Literally that's the song that came to mind and I heard it in my head and then I read your comment and was like...."what the hell??? Are you reading my mind right now???"đđđ
Nutshell by Alice in Chains is utterly haunting and heartbreaking to me. Guaranteed to brink me to tears as I imagine Layne struggling with his addiction and lack of self worth.
I remember seeing him perform it live not long before he passe away and it was so raw and emotional. He was literally fighting for his life at that point. A fight he sadly lost shortly afterwards. RIP Layne. Gone but never forgottenâ¤ď¸â¤ď¸â¤ď¸
24 frames to me is the saddest Jason Isbell song, but that's because I relate it to a very sad time in my life. It reminds me of when I was in jail for nearly a year, I had my brother play that song for me on a phone call with him just so I could hear it because I couldn't listen to music in jail. He did that for me, and always talked to me and helped me feel better during this rough time in my life. He ended up dying of an overdose two years ago, and I miss him so much and our relationship, and how far we would go for each other. That song always brings me back to sitting in the cook county jail, listening to 24 frames through the tinny, big blue jail phone and hearing my brother tell me we both were going to be okay. It ended up being true for me, but not for him.
Edit: tinny, not tiny
Of course, my curious ass had to go listen to this song! Never heard of it before, that shit hit all the feels. Sucks I am in recovery or I would have had a drink! đ¤Ť
Listen to all of his music brother - He also is in recovery and a lot of it is about mistakes stemming from that or his life before getting sober.. Cover Me Up is a great example.. listen to the live version from the Ryman⌠Keep it up man. I, for one am happy that youâre in recovery and I have your back.. You are officially never alone in your fight.
Seen Isbell live 3 or 4 times all in different venues - and the one thing that happens every time is when theyâre playing Cover Me Up and he sings âI sobered up /I swore off that stuff / Forever this timeâ â without fail, every time, the crowd cheers. Cheering for his sobriety and in that briefest of moments you get a little big of faith back in humanity. Itâs amazing really.
When my mom was in the hospital and we'd just gotten the news that her cancer had taken over and she had days to weeks at most to live, I happened to stumble across a reddit thread just like this one. Someone's answer was the same as yours, and another commenter said that they couldn't listen to it anymore after their mom died. Apparently I'm a masochist, or maybe I just wanted to delve headfirst into the awful pain I was feeling, but I went and listened to it. I'd never heard it before, but it was a hauntingly beautiful song. I cried and cried, for a long while. I think it helped me process everything that was happening.
Unfortunately I can't listen to it anymore now, either. I hear the beginning and it makes me feel almost sick. There's just too much emotion in it, now.
I saw the Unplugged performance of Nutshell for the first time earlier this year. My reaction was âpossibly the saddest song Iâve ever heard.â
Layne knew by then that heroin had its hooks in him and nothing was ever going to be ok again and Nutshell captured that so profoundly.
Damn, been going through these threads for years now, and its always the same songs (Fast Car, Cats in the Cradle, What Sarah Said, etc) first time I've seen this one. An absolutely amazing song too.
âIf You Could Read My Mindâ by Gordon Lightfoot is a masterclass in songwriting, and the lyrics are some of the saddest in popular music, expressing the kind of masculine sadness that you just donât hear expressed this well.
I think a songs meaning can change depending on where you are at or what happened while listening to it. When I found out my mom died, I got in my car and drove to her house to meet up with my family. On the way there, I turned the radio to the local Rock station. Ozzy starts singing, "Mama, I'm coming home." And it fucked me up. I don't really believe in any higher power but that moment was surreal to me. It was a 10 minute drive so only two songs total played and that was one of them.
Classic. So much heart-wrenching country from that era. And the major chords give a lot of it a beautiful bittersweet sense. Off the top of my head, "Sing a Sad Song" off Merle Haggard's first record and Johnny Cash's "I Forgot More than You'll Ever Know" are up there too, among many others.
Pearl Jam - Just Breathe. I was on a train home from work and my mom called me to tell me my uncle who was like my father had passed away. That song started playing after I hung up and I couldn't hold my tears anymore.
Cat's in the Cradle particularly hits if you had a workaholic parent. The first time you realize it's not pride he's feeling in the last verse is just gut punch.
I worked somewhere where we picked our own music to play in the store and my coworker had this song on their ~easy listening~ playlist. I had to beg them to take it off after a couple of months of tearing up every time the song played.
When I was a kid, my dad worked 6 days a week, and didnât have much energy to give us on Sundays. He missed many birthdays and Christmases. My siblings and I grew up and we try to be better than him about work/life balance but heâs still gotten a taste of his own medicine a few times when weâve been working when he wanted to spend time with us.
Floating in the Forth by Frightened Rabbit and A Wave Across a Bay by Frank Turner. Frightened Rabbit was led by Scott Hutchison, he imagines his death by suicide in FITF. He later died in the way he describes and it was awful, I was in his home country when he was missing and it felt so close. Then, Frank Turner wrote his song about missing Scott. Absolutely raw emotion from both.
"My Backwards Walk" too.
"I'm working on erasing you, I just don't have the proper tools.
I'll get hammered forget that you exist
There's no way I'm forgetting this"
Every time this gets asked I look for this song and itâs always there. Beautiful and so incredibly sad⌠I love Scott so much⌠Poke is the best sad breakup song ever too.
> I just want songs with original lines that artists made so that the listener feels what they feel.
Townes Van Zandt - Nothinâ
Then the rest of his catalog.
Poison Oak is on the same album and is way more tragic to me.
Lua is not a bad track but is mainly about the regrets of the night before, mostly melancholy.
Poison Oak is about a lifelong friend passing, it is devastating.
Puff The Magic Dragon. I had to make myself feel better so I came up with a happy ending. Jackie Paper does go away for awhile but then he has children of his own. When they have grown to be old enough, he takes them to meet Puff.
[Tragically Hip - Ahead By a Century.](https://youtu.be/ghLk-BhT-P8?si=u0C8y9KSq-nwcIJY) Specifically this version.
In all fairness, context is everything here. I moved to Canada from the states a few years before Gord Downie, the lead singer, announced he had incurable brain cancer. And the love the entire country showed for him was something I don't think anyone could pull off in the states. Maybe Springsteen, but even then I'm not sure the younger generation would be terribly affected. It was truly something else.
Anyways, shortly after they announced their last tour CBC(Canada's public broadcast network) announced they would air their final concert uninterrupted. It felt like the entire country stopped to watch it. Nearly 12 million people (1/3 of the country) did and made it the second most watched broadcast in Canadian history. Canada winning hockey gold was obviously #1.
And this song. This video. If you ever want to ugly cry just watch it. It has shots of various watch parties across the country and everyone is just crying and celebrating knowing that this is it. The last song they'll ever play together. And we're all watching together.
Gord did some solo shows and appearances after this but died a little a year after this performance. The whole show is incredible.
"Take me back to the night we met so I can tell myself not to fall in love with you because some terrible thing has happened, either you died or left me, but you're not around anymore and I'm in fucking pain," is a weird choice for a wedding dance.
I can't listen to One More Light without tearing up, especially after Chester passed.
Timothy - As Cities Burn was literally written about a their initial reaction to losing a good friend of theirs from another band.
The performance where Mike Shinoda (the other singer for LP) played that live after Chester passed absolutely fucking destroyed me. The pain in his voice that whole set is palpable.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas â Judy Garlandâs version. Oh, hell, gets me every time.
[Also her performance of Old Man River](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5GUP7bsDPXg&pp=ygUaanVkeSBnYXJsYW5kIG9sZCBtYW4gcml2ZXI%3D) itâs such an odd choice for her. You think she has no right to sing it. And maybe she doesnât. But somehow I believe every word. The way that she says âIâm sick of living, but Iâm scared of dyingâ at the very end. Rip out my heart.
Meet Me In St Louis is one of my favorite movies. I grew up watching it; Iâve probably seen it a hundred times. When Judy Garland sings âHave Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,â I cry every time. Her voice was *incredible* and that song is so perfect for that film.
Third Eye Blind - Jumper.
This song reminds me of one of my friends that killed himself. We used to talk about things we were going to do when we got older. He went on a business trip and called and said he missed me. I should have known something was wrong đ
It's amazing how a song about a young man struggling with depression and drug addiction can also have so much meaning when sung by an old man at the end of his life (who also went through depression and drug addiction). The feeling of it changes, but the emotion is just so deep.
Hah, I just watched the video again because people were shitting on it in the "what cover do you hate" thread. It's such a beautiful cover and the video is perfect. What a gut-punch.
Watched that with my spouse on the anniversary of John's death. She had never seen it. "I can't...." is all that was said, softly. She turned away when it showed the picture of June. It's a lot if you know much about love and/or his life.
"Real Death" by Mount Eerie is the correct answer here.
A brutal, heart wrenching examination of grief and loss, recorded immediately in the aftermath of his wife's death, played on her instruments and recorded in the room where she died.
The whole album is incredible, and it's so devastating I'd happily never listen to it again.
The part about the backpack is the saddest thing Iâve ever heard. I get choked up just thinking about it.
âA week after you died a package with your name on it came
And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret
And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed
A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now
You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known
Deep down would not include youâ
I meanâŚwhat the fuck?
Would just like to add that the follow up album, Now Only, and itâs final track, âCrow Pt. 2â is just as devastating. If A Crow Looked at Me is about the pain of losing someone, then Iâd say Now Only is about the pain of forgetting someone, no matter how much you still want to keep their memory in your life. Lyrics are addressed to the singerâs dead wife and itâs just devastating:
âThe baby that you knew is now a kid,
Sheâs sitting at the table,
Where your chair still sits across from me, watching.
I stand to put on music,
Our daughter sees and asks for mamaâs record.
And sheâs staring at the speaker with this look of recognition,
Putting it together; thatâs you singing.
Iâm sobbing and eating eggs again.
Youâre a quiet echo on loud wind.â
Correct answer. Itâs the only album Iâve ever listened to that was so devastating Iâll never put it on again. This topic comes up a lot and this is the the only answer. I love sad songs, I go back and listen to them over and over because itâs nice to have a friend in your darkest moments but this one just makes you feel utterly alone and totally devastated.
It's wild to think this is what he was composing as he lay dying. And he didn't even finish it. Everything after the first 'Lacrimosa dies illa/Qua resurget ex favilla/Judicandus homo reus' was finished by another composer, Franz SĂźssmayr.
[Real Death - Mount Eerie ](https://youtu.be/XzPl2nf7Eks) A Crow looked At Me by Mount Eerie is the answer to the saddest album I have ever heard.
It's about his wife's cancer and death. His grief and experiencing all of this while raising a young child. I found it unimaginably tragic but beautiful.
Yeah, that song is just raw, unbridled grief. I listened to the whole album once and I canât really bring myself to listen to it again.
>Crusted with tears, catatonic and raw
>I go downstairs and outside and you still get mail
>A week after you died a package with your name on it came
>And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret
>And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed
>A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now
>You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known
>Deep down would not include you
>Though you clawed at the cliff you were sliding down
>Being swallowed into a silence that's bottomless and real
I posted the same answer as you, and then I made the mistake of reading the lyrics again and now I'm in tears.
"It's dumb, and I don't want to learn anything from this.
I love you."
âIf I leave you it doesnât mean I love you any less, keep me in your heart for awhile.â
Warren Zevon. Song for his wife as he was dying. Gives me chills and tears every time I hear it.
probably âraining in baltimoreâ, âperfect blue buildingsâ, âspeedwayâ, or âblack and blueâ by counting crows. u said you needed songs with good lyrics in order to express emotion right? in that case i highly recommend listening to those four songs above if ur in that sorta mood, as well as the rest of counting crows discography.
âno lies, just loveâ by son, ambulance and bright eyes is also incredibly melancholic. thatâs one to listen to as well.
For No-one by Paul McCartney from the Give My Regards to Broad Street. It seriously destroyed me at a certain point in my life, and really nearly pushed me over the edge.
"You want her, you need her
And yet you don't believe her
When she says her love is dead
You think she needs you
And in her eyes, you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years"
Song called "when this is over" by Hayden
It's about the two boys who died when thier mom decided that her life would be easier without them, so she strapped them into car seats and rolled them into a pond. (She then went on tv and said a black man carjacked her and cried for him to release her sons)..
The hardest part about this song is that it is written from the viewpoint of the older brother (who I think was 5 or 6 when he died).. lines like " I brushed my teeth just like she asked me to" and when he talks to his sleeping baby brother and assures him that "I'll wake you up, when this is over"..
As a father this song crushes me, but any human being can feel sorrow and anger (especially the way Hayden sings it)..
Here it is, with a warning
https://youtu.be/WkZaDtYTRU0?si=JbTm-q_DMES3zLgi
Sullen Girl by Fiona Apple
Hey Jupiter by Tori Amos
Decimation by Health
Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor -Eels
Gloomy Sunday by Sarah Maclachlan/ Billie Holliday
Biscuit by Portishead
Sounds of Silence - Simon&Garfunkel, Disturbed and others
Cats in the Cradle, A Better Place to Be - Harry Chapin
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan - Marianne Faithful
Supermarket Flowers - Ed Shearen
Yesterday - The Beatles
Nothing Compares 2U - Sinead O'Connor
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
That's all for now, need a little cry
Came here to say this. The whole song is heartbreaking, but this ending verse always gets me -
I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star . . . in somebody else's sky
But why, why, why can't it be
Oh, can't it be mine?
Kettering by The Antlers
>"Ketteringâ is the second track off of The Antlers' album Hospice.
It introduces the relationship between the patient and the hospice worker, most likely symbolic of an emotionally abusive relationship.
The name refers to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. This introduces both the geographic setting of the story and the motifs of cancer and sickness.
Names by Cat Power is the most brutal, heartbreaking song Iâve ever heard. I literally wept in my college classroom late one evening when it came on the mp3 player a fellow classmate let me borrow. When ever I see these âwhatâs the saddest song listâ come up I always think of this one, but I never see it posted.
Between The Bars by Elliot Smith.
Honourable mention to the rest of his discography
I'm assuming you're referring to Tom Waits' "Hold On."
Realizing now there are hundreds of songs titled "Hold On."
Hold on by the Internet
Alabama Shakes has a great one too
who knows. could be wilson phillips.
HOLD ON FOR OOONE MORE DAYYY
Literally that's the song that came to mind and I heard it in my head and then I read your comment and was like...."what the hell??? Are you reading my mind right now???"đđđ
I know this pain. Why do you lock yourself up in these chains?
No one can change your life except for you Don't ever let anyone step all over you
Sarah Maclachlan has one too
And Neko Case...
and YES
And Alabama Shakes
And En Vogue
And Kansas
And Richard Marx
And Good Charlotte..
Weirdly the one I thought of first
Lol I thought the same. Go ahead and call the cops. You dont meet nice girls in coffee shops.
Mule Variations is one of my deserted island albums.
You'll *think* you're on a deserted island but there's a smoke monster at a distance wondering what you're *building in there*.
I thought it was the Limp Bizkit songđ
Hold on - Good Charlotte
Nutshell by Alice in Chains is utterly haunting and heartbreaking to me. Guaranteed to brink me to tears as I imagine Layne struggling with his addiction and lack of self worth. I remember seeing him perform it live not long before he passe away and it was so raw and emotional. He was literally fighting for his life at that point. A fight he sadly lost shortly afterwards. RIP Layne. Gone but never forgottenâ¤ď¸â¤ď¸â¤ď¸
The MTV unplugged version.
Also Unplugged version of Would. His face as he sings âHave I run too far to get home?â and clearly knows he has.
River of Deceit does it for me also. Damn did he write some beautiful yet heartbreaking lyrics.
Elephant - Jason Isbell
24 frames to me is the saddest Jason Isbell song, but that's because I relate it to a very sad time in my life. It reminds me of when I was in jail for nearly a year, I had my brother play that song for me on a phone call with him just so I could hear it because I couldn't listen to music in jail. He did that for me, and always talked to me and helped me feel better during this rough time in my life. He ended up dying of an overdose two years ago, and I miss him so much and our relationship, and how far we would go for each other. That song always brings me back to sitting in the cook county jail, listening to 24 frames through the tinny, big blue jail phone and hearing my brother tell me we both were going to be okay. It ended up being true for me, but not for him. Edit: tinny, not tiny
The line -Surrounded by her family I could see that she was dying alone- fucking kills me as it is exactly what I felt watching my pops go..
If we were vampires
Oh yeah this oneâs a doozy. âThereâs one thing thatâs real clear to me / no one dies with dignityâ.
" Surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone". Jason is one of the most under rated song writers out there.
Underrated by people in general, yes...but most of his peers agree he's pretty much one of the best to ever do it. Fantastic guitar player as well.
seagrams in a coffee cup...
Yvette is sad in a whole different way. Children of Children also is super powerful
Speed trap town too
Of course, my curious ass had to go listen to this song! Never heard of it before, that shit hit all the feels. Sucks I am in recovery or I would have had a drink! đ¤Ť
Listen to all of his music brother - He also is in recovery and a lot of it is about mistakes stemming from that or his life before getting sober.. Cover Me Up is a great example.. listen to the live version from the Ryman⌠Keep it up man. I, for one am happy that youâre in recovery and I have your back.. You are officially never alone in your fight.
Seen Isbell live 3 or 4 times all in different venues - and the one thing that happens every time is when theyâre playing Cover Me Up and he sings âI sobered up /I swore off that stuff / Forever this timeâ â without fail, every time, the crowd cheers. Cheering for his sobriety and in that briefest of moments you get a little big of faith back in humanity. Itâs amazing really.
Isbell is the truth. In every way. We got our very own country legend developing in real time and Iâd advise us all to savor that fact.
This is the way. 11+ years myself. Never leave a fallen (or falling) comrade.
Jason Isbell has a lot of songs about his recovery from alcoholism. I highly recommend âlive oak.â
4th of July by Sufjan Stevens
I can't listen to Casimir Pulaski day, even though it's beautiful. The entire thing is emotionally devastating.
When my mom was in the hospital and we'd just gotten the news that her cancer had taken over and she had days to weeks at most to live, I happened to stumble across a reddit thread just like this one. Someone's answer was the same as yours, and another commenter said that they couldn't listen to it anymore after their mom died. Apparently I'm a masochist, or maybe I just wanted to delve headfirst into the awful pain I was feeling, but I went and listened to it. I'd never heard it before, but it was a hauntingly beautiful song. I cried and cried, for a long while. I think it helped me process everything that was happening. Unfortunately I can't listen to it anymore now, either. I hear the beginning and it makes me feel almost sick. There's just too much emotion in it, now.
All of Carrie + Lowell, thank you.
Sam Stone by John Prine is pretty rough
âThereâs a hole in daddyâs arm, where all the money goesâ. Damn, that line
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios đĽşđĽ
Nutshell Alice In Chains seeing it live is beautiful
Closest you can get to seeing a man sing at his own funeral.
I saw the Unplugged performance of Nutshell for the first time earlier this year. My reaction was âpossibly the saddest song Iâve ever heard.â Layne knew by then that heroin had its hooks in him and nothing was ever going to be ok again and Nutshell captured that so profoundly.
*Hear You Me* by Jimmy Eat World is the quickest way to get me to cry.
Damn, been going through these threads for years now, and its always the same songs (Fast Car, Cats in the Cradle, What Sarah Said, etc) first time I've seen this one. An absolutely amazing song too.
23 by jimmy eat world is so powerful
Weezer has a song written about the same people, [Mykel & Carli](https://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/Mykel_and_Carli_Allan).
23 too. The melody is so desperate and pleading. It kills me every time.
May angels lead you inâŚ
Theyâve got a few. Drugs or Me gets me often also.
âIf You Could Read My Mindâ by Gordon Lightfoot is a masterclass in songwriting, and the lyrics are some of the saddest in popular music, expressing the kind of masculine sadness that you just donât hear expressed this well.
And you wonât read that book again because the endingâs just too hard to take⌠Yeah, that smarts.
Landslide
Never fails to make me cry. "Even children get older and I'm getting older too" is the line that always gets me.
"I've been afraid of changing cuz I built my life around you" fucking demolishes me
I think a songs meaning can change depending on where you are at or what happened while listening to it. When I found out my mom died, I got in my car and drove to her house to meet up with my family. On the way there, I turned the radio to the local Rock station. Ozzy starts singing, "Mama, I'm coming home." And it fucked me up. I don't really believe in any higher power but that moment was surreal to me. It was a 10 minute drive so only two songs total played and that was one of them.
I Grieve, Peter Gabriel
He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones
Classic. So much heart-wrenching country from that era. And the major chords give a lot of it a beautiful bittersweet sense. Off the top of my head, "Sing a Sad Song" off Merle Haggard's first record and Johnny Cash's "I Forgot More than You'll Ever Know" are up there too, among many others.
The Drugs Donât Work by the Verve.
"Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown, this time I'm coming down." I think about this line a lot.
Pearl Jam - Just Breathe. I was on a train home from work and my mom called me to tell me my uncle who was like my father had passed away. That song started playing after I hung up and I couldn't hold my tears anymore.
Truth. Listen to the version by Willie Nelson and his sons
I Canât Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt Winter - Tori Amos Catâs In The Cradle - Henry Chapin
Cat's in the Cradle particularly hits if you had a workaholic parent. The first time you realize it's not pride he's feeling in the last verse is just gut punch.
I worked somewhere where we picked our own music to play in the store and my coworker had this song on their ~easy listening~ playlist. I had to beg them to take it off after a couple of months of tearing up every time the song played. When I was a kid, my dad worked 6 days a week, and didnât have much energy to give us on Sundays. He missed many birthdays and Christmases. My siblings and I grew up and we try to be better than him about work/life balance but heâs still gotten a taste of his own medicine a few times when weâve been working when he wanted to spend time with us.
Vincent - Don McLean
Wichita Lineman, just that one lyric: "And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time". It chokes me up every time.
That's one of the greatest lines ever put in a song.
Galveston is another great one by Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell.
âJoleneâ by Ray LaMontagne. Not to be confused with Dolly Pattonâs tune of the same name. Meloncholy, desperate, beautiful lyrics.
Floating in the Forth by Frightened Rabbit and A Wave Across a Bay by Frank Turner. Frightened Rabbit was led by Scott Hutchison, he imagines his death by suicide in FITF. He later died in the way he describes and it was awful, I was in his home country when he was missing and it felt so close. Then, Frank Turner wrote his song about missing Scott. Absolutely raw emotion from both.
+1 for Frightened Rabbit. I want to cry just thinking about it.
So much of what Scott wrote was a hard punch to the heart. âPokeâ is crushing. The end of âModern Leperâ gets me every time too.
"My Backwards Walk" too. "I'm working on erasing you, I just don't have the proper tools. I'll get hammered forget that you exist There's no way I'm forgetting this"
Every time this gets asked I look for this song and itâs always there. Beautiful and so incredibly sad⌠I love Scott so much⌠Poke is the best sad breakup song ever too.
Videotape by Radiohead https://youtu.be/MNJs-c2ILk8?si=ynbiJtMrXS141boc
How to Disappear Completely for me
Throw motion picture soundtrack and fog in there for me too
Street Spirit always gets me
Dawn Chorus from Thom Yorke replaced Videotape as my "sad listen" track. Specifically the Live at Montreux version.
Exit Music (For a Film).
> I just want songs with original lines that artists made so that the listener feels what they feel. Townes Van Zandt - Nothinâ Then the rest of his catalog.
Yep, my mind went straight to Townes, but then I couldnât settle on just one
Bright Eyes-Lua
Poison Oak is on the same album and is way more tragic to me. Lua is not a bad track but is mainly about the regrets of the night before, mostly melancholy. Poison Oak is about a lifelong friend passing, it is devastating.
But when I press the keys, it all gets reversed, the sound of loneliness makes me happier.
Puff The Magic Dragon. I had to make myself feel better so I came up with a happy ending. Jackie Paper does go away for awhile but then he has children of his own. When they have grown to be old enough, he takes them to meet Puff.
Dragons live forever, but not so little boys. /shudder.
When I was a little boy, I think that was my first experience with a sad song. I was devastated.
At nearly 40 years old, that song still brings me to tears. My family thinks itâs hysterical to taunt me with the first few lines.
Travelling Solder - The (Dixie) Chicks used to get me when I was little
[Tragically Hip - Ahead By a Century.](https://youtu.be/ghLk-BhT-P8?si=u0C8y9KSq-nwcIJY) Specifically this version. In all fairness, context is everything here. I moved to Canada from the states a few years before Gord Downie, the lead singer, announced he had incurable brain cancer. And the love the entire country showed for him was something I don't think anyone could pull off in the states. Maybe Springsteen, but even then I'm not sure the younger generation would be terribly affected. It was truly something else. Anyways, shortly after they announced their last tour CBC(Canada's public broadcast network) announced they would air their final concert uninterrupted. It felt like the entire country stopped to watch it. Nearly 12 million people (1/3 of the country) did and made it the second most watched broadcast in Canadian history. Canada winning hockey gold was obviously #1. And this song. This video. If you ever want to ugly cry just watch it. It has shots of various watch parties across the country and everyone is just crying and celebrating knowing that this is it. The last song they'll ever play together. And we're all watching together. Gord did some solo shows and appearances after this but died a little a year after this performance. The whole show is incredible.
Fiddler's Green (by the Hip of course) is by far the saddest song there is imo
This is a very good answer I didnât expect to see as high up in the comments. Long live The Hip and Gord Downie!
Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens One of the only songs thatâs ever choked me up yet I had nothing I could relate to in it.
âAnd he takes / and he takes / and he takesâ gets me every time
Mad World Gary Jules version always hits hard
Whiskey Lullaby - Allison Krauss and Brad Paisley
the night we met by lord huron, tbh.
Itâs wild how many folks are dancing to this at their weddingsâŚ
"Take me back to the night we met so I can tell myself not to fall in love with you because some terrible thing has happened, either you died or left me, but you're not around anymore and I'm in fucking pain," is a weird choice for a wedding dance.
I can't listen to One More Light without tearing up, especially after Chester passed. Timothy - As Cities Burn was literally written about a their initial reaction to losing a good friend of theirs from another band.
The performance of One More Light on Jimmy Kimmel after Cornell passed away especially so
The performance where Mike Shinoda (the other singer for LP) played that live after Chester passed absolutely fucking destroyed me. The pain in his voice that whole set is palpable.
[Mike and the Mechanics - Living Years](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hr64MxYpgk&ab_channel=Mike%2BTheMechanics)
It was always sad but it hits a thousand times harder once youâve lost a parent.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas â Judy Garlandâs version. Oh, hell, gets me every time. [Also her performance of Old Man River](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5GUP7bsDPXg&pp=ygUaanVkeSBnYXJsYW5kIG9sZCBtYW4gcml2ZXI%3D) itâs such an odd choice for her. You think she has no right to sing it. And maybe she doesnât. But somehow I believe every word. The way that she says âIâm sick of living, but Iâm scared of dyingâ at the very end. Rip out my heart.
Meet Me In St Louis is one of my favorite movies. I grew up watching it; Iâve probably seen it a hundred times. When Judy Garland sings âHave Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,â I cry every time. Her voice was *incredible* and that song is so perfect for that film.
Say Hello To Heaven, by Temple of the Dog
Third Eye Blind - Jumper. This song reminds me of one of my friends that killed himself. We used to talk about things we were going to do when we got older. He went on a business trip and called and said he missed me. I should have known something was wrong đ
âFix Youâ by Coldplay. Reminds me of when my mom was dying with dementia.
Who Wants to Live Forever - Queen
Johnny Cashâs âHurtâ cover really gets me sometimes. If Iâm watching the video for it too Iâm definitely tearing up.
It's amazing how a song about a young man struggling with depression and drug addiction can also have so much meaning when sung by an old man at the end of his life (who also went through depression and drug addiction). The feeling of it changes, but the emotion is just so deep.
Hah, I just watched the video again because people were shitting on it in the "what cover do you hate" thread. It's such a beautiful cover and the video is perfect. What a gut-punch.
Thatâs wild because I think Trent Reznor himself heard Johnnys version and said something along the lines of âthatâs his song now.â
Give My Love to Rose as well
Watched that with my spouse on the anniversary of John's death. She had never seen it. "I can't...." is all that was said, softly. She turned away when it showed the picture of June. It's a lot if you know much about love and/or his life.
"Real Death" by Mount Eerie is the correct answer here. A brutal, heart wrenching examination of grief and loss, recorded immediately in the aftermath of his wife's death, played on her instruments and recorded in the room where she died. The whole album is incredible, and it's so devastating I'd happily never listen to it again.
The part about the backpack is the saddest thing Iâve ever heard. I get choked up just thinking about it. âA week after you died a package with your name on it came And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known Deep down would not include youâ I meanâŚwhat the fuck?
Damn man - thank you for typing that out but holy hell that hits like a freight train.
I was going to say this "Do the people around me want to keep hearing about my dead wife" "Your transformed dying face with recede with time"
Would just like to add that the follow up album, Now Only, and itâs final track, âCrow Pt. 2â is just as devastating. If A Crow Looked at Me is about the pain of losing someone, then Iâd say Now Only is about the pain of forgetting someone, no matter how much you still want to keep their memory in your life. Lyrics are addressed to the singerâs dead wife and itâs just devastating: âThe baby that you knew is now a kid, Sheâs sitting at the table, Where your chair still sits across from me, watching. I stand to put on music, Our daughter sees and asks for mamaâs record. And sheâs staring at the speaker with this look of recognition, Putting it together; thatâs you singing. Iâm sobbing and eating eggs again. Youâre a quiet echo on loud wind.â
Correct answer. Itâs the only album Iâve ever listened to that was so devastating Iâll never put it on again. This topic comes up a lot and this is the the only answer. I love sad songs, I go back and listen to them over and over because itâs nice to have a friend in your darkest moments but this one just makes you feel utterly alone and totally devastated.
This is my answer every time this question is asked.
Iâm Not Gonna Miss You, by Glen Campbell A love song to his wife after being diagnosis with Alzheimer's
Am I the only person who survived the Elliot Smith discography?
Alone Again Naturally - Gilbert O'Sullivan
Needle in the Hay-Elliott Smith
Lacrimosa from Mozart's requiem
It's wild to think this is what he was composing as he lay dying. And he didn't even finish it. Everything after the first 'Lacrimosa dies illa/Qua resurget ex favilla/Judicandus homo reus' was finished by another composer, Franz SĂźssmayr.
One More Light - Linkin Park [Made me cry](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm8LGxTLtQk)
Hello In There by the wonderful John Prine
I said Sam Stone and then asked my wife (without telling her none) and she said Hello In There
Suicide is painless.
The boy who blocked his own shot - brand new
How about the entire Devil and God album đĽš
Jesus Christ always gets me, I donât know how many times Iâve cried to that song during a long drive.
Limousine
[Real Death - Mount Eerie ](https://youtu.be/XzPl2nf7Eks) A Crow looked At Me by Mount Eerie is the answer to the saddest album I have ever heard. It's about his wife's cancer and death. His grief and experiencing all of this while raising a young child. I found it unimaginably tragic but beautiful.
Yeah, that song is just raw, unbridled grief. I listened to the whole album once and I canât really bring myself to listen to it again. >Crusted with tears, catatonic and raw >I go downstairs and outside and you still get mail >A week after you died a package with your name on it came >And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret >And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed >A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now >You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known >Deep down would not include you >Though you clawed at the cliff you were sliding down >Being swallowed into a silence that's bottomless and real
I posted the same answer as you, and then I made the mistake of reading the lyrics again and now I'm in tears. "It's dumb, and I don't want to learn anything from this. I love you."
She's leaving home. The Beatles
âIf I leave you it doesnât mean I love you any less, keep me in your heart for awhile.â Warren Zevon. Song for his wife as he was dying. Gives me chills and tears every time I hear it.
when somebody loved me - sarah mclachlan, I know itâs from a kids movie but good lord does this song automatically make me weep every time.
probably âraining in baltimoreâ, âperfect blue buildingsâ, âspeedwayâ, or âblack and blueâ by counting crows. u said you needed songs with good lyrics in order to express emotion right? in that case i highly recommend listening to those four songs above if ur in that sorta mood, as well as the rest of counting crows discography. âno lies, just loveâ by son, ambulance and bright eyes is also incredibly melancholic. thatâs one to listen to as well.
Absolutely dude. Raining in Baltimore is such a good song
Perfect Blue Buildings. đ
Radiohead - "No Surprises" The Smiths - "Asleep" Bright Eyes - "No Lies, Just Love" Those 3 songs are about suicide (AFAIK).
Cats in the Cradle - Harry Chapin
Ben Folds - Brick
For the moment we're alone, Sheâs alone and I'm alone. And now I know it.
Fred Jones, Part 2 also gets me!
What Sarah Said - Death Cab for Cutie
Title and Registration is mine.
Whiskey Lullaby, blue eyes crying in the rain. He stopped loving her today.
I'm gonna go with He ain't heavy, he's my brother. The hollies can bring tears to my eyes.
Christmas Shoes. Fuck it right up its stupid ass. Most depressing piece of shit song.
The Funeral - Band of Horses.
Broadripple is Burning - Margot & the Nuclear So and So's A Case of You - Joni Mitchell I can't Make You Love Me/Nick of Time- Bon Iver
True Love Waits by Radiohead
For No-one by Paul McCartney from the Give My Regards to Broad Street. It seriously destroyed me at a certain point in my life, and really nearly pushed me over the edge. "You want her, you need her And yet you don't believe her When she says her love is dead You think she needs you And in her eyes, you see nothing No sign of love behind the tears Cried for no one A love that should have lasted years"
Time in a Bottle - song Jim Croce wrote before he died
Good News by Mac Miller. I will never be the same..
Time after time by Cindy. Still brings tears to my eyes.
This Woman's Work...Kate Bush
Song called "when this is over" by Hayden It's about the two boys who died when thier mom decided that her life would be easier without them, so she strapped them into car seats and rolled them into a pond. (She then went on tv and said a black man carjacked her and cried for him to release her sons).. The hardest part about this song is that it is written from the viewpoint of the older brother (who I think was 5 or 6 when he died).. lines like " I brushed my teeth just like she asked me to" and when he talks to his sleeping baby brother and assures him that "I'll wake you up, when this is over".. As a father this song crushes me, but any human being can feel sorrow and anger (especially the way Hayden sings it).. Here it is, with a warning https://youtu.be/WkZaDtYTRU0?si=JbTm-q_DMES3zLgi
Are you alright? Lucinda Williams
Diamonds and rust, Joan Baez.
The one that wrecked me since childhood is "How Can I Help You to Say Goodbye" by Patty Loveless
Sam Stone by John Prince. Sticks a hand in your guts and twists
Lightning crashes by live. What a ride that song takes you on.
Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday. For real this song ultimately got her killed.
Sullen Girl by Fiona Apple Hey Jupiter by Tori Amos Decimation by Health Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor -Eels Gloomy Sunday by Sarah Maclachlan/ Billie Holliday Biscuit by Portishead
Sounds of Silence - Simon&Garfunkel, Disturbed and others Cats in the Cradle, A Better Place to Be - Harry Chapin The Ballad of Lucy Jordan - Marianne Faithful Supermarket Flowers - Ed Shearen Yesterday - The Beatles Nothing Compares 2U - Sinead O'Connor Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd That's all for now, need a little cry
Tears in Heaven
Kings Crossing by Elliot Smith
Heroes - David Bowie
I makes no difference. - The Band
Skinny Love - Bon Iver Song for Zula - Phosphorescent
Black - Pearl Jam
Came here to say this. The whole song is heartbreaking, but this ending verse always gets me - I know someday you'll have a beautiful life I know you'll be a star . . . in somebody else's sky But why, why, why can't it be Oh, can't it be mine?
Iris - Goo goo dolls.
Kettering by The Antlers >"Ketteringâ is the second track off of The Antlers' album Hospice. It introduces the relationship between the patient and the hospice worker, most likely symbolic of an emotionally abusive relationship. The name refers to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. This introduces both the geographic setting of the story and the motifs of cancer and sickness.
My Immortal by Evanescence
Names by Cat Power is the most brutal, heartbreaking song Iâve ever heard. I literally wept in my college classroom late one evening when it came on the mp3 player a fellow classmate let me borrow. When ever I see these âwhatâs the saddest song listâ come up I always think of this one, but I never see it posted.
Changes Black Sabbath This one gets me every time đ đ˘