There are songs that everyone considers sad/melancholy because that's the theme of the song, but one that I relate to is Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again." The song makes me think of a cute girlfriend I had decades ago. After about 18 months together, I ended the relationship (for no particular reason - she didn't do anything wrong - I just thought maybe I should move on). I was OK with my decision for many months, not looking back. Dated a few others, ya know? Then I ran into my ex-girfriend at a square in Boston two years later and we talked briefly (she left a group of girls she was walking with to talk for a moment). She looked fantastic. After that meeting, I thought to myself, "What the hell did I do two years ago?" I never approached her about rekindling the relationship, even though at that particular time I think she was between relationships herself. Should I have said something? Who knows - and what would she have thought? I'll never know. What I do know is that after seeing her and driving home that night, I felt like I wanted to cry. I didn't, but that's how I felt. Bothered me for weeks. It's just a matter of regret - which has its own sadness. I went on to other relationships of course, as did she, but I never forgot her. Point is, the song lyrics sum up how I felt when I met her two years after we broke up - and how I felt after. "Today I started loving you again, and I'm right back where I've always been. I got over you just long enough to let my heartache mend, Then today I started loving you again." BTW, in the 70's country singer Sammi Smith also did a knockout version of the song. The 45 rpm version is close-miked, very intimate and a great recording.
Townes Van Zandt - Tecumseh Valley That song is so sad it should be outlawed for people of certain dispositions to listen to.
I'm not going through 19 pages of videos to see if it's been mentioned, but it's "And the band played Waltzing Matilda" by Pogues. War is such a dreadful waste.
How about Dusty In Here by The Go-Betweens. When you know that Grant Mclennan's father dies when he was very young the line "His fathers watch, he left it in the shower" is heartbreaking.
Prog-metal band, Pain of Salvation Trace of Blood Sad enough musically, before you even figure out that the song is about Daniel Gildenlow's (lead vocalist and guitarist) and his wife's first child being stillborn. Then it becomes gut wrenching. Pretty gut wrenching and visceral stuff, this. Touching ground Going home to those I miss Safe and sound Weeks of exile turn to bliss But there's something in her voice when she is calling me A trace of blood to lead me through roads of agony With blood taste in my mouth and clouds before my eyes, I kneel beside the bed where my bleeding dryad lies Three young souls in misery Hitting ground Nausea wakes me up at dawn Hopes are found Dissected, turned and then withdrawn A chair of steel and wire Her legs are open wide Helpless in myself I stand there cold beside The doctors stay away Leave us with this dismay To see the colours of a miracle fade and turn to grey Then a cry and rivers of blood flow so sadly, bringing you Our dreams pour into a cold tray Two young souls in misery Missing you I never knew your name, but I will miss you just the same I was to live for you I lost the will to live at all the day you came It'll never be the same, but I will love you just the same You were to be the first, how wonderful Now I will always fear to hope again The irony of seeing me whispering through her skin so joyfully to our child there deep within Or of when she called to me to tell me cheerfully that she had seen your shape on a hospital screen And of nurses being concerned that you never moved or turned Too late we see the warnings Too late we learn!! I never saw your face and now you're gone without a trace Except the trace of blood that's deeply scarred into my eyes to fill your place It'll never be the same, but I will love you just the same I was prepared to be your father How can I ever prepare for that again? Still I follow that trace of blood always leading back to you Hollow years of damming that flood Two young souls in misery Missing you... missing you...
Yes, it’s on the Mark Kozelek / Ben Boye / Jim White thing... it’s amazing but really cinematically sad
Translations like this are why people think Jacques Brel's work's depressing... the original is actually a comic song about a man on his deathbed saying goodbye to his cheating wife... and the chorus is pretty much: I want song! I want dance! I want fun like crazy When they shove me in the ground!
Mon Enfance by Jacques Brel. I love the song - it's really beautiful, particularly the piano - but I really can't listen to it without crying. It's essentially about the hopes and dreams people have as children being sapped away by life. It's about youth and adventure in a world betrayed by adulthood, and aspirations going unrealised. There's fantastic lines that mean one thing, but then have their meanings twisted when the next lines come along, like: "My childhood passed... dreaming of China" (i.e. dreaming of far-off mysterious lands,) is followed with "...growing old on the kitchen shelves". There's also beautiful metaphors - praying is described as "kneeling down for nothing, arpeggiating my unhappiness"... The song's final verse centres around the narrator reaching adolescence and awakening to the world - learning of love and tenderness. But this is cut short by silence, and the final lines, punctuated by the orchestra: "And then the war arrived. And here we are, tonight..."
Amen! Ever heard this version: Artist: Lee Ritenour (sung by Kurt Elling) Album: Rhythm Sessions Song: River Man Throws me into an emotional tizzy, EVERY TIME I hear it... Powerful. powerful stuff! .
Can't make up my mind. A toss-up between two Elliott Smith songs: Between the Bars Oh Well, Okay https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NX8aGlh1JBM
Indeed Nick Drake and Hank Williams and Jacques Brel and Herbert Grönemeyer and... and... But also, the one of the last live versions of Hurt by Elvis. I don't know about you, but I feel his pain, it is overwhelming. As one biographer put it (paraphrasing): if the exclamation of pain by Elvis is such, it is a miracle we had him for so long as we had. Another heartbreaking song is the last live recorded and officially released version of Can't Help Falling In Love (the regular show closer). Elvis is hardly making it through the song, being too tired and involved with the crowd, but at the end he belts this long and heartfelt YOU... Another Elvis related recording I wish to showcase, is his studio rendition of Solitaire: Take 7 and Elvis, half jokingly says that he is going to kill Neil Sedaka he sees him, that is the extent he is in pain as he relates to the lyrics. Technically not the best at all, but the voice carries the emotions he is feeling.
