But to listen to the song, it sounds like the music played for Mankind at the end of the world as the Legion of Demons is decending on the remnant of sinners left on the dying Earth.

Some linguists also think one of the Korean peoples' "stock races" was the Finno-Ugrics, and they have a reputation for being moody, as well. I don't think, personally, that there is any kind of "gene" for cultural gloominess, but if the Finno-Ugric peoples are decended from a group of people that spend 10,000 years on the harsh northern steppes of Russia, it's kind of understandable.

So why should a half-Russian-Jewish, Half-Irish-Catholic All-American Mutt like me like gloomy music? I don't know. Ask Italian-American Lisa Germano, or Ashkenazic-Jewish-American Tori Amos, or even Franco-Gallic Jacques Brel, who wrote Le Moribond, the original version of the much-mocked Seasons In The Sun.

Well ... FWIW ...

--bkl

[politicat]

83. I didn't say positive. I said honorable. There's a difference.

The Japanese are in the same boat - it's honorable to commit suicide (the Russians do this, to an extent, too) but it's not positive. It's redeeming, but not glorious.

(I don't understand what that herd means, by the way. That herd of what?)

I'm coming from the perspective that it's not genetic, it's cultural. And Yes, I do listen to Finnish music (though I admit a preference for Russian and Swedish rock) and yes, it can be depressing.

Personally, a preference for gloomy music doesn't seem genetic; it seems most likely cultural and social. Though I agree, if anyplace on earth was going to create a penchant for the blues, it would have to be the Siberian Steppes. Kiev in winter is bad... the steppes must be a frozen hell. (6 months in Kiev during grad school....)

BTW... where'd you get the dish on T. Amos? IIRC, her dad was a Methodist minister... when the conversion?

Politicat (who really wants the GD time machine so we can figure all this stuff out!!!)

[pippin]

3. Someone Left the Cake

Out in the Rain

[Bertha Venation]

4. Don't laugh at my two...

"Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro and "Jean" by whoever (from "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie"). Both remind me of my mom, dead nearly 30 years.

Uh, sorry... not to get maudlin. The woman never should've been a mother. But I've forgiven her, and while I don't miss her much, I miss what could've been.

And on that bright note.... :eyes:

[HEyHEY]

7. puff the magic dragon - right now anyway

That JAckie PAper is a terrible friend

[KDLarsen]

22. Good god, you're right!

Me and another friend of mine have gone on a retro-spree, hardly ever listening to anything but music from the 60's and 70's, and everytime we listen to Peter, Paul & Mary's version of Puff the Magic Dragon, we suddently become overwhelmed with sad emotions.

[scottcsmith]

10. Joy Division

Joy Division's "Decades" from their album "Closer" is, imho, the world's most depressing song. The song has even more of an impact in that the song's writer, Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, killed himself a few months before the album's release.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Oh my. Joy Division. Even the NAME of that band is depressing.

In the Nazi concentration camps, they rounded up a few prisoners who could play instruments and formed a band, which was then forced to play happy music (circus music, I think) while the ovens were operating. Beyond sick.

Edit: make post a bit clearer.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

12. I thought the Joy Division were the death-camp prostitutes?

Great band, though. 'Love will tear us apart' is massively uplifting and depressing in equal measures.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. (goes to google) Only links about forced prostitution

But I distinctly remember reading about the music band version. No, I didn't pull that out of my @ss. Honest.

[Zero Division]

24. I certainly can't think of any band that's put out more depressing music.

But I have to say that I think the song "The Eternal" is their most depressing song, and therefore IMO, the most depressing song I've ever heard, period. A lot of their songs have a bitter edge that accompanies the depressing mood behind it, but "The Eternal" is so deovid of any energy that the feeling of hollowness is just overwhelming when I listen to it.

[INTELBYTES]

70. By the time I get to about track 7 or so on that record...

I start to get kind of freaked out. The whole damn record IS a SUICIDE NOTE! How could the other band members not have known that something was very wrong when they wrote/recorded those songs? Certain people shouldn't listen to that record by themselves. :scared:

[supernova]

14. Vincent

by Donovan(?) - correction. I think it's Don "American Pie" McLean

Waaa.... :cry:

But I could have told you Vincent,
This world was never meant
For one as beautiful as you.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. Is that the Midnight Cowboy theme perchance? (nt)

[supernova]

16. No,

Midnight Cowboy theme is "Everybody's Talkin'"

Everybody's talkin' at me
I don't hear a word they're sayin'
Only the echoes of my mind...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. P2P thanks! (nt)

[ornotna]

20. Yes it's Don McLean

And it's a great song

[supernova]

23. Thank you

for the song.... :cry: :D

[ornotna]

27. Your welcome n/t

[corarose]

18. Elenore Ridby & Delta Dawn

I am the woman in both of those songs.

[Blue Gardener]

32. It sucks when it's your name

My name is Delta and I've heard "Delta Dawn" way more times than I need to. And no, my middle name is not Dawn.

[bikebloke]

19. And The Band Played Waltzin' Matilda

Well, perhaps not sad, but a good anti-war song from the Great War. The Pogues did it on their first disque.

[Andyjunction]

21. Morphine- Gone for Good

I'm never going back
Never going back to you
Never gonna see you again
I'm never gonna dig out your picture
Never gonna look you up some day

Life is very short
You don't love me anymore
So I'm never gonna see you again

I'm never gonna write you a letter
Never gonna call you on the phone
I'm never gonna drive by your house
I'm never gonna catch you coming outside
Never gonna walk up your walk
And ring your bell
And feel you fall into my arms
I'm never gonna see you
No I'm never gonna see you
I'm never gonna see you again
You're gone for good

[politicat]

25. The Cure. Pictures of You. Minor Key, depressing lyrics, gloomy rendition.

I can't believe HP is using it for an ad.

Politicat (who is not going to go find Gloomy Sunday and see what the hype is about.)

[scottcsmith]

26. What about 100 years?

That's about as dark as you get with the Cure.

"Pornography" as a whole is a very depressing album.

[politicat]

31. Um, yeah. After watching my HS friends get far too obsessed with certain

lyrics on that album, I came to the conclusion that The Cure should package their works with scrips for anti-depressants. :evilgrin:

Not saying I don't (or didn't) love their work, but my set had a high rate of mild mental illness (we were the freaks in a small Mormon town in N. Arizona and so were outcasts). Talk down half a dozen people from suicide in the course of one school year and you will start wondering what's in the water.

As an epilogue, we all survived, are all productive citizens now, and in fact, because we didn't swallow the party line, are doing better than a lot of our peers.

Politicat. (who was cursed with an incurable optimistic and cheerful nature, making her the epitome of "perky goth"...)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

79. Pretty much the whole of Faith.

Which I love, funnily enough.

[mlawson]

28. "Bother" by Stone Sour.

Caution: if you are depressed, or prone to self destruction of any sort, AVOID this one! It really should never be played on any radio station. Utterly ghastly.

[ornotna]

29. now this is depressing

Kind of cheesy, but you get the idea.
Zager and Evans "In the year 2525"

[hlthe2b]

37. I always sort of liked that song...

Now, it almost terrifies me, like Orwell's 1984.....

[Blue Gardener]

33. Dixie Chicks "Travelin' Soldier"

Can't listen to it when I have PMS unless I have a box of Kleenex.:cry:

[ScreamingMeemie]

34. Six White Horses.

sniffle...or Honey.

[hlthe2b]

35. I remember a song called "Shannon" about a dog...

that is lost (drowned)at sea? Ok, it was sappy,(and would probably make an awful lot of "worst song lists from the 70s), but for dog lovers, also extremely sad. Seems to me it was about an irish setter that was drowned trying to save its owner? I haven't heard it in years and don't remember who did it, just the subject and that it was largely sung (I think)in falsetto.

[HamstersFromHell]

47. That song was by Henry Gross

Known (at least in the south) before that only for his "Southern Band" song off the album "Plug Me Into Somthing".

The song is about Beach Boy Carl Wilson's irish setter Shannon who was hit by a car and killed.

[hlthe2b]

53. Henry Gross and "Shannon" : You are right!

sniff, sniff, sniff:

SHANNON
WORDS AND MUSIC BY HENRY GROSS
@1976 BLENDINGWELL, ASCAP

ANOTHER DAY IS AT END
MAMA SAYS SHE'S TIRED AGAIN
NO ONE CAN EVEN BEGIN TO TELL HER

I HARDLY KNOW WHAT TO SAY
BUT MAYBE IT'S BETTER THAT WAY
IF PAPA WERE HERE I'M SURE HE'D TELL HER

SHANNON IS GONE I HOPE SHE'S DRIFTING OUT TO SEA
SHE ALWAYS LOVED TO SWIM AWAY
MAYBE SHE'LL FIND AN ISLAND WITH A SHADY TREE
JUST LIKE THE ONE IN OUR BACKYARD

MAMA TRIES HARD TO PRETEND THINGS WILL GET
BETTER AGAIN
SOMEHOW SHE'S KEEPING IT ALL INSIDE HER

BUT FINALLY THE TEARS FILL OUR EYES
AND I KNOW THAT SOMEWHERE TONIGHT
SHE KNOWS HOW MUCH WE REALLY MISS HER

SHANNON IS GONE I HOPE SHE'S DRIFTING OUT TO SEA
SHE ALWAYS LOVED TO SWIM AWAY
MAYBE SHE'LL FIND AN ISLAND WITH A SHADY TREE
JUST LIKE THE ONE IN OUR BACKYARD

JUST LIKE THE ONE IN OUR BACKYARD

[Skip Intro]

50. That song still brings a lump to my throat

"Shannon is gone afloat, she's drifting out to sea
She always loved to swim away..."

poor dog - :cry:

[Skip Intro]

51. If most depressing qualifies as saddest, "Dust in the Wind"

by Kansas -

I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone
All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind, all they are is dust in the wind.
Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind

Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy.

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind
Dust in the wind, everything is dust in the wind.

[short bus president]

36. Puff the Magic Dragon. n/t

[chaska]

38. The End Of The World (Original artist unknown - covered by many)

The End Of The World

Why does the sun go on shining
Why does the sea rush to shore
Don't they know it's the end of the world
'Cause you don't love me any more

Why do the birds go on singing
Why do the stars glow above
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when I lost your love

I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything's the same as it was
I can't understand, no, I can't understand
How life goes on the way it does

Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye

Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye

[TOhioLiberal]

74. Hmmm......

Skeeter Davis did a version of it...Haven't heard it by anybody else.
:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Nihil]

81. From memory only

Didn't the Carpenters re-release this?

[chaska]

39. I started a joke - Bee Gees

I started a joke, which started the whole world crying,
but I didn't see that the joke was on me, oh no.

I started to cry, which started the whole world laughing,
oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was on me.

I looked at the skies, running my hands over my eyes,
and I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that I'd said.

Til I finally died, which started the whole world living,
oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was on me.

I looked at the skies, running my hands over my eyes,
and I fell out of bed, hurting my head from things that I'd said.

'Til I finally died, which started the whole world living,
oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was one me.

[SiobhanClancy]

65. I've certainly cried over that one...

way back when I was a teenager,and felt I was so misunderstood. Now that I'm far from a teenager,I know that no one understands me...but now I know that it doesn't matter:)

[Paul Hood]

40. Old Shep

[FlaGranny]

60. Ditto Old Shep.

[Faygo Kid]

41. "The Day that Billie Joe McAllister Jumped Off the Tallahatchee Bridge"

'Nuff said.

[Zorra]

42. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", by

Hank Williams, "Unchained Melody", by the Righteous Bros., "Black and Blue" by Louis Armstrong, "Hey, Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms, You Were Always On My Mind", by Willie Nelson, "For the Good Times", by Kris Kristofferson, and "La Que Se Fue", a Mexican classic.

[FloridaJudy]

43. Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"

Or almost any other Billie Holiday song, come to think of it.

[jeter]

44. The last song on Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors"

That slow song. "Bluebird" or something. I can't remember the title. I cry whenever I listen to it. So never do.

[nemo137]

45. Ben Folds 5 - Cigarette

or Uncle Tupelo's "There was a time"

[RandomKoolzip]

46. Or Ben Folds Five's "Lullaby..."

I want this song played at my funeral. I've cried from listening to a piece of new music precisely seven times in the last ten years. In five of those times, Ben Folds was involved. The other two were Race for the Prize" and "Fight Test" by the Flaming Lips.

[Dogmudgeon]

59. Brick

That's one of the BF5's that does it for me. It also places high in the "sad Christmas songs" poll.

I think it's about a guy who takes his girlfriend -- with whom he's on the outs -- to get an abortion.

Does anyone know the real story?

--bkl
She's alone ... and I'm alone ... and I know it ...

[last_texas_dem]

73. "Smoke"

I think "Smoke" by Ben Folds Five is even sadder. It would be hard to pick what I think is truly the saddest song out there but that one is definitely up there. One of those songs that I just started listening to the lyrics really closely once and felt like I could have written them.

[leftist_rebel1569]

48. "Down in a Hole" by Alice in Chains

Overall, a pretty depressing song. But, very very good.

[scottcsmith]

69. Great song

"I'd like to fly but my wings have been so denied."

[UCLA02]

49. "Tell Laura I Love Her" plus one I need help here with...

Also, what was that creepy teenage-tragedy song about the guy who returns a sweater to the girl's house after the prom or something and when he does her dad tells him that she's been dead for a year and he goes to the cemetery and sees her tombstone.

My facts are probably WAY off, but I'm sure there's not many songs that are close to this. Somebody here's gotta know what song I'm talking about.

[Dogmudgeon]

63. Another Laura -- actually, Laurie

It's called Laurie (Strange Things Happen)

What a sick and twisted song that is.

My first girlfriend was named Laura, and the week we broke up, Christopher Cross released what would be his thrid monster hit, "Think of Laura".

--bkl

[Dogmudgeon]

64. Found it

Laurie (Strange Things Happen)
by Dickie Lee

Last night at the dance I met Laurie,
So lovely and warm, an angel of a girl.
Last night I fell in love with Laurie -
Strange things happen in this world.

As I walked her home,
She said it was her birthday.
I pulled her close and said
"Will I see you anymore?"
Then suddenly she asked for my sweater
And said that she was very, very cold.

I kissed her goodnight
At her door and started home,
Then thought about my sweater
And went right back instead.
I knocked at her door and a man appeared.
I told why I'd come, then he said:

"You're wrong, son.
You weren't with my daughter.
How can you be so cruel
To come to me this way?
My Laurie left this world on her birthday -
She died a year ago today."

A strange force drew me to the graveyard.
I stood in the dark,
I saw the shadows wave,
And then I looked and saw my sweater
Lyin' there upon her grave.

Strange things happen in this world.


Yeah, now tell me how morbid the Goths are :-)

--bkl

[UCLA02]

66. THAT's IT!!!

Thanks, I knew somebody here would know what I was talking about!

[montana_hazeleyes]

52. "St. James Infirmary"

By Bobby "Blue" Bland.

[amandae]

54. "Cats in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin

Kids grow up so fast ... this one makes me weepy.

[Nlighten1]

56. Unhappy Birthday or Last Night I Dreamt Someone Loved Me

by The Smiths of course.

[BuckeFushe]

58. Mike & The Mechanics-The Living Years

absolute max guilt song.

[hlthe2b]

68. I'll ditto that.... definite wrenching, guilt trip....

[Dogmudgeon]

61. Forever Autumn

Probably as close to Gloomy Sunday as anyone working in English has come.

I'm surprised it hasn't been covered yet.

--bkl

[supernova]

80. Oh yes,

the Moody Blues. I love that and thought of it for this; but I couldn't remember the name of the song.

I have the version that's stuck in the album version of War of the Worlds

[marigold20]

62. Seventeen

Janis Ian

[chaska]

67. Last Kiss (tragic, yet strangely funny)

Last Kiss

Where, oh where, can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven, so I've got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world

We were out on a date in my daddy's car
We hadn't driven very far
There in the road, straight ahead
A car was stalled, the engine was dead

I couldn't stop, so I swerved to the right
I'll never forget the sound that night
The screamin tires, the bustin glass
The painful scream that I heard last

Oh where, oh where, can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven, so I've got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world

When I woke up the rain was pourin down
There were people standin all around
Something warm flowing through my eyes
But somehow I found my baby that night

I lifted her head, she looked at me and said
'Hold me darling, just a little while'
I held her close, I kissed her our last kiss
I found the love that I knew I had missed

Well now she's gone
Even though I hold her tight
I lost my love, my life, that night

Oh where, oh where, can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven, so I've got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world

[booksenkatz]

71. So many great ones here! I'd like to add

the Dixie Chicks song, "Top of the World." That is the most goddamn depressing song I've heard in a good while, it completely captures regret and desire and unrealized dreams... I absolutely love it. Hell, I love sad songs just in general, maybe it's why I have a Patsy Cline website! No one could sing ache the way she did.

[chaska]

72. No one could sing ache the way she did

Pffft! You're just ... (wait for it) ... Crazy.... ;^)

[TOhioLiberal]

75. probably not one you'd recognize..

My 'favorite' sad song is one that most will probably not recognize.
It is 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room' by ABBA:

Long awaited darkness falls
Casting shadows on the walls
In the twilight hour i am alone
Sitting near the fireplace, dying embers warm my face
In this peaceful solitude
All the outside world subdued
Everything comes back to me again
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

Half awake and half in dreams
Seeing long forgotten scenes
So the present runs into the past
Now and then become entwined, playing games within my mind
Like the embers as they die
Love was one prolonged goodbye
And it all comes back to me tonight
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

I close my eyes
And my twilight images go by
All too soon
Like an angel passing through my room

There are times when I can listen to it without getting weepy. Not very often though...Reminds me of my kids growing up too fast. Now it reminds me of my mom's slow slip into the 'twilight' of alzheimers.

Regards,
Trekkerlass

[ChemEng]

76. "A Soldier's Letter" by Ernest Tubb

This is a real tear jerker....

[chaska]

77. Empty Rooms - Gary Moore

Loneliness is your only friend.
A broken heart that just won't mend
is the price you pay.


It's hard to take when love grows old.
The days are long and the nights turn cold
when it fades away.


You hope that she will change her mind,
but the days drift on and on.
You'll never know the reason why she's gone.


You see her face in every crowd.
You hear her voice, but you're still proud,
so you turn away.


You tell yourself that you'll be strong.
But your heart tells you,
this time you're wrong.


You hope that she will change her mind,
but the days drift on and on.
You'll never know the reason why she's gone.


Empty rooms,
where we learn to live without love.
Empty rooms,
where we learn to live without love.
Empty rooms,
where we learn to live without love.

[Valerie5555]

78. How about "I take the fall" by ELO from the Xanadu soundtrack

eom

[Nihil]

82. Three that make me choke up with emotion ...

"I'd give my life for you" (from Miss Saigon)
"Empty chairs at empty tables" (from Les Miserables)
"Come away Melinda" (Uriah Heep)

Nihil

[politicat]

84. I'd forgotten about Empty Chairs. *black mood rising* sniff.... NT