Saddest Songs of All Time

[Lemur]

Let's hear your nominees. I'll put a few out there:

Hurt (any version is equally affecting; here's a duet with Bowie, here's Kermit)
Why it's the saddest song: "What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end ..."
Strike against it: Reznor got rich, famous and happy with music like this. Kinda undercuts the whole premise of Emo misery.

The Only Answer (ignore the video, just listen to the music)
Why it's the saddest song: "Five years in the wrong I am assured, my name to you is just another word." Great zinger for a lost love, you gotta admit. We've all been there.
Strike against it: Maybe a little too up-tempo to be the bummer music of all time.

The Ballad of Hollis Brown
Why it's the saddest song: Well, it does describe a seven-person murder/suicide from the most sympathetic possible perspective. Points for weirdness at least.
Strike against it: Maybe too horrifying to be strictly sad.

Rollin' By
Why it's the saddest song: The death of an entire town: "Me I stand here at the last filling station, while the wind moans a dirge to a coyote's cry."
Strike against it: How sad are we supposed to get about the passing of a community?

I could go on, but I'll stop there for now. So far I think I'd have to give the title to Hollis Brown, even if it is a little bit grotesque.

[Hooahguy]

ok, people will hate me for it, but id say, as the saddest song that i listen to, is The Outlaw Torn, by Metallica.

now, there are many ways to interpret the song. i think that its talking about a man who years for his love but then finds out that she left him.
thats just what i think.

i also like Second Chance, by Shinedown

[pevergreen]

Get out of myspace - pure pwnage

[CountArach]

Pretty much anything by Anberlin. That stuff depresses me... Yet I'm going to go and see them next month...

[Whacker]

I really dig that cover by Dolbro Dan, I don't really like Bob Dylan at all, but that cover made me like the song now.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen.

Why it's the saddest song:
Ballads are never sad. Songs need tension, ambiguity. The pumping drums, that keyboard melody, the vocals shouted at the top of his lungs both perfectly capture the theme of the lyrics and contrast with them. The nuance of the lyrics are in great contradiction to the unsubtleness of the music. It is a sad song, introverted. The lone thoughts of a lone man, abandoned. The words ought to be mumbled by an embittered man, alone on his porch. Uttered by that drunk you walked past earlier that day, avoiding eyecontact.


Strike against it: Like a video of Neda, unbearable to sit out. You want to cast your eyes downwards, avoid the shame, the intrusion.
The greatness is the ambiguity with the bombastic stadium rock anthem music.

[Legosoldier]

Nebel, by Rammstein

Why it's the saddest song:
"The last kiss was so long ago, the last kiss, he does not remember it anymore..." The song is about the death of a loved one, and what is ironic about this is the title; when you flip it backwards, it says leben, which means life.

Strike against it:
Till Lindemann's gruff voice doesn't exactly match the mood of the song, but even then, it still sounds pretty great.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen.

Why it's the saddest song:
Ballads are never sad. Songs need tension, ambiguity. The pumping drums, that keyboard melody, the vocals shouted at the top of his lungs both perfectly capture the theme of the lyrics and contrast with them. The nuance of the lyrics are in great contradiction to the unsubtleness of the music. It is a sad song, introverted. The lone thoughts of a lone man, abandoned. The words ought to be mumbled by an embittered man, alone on his porch. Uttered by that drunk you walked past earlier that day, avoiding eyecontact.


Strike against it: Like a video of Neda, unbearable to sit out. You want to cast your eyes downwards, avoid the shame, the intrusion.
The greatness is the ambiguity with the bombastic stadium rock anthem music.

Louis, I'll see your "Born in the USA" and raise you another Springsteen song, "Jungleland". Probably my favorite song of all time, and is one of the very few songs that still gives me shivers when I listen to it.

Why it's the saddest song:
Excellent portrayal of life wasted in the 70s, and still a great depection of how street/gang life is
just so stupid even now. Great piano riff and sax solo as well.

Strike against it:
Bit lengthy, really. Also, keep in mind that this was the period of time when Springsteen was at his most bombastic, music-wise, if you're not into that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac

Why it's the saddest song:
Moving guitar work. In addition, the lyrics to a point deal with the ever-present problem of aging and looking back at everything and how it's all piled up on you at once.

Strike against it:
I suppose it's not sad so much as melancholy and reflective.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"American Pie" by Don McLean

Why it's the saddest song:
Yeah, I know, that one. But my interpretation of the song is McLean's viewing of the 60s as an outsider; watching as everything he holds to dear to him crashes and burns (in some cases, literally) in the madness that was the later part of the decade. The final verse is just apocalyptic.

Strike against it:
Despite the overall theme of the song, parts of it are pretty up-tempo. In addition, it loses points in the same way that "Hurt" did - the song is now a staple of classic-rock radio, sharing airtime with the same artists that killed the good ol' days. -edit- Also, for some inexplicable reason, Madonna did a cover version of this that was so abysmal it detracted from the power of the original. Weird Al's version didn't help either, but at least that was funny.

[Pannonian]

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
Why it's the saddest song: "And the band played Waltzing Matilda / As the ship pulled away from the quay / And amidst all the cheers / The flag waving and tears / We sailed off for Gallipoli / ....So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed / And they shipped us back home to Australia / The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane / Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla / And as our ship pulled in to Circular Quay / I looked at the place where me legs used to be / And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me / To grieve, to mourn, and to pity / But the band played Waltzing Matilda / As they carried us down the gangway / But nobody cheered / They just stood and stared / Then they turned all their faces away
Strike against it: Some of the details weren't quite accurate, and Bogle felt it went on too long. However, there was a stunned silence, followed by standing applause when it was first performed in public.

[Reverend Joe]

I don't think this can top some of the songs already posted here (that Gallipoli one is pretty rough) but I'll still post "Monday, Monday" by the Mamas and the Papas to top some of the poppier songs.

Why it's the saddest song: it's probably the most depressing pop song ever; the Mamas and the Papas had a knack for mixing sad lyrics with appealing music, but this probably tops all their other efforts. It's a song about someone (the sex is never identified) whose partner breaks up with them on one of the best Mondays of their life -- so now, "whenever Monday comes, you can find me cryin' all the time..." Every freakin' Monday. Not a holiday or a month, but a day of the week -- that sucks.

Strikes against it: The fact that it sounds like a poppy love song means that quite a few people will probably miss the lyrics, or at least their meaning, which is sad becuase it beats the hell out of every Emo song ever.

[Ser Clegane]

Hard to tell - there are so many sad songs.

I like Johnny Cash's version of Lemur's very first suggestion.

Two songs that I think are extremely depressing are from Lou Reed's "Magic & Loss" album.

Cremation deals with the loss of a friend.

Well the coal black sea waits for me me me
The coal black sea waits forever
The waves hit the shore
Crying more more more
But the coal black sea waits forever

The tornados come up the coast they run
Hurricanes rip the sky forever
Through the weathers change
the sea remains the same
The coal black sea waits forever

There are ashes split through collective guilt
People rest at sea forever
Since they burnt you up
Collect you in a cup
For you the coal black sea has no terror

Will your ashes float like some foreign boat
or will they sink absorbed forever
Will the Atlantic Coast
have its final boast
Nothing else contained you ever

Now the coal black sea waits for me me me
The coal black sea waits forever
When I leave this joint
at some further point
The same coal black sea will it be waiting



Harry's Circumcision - an account of complete unhappiness in a person's life

Looking in the mirror Harry didn't like what he saw
The cheeks of his mother the eyes of his father
As each day crashed around him the future stood revealed
He was turning into his parents
The final disappointment

Stepping out of the shower Harry stared at himself
His hairline receding the slight overbite
He picked up the razor to begin his shaving
and thought oh I wish I was different

I wish I was stronger I wish I was thinner
I wish I didn't have this nose
These ears that stick out remind me of my father
and I don't want to be reminded at all
The final disappointment

Harry looked into the mirror thinking of Vincent Van Gogh
and with a quick swipe lopped off his nose
And happy with that he made a slice where his chin was
He's always wanted a dimple
The end of all illusion
Then peering down straight between his legs
Harry thought of the range of possibilities
A new face a new life no memories of the past
and slit his throat from ear to ear

Harry woke up with a cough the stitches made his wince
A doctor smiled at him from somewhere across the room
Son we saved your life but you'll never look the same
And when he heard that, Harry had to laugh
Although it hurt Harry had to laugh
The final disappointment

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I think it is indeed hard to top "Danny Boy", though it's not the only song of it's kind.

I do, however, submit this as one of the most affecting songs I have heard from my own generation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX8gcBVExxk, it has a special meaning for myself, but I defy anyone not to feel at least one heartstring plucked.

[Quietus]

"Johnny Was" - Bob Marley & the Wailers

"Lessons In My Life" - Peter Tosh

others:
"High Tide Or Low Tide" - The Wailers ( Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer).
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" - Simon & Garfunkel
"I Don't Want To Fight" - Tina Turner
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" - The Platters
"Just Don't Want to Be Lonely" - Ronnie Dyson
"Alone Again (Naturally)" - Gilbert O'Sullivan
"Disarm" - Smashing Pumpkins
"The Unforgiven" - Metallica
"Superwoman" - Karyn White
"Ocean Deep" - Cliff Richard
"Just When I Needed You Most" - Randy VanWarmer

etc...

[naut]

I agree with you on Cash's cover of NIN. Cash is full of emotion.

A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke.
Why it's the saddest song: "It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die, Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky "
Strike against it: I can't fault this one.

Live. Studio. Rainy Night In Georgia - Brook Benton
Why it's the saddest song: "A rainy night in Georgia, a rainy night in Georgia, It seems like it's rainin' all over the world"
Strike against it: Reaches a semi-upbeat conclusion.

[Prodigal]

Cheating a bit as its not a song but hands down, the saddest piece of music is Barber's adagio for strings.