Sad Songs

[timtamWB]

Everyone knows these songs. The songs that you can't listen to because they're too sad, or they remind you of a time in your life where you weren't doing too well. The songs that never fail to make you cry.



This one I found recently, but it really speaks to me, especially the lyrics in the chorus.

 

[Plugger35]

Say so much / Elton John

I probably like more sad songs than happy pop songs, sad songs carry more weight.

Two of my favourite bands do some decent sad songs.




















.

 

[Plugger35]

Another great sad songsmith is M Ward, the sort of guy you want to listen to when you're downing whiskey at a bar after a broken marriage/relationship.

 

[andrew coombs]

Sorry...tracey chapman
End of the innocence...don Henley
Iceman...springsteen
Short note...matt finish
Since you left me...avalanches
The boxer...Paul Simon
Luka...Suzanne vega
Everybody hurts...rem
Goodbye tiger...Richard Clapton
Nothing compares to you,,,sinead/prince
Through and through...stones
How to make gravy...Paul Kelly
I can't tell you why...eagles
Tracks of my tears...smoky Robinson
Spanish boots...bob Dylan
Where do the children play...cat Stevens


Yes I am old

 

[La Dispute]

 

[CURVE]

 

[mellowyellow]

Just a few that come to mind,old/new.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Sorry wrong thread... here you go

 

[NarniMagic]

This, so sad, yet it may well be my favorite song

 

[benji2]

A few I can think of. Been sad a lot over the journey.









Excuse me a sec...

 

[Plugger35]

Can't leave out Let Down, starts off as sad as sad can be but then it builds up slowly to be quite uplifting by the end.

Never fails to bring a tear to my eye.




This National track lives up to it's name, one of many great tracks off High Violet.

​

 

[La Dispute]

This, so sad, yet it may well be my favorite song

I love Bright Eyes. Poison Oak is just heartbreaking; lyrically beautiful, poetic, tortured. Conor Oberst is second only to Elliott Smith for my favourite lyricist.

You could also name Lua, We Are Nowhere And It's Now from that album.

"... and you wrote bad checks, just to fill your arm"

"Me I'm a single cell, on a serpents tongue"

"And when I press the keys, it all gets reversed. The sound of loneliness, makes me happier"

"You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for..."

All astonishing lines.



I've always seen this song as a precursor to it.

 

[Plugger35]

I rate M. Ward above Bright Eyes, they both used to knock around in the same circles back in the day.

M.Ward is the less fashionable of the two.but still beats him hands down in terms of musicianship and songwriting imo.

Those M.Ward tracks I posted earlier in this thread speak for themselves, if you can post better Bright Eyes tracks then be my guest.

I'm yet to hear them.

 

[La Dispute]

He probably is.

I really like M. Ward as well but it's more a personal thing with Conor. I feel like I've grown up with his music and as such, I relate so closely to a lot of his stories. His early songs in particularly are hauntingly dark.

No doubt M. Ward is a better musician. Nobody would debate that.

 

[La Dispute]

But I daresay neither song you've posted is as climactic or brilliant as Poison Oak.

But that's my opinion.

 

[james Dean]

Radiohead - Street Spirit(Fade Out)
Such a a haunting song, here is what Thom Yorke said about it

"'Street Spirit' is our purest song, but I didn't write it.... It wrote itself. We were just its messengers... Its biological catylysts. It's core is a complete mystery to me... and (pause) you know, I wouldn't ever try to write something that hopeless... All of our saddest songs have somewhere in them at least a glimmer of resolve... 'Street Spirit' has no resolve... It is the dark tunnel without the light at the end. It represents all tragic emotion that is so hurtful that the sound of that melody is its only definition. We all have a way of dealing with that song... It's called detachment... Especially me.. I detach my emotional radar from that song, or I couldn't play it... I'd crack. I'd break down on stage.. that's why its lyrics are just a bunch of mini-stories or visual images as opposed to a cohesive explanation of its meaning... I used images set to the music that I thought would convey the emotional entirety of the lyric and music working together... That's what's meant by 'all these things are one to swallow whole'.. I meant the emotional entirety, because I didn't have it in me to articulate the emotion... (pause) I'd crack.... Our fans are braver than I to let that song penetrate them, or maybe they don't realize what they're listening to.. They don't realize that 'Street Spirit' is about staring the ****ing devil right in the eyes... and knowing, no matter what the hell you do, he'll get the last laugh...and it's real...and true. The devil really will get the last laugh in all cases without exception, and if I let myself think about that to long, I'd crack. I can't believe we have fans that can deal emotionally with that song... That's why I'm convinced that they don't know what it's about. It's why we play it towards the end of our sets. It drains me, and it shakes me, and hurts like hell everytime I play it, looking out at thousands of people cheering and smiling, oblivious to the tragedy of it's meaning, like when you're going to have your dog put down and it's wagging it's tail on the way there. That's what they all look like, and it breaks my heart.

I wish that song hadn't picked us as its catalysts, and so I don't claim it. It asks too much. (very long pause). I didn't write that song."

 

[Plugger35]

I like both of them, I just think M.Ward gets overlooked because he's less trendy or fashionable .

They've both fallen off the radar now, they were the acoustic guitar darlings of the UK music press about a decade ago along with these guys.



I rate Turin Brakes ahead of both M.Ward and Bright Eyes, their debut album The Optimist made into my top 10 albums of all time, no mean feat.

The Optimist is full of darkly poetic songs way beyond their years, another case in point.is this song.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Radiohead - Street Spirit(Fade Out)
Such a a haunting song, here is what Thom Yorke said about it

"'Street Spirit' is our purest song, but I didn't write it.... It wrote itself. We were just its messengers... Its biological catylysts.....

I'm a Radiohead fan but he is either taking the piss or is so full of shit he doesn't know it.

 

[Jay C]

Something pretty different to what is in this thread, but for me it meets all the points the OP suggests.

 

[Bulldocker]

Sorry...tracey chapman
End of the innocence...don Henley
Iceman...springsteen
Short note...matt finish
Since you left me...avalanches
The boxer...Paul Simon
Luka...Suzanne vega
Everybody hurts...rem
Goodbye tiger...Richard Clapton
Nothing compares to you,,,sinead/prince
Through and through...stones
How to make gravy...Paul Kelly
I can't tell you why...eagles
Tracks of my tears...smoky Robinson
Spanish boots...bob Dylan
Where do the children play...cat Stevens


Yes I am old

And, from another oldie... Honey - Bobby Goldsboro
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
Winner takes it all - Abba

 

[Plugger35]

Paul Kelly is right up there in terms of songwiriters.

These two songs are both sad and brilliant at the same time

 

[Eddie Dingle]

Rowland S Howard - Genius

 

[Eddie Dingle]

 

[4evablues]

Not a massive fan of Missy Higgins but this song is so powerful. I can relate to the lyrics and even though it's sad, it can be taken as a form of strength.

 

[Dory_77]

^ So simple, yet so emotive. Kinda weird watching it with how Layne looks so chilled out, but his voice just sounds so incredible.

^ Pretty much this whole album. Can drag a bit, but some of the melodies and riffs are beautiful in a heavy, crushing sort of way.

^ Another heavy song. Some of the guitar tones in the clean passages are amazing, really brings out the feels. Opeth have a lot of sad songs; incredible musicians.