C/D, S/D: Songs with actual crying

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

As opposed to the zillion or so songs that tell you somebody cried, how many can you think of, in this age when sentimentality and melodrama are shunned like leprosy, where the singer actually breaks out in audible tears, real or fake? I think I've heard this in some psychobilly. How about emo? And if not, how the hell can they be called emo?

Follow-up question: What songs or bands do you think would benefit from dropping their guard in an honest-to-goodness fit of blubbering? The Eels? Radiohead? Eminem?

― Curt (cgould), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:02 (twenty-three years ago)

In "Little Rosa", the great Red Sovine cried in an Italian accent!

― Curt (cgould), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Someone once told me that the guy from Bright Eyes is known to, quote often (if not always), cry when he performs live.

― David Allen, Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:05 (twenty-three years ago)

"The Kindness Of Strangers" - Nick Cave

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:13 (twenty-three years ago)

eminem's guard has been already dropped on 'kim'.. it's both pathetic and utterly heart-breaking.

ODB 'cries' on the opening skit to 'return...' which is fun.

― s, Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:28 (twenty-three years ago)

david, they probably meant 'pisses himself'

― s, Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Doesn't that freakish baby-dangler Michael Jackson break into tearful whimpers at the end of "She's Out of My Life"?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Guy Fugazi is another one who supposedly used to cry while performing live.

― TMFTML (TMFTML), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Chris Knox, "Young Female Caucasian" on Songs of You and Me. I can't say Classic/Dud, but this song makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable.

There's that Kronos Quartet track on Black Angels with an old woman (eastern European?) sobbing, but that's a tape recording, so that might not count for this thread.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I myself have busted a little octal-leakage at a couple of our shows from getting emotionally-involved in the music, possibly a little on the inappropriate side what with the rowdiness of our music.

I have heard Nick Drake, Gene Ween, and Ben Folds in the early shuddering/whimpering stages of a cry, and I've seen Fiona Apple drunkenly weep and scream in anger at one of her shows, which was quite good, even with the fuckin' 2999 to 1 ratio of teeny-bopper-fuckers-who-talked-loudly-through-every-not-"Criminal"-song to myself-apparently-the-only-person-in-the-theatre-who-was-actually-listening.

― nickalicious, Wednesday, 20 November 2002 21:46 (twenty-three years ago)

didn't brian mcmahon of slint start crying just off mic at the end of good morning captain or is that one of those emo urban legends...

there's that really uncomfortable body lovers/body haters thing by michael gira where jarboe cries in what seems like intense pain throughout.

― simon 803 (simon 803), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 22:07 (twenty-three years ago)

some eric's trip track on their first album features sobbing four-track unrequited sadness...

o indie...

― gygax!, Wednesday, 20 November 2002 22:09 (twenty-three years ago)

The Special AKA's "The Boiler" ends with the lead singer re-enacting an acquaintance rape, complete with terrified sobs.

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 22:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Bob Wratten sounds like he's about to on Trembling Blue Stars "Nobody But You".. and apparently Sarah Dubstar was crying when singing "Stars".

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

It sounds like Eminem is about to cry on "Marshall Mathers" when he's talking about how his family ignored him until he got famous.

― Rahul Kamath (Rahul Kamath), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

S: Turbonegro - "The Midnight NAMBLA"

― Kris (aqueduct), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 23:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Gene Ween

The captain of unreadable psycho-blubbering: okay, granted, some of the breakdowns on God Ween Satan: The Oneness might not be meant as exactly teary, but they're close enough. "Nan," "You Fucked Up," and is it "Fat Lenny" or "Gots a Weasel" that has the agonized wailing and the cries of "Deaner, Deaner?"

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 21 November 2002 00:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I expected somebody to mention "Leader of the Pack" by now. Can anybody tell where it is that Mary supposedly cries near the end, because I never can.

― Curt (cgould), Thursday, 21 November 2002 01:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I believe "Me and A Gun" by Tori Amos, there's a shiver in her voice when she goes "Do you know Carolina?" that sounds exactly like the noise someone's who's been crying makes when they're trying to sound like they aren't, that half-swallow half-gulp thang. Great song, anyway.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 21 November 2002 01:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Gener only cries when the Boognish is bothering him again.

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Thursday, 21 November 2002 03:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Navio Forge "Haloed Eyes" has some crying. Good song, too.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Thursday, 21 November 2002 03:11 (twenty-three years ago)

"Beore they put me in a jacket, and they take me away
I'm not gonna fake it like Johnnie Ray
Sometimes we live, sometimes we die
Sometimes we cry." -- Van Morrison

Van refers to original 50s crooner Johnnie Ray, who wept his way through histrionic numbers like "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried".

Search: "I Can't Go To Sleep" by the Wu Tang Clan (From "The W").

― briania, Thursday, 21 November 2002 03:56 (twenty-three years ago)

i imagine that "llorando" from mulholland drive does NOT count...

― gygax!, Thursday, 21 November 2002 06:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Iron Maiden's "Aces High"

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 21 November 2002 08:07 (twenty-three years ago)

don't know about little johnny jewel, but does frankie teardrop count ? harry, you're a beast ?

― george gosset (gegoss), Thursday, 21 November 2002 08:32 (twenty-three years ago)

"Frankie Teardrop" makes me cry!

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 21 November 2002 08:49 (twenty-three years ago)

sinead o'connor - "scarlet ribbons" off the album "am i not your girl."

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 21 November 2002 09:35 (twenty-three years ago)

juan trip's "louis cry" on f comm sampled the cries of a terminally ill child, didn't it? goldie's "sea of tears" also had some wimpering in there.

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 21 November 2002 09:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Vikki Carr - "It Must Be Him."

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 21 November 2002 09:46 (twenty-three years ago)

the scariest crying i can remember is a live Daniel Johnston
track from his 1990 lp.......half way through an acappella
hymn he starts sobbing but keeps singing...it makes you feel
queasy........

― joni, Thursday, 21 November 2002 10:12 (twenty-three years ago)

The sound of the kids crying on 'The Kids' from Lou Reed's 'Berlin' is pretty harrowing.

― James Ball (James Ball), Thursday, 21 November 2002 10:13 (twenty-three years ago)

"Save The Children" by Marvin Gaye.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 21 November 2002 10:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Leonard Cohen crying on Top Of The Pops, doing 'Suzanne' (I think - they all sound the same to me). Classic, anyhow.

― doctorB, Thursday, 21 November 2002 10:25 (twenty-three years ago)

"Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais" by Serge Gainsbourg.

― snowballing from paris, Thursday, 21 November 2002 11:36 (twenty-three years ago)

The sound of the kids crying on 'The Kids' from Lou Reed's 'Berlin' is pretty harrowing.

that was the one that sprang to mind when i was this thread. there's (supposedly) a story behind it:
[how to get a solid crying recorded, lesson 1]
Bob Ezrin, the producer, allegedly told these (his?) kids that their mommy had gone away and would never come back again... (listening to the song, it sounds to me as like he locked the kids in the bathroom...)

― willem (willem), Thursday, 21 November 2002 11:55 (twenty-three years ago)

was = saw

― willem (willem), Thursday, 21 November 2002 11:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Timi Yuro - Permanently Lonely (?)

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 21 November 2002 11:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Rolf Harris - I've Lost My Mummy

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 21 November 2002 12:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Coil's "The Anal Staircase"... granted, they use samples of a little boy crying and being teased by his older brother or friend. (Don't ask why in this song of all things)

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 21 November 2002 20:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Calvin Johnson cried onstage during early Beat Happening shows, but never on record. Does that count?

― mike a (mike a), Thursday, 21 November 2002 20:24 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.