OPO: Saddest line from a song

I will also only pick

When was the first time you realised the next time would be the last time (Palace - "(thou without) partner")

(Papa Was a Rolling Stone - The Temptations)

"And when he died, all he left us was alone"

("This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush)

When Johnny Cash sings it, it's even sadder.

-The Mercy Seat

x-post

I'm not sure if it's necessarily sad, but definitely big time on a downer note is "No Children" by the Mtn Gts, from Tallahassee, which I bought last week.

'I want to give up, lay down and die'
(These Days I Barely Get By)

'I've heard the sound of my dear old momma praying,
And the sound of the train that took me off to war,
And the awful sound of a thousand bombs exploding,
And I wondered if I could take it any more

There were times when they almost drove me crazy,
But I did my best, I took it like a man.
But who would think , in my lonely room I'd hear it,
The one sound in the world a heart can't stand.

To hear that sound and know it's really over
Through tear-stained eyes I watched her walk away,
And of earthquakes, storms, and guns and wars,
Lord nothing has ever hurt me more than that lonely sound
The closing of the Door.'

(The Door)

(Take your pick)

The Dolly Ranchers

some escape some door to open
this path seems the blackest but i
guess it's the soonest
but there in the clearing i
know you'll be wearing
your young aching smile and
waving your hand
can't go with my heart when i
can't feel what's in it i
thought you'd come over
but for some reason you didn't
glass on the pavement under my shoe
without you is all my life amounts to

a final sleep no
words from my cutting
mouth to your ear or
taut wicked pinches
from my fingers to your bitter face
that i can't heal
i know tomorrow
you will be
somewhere in london
living with someone
you've got some kind of family
there to turn to
and that's more than i could ever give you

a chance for calm
a hope for freedom
outlet from my cold solitary kingdom
by the forest of our spring stay
where you walked away
and left a bleeding part of me
empty and bothered
watching the water
quiet in the corner
numb and falling through
without you what does my life amount to?

Take your pick.

I will also add:

When you have no one, no one can hurt you (Palace - "you will miss me when I burn")

"Strange Fruit" -- Billie Holiday

That's Captain Beefheart that is

Pet Shop Boys, "Being Boring"

"Dachau Blues"

Dachau blues those poor jews
Dachau blues those poor jews
Down in Dachau blues, down in Dachau blues
Still cryin' 'bout the burnin' back in world war two's
One mad man six million lose
Down in Dachau blues down in Dachau blues
Dachau blues, Dachau blues those poor jews
The world can't forget that misery
'n the young ones now beggin' the old ones please
t' stop bein' madmen
'fore they have t' tell their children
'bout the burnin' back in World War Three's
War One was balls 'n powder 'n blood 'n snow
War Two rained death 'n showers 'n skeletons
Danced 'n screamin' 'n dyin' in the ovens
Cough 'n smoke 'n dyin' by the dozens
Down in Dachau blues
Down in Dachau blues
Three little children with doves on their shoulders
Their eyes rolled back in ecstasy cryin'
Please old man stop this misery
They're countin' out the devil
With two fingers on their hands
Beggin' the Lord don't let the third one land
On World War Three
On World War Three

"It only costs a buck for three tries,
Though money never buys enough of anything"

http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/ink/seal.html

"Love, love will tear us apart again"

"And in a darkened underpass / I thought "Oh, god, my chance has come at last" / but then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn't ask."

looked beyond the day in hand, there's nothing there at all
joy division- 24 hours

T.R.O.Y. by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth...natch.

Smashing Pumpkins, In The Arms Of Sleep

"So I got bored and left them there, they were just dead weight to me. Better down the road without that load."
-Thrasher

(really, all of that song...)

And I remember when you made me feel so good
Just to be near you
Oh, you've let me down so much I fear you

Also:

"Just smile all the time" (repeated to fade) -- Wilco, "How to Fight Loneliness"

"Feel like a child on a dark night / Wishing there was some kind of heaven" -- Culture Club, "Victims"

"But what I never say is Stay this time / I really meant to so bad this time" -- David Bowie, "Stay"

(the latter is a wholly personal choice ...)

I'm a cork on the ocean
Floating over the raging sea
How deep is the ocean?
How deep is the ocean?
I lost my way
Hey hey hey

I'm a rock in a landslide
Rolling over the mountainside
How deep is the valley?
How deep is the valley?
It kills my soul
Hey hey hey

I'm a leaf on a windy day
Pretty soon I'll be blown away
How long will the wind blow?
How long will the wind blow?
Ohhhh

Until I die
Until I die
These things I'll be until I die
These things I'll be until I die

etc

You said that you hated days that end so soon/'cause they make your life slip away - "I Can't Find My Brittle Youth" by Hood

Death comes so slow when it's all you want/and it takes the ones that don't - "So Slow" by Sophia

So when does the message come?/and when do they tear my sweet dreams down? - "Messenger" by Aereogramme

Me = sloppy.

Also, I third Katy Song.

"glass on the pavement under my shoe/without you is all my life amounts to"

(blue and grey shirt, american music club)

"The bells aren't ringing today -
they won't be ringing tomorrow"

- Vennaskond, 'Viimane jõuluöö' ('The Last Christmas Night')

Into the briefly opening vocal-less gulf between the two lines, all the world's kingdoms, kings, their horses and men and women sink in a blink, without a trace, and for a moment it feels as if nothing can ever drag any of them up into daylight again, but then - the next lines, albeit apparently no more hopeful, unhurriedly unfold, and the last verse eventually fades and the violin, just like at the start of the song, flows to the fore. And it's still snowing all over the desolate townscape, "while those asleep/ ain't yet awake".

Damn, I don't think I've heard another Xmas song - certainly not by a rock band - that mezmerises me so.

Day by day it's more impossible to cope
I feel like I'm the one that's doing dope
Can't keep a steady hand because I'm nervous
Every Sunday morning I'm in service
Playing for forgiveness
And trying to find an exit out of the business
I know the Lord is looking at me
But yet and still it's hard for me to feel happy
I often drift while I drive
Havin fatal thoughts of suicide
BANG and get it over with
And then I'm worry-free, but that's bullshit
I got a little boy to look after
And if I died then my child would be a bastard
I had a woman down with me
But to me it seemed like she was down to get me
She helped me out in this shit
But to me she was just another bitch
Now she's back with her mother
Now I'm realizing that I love her
Now I'm feeling lonely
My mind is playing tricks on me

-randy newman "old man".

gah! each line is sadder than the next. and the silence at the end is even sadder! genius.

And without a sound
I turn around
And I walk away

-Roy Harper, "Another Day"

-Tom Waits, "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Today"

Lovers in a Dangerous Time - Bruce Cockburn

Walter's on the telephone
Tell him I am not at home
'Cause I think that I
Am going to a place where I am always high

My name's Elizabeth
My life is shit and piss

-Eels, "Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor"

"I told myself it was all something in her/But as we drove, I knew it was something in me/Something that had been coming/For a long time/Something that found us there/Out on Highway 29"

This boardwalk life for me is through
You know you ought to quit this scene too

from 4th of July, Asbury Park

And here's where your mother sleeps
And here is the room where your brothers were born
Indentions in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don't move anymore
And it's so sad to see the world agree
That they'd rather see their faces fill with flies
All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes

Neutral Milk Hotel - "Holland, 1945"

they found you in spain, face down in the street.
with a bottle in your hand, and a wild smile on your face,
and a knife in your back. you died in a foreign land.
and they found my letter rolled up in your pocket,
where i said i'd kill myself if she left me again.
so now she's gone, and you're both on my mind.
and i've one thing to say before i am drunk again: god damn the sun.

If there's a new love in your heart
Well, tell me now, get it over
Hurt me now, get it over
If there's a new love in your heart

Don't leave me here
In a world filled with dreams that might have been
Hurt me now, get it over
I may learn to love again

If there's a new love in your heart
Well, tell me now, get it over
Hurt me now, get it over
If there's a new love in your heart

Hurt me now, get it over
If there's a new love in your heart

oh here on South Tacoma Way
We've memories for matinees
and the tears come warm and heavy
and the cross streets bear your name
oh the cross streets bear your name

Neko Case "South Tacoma Way"

------

it always has to come to this
the red bells ring this tragic hour
we've lost sight of the overpass
the daylight won't remember that
the speckled fawns grazed 'round your bones
who took the time to fold you clothes
and shook the valley of the shadow

where does this mean world cast its cold eye?
who's left to suffer long about you?
does your soul cast about like an old paper bag
past empty lots life and early graves
of those like you who lost their way
murdered on the interstate
while the red bells rang like thunder

Neko Case "Deep Red Bells"

-------------

This is why people OD on pills and jump from the Golden Gate Bridge. Anything to feel weightless again.

Handsome Family - "Weightless Again"

...and making love was just for fun. ERIC CARMEN

"Everything must go / the shadow, the seagulls..."
-Blood Brothers, The Shame

Actually, SFA's "Phantom Power" has many great melancholic moments:

"If tears could kill / I'd be a long time gone..."

"As brother / fights brother / wrapped up in tarnished flags / banners and body bags / surrender."

"I've got one final thing to say / I'm not your father anyway / found you under a stone / left outside by the wolves one day."

"Milk the scapegoat / milk it dry / put it down and watch it die."

"Served it up for her son and her daughter / for the last time she imagines..."

"Rocks are slow life." (moreso the delivery, admittedly)

'I's up this mornin'
ah, blues walkin' likre a man
Blues fell mama's child
Tore me all upside down
The blues is a low-down shakin' chill
You ain't never had em
I hope you never will
The blues is a achin' old heart disease
Like consumption killing me by degrees
I can study rain
I been studyin the rain
I'm on drive my blues away

She got a phonograph
ooo-wont say a lonesome word
What evil have i done
What evil has the poor girl heard

I mistreated my baby
But I cant see no reason why
Everytime I think about it
I just wring my hands and cry

My mama dead
Aint got nobody
To love and care for me

She got a mortgage on my body
And a lien on my soul

Now little girl, since I am a King
And you is a queen
Let us put our heads together
oo, fair brown, then we can make our money green.

I’d walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love, let’s be real
* I never thought I could act this way *
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelin’s gone
And I just can’t get it back

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
’bout a ghost from a wishin’ well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
But stories always end
And if you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just tryin’ to understand
The feelings that you lack
I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just to get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling's gone
And I just can’t get it back

Gordon Lightfoot: "If You Could Read My Mind"

Also:

"Why is the bedroom so cold? You've turned away on your side
Is my timing that flawed, our respect run so dry?"
-Joy Division, "Love Will Tear Us Apart

"'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice
And when justive is gone, there's always force
And when force is gone, there's always Mom
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms."
-Laurie Anderson, "O Superman"

"Your mom would drink until she was no longer speaking
And dad would dream about the different ways to die
Each one a little more than he could dare to try."
-Neutral Milk Hotel, "King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1"

"In my life, I hope I lie
And tell everyone you were a good wife
And I hope you die
I hope we both die."
-Mountain Goats, "No Children"

"I've been riding with the ghost
I've been doing whatever he told me
I've been looking door to door to see
if there was someone who'd hold me..

See I ain't getting better. I am only getting behind
I am standing on a crossroad trying to make up my mind
I'm trying to remember how it got so late
Why every night pain comes from a different place...

I put my foot to the floor
To make up for the miles I've been losing
See I'm running out of things
I didn't even know I was using"

'I've been riding with the Ghost' from Magnolia Electric Co.

Tiny tears make up an ocean
Tiny tears make up a sea
Let them pour out, pour out all over
Don't let them pour all over me

How can you hurt someone so much you're supposed to care for
Someone you said you'd always be there for
But when that water breaks you know you're gonna cry, cry
When those tears start rolling you'll be back

Tiny tears make up an ocean
Tiny tears make up the sea
Let them pour out, pour out all over
Don't let them pour all over me

You've been thinking about the time, you've been dreading it
But now it seems that moment has arrived
She's at the edge of the bed, she gets in
But it's hard to turn the opposite way tonight

Tindersticks - Tiny Tears

& also a Waits' song of course:

All the lies that you tell
I believed them so well, Take them back
Take them back to your red house
For that fearful leap into the dark
I did my time
In the jail of your arms
Now Ophelia wants to know
Where she should turn
Tell me... What did you do,
What did you do the last time?...
Why don't you do that
Go on ahead take this the wrong way
Time's not your friend
Do you cry, Do you pray
Do you wish them away
Do you still leave nothing
But bones in the way

magnetic fields 'candy'

Peter Green "Man Of The World"

"It's a good thing
I dont have any feelings,
a damn good thing,
that I can't feel a damn thing,
anymore"

"I know I'm not suppossed to say I'm sorry
I know you've had more loves than Mata-Hari
but you know you're the star of my life story
and I'm so sorry"

"I saw something in your eyes
that I'll never find again
and now there's something in mine
so I'll walk out in the rain"

"I got all dressed-up in dreams
and I waited by the door
but you never even called
to tell me you don't love me anymore"

-Lene Nystrom

PS Hey Ryan Pitchfork why the fuck ain't you returning my emails?

"Never gonna say those words again/No not to anyone...that matters" - Saint Etienne, Sadie's Anniversary

"The only stars there really are were shining in your eyes/there is no sun except the one that never shone on other guyes/the moon to whom the poets croon has given up and died/astronomy will have to be revised..." - The Magnetic Fields, I Don't Believe in the Sun

Hank Williams, as sung by George Jones.

PS, Coq: Don't take it personally, I haven't responded to any (yet).

Beach Boys - Tears In The Morning

"Everywhere I go is just another place without you in it"
- er, forgotten what it's called but it's by The National and it's fantastic.

...They found her the next day cuffed to the bed
A rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head
O poor Mary Bellows...

---Nick Cave -- "The Kindness of Strangers"

...For them life has just begun. But mine, oh lord, is at an end
And all I could do is Cry...

---Miss Etta James from 1963s Rocks The House

...I'm cool an' determined as any salamander, ma'am,
Will ye come to me wake when I go the long meander, ma'am?
And I'll think meself as valliant as the famous Alexander, ma'am
When I hear ye cryin' o'er me,
"Awah! Why did ye die?"

---James MacCafferty circa 1930

...Don’t look for me, cuz I’ll get ahead
Remember darling, Don’t Smoke in Bed...

---Nina Simone from In Concert

"The greatest thing, you'll ever learn
is just to love, and be loved in return."

---Various artists -- "Nature Boy" (I think i prefer Alex Chilton's run-through best)

-- the surface noise (electricsoun...), January 26th, 2004.

YES... but wasn't this by Holiday fea. Merritt?

Lord, that makes me WEEP. RIP Tammy

the ever cheerful lou reed

"my ship's a sail, can you hear its tender frame screaming from beneath the waves? screaming from beneath the waves?" -- echo & the bunnymen, "ocean rain"

"The old man rocks among his dreams, a prisoner of the porch;
'The light,' he says, 'At the end of the tunnel,
Was nothin' but a burglar's torch.'
And them that was caught in the Cover are all rich and free,
But they chained my mind to an endless tomb
When they took my only son from me.

I know it's true, oh so true, 'cause I saw it on TV.
I know it's true, oh so true, 'cause I saw it on TV." -- john fogerty, "i saw it on tv"

I'm not even a Manics fan, but that line is so loaded with utter bleakness.

Wilco, "Ashes of American Flags" (from YHF whose original release date was s'posed to be Sept. 11th 2001)

Einstürzende Neubauten, "Die Befindlichkeit des Landes"

Drugstore understatedly rule this thread:
"I don't wanna be here without you another day"

"In my mouth the sad taste of the past I had a thousand wasted kisses" -- I Know I Could

"Every way to smile, forget
And make-believe we never needed
Any more than this."
--The Cure, "A Letter to Elise"

"And in the darkened underpass
I thought oh god, my chance has come at last
But then a strange fear gripped me and I
Just couldn't ask."
--The Smiths, "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"

'There's just one last favour I ask of you
Won't you see that my grave is kept clean'

Sun Comes up, Its Tuesday Morning - The Cowboy Junkies.

- Pet Shop Boys, "Dreaming of the Queen"

Randy Newman, Texas Girl at the Funeral Of Her Father

If you never heard him sing, I guess you won't too soon
Neil Young "Tonight's the Night"

The emptiest of feelings
Disappointed people clinging onto bottles
When it comes, it's so, so disappointing
Radiohead "Let Down"

Chickamauga's where I been
Solitude is where I'm bound
I don't ever want to taste those tears again
Uncle Tupelo "Chickamauga"

I am not the type of dog that can keep you waiting
REM "Hairshirt"

I go to some hollow
And set up my holy holy still
If drinking do not kill me
Then I don’t know what will

I go to some bar room
And drink with my friends
If women and men would come to follow
To see what I might spend
God bless them handsome men
I wish they was mine

They’re breath is as sweet as
The dew on the holy holy vine

You’re already in hell, you’re already in hell
I wish we could go to hell

When the bottle gets empty
Then life ain’t worth the drown

Cat Power "Moonshiner"

As long as you come back to me
I will never ask
For you I will be
The man in the iron mask

You said you love me and it broke my heart
I was always your prisoner right from the start
The nights you spend without me
this house is like a dungeon
And you only return to torture me more

You must have your reasons
I will no ask -
For you I will be
The Man in the Iron Mask

Billy Bragg - Man in the Iron Mask (the Paul Young b-side version of course)

-- Sam Cooke, "A Change is Gonna Come"

Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues

From "Good Year For The Roses"
I can hardly bear the sight of lipstick
On the cigarettes there in the ashtray
Lyin’ cold the way you left ’em
But at least your lips caressed them while you packed
Or the lip-print on a half-filled cup of coffee that you poured and didn’t drink
But at least you thought you wanted it
That’s so much more than I can say for me

From "The Grand Tour"
As you leave you'll see the nursery -
oh she left me without mercy,
taking nothing but our baby and my heart

i cheated, but..

Bob Dylan (and many others): Delia

-- Chris V (formerlypoopsmcge...), January 22nd, 2004.
no you take a pick .
read the topic and answer the question.pick ONE line.

i stand by my original answer.

"Painted portraits of minions & slaves
Crotch mavens and one night plays
Are they the only ones who laugh?
At the jokes when they are so bad
And the jokes they’re always bad
But they’re not as bad as this"

Kinks: Do You Remember, Walter?

"Walter, you are just an echo of a world I knew so long ago
If you saw me now you wouldn't even know my name."

She said her life was like a motorway: Dull, grey and long, 'till he came along. He's gone.

"some fall in love, i shatter" magnetic fields - i shatter

bang there was you too gold too blue you told the truth /
i cried / you flew / you called me mad (and i am mad) as a hatter /
some fall in love i shatter / you make it rain / too bleak, too stark /
should night not fall you make things dark / bang here am i /
no one nowhere no ground no sky no light no air

close second:

"what else is there left to do but love" califone - fisherman's wife

there’s no light in the window / holes in the plot / soaked in the sound waiting to be found / with your heart attack shoulders / the parking lot shakes / you come like a natural disaster / the fisherman’s wife sends you out to sea with more requests / you bite like a hammer but you don’t mean a thing / the cardinal staggers / vinegar skies / burned up the carpet / lazy to change / the cashier grins an electrical storm / dizzy and shortchanged / charms you blind / when you fall you fall like fists / of snow soaked in turpentine / paul and silas soaked in the sound / you’re a razor in the silk aching to be found / no light / the fisherman’s wife sends you out to sea with more requests / what else is there left to do but love

Listen to me, Butterfly
there's only so much wine
you can drink in one life
and it will never be enough
to save you from the bottom of your glass.

Where the state highway starts
I stopped my car.
I got out and stared up at the stars.
As meteors died and shot cross the sky,
I thought about your sad, shining eyes.
I came back for my clothes
when the sun finally rose
but you were still passed out on the floor.

Listen to me, Butterfly
there's only so much wine
you can drink in one life
and it will never be enough
to save you from the bottom of your glass.
----------------------------------------------------
Late New Year's Eve, paper hat on your head,
it's hard to believe you'll ever be dead.
But that dream where you're falling
you've had since you're five
is a bird on your shoulder who whispers goodbye.

Evil Knievel shot up from dead grass.
I loved him better each time he crashed.
Liza Minnelli spent a month in her bed
certain that Skylab would fall on her head.
One night I dreamed that I dug my own grave
and climbed down inside to patiently wait.
Down in the ground I breathed the warm air
and blackbirds flew down to nest in my hair.

What is moving will be still.
What's been gathered will disperse.
What's been built up will collapse.
All your dreams fulfilled

"One day we’ll live together and life will be better/I’ve got it here, yeah, in my mind.” - Interpol

and we could dance
Joy Division, "Transmission"

"why is the bedroom so cold"

from love will tear us apart. says everything.

(Sinead O'Connor)

I lay down there and watch you getting dressed. It's still so clear
You laughed and pulled your knees up to your chest if I came near

(Gedge)

Gwen Stefani, "Cool"

('Smoke and Mirrors', The Magnetic Fields)

I know it's OPO but each of those lines to me is pretty desolate, as a whole crushing. Morrissey - Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself

and it was unintentional
when i spit in your beer
i am over-influenced
by movies

also-

i'll give anything to try once
i'll try anything 3 times
i don't care i don't care i don't care

What's sadder than dogs dying of broken hearts?

cum on feel the noize
girls rock your boys
we'll get wild wild wild
wild wild wild

"slowly your beauty is eaten away
by the scent of someone else
in the blankets where we lay"?

(er: perhaps because last time i quoted it, alba appeared and argued that it didn't make any sense)

"Girl behind the counter with a tattooed tear, one for every year he's been away, she said."
Tom Waits

Robyn - Be Mine

-Gillian Welch, "Orphan Girl"

Which made me think of The Cure:
there was nothing in the world that i ever wanted more,
than to never feel the breaking apart all my pictures of you

always at the foot of the photograph - that's me there
snug as a thug in a mugshot pose, a foul-mouthed rogue
owner of this corner and not much more
still these days i'm better placed to get my just rewards
i'll pound out a tune and very soon
i'll have too much to say and a dead stupid name

rubbing shoulders with the sheets till two
looking at my watch and i'm half-past caring
in the lap of luxury it comes to mind
is this headboard hard? am i a lap behind?
but to face doom in a sock-stenched room all by myself
is the kind of fate i never contemplate
lots of people would cry though none spring to mind

know what it's like
to sigh at the sight of the first quarter of life?
ever stopped to think and found out nothing was there?

they laugh to see such fun
i'm playing blind man's bluff all by myself
and they're chanting a line from a nursery rhyme
"ba ba bleary eyes - have you any idea?"

years of learning i must be a veteran
of "oh i like your poetry but I hate your poems"
and the calendar's cluttered with days that are numbered
i've turned 21, i've twist, i'm bust and wrong again

or this, from 'only tongue can tell', which is KILLER:

and the itch to get rich quick
has never been so hard to reach
with my hands tied behind my back
shin deep in cement and sand
just like the anchor man i broke loose
and crashed to the sea bed
clutching the shortest straw
and if you threw me a line that's as smart as you think
it wouldn't stop me sinking down to cry
on what flashed before my eyes
what flashed before my eyes

ouch.

- Bob Dylan, "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"

"Put me in your suitcase
Let me help you pack
'Cause you're never coming back
No, you're never coming back"

- Devendra Banhart, "At the Hop"

"I loved you, well, nevermind."

Bruce Springsteen "The River"

My body aches the time is here it's lonely in this place where I'm lyin'
Our baby has been born but something's wrong it's much too still I hear no cryin'
I guess in some strange way she knew she'd never have a father's arms to hold her
And dying was her way of telling me he wasn't coming down from Dover
Dolly

Every morning I wake up and worry
What's gonna happen today
You see it your way, and I see it mine
But we both see it slipping away
-- The Eagles, Best of My Love

Now that our love can never be
More than a wistful memory
I try not to fall in love with you
Though time after time, I do
-- ? Whiffenpoofs, Time After Time

Why can't I forget the past
And start my life anew
Instead of having sweet dreams about you?
-- ? Patsy Cline, Sweet Dreams

But the one song that never fails to tear me up is:

Where are you going, my little one, little one?
Where are you going, my baby, my own?
Turn around, and you're two,
Turn around, and you're four.
Turn around, and you're a young girl walking out of my door.
-- Malvina Reynolds, Turn Around

(They're 19 and 17 now, and I still started crying as I typed this.)

If I wasn't going to get shouted out for not following the rules of the thread, then I would quote "The Wide Eyed Child In Me" by Edwyn Collins. All of it.

if not for Christmas, by New Year's night...

Just give me two good reasons
Why you find me so displeasing
And I'll gladly go the way I came
But there's no method in your madness
Only unforgiving sadness
And to leave right now just seems insane
I guess it's just the pace of life
That's tearing us apart
Running rings around my heart
Before we've even started
But yet the wide-eyed child in me
Still believes in destiny
Still believes our dreams will be fulfilled
And if I'm too demanding
It's just lack of understanding
'Cos I know sometimes it's hard for you to cope
But I've given you a rainbow
Vainly wishing that our love would grow
Now I've nothing left to offer you but hope

(This one's all in the delivery.)

Sufjan's falsetto in full gut-wrenching power nails this to my heart.

Someone misattributed a line from Jesus Etc. to Ashes of American Flags a lot earlier in this thread, and ironically enough, the real winner was there all along! Oh so close:

All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new

Eh? Eh? It's positively mournful.

You're a wasted face,
You're a sad-eyed lie
You're a holocaust

Now that's just downright harrowing.

songs: ohia "How to be perfect men"

It's sad, cause I'd hoped they weren't coming back

- Peggy Lee

- Marine Girls, "Love To Know" (not sad for the singer, but sad for the song's poor, pathetic Mark)

^^ this, precisely because the speaker is no less devoted for that

Also, this thread needs more Merritt/Momus!

I know I'm not supposed to say I'm sorry
I know you've had more loves than Mata Hari
But you know you're the star of my life story
And I'm so sorry

"Your daddy never meant to hurt you ever
He just don't live here, but you've got his eyes"

Once I laughed when I heard you saying
That I'd be playing solitaire
Uneasy in my easy chair
It never entered my mind.

And once you told me I was mistaken
That I'd awaken with the sun
And ordered orange juice for one.
It never entered my mind.

You had what I lack, myself
Now I even have to scratch my back myself.

Once you warned me that if you scorned me,
I'd say the maiden's prayer again
And wish that you were there again
To get into my hair again.
It never entered my mind.

It never entered my mind.

Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart

Cease to know or to tell
Or to see or to be your own
Have someone else's will as your own
You are beautiful and you are alone
Often the adolescent plague
Reward your grace
Confuse your hunger capture the fake
Banish the faceless reward your grace

(Nico, Afraid)

Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine
And a woman's lies makes a life like mine
-- Hank Williams, Lost Highway

Dont speak to me of lovers, with a broken heart.
You wanna know what can really tear you apart?
I'm going out to the barn, will I never stop in pain?
I'm going out to the barn, to hang myself in shame.
-- Violent Femmes, Country Death Song

"Ain't it funny how they all fire the pistol
at the wrong end of the race?"

-- the Who, "in a hand or a face"

But will you love me tomorrow?

like a baby stillborn, like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out to me

"OoooOOh Darling, Make it GO AWAY!!!
("This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush)

-- Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 22 January 2004 14:40 (4 years ago) Link

Precisely. Also,

Cause it's time you knew
All you can ever count on
Are the raindrops
That fall on little girl blue

No use old girl
You might as well surrender
'Cause your hopes are getting slender and slender

Nina Simone "Little Girl Blue"

Gear beat me to:

Late New Year's Eve, paper hat on your head,
it's hard to believe you'll ever be dead.

And the way you kiss will always be
A very special thing to me.

"It doesn't matter if we all die"

The Cure - Pornography

"I dressed for success
but success it never came"

You sign the papers in the family name,
You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed.....

some from codeine:

So you finally see her face at last, and the pain will never pass
You thought she was the only girl in the whole wide world for you
(broken hearted wine)

You say you're all alone, that's just 'cause, you don't want anybody home
See a smile, make it sad
Take it all so bad.
(D)

and you don't get upset about it
no not anymore
there's nothing wrong
that wasn't wrong before
(elliott smith)

there are more

A few from Townes Van Zandt:

We all got holes to fill
Them holes are all thats real.
Some fall on you like a storm,
Sometimes you dig your own.
(To Live Is To Fly)

I got me a friend at last
He don't drink or steal or cheat or lie
His name's codine
He's the nicest thing I've seen
Together were gonna wait around and die
(Waitin' Around To Die)

He only did what he had to do,
And now he's growing old
(Pancho & Lefty)

Hey mama, when you leave
Don't leave a thing behind
I don't want nothin'
I can't use nothin'
(Nothin')

"Black-eyed dog, he knows my name."

"I wonder why we came." --- Brian Eno, "By This River"

Is it worth so much when you taste it. i believe in you by talk talk

:) Good one, ConnieXX. Beautiful song.

"jesus loves me yes I know, because the bible told me so"

I'm revising my answer to Nina Simone's version of "Do What You Gotta Do":

"I've loved you better than your own KIN did!"

the license said you had to stick around until i was dead
but if you're tired of lookin at my face i guess i already am.

hi surmounter, what was up in that fall thread

lol i dunno

oh, ok.

thread, you can go on.

I'm changing my answer, too. in terms of number of times it's actually made me cry, it's gotta be

"I... had a feeling that I belonged
I... had a feeling I could be someone"

I don't care how corny people think that song is, shit's fuckin' real

The Comsat Angels have a lot of wrenching, emotionally numb and drained gems, but this line, from "High Tide" (from arguably their weakest album), is a doozy:

"Your name will be lost in the high, high tide"

obviously it's always hard to pick just one, especially when you're a melancholy sort & this question is asked. could just agree with a ton of choices upthread, but that would be pretty boring so...

"Dear Katie, since you've been away
I lose a little something every day
I need you here
But you're still out there."

--The Band .: Katie's Been Gone

"I wasn't born a thing to be scorned, a thing to be ignored"

"Things mean a lot at the time, don't mean nothing later"

(Red House Painters)

Sad because it's bothersomely true.

"Some mother's son ain't got no grave."

Thanks for representin' The Band, Myndbloom. This is the one by them that gets me every time

It makes no diff'rence where I turn
I can't get over you and the flame still burns
It makes no diff'rence, night or day
The shadow never seems to fade away

And the sun don't shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Now there's no love
As true as the love
That dies untold
But the clouds never hung so low before

It makes no diff'rence how far I go
Like a scar the hurt will always show
It makes no diff'rence who I meet
They're just a face in the crowd
On a dead-end street
And the sun don't shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

These old love letters
Well, I just can't keep
'Cause like the gambler says
Read 'em and weep
And the dawn don't rescue me no more

Without your love I'm nothing at all
Like an empty hall it's a lonely fall
Since you've gone it's a losing battle
Stampeding cattle
They rattle the walls

And the sun don't shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Well, I love you so much
It's all I can do
Just to keep myself from telling you
That I never felt so alone before

Jesus, help me find my proper place
Help me in my weakness
Cuz I'm falling out of grace

"With the money from the accident
She bought herself a mobile home" - Billy Bragg, "Levi Stubbs' Tears".

"Baby, please come home"
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

dunno if this has been posted yet, but...

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.

Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.

ugh. :(

dragon clouds so high above
i've only known careless love

xpost - Just came here to post some L. Cohen myself: this couplet from "Famous Blue Raincoat"

"And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody's wife."

Also:
This is the last day of our acquaintance
I will meet you later in somebody's office
I'll talk but you won't listen to me
I know what your answer will be

xxxxxpost but if you're tired of lookin at my face i guess i already am. -- Surmounter OTM

"Come on and kill me baby, while you smile like a friend" - Pulp

"And anything beautiful that you can contrive/Has no desire to survive" - American Music Club, "This Year"

Thanks for representin' The Band, Myndbloom

Those voices are so emotive. Manuel's especially. i envy that so much.

I told the undertaker
"Undertaker, please drive slow.
Cause this lady that you're haulin',
Well I hate to see her go."

(or any folksy variants on this)

So I went to the corner
Just to ease my pain
It was just to ease my pain
I got drunk
and I got sick
and I came home again

didn't time sound sweet, yesterday?
in a world filled with friends, you lose your way.

scott walker - big louise

i just wanna know how the story's gonna end/ truthfully you know, i wanna be more than just friends/ see you with a chick, i wanna throw her to the fence/ feeling like a kid again; like for you i'd cut school/ just to sit back and watch your every move/ you got me so stuck, i don't know what to do/ i'm actin like a fool, just feelin sumthin new/ but i'm hoping that you're feelin sumthin too

-lumidee on 'when i see you'

A picture from the past came slowly stealing
As I brushed your arm and walked so close to you
Then suddenly I got that old time feeling
I can't help it if I'm still in love with you

The only strings that hold me here
are tangled up around the pier

Just look at us now
(Start counting)
What adds up the way it did when we were young?
Look at us now
(Quit driving)
Some things hurt more, much more, than cars and girls.

and then one day the rains came and washed all the crops away (Patches - Clarence Carter).

since the rest of the song is hardly a laugh fest, being the sadest line is quite an achievement.

"Ive been down, but not like this before"

Little Feat-All That You Dream

"I'm going out of my mind, oh,
With a pain that stops and starts
Like a corkscrew to my heart
Ever since weve been apart."

Dylans youre a big girl now. its the way he sings that third line that gets me

"I've got six things on my mind, you're no longer one of them"

giving another Talk Talk line, just for the beauty of it.

Now that it's over
Rest your head

come to think of it, that might not be a sad line.

If you close the door, the night could last forever
Keep the sunshine out and say hello to never
All the people are dancing and they're havin such fun
I wish it could happen to me
But if you close the door, I'd never have to see the day again

seven o'clock, plucking roaches out the cereal box
we shared the same spoon watching saturday cartoons
sugar water was our thing, every meal was no thrill
in the summer, free lunch held us down like steel

&

He pointed to the charm on his neck
With his last bit of energy left, told me rock it with respect
I opened it, seen the God holdin his kids
Photogenic, tears just burst out my wig

Take me down to your dance floor
I won't mind the people when they stare

Gram Parsons

Now I don't know how to break this to you but her blue eyes were never blue. So now the good times are gone but really, they never arrived

Golden Palominos - Ride

The only certain thing that is left about me there is no part of my body that has not been used.
May as well be heaven this hell, smells the same. These sunless afternoons I can't find myself

Manic Street Preachers - Yes

Living is a gamble, loving's much the same, wherever I have played, wherever I throw those dice, the blues have run the game.

Jackson C. Frank - Blues run the game

And I've got this friend, you see who makes me feel and I wanted more than I could steal

Nirvana - Lounge act

I can smile in the face of mankind. Don't even remember what her lips felt on mine, most of the time

Bob Dylan - Most of the time

"Who wants to live forever? Who dares to love forever?" - Queen

didn't time sound sweet, yesterday?
in a world filled with friends, you lose your way.

scott walker - big louise

i came just to post that one. "two ragged soldiers" also kills me.

"The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
and visit their graves on holidays at best.
The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please.
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them."

or words to that effect

Also the whole Pain Teens version of Leonard Cohen's "Story of Isaac". It's way darker with a female narrator...

Particularly the lines:

"When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can."

does it make me an idiot if I say "In my dreams you're alive and you're crying"?

no!

also, because I was listening to it earlier today: the entirety of "Ambulance Blues" -- "It's easy to get buried in the past / When you try to make a good thing last", "Waitresses are cryin' in the rain / Will their boyfriends pass this way again?", "You're all just pissin' in the wind", etc etc

The last line of "Holes" by Mercury Rev:

"Bands; Those funny little plans; That never work quite right.."

Taken out of context, it doesn't have much weight, but when you consider that, pre-Deserter's Songs, MR did not have any semblance of the breakthrough success they would achieve with that album, it hits harder: Despite being on a major label and receiving (rightfully) orgasmic critical accolades for their first three records, the band had been rewarded with a tiny niche of a cult following and members that were dropping out one by one via due to addiction and disinterest. It was at this point that Donahue and co. entered the woodland fantasy realm of bowed saws and Tin Pan Alley crooning that they still exist today. But with that song, all the bombastic whimsy falls eventually gives way to the sobering reality that its writer/singer is close to resignation, making a cynical, last-ditch effort to save his failing career. That it worked is perhaps unfortunate, b/c the lack of that undercurrent of pathos in their recent records makes the songs ring hollow.

Im your toy.
Im your old boy,
But I dont want no one
But you to love me.

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

OTM but the part that gets me w/o fail: "pretty lights on the tree/i'm watching them shine/you should be here with me..."

I've been flushed from the bathroom of your heart, Mr Cash

The first time I made coffee for just myself I made too much of it
But I drank it all just cause you hate it when I let things go to waste
-"Woke Up New", The Mountain Goats

But when the first shot hit the docks I saw it comin'

That line from Neil Young's Powderfinger is pretty disturbing. Another downer from John Prine's Hello In There...

Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome

She's my friend, she doesn't judge me
She has no idea I'm ugly
- "Blind Mary", Gnarls Barkley

My arms are just two things in the way
Until I can wrap them around you.
--"My Head is My Only House Unless it Rains"

Friends ask me how i feel and i lie convincingly cos i don't want to reveal the fact that i'm suffering. So i wear my disguise til i go home at night i turn down all the lights and then i break down and cry. -mariah carey, breakdown-

My girl, my girl, don't lie to me, tell me where did you sleep last night? - Nirvana

Hope She'll Be Happier With Him - Bill Withers (candidate for saddest title ever)

It's just no good anymore when you walk through the door
To an empty room
You go inside and set a table for one, it's no fun
When you have to spend a day
Without her, do do do...
Without her, do do do...

Harry Nilsson - Without her

Angels have no thoughts
Of ever returning you
Wouldnt they be angry
If I thought of joining you?

-- Gloomy Sunday (composed by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress in 1933; known as the "Hungarian suicide song" in the U.S.)

_______________________________

All my love wrote to me through the years
About the way friends can laugh at their fears

-- Gregg Allman, All My Friends

_______________________________

So go on, I wont say no more.
My heart aint in it, but Ill hold the door.
But just remember, what I said before.
Please call home... if you change your mind.

-- Gregg Allman, Please Call Home

_______________________________

Tell me baby tell me
Does his company make
Light of a rainy day
How I've missed you lately
And the way we would speak
And all that we wouldn't say

-- Iron & Wine, Bird Stealing Bread

_______________________________

I met my wife at a party when I drank too much
My son is married and tells me we don't talk enough
Call it predictable, yesterday my dream was of you

-- Iron & Wine, Sixteen, Maybe Less

_______________________________

And lines from about a dozen Bruce Springsteen songs. I know this is more than one.

Did you love this world
Or did this world not love you

Ian's Swans pull from upthread is def in contention

I go out on a party
And look for a little fun
But I find a darkened corner
'Cause I still miss someone

xxp Grandaddy are really good at these

Baby you can open your eyes now
And please allow me to present you with a clue
If I inflict the pain
Then baby only I can comfort you

What happened between us makes sense if
I am nothing, you are all
If I am nothing at all

Tune-Yards - "Fiya"

Now lighing a cigarette
Now knowing I will regret
The way our love had to end
In her room
Standing alone
All alone
Soon I will be gone

+ + + + + + + +

Your guitar, it sounds so sweet and clear
But you're not really here
It's just the radio

+ + + + + + + + +

Where did your long hair go?
Where is the girl I used to know?
How could you lose that happy glow?
Oh, caroline no.

Ain't it sad, said the woman down the hall
That when a nice girl falls in love
Aint it just too bad that she had to fall
For a boy who doesnt care for her at all?
I dont want to hear it anymore
I just cant stand to hear it anymore
Cause the talk just never ends
And the heartache soon begins
The talk is so loud
And the walls are much too thin

"Didn't you thing you were worth anything?" Sweet Old World by Lucinda Williams

think

"My father said to me 'But you can't swim'" (Smog, Bathysphere)

What about the following, final line of Bathysphere?

"And I've never dreamed of the sea again"

Actually, song's hard to excerpt because it's all pretty beautiful and sad and those last lines really need the others to give it weight.

Smog kind of owns with some soul-crushing lyrics.

Too many to pick from really.

the freaks arrive, broken needles and blood
"what you on, man, to get those eyes?"

Anywhere you point this thing has got to beat the hell out of the sting of going to bed with every dream that dies here every morning.

I guess its a bit less sad without the full context. The depressing bit actually comes when they both die in a carcrash chasing their dreams.

I can't pick a single line from this song because they're all so vital:

Steve Earle - Lonlier Than This

It doesn't get any lonelier than this
I believe my heart'll break
Tonight I prayed I'd die before I wake
With every breath I'm tastin' your kiss
And it's sweet upon my tongue
Until the tears fall one by one

It doesn't get any lonelier than this
'cause I'm on this road alone
My hearbeat ringin' like a hollow drum
I'm about as lonesome as a poor boy gets
And there's nothin' I can do
'cause it's dark out here and I can't find you
It doesn't get any lonelier than this

It doesn't get any lonelier than this
I'm as blue as blue can be
Just an empty place where your love should be
I'm sick and tired of walkin' round like this
With my heart outside my skin
Scared to death we'll never touch again

It doesn't get any lonelier than this
And there's no place I can go
Just the dusty corners that the shadows know
Maybe this is as good as it's gonna get
And I'll always be this way
I'll just wander this world callin' out your name
It doesn't get any lonelier than this

Scared to death we'll never touch again

^ probable winner, though.

No, that's a romantic line (ie tradition of romance) not of tragedy.

I go Bon Iver:

I am my mother's only one, It's enough

"Supposed to be a funeral/
It's been a bad, bad day"

the kind of flawless i wish i could be

There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave
You were what I wanted
I gave what I gave
I'm not sorry I met you
I'm not sorry it's over
I'm not sorry there's nothing to save

I'm not sorry there's nothing to save...

- Stars, "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead"

my sisters are married
to all my friends

the walkmen "in the new year" works better in context tho

Can't believe no one has brought up Queen -

"Mama, I don't want to die, but sometimes I wish I'd never been born at all."

"i break horses, i don't tend to them" - smog

"bad dreams comforted by warm arms that held you so close" - carissa's wierd

"when you go away heavens a distance not a place" - carissa's wierd

sometimes its more about delivery than the words themselves, and therefore out of context with the song, lyrics can seem dull... but simple words can just make me teary sometimes.

I like Steve Shasta's. Though I probably would have had "She only knew she loved the world."

More Merritt:

"You understand where she's coming from, which I obviously don't, or she wouldn't be gone"

"All the umbrellas in London couldn't stop this rain"

"But I'm still happy when I get to hold his hand
He says I can hold it but remember we're just friends"

Sally Shapiro - He Keeps Me Alive

I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow
(Elliott Smith / Waltz #2)

"You better hold tight,
'cause even cancer needs a home"

Threatening statement drenched with sadness in its delivery, Frog Eyes' Russian Berries But You're Quiet Tonight

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky

But why can't it be mine?

("Black", Pearl Jam)

I never done good things
I never done bad things
I never did anything out of the blue,

"Ashes to ashes" - David Bowie

"I've got to give up, that stuff"

Got to Give it Up, Thin Lizzy

there I turned to her gently
and said, "hun, just look — it's spring,"
knowing outside the window
the winter looked for Angeline

but yesterday's newspaper forecast no rain for today

Mickey Newbury - "Angeline"

false promises of love
still promise love

Stina Nordenstam - "Everyone Else in the World"

"Show me how to love, and I'll show you how to beg. Together we could jump through hoops"

and

"This pale torso complete with two struggling oars"

Lullaby For The Working Class - Show Me How The Robots Dance

"And this is the place where she cut her wrists
That odd and fateful night
And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling"

Lou Reed - The Bed

Most of 'Berlin' could be posted here tbh.

another lou reed one....more obvious though

You made me forget myself.
I thought I was someone else,
Someone good.

(perfect day)

Some amazing choices in this thread especially Pet Shop Boys, Prefab Sprout, Kate Bush and The Beach Boys.

These are a few I couldn't decide between.

"I go to bakeries all day long
There's a lack of sweetness in my life"

Modern Lovers-Hospital (I could pick any of the lyrics from this really)

"It's good to hear you're doing so well
But really can't you find somebody else that you can ring and tell"

Nick Cave-Far From Me

"Why do we still live here
In this repulsive town?
All our friends are in New York"

Magnetic Fields-100,000 Fireflies (This thread needs more Merritt)

"And her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laughs at his own jokes
The sort that war takes away
And when there wasn't a war he left her anyway"

Billy Bragg-Levi Stubb's Tears (Probably my favourite song ever lyrically)

How Big Star's "Nightime" descends from the picturesque to the harrowing with the final lines

"Get me out of here, Get me out of here, I hate it here, Get me out of here"

How can you have a sad lyrics thread without Jackson Browne?

How long have I been dreaming I could make it right
If I closed my eyes and tried with all my might
To be the one you need

"seven shots ring out like the ocean's pounding roar" -- bob dylan

"just like a soldier boy
i've been out fighting wars
that the world never knows about"

-- tim buckley

One thing they don't tell you about the blues when you got 'em
You keep on fallin' 'cause there ain't no bottom, there ain't no end

It's been overplayed to the point it might be cheesy nowadays but Clapton's Tears in Heaven has some pretty devastating moments in context.

round here
the only thing that ain't blue is the sky

Sorrow and solitude
These are the precious things
And the only words
That are worth rememberin'

since you’ve been gone
it’s a losing battle
stampeding cattle that rattle the wall

Good one!

ha i see iago g posted the entire song upthread

I wake up and the phone is ringing
Surprised, as it's early
And that should be the perfect warning
That something's a problem
To tell the truth I saw it coming
The way you were breathing
But nothing can prepare you for it
The voice on the other end

Things could be different, but they're not.

I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do, Jolene

'Cause life could be lovely
Life could be so fucking great.

Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again

Ohhh nooooooooooooo

All that I've done, all that I've said,
means nothin' to me, I'd soon as be dead
all of this world be forgotten

Two months of fun
Two years of pain
Add it up
And get a life of rain
Need to scream
But too ashamed
It's gonna rain it's gonna rain
You wanna go you wanna stay you wanna
You really blew my world
I wanna live and there's only one way

^that weird feeling when you're expecting black metal and you get the New Radicals

ha!!!

"Last time I had sex was in 2003"

gets sadder every passing year.

I wasn't born so much as I fell out nobody seemed to notice me
We had a hedge back home in the suburbs over which I never could see.

nothing matters and what if it did?
you could lock your doors, close all your windows
and hide away, hide away, hide away, hide away

Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, or is it something worse?

You might be holding the last light I see.
Before the dark finally gets a hold of me.

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me
I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed

I’ve always found «Hold On Magnolia» to be quite comforting

xpost

Smash Mouth gets me fuckin amped

xpost

Trigger warning - this one is kinda heavy

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?

"An old woman gave us shelter
Kept us hidden in the garret
Then the soldiers came
She died without a whisper"

(I know it's cooler to assume everyone knows the quote, but that one's Leonard Cohen, The Partisan)

I'm sure it's a cliché but "Place to Be" always shreds me if I allow myself to pay attention to the lyrics.

When I was young, younger than before
I never saw the truth hanging from the door
And now I'm older, see it face to face
And now I'm older, gotta get up, clean the place

And I was green, greener than the hill
Where flowers grew and the sun shone still
Now I'm darker than the deepest sea
Just hand me down, give me a place to be

And I was strong, strong in the sun
I thought I'd see when day was done
Now I'm weaker than the palest blue
Oh so weak in this need for you

Crushingly beautiful. I take Nick Drake for granted sometimes.

Oh fuck yes that one guts me

At the moment? Can barely hear ...

"We can't stop time, hard as we might try,
We're not here long, and then you're gone."

... from the Montgolfier Brothers' "Journey's End".

You're on your own again
And you're your best again
That's what you tell yourself
I see it all the way as far as anyone can see
Except when it began I was so happy I didn't feel like me

Actually, this crushes me a bit:

My father said to me
'But you can't swim'
And I've never dreamed of the sea again

When he beat your face in the taxi
And the driver called the cop
You said don't worry, it's the culture
And it's never going to stop

I know I’m not supposed to say I’m sorry
I know you’ve had more loves than Mata Hari
But you know you’re the star of my life story
And I’m so sorry

Caroline says, as she gets up off the floor
Why is it that you hit me
It isn’t any fun

— this one makes that song unlistenable for me. the impact is extra severe due to the fact that it is a reworked version of stephanie says, which is just pleasantly, prettily melancholy

Jesus Christ, I'm so blue all the time
And that's just how I feel
Always have and I always will
I always have and always will

— Simple but never fails to get me. There is real brilliance in phoebe bridgers—nothing I’ve heard by her seems rote or uninspired. Everything’s a punch to the gut and also beautiful because as Shelley said “our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.” I wonder what the world would look like if that wasn’t the case—if people didn’t need pain to comprehend beauty.

She might think that I’ve forgotten her
Don’t tell her this isn’t so

- letting someone go—truly doing so, against your wishes but without resentment—that is real love. I wonder if it’s possible

You got married when you were 15
Now I hide out from telephone wires at Waxahatchee Creek
Your body, weak from smoke and tar and subsequent disease
You got married when you were 15

Idk there’s too many to mention. All my favorite songs are sad. If I didn’t have indie music I probably would have read a lot more poetry.

Related to Treeships point re «If You See Her ...»:

I don't want be a bad women
And I can't stand to see you be a bad man
I will miss your heart so tender
And I will love
This love forever
And this is why I am leaving
And this is why I can't see you no more
This is why I am lying when I say
That I don't love you no more