Music is meant to be a joyful, delightful sensation. But unfortunately, mankind also saw that, in addition to happiness, music can also express sorrow. Sad songs have been with us for ever it seems, but with the advent of pop music, sad songs just got more prominent.
The following is a list of my personal top ten sad songs. I will stress the use of the word "my" in that sentence. I am not suggesting that my list is the absolute authority or the grand Bible of sad songs; they are simply the songs I personally object to on the grounds that I find them ... well, sad:
Your Song - Elton John: Most people would probably suggest "Sorry is the Hardest Word" as Elton's saddest song, but the accordion which gives the tune a slightly Gallic touch amuses me too much for me to consider it sad. I find his first chart success sadder. When Elton pleads, "I hope you don't mind if I put down in words, how beautiful life is while you're in the world," it is a bit disturbing, as if he thinks the object of his affection will laugh at him for being so sappy.
Forever Autumn - Justin Hayward: The Moody Blues' lead singer scored his first solo hit in 1978 from a concept album based on "War of the Worlds." The sense of loss – "'Cause you're not here, 'cause you're not here" – makes this song particularly sad, especially given all the minor chords this song is structured around. The flute notes that mark the end of every chorus are especially dirgeful.
Colour My World - Chicago: Again, as with Elton John, not many people would agree that this was Chicago's saddest song, or probably not even sad at all. It is supposed to be uplifting, in a slow, ballady kind of way. However, the very fact that it is so slow and includes chord changes that I find unpleasing is why I find it a bit sombre. And, just as with "Forever Autumn," the flute at the end doesn’t help.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Interesting list, Mark, and excellent writing also. most of these songs wouldn't occur to me if i was considering the idea of "favourite sad songs", which, i'd imagine, is why such lists are so fun to indulge in for a time, that different perspective on a particular record, that particular record, even, that has lain hidden midst the pop culture until now, least as far as yours truly is concerned. For sad Beatles songs, i think i would consider "Julia" to be a particular tear-tugger. i'm pretty sure it concerns Lennon's mother, but even regardless of this, the song is so beautifully mournful that it never fails to piss all over my day when it comes on.
There's a song by my beloved Bright Eyes concerning a suicide attempt, or the thinking leading up to it anyhow, called No Lies, Just Love, that is incredibly tender and moving, but that i can't listen to, nonetheless. It's just too damn sad.
Also, a song by Billy Bragg called Tank Park Salute that concerns his late father. Heartbreakingly beautiful, and sad as all hell.
(an as a semi-disgusting side-note, on my own recent net-record shindig i devoted a song to the study of sad songs, number called Sad Song Sung. i won't link, it's linked enough here an there)
I'm tryin to think of a sad Dylan song...
Oh, my god, of course, possibly the saddest song the man ever penned, If You See Her, Say Hello. i still have trouble imagining how he brought himself to write that so soon after the whole relationship-ending carnage. On The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 (or is it 3?) there's an even more harrowing version, where he goes so far as to say "If you're making love to her, kiss her for the kid / who always has respected her / for doin what she did"). those are just stunning words to be arrising from that sort of situation.
2 - Vern Halen
And don't forget.......... Sad Song by Lou Reed off of Berlin - perhaps the saddest song of all.
3 - GoHah
Aaron stole my thunder with Dylan's "If You See Her" from an album of (mostly) sad break-up songs Blood on the Tracks.
I would also offer "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks, "Caroline, No" by the Beach Boys, "Sadly, Beautiful" by Paul Westerberg, and "I Know" by Fiona Apple." "Warmth of the Sun" by the Beach Boys is especially melancholy for being inspired by and on the same day as JFK's assasination.
By the way, "Everybody's Talkin'" was written by and originally performed by Fred Neil.
4 - Rodney Welch
The saddest song I know is "Kentucky Avenue" by Tom Waits. It starts off with the singer talking about the latest news in the neighborhood -- "Eddie Grace's Buick got four bulletholes in the side/Charlie DeLisle's sittin' at the top of an avocado tree" -- and then it becomes apparent he's talking to a girl, a girl he loves, a girl he wants to run away with. Come on, he says, just the two of us, we'll run away, we'll do fun things, we'll play pranks on the people we can't stand.
While he's talking about all these things, all these plans, all these dreams, comes this heartbreaking revelation:
I'll take the spokes from your wheelchair
and a magpies wings
and tie `em to your shoulders and your feet
I'll steal a hacksaw from my dad
and cut the braces off your legs
and we'll bury them tonight in the cornfield
Put a church key in your pocket
We'll hop that freight train in the hall
And we'll slide down the drain all the way
To New Orleans in the fall...
5 - Flounder
"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" by Sammy Hagar always elicits a tear.
6 - larry
hank williams. your your
hank williams your your
cheating heart. larry cheating
williams
cheating
7 - Vern Halen
"Sad Song" by Lou Reed - should go without saying.
8 - Aaman
Garth Brooks - She's gonna make it - goes into areas no song should
9 - Sara
I think Britney's "Everytime" is kinda sad.
And "Unbreak my heart" By Toni Braxton.
And the Titanic song! I saw the movie again yesterday, and I was SO close to crying!!
10 - Aaman
So am I, everytime I see it, I wish they had deleted everything from the point the ship is launched till when it is just about to hit the iceberg - what a waste of film-stock!
11 - Sara
Yea, :)
But I just can't stand watchin when the guy dies in the water!
12 - Victor Lana
Some good choices in the post and comments. My top two of the moment are:
-Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" (I know it's meant to be inspirational, but I think of his Dad every time {my hero Tug McGraw} and get all choked up)
-Dido's "White Flag" is another song that breaks me every time.
13 - GoHah
The classic country weeper from Hank Willims--straightforward and effective:
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome I could cry
I've never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind a cloud
To hide its face and cry
Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves begin to die?
Like me he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry
The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry
14 - Mark Edward Manning
I actually think "Hunter" is a sadder Dido song than "White Flag." I think "WF" is a bit catchy. "Hunter" starts off promising but gets tediously dreary.
Britney Spear's "Everytime" is pretty awful, I'll agree with that one.
One song I forgot to mention - and people will think I'm crazy because most people love this one - is "Dreams" by The Cranberries. I'm not fond of the chord structure in that one, I tend to find songs that are too heavy on the E major scale sad, it's the one major chord I don't find happy ...
15 - Sara
AND WHO THINKS PEOPLE LIKE PARIS HILTON ARE SAD???!!
16 - Sara
cuz I do!!
17 - John Owen
Man. So many.
George Jones - He Stopped Loving Her Today
Neil Young - Tired Eyes
Morphine - I'm Free Now
Tom Waits - Whistle Down The Wind
Nick Cave - Nobody's Baby Now
Johnny Cash - Long Black Veil
Freedy Johnston - This Perfect World
Gram Parsons - $1000 Wedding
The Pogues - A Pair of Brown Eyes
Jim White - The Wound That Never Heals
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Thats like, 11, which is one more than ten, but to be honest my favorite songs are the weepers so I figure I ought to throw in as many as I can. As a service to you all, y'know.
18 - KYS
Jackson Browne's "Sleeps Dark and Silent Gate" gets me every time.
Sometimes I lie awake at night and wonder
Where my life will lead me
Waiting to pass under Sleep's dark and silent gate
I found my love too late
Running around day after day
Looking for the time to play
While my old friends slipped away
Never should have had to try so hard
To make a love work out, I guess
I don't know what love has got to do with happiness
But the times when we were happy
Were the times we never tried
Sitting down by the highway
Looking down the road
Waiting for a ride
I don't know where I've been
Wishing I could fly away
Don't know where I'm going
Wishing I could hide
Oh God this is some shape I'm in
When the only thing that makes me cry
Is the kindness in my baby's eye
Sometimes I lie awake at night and wonder
Where the years have gone
They have all passed under
Sleep's dark and silent gate
19 - Terry
How about Queen's "Who wants to live forever"
20 - Rob
How about:
"Hurt" - NIN, but especially the Johnny Cash version. He sounds like he's forcing the last remaining breath in his lungs out to sing that song.
"Fire and Rain" - James Taylor
"Prince of Darkness" - Indigo Girls (I may have the title wrong). This song gets me every time!
21 - Mark Edward Manning
Rob, "Fire and Rain" is one of the best contemporary folk songs I've ever heard. I don't consider it sad. Wistful and pensive maybe, but not really sad.
It seems that most people tend to concentrate on the lyrics in a song. While that's certainly important in judging a sad song, I personally judge a song more by its music - the chord structure: What key is it written in? That's most important to me.
22 - Mark Edward Manning
For instance, it's like that country song "It's Getting Better All the Time," by Brooks & Dunn. If it's getting better all the time, why the fuck is your song so damn sad?!
23 - Mark Saleski
mark, do you think that "Silent All These Years" is sadeer than "Me and a Gun"?
hmm...maybe the latter is better described as 'disturbing'.
24 - Sean
Minstrel Boy -- Traditional song, covered by Joe Strummer for Black Hawk Down soundtrack.
Love in Vain - Robert Johnson
Alabama - John Coltrane
25 - Guppusmaximus
Great topic!
It reminds me of a book that I once heard about"The Art of Crying" where we are our most creative during times of depression...
My List(Not in order):
Toad the Wet Sprocket,"Pray your Gods"
Opeth,"Hope Leaves"
Elvis Presley,"How Great Thou Art"
Candlemass,"Solitude"
Dokken,"Alone Again"
Second Coming,"Travisty"
Big Wreck's,"That Song"
Sting,"Shape of My Heart"
Candlebox,"Cover Me"
Porcupine Tree,"Collapse the Light into Earth"