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"

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

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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