Sad songs say so much

[Gentle Giant]

I'm sure everyone agrees that there are times one's mood or situation requires a great sad song. Sad songs help you feel less alone; the idea that someone knows what you're going through and has expressed it so movingly can be a real help.

Some, of course, are schmaltzy, like Along Again Naturally or Seasons in the Sun. But others have a depth of feeling and emotional sophistication that are truly palliative. Here are some of the latter that I've always been drawn to:

Caroline No - Brian Wilson (no other BBs appear on it, and it was originally released as a BW single back in '66, before Pet Sounds was released)

Rainy Night in Georgia - Brook Benton

It Makes No Difference - The Band (goddamn, but this song got me through the worst heartbreak of my life about 16 years ago)

Tonight's the Night - Neil Young

The End of the World - Skeeter Davis (also like Herman's Hermits and Nina Gordon's versions)

Without You, Everybody's Talkin' - Harry Nilsson

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - Bee Gees

'Til I Die - Beach Boys (again, mainly Brian)

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Everybody's Talkin' - Harry Nilsson

Fred Neal's original version cuts this one to little bitty pieces.



Say It Isn't So -- Dinah Washington

Nothing Takes The Place of You -- Toussaint McCall

Goodbye/ A Cottage For Sale -- Frank Sinatra

[Doc Martin]

Strange Fruit

[Noj]

Yusef Lateef - Like It Is

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by Squaredancecalling Steve

Fred Neal's original version cuts this one to little bitty pieces.

While not particularly sad, I really dig the version by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes

[Gentle Giant]

Dylan's Sara is quite a beautiful tribute to a lost love; also, If You See Her, Say Hello.

[Doc Martin]

Hurt So Bad: Little Anthony and the Imperials
No Woman No Cry: Bob Marley
As Tears Go By: The Rolling Stones

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Nice picks, Doc!


Lefty Frizzell -- The Long Black Veil
The Chantels -- Maybe/ He's Gone
Rolling Stones -- No Expectations
Sam Cooke -- A Change Is Gonna Come
Leonard Cohen -- Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye
Bob Dylan -- Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (usually Dylan gets pissed off rather than sad)
Leadbelly -- Easy Rider/ Midnight Special/ Goodnight Irene
George Jones -- He Stopped Loving Her Today/ The Grand Tour (Aaron Neville does a nice cover of this one)
Lee Andrews and The Hearts -- Teardrops
Gladys Knight & The Pips -- Neither One Of Us Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye
Tom Paxton -- Last Thing On My Mind
Anita O'Day -- Easy Come, Easy Go
Sarah Vaughan/ Billy Eckstein -- Passing Strangers

[Surfer]

Gram Parsons - Hickory Wind, Love Hurts
Flying Burrito Bros - Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?
Ornette Coleman / Pat Metheny - Katherin Grey
Bert Jansch - Needle of Death
Moby Grape - Someday

[groover]

Do you want heartbreak songs or just sad songs?

Gloomy Sunday (Laszlo Javor-Rezso Seress) is simply a sad song about losing one's mother. Billie Holiday recorded it, among many others.

Dave Bromberg - Sammy's Song ( a sad song about a young man's first sexual encounter, with a fire-scarred prostitute)

The Byrds - I Come and Stand at Every Door (a sad song about the effects of a nuclear bomb)

[Chris D]

Brain not working now, but one that nevertheless comes to mind is
CCR's "Someday Never Comes"

[Gentle Giant]

Originally Posted by groover

Do you want heartbreak songs or just sad songs?

Whatever floats your boat. I'm feeling kinda down these days, and songs in which people are expressing their pain are very cathartic to me. But while there are innumerable "oh baby let's get down and dirty" songs in the popular music canon, downer tunes don't usually get their day in the sun, so to speak.

So Far Away - Carole King

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Lucinda Williams -- Sweet Old World

Johnny Ray -- Cry

Garnett Mims -- Cry Baby

Chuck Jackson -- I Don't Want To Cry/ I Wake Up Crying

Connie Smith -- Cry Cry Cry

[steve(thelil)]

Hearing For Noone (Beatles) used to break my heart after a breakup.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by steve(thelil)

Hearing For Noone (Beatles) used to break my heart after a breakup.

I'm sure the other fella felt the same way.

No offense, but everybody on this thread is gay. Except for me. Sad songs, sheesh. I got your sad song right here.

[groover]

Someday, Monte, when your daughter is a teenager, fate will punish you for your smug attitude. She'll bring home a crew of gangster rappers to wreck your house, and get pregnant by one of them, but she won't be sure which. Then you'll know the true meaning of sorrow.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by groover

Someday, Monte, when your daughter is a teenager, fate will punish you for your smug attitude. She'll bring home a crew of gangster rappers to wreck your house, and get pregnant by one of them, but she won't be sure which. Then you'll know the true meaning of sorrow.

The true meaning of sorrow is a hiphop gangbang? Damn! And here all these years I thought it was breaking up with Ava Gardner that did it to Frank.



So sad.

[Gentle Giant]

Originally Posted by steve(thelil)

Hearing For Noone (Beatles) used to break my heart after a breakup.

I thought Peter Noone was in Herman's Hermits!

[blawless]

I'm with Monte on this one. Sad songs are for gay losers! For my money I'll take the rollicking, good-time sounds of Tubby Esquire and his Two Fast Gents Polka Experience!




(NOTE: Tubby, center, and Gent Number One, right, are slightly gay)

[stonemonkts]

I tend to favor the bittersweet type of song instead of overtly sad songs. No one does it better for me than my man Tom Waits:

Tom Traubert's Blues
Please Call Me, Baby
Ruby's Arms
Martha (impossible to listen to this without getting choked up)
(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night
San Diego Serenade

[groover]

Maybe it's just me, but I always found Pink Floyd's "Time", and much of Roger Waters work, profoundly depressing. Yet, contrary to GG's theory, this song was popular.

Time.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
And racing around to come up behing you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone the song is over thought I'd something more to say.





Most of the gays I've known actually like upbeat, mindlessly happy music, like Monte and blawless. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[groover]

Another dark, depressing tune that was immensely popular.


King Of Pain

There's a little black spot on the sun today
That's my soul up there
It's the same old thing as yesterday
That's my soul up there
There's a black hat caught on a high tree top
That's my soul up there
There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop
That's my soul up there

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles, running 'round my brain
I guess I always thought that you could end this reign
But it's my destiny to be the king of pain

There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall
There's a dead salmon frozen on a waterfall
There's a blue whale beached by a springtide's ebb
There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web

There's a king on a throne wit his eyes torn out
There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread

There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack
There's a black-winged gull wit ha broken back
There's a little black spot on the sun today
It's the same old thing as yesterday
That's my soul up there

I have stood here before in the pouring rain
With the world turning circles, running 'round my brain
I guess I always thought that you could end this reign
But it's my destiny to be the king of pain

I'll always be the king of pain

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

EVERYBODY KNOWS

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows

-- Leonard Cohen

[blawless]

"Girlfriend in a Coma" puts a bounce in my step pretty much every time I hear it.

Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's serious
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's really serious

There were times when I could
Have murdered her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)

NO, I DON'T WANT TO SEE HER

Do you really think
She'll pull through ?
Do you really think
She'll pull through ?
Do ...

Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's serious
My, my, my, my, my, my baby, goodbye

There were times when I could
Have strangled her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)
WOULD YOU PLEASE
LET ME SEE HER !

Do you really think
She'll pull through ?
Do you really think
She'll pull through ?
Do ...
Let me whisper my last goodbyes

I know - IT'S SERIOUS

[Gentle Giant]

Roy Orbison - It's Over, Crying
Dan Fogelberg - Same Old Lang Syne


BTW, I didn't mean to imply that sad songs aren't successful. I mean, look at Clapton's Tears in Heaven. Phil Collins became a superstar singing shitty songs about his divorce. I just mean that they tend to be overlooked (no wonder, with certain highly sensitive people calling others gay because they sometimes have strong feelings) compared to more upbeat, uptempo tunes.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by blawless

"Girlfriend in a Coma" puts a bounce in my step pretty much every time I hear it.

That's because it's a bouncy song. Also good is "Unhappy Birthday:"

I've come to wish you an unhappy birthday...

Because yer evil and you lie
and if you should die
well, I may feel slightly sad but I won't cry.

Yeah! Morrissey sure could write them. I'm glad to be discussing his songs and not sad songs WHICH ARE GAY.

[Noj]

Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Wayne Shorter - Armageddon
Lee Morgan - Melancholee
Horace Silver - Lonely Woman

[Root Doctor]

These are some songs I'd probably play if I'm mildly bummed out:

Little Feat: Long Distance Love
Kinks: Better Things
Alex Chilton: Nobody's Fool
Pretenders: Talk of the Town
Elvis Costello: King of America
Graham Parker: Back in Time
Tom Waits: Shiver Me Timbers
Richard Thompson: Waltzing's for Dreamers (which sounds a little like the Waits song, come to think of it)
Loudon Wainwright III: Bill of Goods
Pogues: Broad Majestic Shannon
Garland Jeffries: Lovers Walk
Tommy Keane: Places That Are Gone

[groover]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

I'm glad to be discussing his songs and not sad songs WHICH ARE GAY.

If the songs are gay, then how can they be sad? Gaiety is the opposite of sadness, Monte.

Most of Kurt Cobain's lyrics are suicidally depressing. Perfect music to blow your head off to.

Nirvana › Heart-shaped Box

She eyes me like a pisces when I am weak
I’ve been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I’ve been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn back (alt: ... when you turn black)

Hey! wait!
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! wait! (alt: hate! haight!)
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! wait!
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Your advice

Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet
Cut myself on angel’s hair and baby’s breath
Broken hymen of your highness I’m left black
Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back

Hey! wait!
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! wait!
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! wait!
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Your advice

She eyes me like a pisces when I am weak
I’ve been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I’ve been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn back (alt: ... when you turn black)

Hey! wait!
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! wait!
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! wait!
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Your advice (x3)

[groover]

O.k., I found one "gay" sad song for Monte.


Glad to be Gay - Tom Robinson



The British Police are the best in the world
I don't believe one of these stories I've heard
'Bout them raiding our pubs for no reason at all
Lining the customers up by the wall
Picking out people and knocking them down
Resisting arrest as they're kicked on the ground
Searching their houses and calling them queer
I don't believe that sort of thing happens here

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Pictures of naked young women are fun
In Titbits and Playboy, page three of The Sun
There's no nudes in Gay News our last magazine
But they still find excuses to call it obscene
Read how disgusting we are in the press
The News of The World and the Sunday Express
Molesters of children, corruptors of youth
It's there in the paper, it must be the truth

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Don't try to kid us that if you're discreet
You're perfectly safe as you walk down the street
You don't have to mince or make bitchy remarks
To get beaten unconscious and left in the dark
I had a friend who was gentle and short
Got lonely one evening and went for a walk
Queerbashers caught him and kicked in his teeth
He was only hospitalised for a week

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

So sit back and watch as they close all our clubs
Arrest us for meeting and raid all our pubs
Make sure your boyfriend's at least 21
So only your friends and your brothers get done
Lie to your workmates, lie to your folks
Put down the queens and tell anti-queer jokes
Gay Lib's ridiculous, join their laughter
'The buggers are legal now, what more are they after?'

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way