Saddest Songs

[Mr._Graybeard]

The interpretation is a presumption on my part, I haven't read an 'official' explication, but from reading the lyrics.....

I enjoy Mark's take on so many, otherwise mundane, subjects, The Scaffolder's Wife, Secondary Waltz, Punish The Monkey and a zillion others.

"Song for Sonny Liston" is my favorite Knopfler song. A sad story of a different sort.

 

[UtahSkier]

The song that brings me to my knees is a harmless little tune called "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro. My wife also had cancer when I came home and found her crying in the middle of the day. it's a comparison I never could have written.


Big stuff makes noise, its the little things that sneek up on you that can quietly ruin everything....

Maybe it is context, but my mother died when I was a kid... a month before this song was released in 1968. I spent the rest of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond thinking of her when I hear this song.

 

[CoolRich59]

This is the saddest song I know of.

 

[CoolRich59]

Don't Give Up by Peter Gabriel

Got to walk out of here, I can't take anymore,
gonna stand on that bridge, keep my eyes down below,
whatever may come, and whatever may go,
that rivers flowin', that rivers flowin'

Great song - very powerful.

 

[CoolRich59]

These folks are really good.

Agreed. I really like Mandolin Orange. I got to see them last year before everything shut down. Golden Embers is a heart-wrenching song.

 

[CoolRich59]

Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings

Not sad to me, but it is incredibly powerful and one of my favorite classical pieces. I'm particularly fond of the Leonard Bernstein version.

 

[CoolRich59]

I'll finish with another Mark Knopfler song, 'Feel Like Going Home', (written by Charlie Rich) that I really like even though it's tough for me to listen to. In fact, when I'm feeling down the DW won't even let me play it.

Lord, I feel like going home
I've tried and I failed and I'm tired and weary
Everything I've done is wrong
And I feel like going home

Lord, I tried to see you through
But it was too much for me
Now I'm coming home to you
And, I feel like going home

Cloudy skies are closing in
And not a friend around to help me
From all the places I've been
And, I feel like going home

Lord, I feel like going home
I've tried and I failed and I'm tired and weary
Everything I've done is wrong
And, I feel like going home

 

[Gumby]

This is the saddest song I know of.

Allow me to nominate another John Prine song, Angel From Montgomery.

 

[like2]

A sad song that makes me smile because of sweet memories of a great friend no longer here..

 

[like2]

Another John Prine masterpiece....

 

[AlexWill1989]

 

[Montecfo]

This thread keeps on giving

Luther Vandross' "Dance With My Father".

https://youtu.be/WQDLu0tRASI

 

[Koolau]

The Rose by Bette Midler - perhaps because it plays at the end of THE ROSE movie as she ODs.

It Makes No Difference sung by Rick Danko (The Band).

Could there be a sadder line than:

Now there's no love
As true as the love
That dies untold

(Unfortunately, Scorsese inexplicably cut this line from the performance in THE LAST WALTZ)

The last line - especially as shown in THE LAST WALTZ is the most emotional delivery of a line I can think of.

Well, I love you so much
That it's all I can do
Just to keep myself from telling you
That I never felt so alone before

 

[rick55]

You guys are all awesome...I salute you! Glad to see Harry Chapin well represented here, an LI boy who I used to go see at Huntington High School as a teenager in free concerts. All you had to do was bring a canned good for donation to help feed the hungry.

My song is California Dreamin, Mamas and the Papas. “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey”. Pretty much did it for me...

Thanks!
Rick

 

[LRDave]

A sad song that makes me smile because of sweet memories of a great friend no longer here..

A sad song indeed. I would've picked "Black Muddy River" or "Morning Dew" equally from the GD.

 

[may pop]

6 pages and still not mentioned?
He stopped loving her today.
A favorite from the Possom, George Jones

 

[replyguy]

Say Something (I'm giving up on you) Great Big World and Christine Aguilera

I Love The Way You Lie Eminem with Rihanna

 

[MuirWannabe]

https://youtu.be/Ovb_iRWcqsc

The great Kris Kristofferson. For the good times

 

[strathglass]

Others have already mentioned a couple great ones:
Hurt - Johnny Cash
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot.

But how could no one yet mention this cover of the Tears for Fears song:

 

[Marita40]

Here are two of my picks. I love the longing in Loggins' voice. And the Bread song is actually about David Gates' father.

 

[Capsu78]

Casimir Pulaski day

 

[MuirWannabe]

Ah yes. Bread. A consistent play in my car on date nights. Listened so much I actually began to like it. As if that had anything to do with it. [emoji4]

 

[HawkOwl]

You are my sunshine
Greensleeves

 

[albundyz]

this has been mentioned already, but my 2c

Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton.

Seriously, I don't understand how he can sing this song about the death of his own son. I won't listen for more than 10 seconds. gotta turn it off.

 

[Murf2]

6 pages and still not mentioned?
He stopped loving her today.
A favorite from the Possom, George Jones

I beat you! Post 70, geat song, I think.

Murf