What are the saddest songs ever in the world?

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Ones that make you incapacitated with sadness? In reference to The one that got away - I need sad songs. Go mental. Or, more aptly, go morose.

― vwocihsoui, Monday, 27 February 2006 13:08 (twenty years ago)

"Lick My Love-Pump"

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Monday, 27 February 2006 13:10 (twenty years ago)

judee sill - looping alone through the cosmos.

once i thought belle and sebastain - boy done wrong again ("all i wanted was to sing the saddest song").now i cant stand the song.

codeine - broken hearted wine/barely real/d.

there are more..

― making arthur smile, Monday, 27 February 2006 13:14 (twenty years ago)

Jimmy Webb's cover of "Wichita Lineman"

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 27 February 2006 13:16 (twenty years ago)

lopin' along through the cosmos,that is.

― making arthur smile, Monday, 27 February 2006 13:18 (twenty years ago)

Capt Beefheart's I'm Glad

― dr x o'skeleton, Monday, 27 February 2006 13:19 (twenty years ago)

neil young - motion picture/ambulance blues

― make arthur smile, Monday, 27 February 2006 13:24 (twenty years ago)

Have you forgotten? - The Red House Painters

― Treblekicker, Monday, 27 February 2006 13:42 (twenty years ago)

calexico - all systems red

― bobby.lasers (bobby.lasers), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Jimmy Webb's cover of "Wichita Lineman"
-- Dom Passantino (juror...), February 27th, 2006.

OTM. This is heartbreaking.

― Ant, Monday, 27 February 2006 14:42 (twenty years ago)

Jimmy Webb's cover of "Wichita Lineman"
-- Dom Passantino (juror...), February 27th, 2006.
OTM. This is heartbreaking.

-- Ant (brasseye2...), February 27th, 2006.

except that jimmy webb couldn't cover it: he wrote it.

― whatever (boglogger), Monday, 27 February 2006 15:57 (twenty years ago)

except that jimmy webb couldn't cover it: he wrote it.

TS: Can you cover your own song?

― Justin Shumaker (shueytexas), Monday, 27 February 2006 16:09 (twenty years ago)

Any chance someone could send me that Jimmy Webb song? I would like to be moved by it, maybe a little.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Monday, 27 February 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

the theme tune to the incredible hulk

― danny invincible (michael w.), Monday, 27 February 2006 16:18 (twenty years ago)

Mogwai - Close Encounters; it worked especially well in Sex & The City

― Jez (Jez), Monday, 27 February 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Teh Smihts, I know it's over. (moz lays it on with a trowel and still manages not to cross the line into self-parody, for once).

― JimD (JimD), Monday, 27 February 2006 16:53 (twenty years ago)

if you have

― Mark Danjer (Danjer), Monday, 27 February 2006 17:18 (twenty years ago)

the saddest song is Neyo so sick of long songz so sad its so

― Neicy, Monday, 27 February 2006 17:19 (twenty years ago)

wtf. it only posted the first three words. here we go again:

if you have more than 6 beers and then listen to the guitar solo on funkadelic's maggot brain, you will weep (unless you're an android)

― Mark Danjer (Danjer), Monday, 27 February 2006 17:20 (twenty years ago)

Don't know about the saddest song, but the most latently morbid song I can recall is The Arcade Fire's 'Intervention'. Here's an extract from this fun-muffin of a hymn:

Working for the church while your family dies
Little baby sister gonna lose her mind
Every spark of friendship and love will die without a hope
Hear the soldiers graon, all quiet and alone.

Really, there's no need for it.

― mr_glide (mr_glide), Monday, 27 February 2006 17:40 (twenty years ago)

That should be 'groan'. 'Graon' is not a word, as far as I'm aware. Bugger.

― mr_glide (mr_glide), Monday, 27 February 2006 17:44 (twenty years ago)

"Walking on Sunshine"
Katrina and the Waves

― Ron E. Mexico, Monday, 27 February 2006 17:46 (twenty years ago)

Not your average love-gone-wrong type song, but 'She's Leaving Home' always does for me.

― Zora (Zora), Monday, 27 February 2006 18:40 (twenty years ago)

the temptations never actually performed their own songs -- they in fact ONLY covered them.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 27 February 2006 18:53 (twenty years ago)

big star holocaust

― stewart downes (sdownes), Monday, 27 February 2006 18:57 (twenty years ago)

ok, bob dylan's COVER of hard rain's gonna fall. satisfied?

― whatever (boglogger), Monday, 27 February 2006 19:49 (twenty years ago)

holocaust by big star

― alex vakselis, Monday, 27 February 2006 20:23 (twenty years ago)

i actually didn't see that someone else agreed before i submitted that song, however i am delighted to see someone else did agree. so how about "lonesome suzie" by the band

― alex vakselis, Monday, 27 February 2006 20:25 (twenty years ago)

I knew that Jimmy Webb wrote "Wichita Lineman", but my belief is he never recorded it himself (or at least released a recorded version) until the mid 90s (AllMusic.com backs me up on this). A "cover version" is a version of a song sung by someone else, rather than written by someone else, unless "Baby One More Time", to you, is a Max Martin cover.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 27 February 2006 20:36 (twenty years ago)

Also Sean: check the YSI thread.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 27 February 2006 20:45 (twenty years ago)

Tindersticks - "My Sister" ... though has nothing to do with your particular situation. So I'll substitute American Music Club - "Why Won't You Stay."

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Monday, 27 February 2006 20:48 (twenty years ago)

Smog's "The Doctor Came At Dawn" Cd is pretty flawless as album long suffocating blankets of sadness go . . .

Leonard Cohen's "Songs of Love and Hate" also pwns this thread.

Tindersticks "Mistakes" might be apt

Cowboy Junkies "You Will Be Loved Again" certainly hits the spot.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Monday, 27 February 2006 20:50 (twenty years ago)

"Sometimes It Snows In April"

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 27 February 2006 21:07 (twenty years ago)

ok, so it was jimmy webb's cover of glen campbell's 'wichita lineman'? let's take this outside...

― whatever (boglogger), Monday, 27 February 2006 21:14 (twenty years ago)

"Walking on Sunshine"
Katrina and the Waves

9/1 changed everything?

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 27 February 2006 23:14 (twenty years ago)

"Walking on Sunshine"
Katrina and the Waves

9/1 changed everything?

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 27 February 2006 23:15 (twenty years ago)

if you have more than 6 beers and then listen to the guitar solo on funkadelic's maggot brain, you will weep (unless you're an android)

My mother is still alive, so I fail to hear the sadness in this.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Monday, 27 February 2006 23:19 (twenty years ago)

Ambulance Blues OT-wrist-slitting-M

Caroline Says II - Lou Reed

― Dave will do (dave225.3), Monday, 27 February 2006 23:22 (twenty years ago)

Oops...Raw, Uncompromising and Noodly just revealed to the whole world...that (s)he's an android!!!

Busted.

― danjer (Danjer), Monday, 27 February 2006 23:43 (twenty years ago)

Ghostface "All That I Got Is You"

― Englebert Humperdinck Fan Club President (R. J. Greene), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:01 (twenty years ago)

The Cure: Funeral Party

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:05 (twenty years ago)

Geto Boys - "Size Ain't Shit"

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:08 (twenty years ago)

Apartments - Mr. Somewhere

― Guymauve (Guymauve), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:44 (twenty years ago)

joy division: "atmosphere". unimpeachable after all these years.

qv also: new order: "lonesome tonight" (but not the live version(s) where barney sings about his cock).

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:47 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, "All That I Got is You" seconded, sheesh, what a tearjerker that song is.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 01:10 (twenty years ago)

the theme tune to the incredible hulk
-- danny invincible (wellsmj...), February 27th, 2006.

Seriously.

― ______, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 01:13 (twenty years ago)

Gravediggaz - "Burn Baby Burn" where Poetic raps about his cancer.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 01:21 (twenty years ago)

ABC's "All Of My Heart" owns this thread.

― Edward Bax (EdBax), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 02:28 (twenty years ago)

Dolly Parton, "Jolene"
Crowded House, "Don't Dream It's Over"
Pet Shop Boys, "You Choose"
Rosanne Cash, "Runaway Train"

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 02:33 (twenty years ago)

richard thompson 'the poor ditching boy'

― keyth (keyth), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 02:36 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 37 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Something off Elegeion's "Odyssey Into Darkness" might qualify.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:25 (twenty years ago)

"Anyway, it's Morrissey, so disqualified on the grounds that sad is his schtick."

Not any more...see this month's Mojo - he's found lurve...so it probably won't last...

― Ned T.RIfle II (Ned T.Rifle II), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 12:37 (twenty years ago)

Answering Machine - Replacements

― The Velvet Overlord (The Velvet Overlord), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 12:44 (twenty years ago)

If You Go Away-Scott Walker
Don't Smoke In Bed-Nina Simone
Dreams To Remember-Otis Redding
And Before The First Kiss-The Field Mice
It Will Never Happen Again-Tim Hardin

― Jacobs (LolVStein), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 13:08 (twenty years ago)

Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt - breaks my heart

― Christine, Monday, 13 March 2006 22:22 (twenty years ago)

"Here You Come Again" and "Always On My Mind"

― cnwb (cnwb), Monday, 13 March 2006 22:41 (twenty years ago)

top 100 saddest songs of all time

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 22:44 (twenty years ago)

Growing Pains theme song saddest song ever?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 22:45 (twenty years ago)

OPO: Saddest line from a song

Saddest opening lyrics?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 22:46 (twenty years ago)

The Saddest Songs Not About Relationships or Health

Saddest/most moving hip-hop lyric?

What is are the saddest hiphop tracks of all time?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 22:47 (twenty years ago)

it's all so damn depressing

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 22:49 (twenty years ago)

What's the most depressing music?

the most depressing album in the world ever

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 22:50 (twenty years ago)

LUOMO-TESSIO-THE MOST DEPRESSING SONG EVER?????

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:03 (twenty years ago)

Do you listen to depressing music?

the most depressing song

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:05 (twenty years ago)

top 100 sad sack songs

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:06 (twenty years ago)

haha ok tracer we get the point.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 04:24 (twenty years ago)

Tracer's sure done his homework! Jesus Christ...

My choice for saddest = Lennon's "My Mummy's Dead"

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 05:31 (twenty years ago)

Love Hurts the Roy Orbinson's version > http://x818.com/junk/RoyOrbisonLoveHurts.mp3

― apmorris (apmorris), Sunday, 26 March 2006 05:43 (nineteen years ago)

dixie nightingales "all i need is sunshine in my life"

― charlie bucket (charlie bucket), Sunday, 26 March 2006 06:31 (nineteen years ago)

ten months pass...

okay, prepare yourselves...

...thread WON by The Teardrop Explodes, '...And The Fighting Takes Over/The Great Dominions' (I count this as one, INCREDIBLE, song, that elicits an emotional response from me EVERY TIME).

Other noteworthy contenders:

The Cure - A Strange Day
Pink Floyd - Jugband Blues
Talk Talk - Wealth
Mogwai - Kids Will Be Skeletons
Passengers - Your Blue Room
The Beta Band - Space Beatle
Explosions In The Sky - Your Hand In Mine
XTC - Wrapped In Grey
Bardo Pond - Two Planes

*bursts into tears*

― to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Monday, 29 January 2007 03:39 (nineteen years ago)

the smiths - i know it's over

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Monday, 29 January 2007 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

If You Go Away-Scott Walker
Don't Smoke In Bed-Nina Simone

goooood choices. although I think maybe the dusty version of '...go away' is even better.

in addition:

first orgasm - dresden dolls
throw your arms around me - the doug anthony allstars
wichita lineman - glenn campbell (better than jimmy's version...)
rebekah del rio - crying (from the mulholland drive soundtrack)

― m the g (mister the guanoman), Monday, 29 January 2007 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

Whoever said Fleetwood Mac "Man Of The World" is right.

― harvey.w (harvey.w), Monday, 29 January 2007 12:38 (nineteen years ago)

~Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot

Touches me deeply each and every time. Human loss in the face of mother nature.

~The Last Resort - Eagles (hotel cali)

Brilliant narrative and stirring melody. Nature relentlessly destroyed by us humans.
Best thing they ever put out IMHO.

Both seriously sad.

― david bailey (particlewave), Monday, 29 January 2007 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

Eleanor Rigby is really sad and scary. It made me weep when I was a child.

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Monday, 29 January 2007 18:44 (nineteen years ago)

i always think "rocking chair" by the band is really touching.

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 29 January 2007 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

My stock reply to this is Tom Waits - "Good Old World (Waltz)"

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 29 January 2007 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

oo! oo! tom waits' 'that feel'! a heartfelt 4AM lament by a crowd of whisky-ravaged muppets.

― m the g (mister the guanoman), Monday, 29 January 2007 19:07 (nineteen years ago)

Richard Thompson's "How Will I Ever be Simple Again?" is a good one for general weepiness.
I'm also a sucker for the really poppy ones you're not supposed to admit to liking.
"Can't Cry Hard Enough" (?)by some sappy duo, although only because I heard it when I was going through probably the worst time of my life.

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Monday, 29 January 2007 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

"That Feel" I've always heard of as more of a rousing torchsong to the down-and-outs rather than genuinely sad.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 29 January 2007 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

obligatory "Katy Song" mention here

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 29 January 2007 20:24 (nineteen years ago)

"Boulder To Birmingham", Emmylou Harris

― tiit (tiit), Monday, 29 January 2007 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

"That Feel" I've always heard of as more of a rousing torchsong to the down-and-outs rather than genuinely sad.

I hear it more as lamenting the loss of the one thing you can't lose. they're speaking from experience.

― m the g (mister the guanoman), Monday, 29 January 2007 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

I always thought the one thing you couldn't lose was that feeling of being really pissed.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 29 January 2007 21:00 (nineteen years ago)

somebody way upthread mentioned Big Star's "Holocaust", to which I would add the following dead-parent songs:

Go-Betweens - "Dusty In Here"
Felt - "Down An August Path"

― hank (hank s), Monday, 29 January 2007 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

I'm listening to Fleetwood Mac and it's a cliché but "Landslide" needs to be mentioned.

― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 29 January 2007 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

so true, even though cliche.

Breeders, Off You - i've said it before and i'm sayin it again!

― surmounter (rra123), Monday, 29 January 2007 21:52 (nineteen years ago)

Aphex Twin - "CD1, Track 3 on Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II" (aka "Rhubarb")

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 29 January 2007 22:53 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not sure if this is necessarily INTENDED to be a sad song, and actually, it is rather hopeful in many ways, but I always sob like a baby when I hear Bonnie 'Prince Billy and Matt Sweeney's "Beast for Thee" off the album Superwolf.

― Andi Headphones (Andi Headphones), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

Arvo Pärt - De Profundis
Double N - The Ride

― jon person (jon person), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:51 (nineteen years ago)

Style Council w/Tracy Thorn, "Paris Match"
(a real weeper)

― douglas eklund (skolle), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

threads about feelings are funny. it's like, feelings, in an internet window. ae;lakjdfpokajfe;lkajfdf;lkjdaf;akj

― surmounter (rra123), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 02:28 (nineteen years ago)

Bird Stealing Bread , by Iron & Wine.

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 30 January 2007 03:46 (nineteen years ago)

obligatory "Katy Song" mention here

Man I was just coming here to post the same thing. Still cannot listen to that song without getting teary, even now after all these years. "I am a Rock" as well.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 03:49 (nineteen years ago)

(both of which Red House Painters obv)

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 03:49 (nineteen years ago)

The Band's version of "I Shall Be Released."

― Adam Harrison-Friday (AdamFriday), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 05:15 (nineteen years ago)

Leonard Cohen can bring on the doom and gloom. But I'm not sure which version of "Bird On A Wire" is the saddest. I'm thinkin' Cash, right now.

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:40 (nineteen years ago)

"Mr Blobby," taking into account other definitions of the word "sad."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:44 (nineteen years ago)

Anything from Nico's Chelsea Girls really, but especially These Days. Life is so shit that even ending it would be a waste of time, there's just no point in doing anything anymore. That's cold. Song plus voice = heartbreak. And it IS the voice, cos Jackson Browne's version sounds like a less interesting Eagles.

― Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 09:32 (nineteen years ago)

yes, totally - you know i mentioned These Days on a "songs that make you feel thread" a while ago and found out she didn't write it

disappointing. still heartbreaking.

― surmounter (rra123), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

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