Lonely sounding songs

Le singe blue by Vangelis, featuring the loneliest trumpet I've ever heard.

 

I played a wedding back in the late '80's where the bride requested my band prepare "That's the way I've always heard it should be" by Carly Simon for the happy couple's first dance. I couldn't think of a more inappropriate request. The song so beautifully and hauntingly illustrates the "two can be as lonely as one" tragedy stated in The Dog Night's "One". Yes, after the sad reverie in Carly's lyric, there is the hopeful, "We'll marry", but it comes off as a quite less than positive resignation. I always had to wonder just how well the bride-to-be understood the lyrics of the song she requested. I always figured she just loved the entrancing melody, knew the song was about marriage and didn't really consider the rest of the lyrics.

 

Fairport Convention, Fotheringay. Sandy Denny at her best.

 

no one can simultaneously break and soothe your heart like francoise

 

"Hello Walls" is one of many great loneliness tunes from Willie Nelson's early career.

 

Dead Confederate by Jerry Joseph. Definitely a lonely sounding tune. Fantastic slide from Jason Isbell.

 

"Whispering Pines" (The Band) and this one, "Quiet Night" by Anna Ternheim:

 

the high lonesome sound as personified by Bill Monroe methinks...

 

more Bill

 

but nothing is lonelier sounding that Hank Sr. on Ramblin' Man...

 

Stanley Brothers - Rank Stranger

 

As far as instrumentals go, Floyd Cramer's Last Date. Which kind of paved the way for a rare instrumental "answer record" - his terrific On the Rebound, No.1 in the UK!

 

Yes...Roy was a master of the "loneliness" vibe!

 

"I Can't Make Music" by the Carpenters

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Merle Haggard "If I Could Only Fly", not the one with Willie Nelson, but the one from the early 2000s on an album of the same title, if I'm remembering correctly.
Gets me every time.

Also, "Bluer than Blue" from Michael Johnson.

 

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Grand Canaria

 

Footprints by Paul McCartney from the often maligned Press to Play album, 1986.

 

Ian and Sylvia-"The Lovin' Sound"

 

Ruby and the Romantics-"Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore" (also recorded by the Carpenters)

 

Hallelujah Jeff Buckley version

 

Speaking of Ian Tyson,his song "Someday
Soon" when sung by Judy Collins sounds pretty damn lonely.

 

La Cienega Just Smiled, Ryan Adams. Sad song accompanied by melancholy music.

 

You're only lonely - JD Souther

 

Probably written in 1862. Stephen Foster.