is there a song as sad as saint james infirmary?

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by louis armstrong? jazz or blues...
if there is, i'd like to know.

― pppp, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 04:27 (nineteen years ago)

for clarification, i don't mean another song by louis armstrong, just in general.

― pppp, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 04:29 (nineteen years ago)

― lf (lfam), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 04:30 (nineteen years ago)

It's definitely a tough one to beat.

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 04:30 (nineteen years ago)

at least not on my parent's 4-disc louie "first half of the career" box set. we don't have the second half.

― lf (lfam), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 05:54 (nineteen years ago)

gloomy sunday

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 05:59 (nineteen years ago)

I was going to say 'Gloomy Sunday'.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 06:01 (nineteen years ago)

Y'know, Bobby "Blue" Bland does a fantastic version of said tune on his "Two Steps from the Blues" LP. And if you want to hear nine or ten more tracks just as sad then buy that damn record. It fucks me up.

― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

given the fact that st. james infirmary always makes me think of "minnie the moocher," yes.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

"dark is the night" by blind willie johnson?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 16:41 (nineteen years ago)

I'm pretty sure "Down From Dover" by Dolly Parton is sadder than anything else I've ever heard.

― Scott Faingold, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

That Bland album is one of the great monuments of 20th century music.

As is Armstrong himself, of course.

― JAS, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

"love gets in the way" by dayna kurtz

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

In The Pines by Leadbelly. But that is a hard one to top.

― js (honestengine), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

i dont know if i have many very sad songs, ive been playing red house painters '24' a bit recently though. its not that sad i guess, i dunno. its the only song of theirs i know

― terry lennox. (gareth), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 22:13 (nineteen years ago)

That Bland album is one of the great monuments of 20th century music

I have owned this record for a year. But over the past two weeks, it started sinking-in in ways it never did before -- so fuckin' powerful.

― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

Lou Rawls also did a good version of "St. James Infirmary".

On a sickbed note, "Devonside" by Richard Thompson and "TB Sheets" by Van Morrison are both really sad and misery inflected songs about illness.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Thursday, 9 March 2006 04:06 (nineteen years ago)

strange fruit

― sonore (sonore), Thursday, 9 March 2006 04:13 (nineteen years ago)

"T.B. Blues" -- Jimmie Rodgers
"Two Bugs and a Roach" -- Earl Hooker

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 9 March 2006 04:28 (nineteen years ago)

actually, there's a song by john prine about some heroin-addicted father. major sad flavor

― lf (lfam), Thursday, 9 March 2006 04:29 (nineteen years ago)

"Blind Willie McTell" - Bob Dylan

― Le Baaderonixx de Clignancourt (baaderonixx), Friday, 10 March 2006 11:45 (nineteen years ago)

"midnight blue" sung by andy bey

― the, Friday, 10 March 2006 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

"Banks of the Ohio" - Doc Watson
"Molly Brallaghan" - James MacCafferty
"The Kindness of Strangers" - Nick Cave

― christoff (christoff), Friday, 10 March 2006 14:25 (nineteen years ago)

The John Prine song mentioned above is "Sam Stone" and it is a beast.

My answer to 'sad song' threads is always the same - get 1 George Jones comp.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 10 March 2006 14:28 (nineteen years ago)

"Marie" by Townes Van Zandt belongs on this thread too.

― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 10 March 2006 18:25 (nineteen years ago)

His "Tecumseh Valley" is really sad, too.

Was listening to Hank Thompson's take on "St. James" just this morning (it's called "Drunkard's Blues")...amazing version.

― Keith C (lync0), Saturday, 11 March 2006 00:57 (nineteen years ago)

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