This Song Makes me Weep

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: MMario
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 10:24 AM

Grace

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 09:24 AM

sorry - should have been 'Reedy Lagoon'

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,Dave Hunt
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 09:23 AM

Bill Caddick's King Sun. Fareweel Regality, Several sung by Martyn Wyndham-Read eg Eldorado, Sleepy Lagoon

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: mikesamwild
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 07:20 AM

Jamie Foyers, sung by Dick Gaughan, because my Dad was also a machinegunner in the British battalion and wounded at Jarama and he survived whereas so many of his comrades didn't . I'm only here because he was lucky and tough.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,Kit Griffiths
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 07:02 AM

"Hey, Sandy" by Harvey Andrews -gets me every time!

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: raredance
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 01:07 AM

This one by Connie Kaldor

DOWN TO A RIVER (ALAN'S SONG)
dedicated to the memory of Alan Stein

There are dinners, there is music
There is laughter, there are tears
There are memories that go back
Over the years

There are marks made in a life
Like only good friends do
Now I must choose to make a mark
For the things I loved in you

I'll go down to a river
And plant a tree
Something strong, wild and living
Those are my memories
And I'll go up to a mountain
And sing to the stars
Can you hear me
Wherever you are

And there's phone calls and there's crying
And there's clutching to the chest
And there's singing songs and throwing dirt
And laying down to rest
And there's carving words on stone
And making church bells ring
But the river, when it freezes over
Still thaws and runs each spring

So I will go down to a river
And plant a tree
Something strong, wild and living
Those are my memories
And I'll go up to a mountain
And sing to the stars
Can you hear me
Can you hear me
Can you hear me
Wherever you are

Do you hear the ones who loved you
Who were glad they knew you well
Do the hearts you left that miss you
Ring like a bell

I will go down to a river
And plant a tree
Strong, wild and living
Those are my memories
And I'll go up to a mountain
And sing to the stars
Can you hear me
Can you hear me
Can you hear me
Wherever you are

Can you hear me
Can you hear me
Can you hear me
Wherever you are


from Small Cafe
©1996 Word of Mouth Music

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,Tinker from Chicago
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 05:14 PM

Michael Smith's "I Brought My Father With Me."

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Crowhugger
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 08:15 PM

Yet another blubberer here when I hear (forget trying to sing) 'Christmas In the Trenches' and 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' and many others already mentioned.

I'll add 'Un Canadien Errant' to the list, maybe partly because I have a soft spot for that bad time of Quebec history which was echoed in Ontario about the same time--farmers, labourer et al. going hungry, Family Compact & friends getting richer, good old taxation without representation at work. And violence to keep down the protests of course. I choke up every darn time I sing it.

~CH

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 06:16 PM

"I Wish You Were Here" by Malvina Reynolds.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 03:22 PM

olddude's 'Hello in there' by John Prine I used to do, when I disciplined myself not to get choked up.

and this ......
This one is a good one for that!...make it to the end

this works for some, too


GfS

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 02:49 PM

"There Were Roses," by Tommy Sands (i think)
"Murder in the City" by the Avett Brothers

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,Carolin
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 08:40 PM

I think it is a lot to do with the person singing, and for me it was Arthur Howard in his 80' singing 'Merry Mountain Child'.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: LadyJean
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 12:01 AM

Peter S. Beagle, author of "The Last Unicorn" and "A Fine and Private Place" was filking guest of honor at the local science fiction convention last weekend. I got to hear him sing. When he sang a song he'd written about his stepdaughter, Victoria, he choked up, as did quite a few of us in the audience.
He did ask us not to tell Victoria, but there's every chance she doesn't mudcat.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 04:48 PM

I will add my vote to "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" - and mention that the first recording of it that I ever heard was many years ago by an excellent group called Clam Chowder. Still affects me.

There is also "Les Vieux" by Jacques Brel, which in its English translation is known as "The Song of Old Lovers." I find the version recorded years ago by Judy Collins difficult to listen to, even to this day.

But, the song at the top of my list isn't a folk song, but Bette Midler's "The Wind Beneath My Wings." My dear wife passed four years ago; she liked Bette Midler and this song always reminds me of her. If I hear it, I will leave the room. Even thinking about it is quite difficult.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: ClaireBear
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 11:29 AM

What is it about world war? "Dancing at Whitsun," both "No Man's Land" and "The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda," and "Christmas in the Trenches" have all made me cry. So does Dave Webber's beautiful, painful "Normandy Orchards":

"They say you can still hear the village-hall band,
Grey, ghostly couples still glide round the floor,
But Normandy orchards were waiting to welcome
New partners for death in the mad dance of war."

There's one song not war related that always makes me weepy in a good way: "The King of Rome" -- a sentimental favorite, though I don't think I've ever heard a rendition that does the song justice..

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,frogette
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 07:12 AM

tried to read the thread but there are so many. Did anybody mention Les Sullivan at Bude Folk Festival sang No Tengo Mas Que Dar Te (video on the web from the Eric Bogle concert) followed by his new song Sands of Time and the place was awash. Won him the Ron Bader award for best performance too

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: howbe on
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 06:54 AM

Hello,My first posting on this site

Agree with the tear inducing qualities of many of the songs already mentioned and would like to add a song called Joe Peel which I think was written by Pete Bond, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
I first heard it sung by June Tabor and have sung it many times myself but still have trouble getting through the last verse without my voice begining to crack up with the emotion of it all.Often wondered if the song is based on a real persons life or an anthem for the passing of working culture and industry( maybe thats just me though ) Either way a beautifully sad song.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 05:58 AM

Maggie that verse gets to me too.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,Maggie O
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 06:00 PM

I can't believe no ones mentioned the other great Eric Bogle song, The Green Fields of France.
Finbar Fury made me cry singing it (twice), but strangely enough Bogle himself didn't.

I just quote the last verse:

And I can't help but wonder, young Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,TedM
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 02:23 PM

Steve Goodman's My Old Man

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,Southport grump
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 02:02 PM

Somewhere over the rainbow.

By the late Eva Cassidy - never fails.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: kendall
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 01:12 PM

Little Nell doesn't move me either.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: alanabit
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 10:11 AM

Now I ain't condemning the song Kendall. I have a sort of grudging admiration for folks who can sing - let alone write - stuff like "Old Shep" and the rest with a straight face. I am reminded of Oscar Wilde's comment, "You would have to have a heart of stone to read of the death of Little Nell without laughing".

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 09:38 AM

M any thanks Kendall ~~ greatly look forward to it.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: kendall
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 05:04 AM

You should hear the whole song before you condemn it.

Mt the GM, your CD is on its way to Old Blighty. Thanks for your order.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: alanabit
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 04:57 AM

I never thought you had it in you Kendall! There is enough material there for a real turkey of a song!

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: kendall
Date: 24 Jul 10 - 04:35 PM

Sorry, that was me. I keep dropping my cookie.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jul 10 - 01:08 PM

..then someone found him dead beneath a table in a pub with a collar and a chain clutched in his hand...Old Gilbert, saddest dog song I know.
Gilbert was drunk and his dog was loose and unlicensed. While he was boozing they impounded his dog and he spent the rest of his life searching for his old track mate. sniff

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jul 10 - 12:51 AM

A bunch of softies? Look who's talkin', Kendall. If somebody sings a sentimental dog song, how do you think you'll respond?

Hey, I like dogs, too.

...He's gone where the good doggies go.....


-Joe-

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: LadyJean
Date: 24 Jul 10 - 12:28 AM

So, I tried to remember the second verse to the thing, which I hadn't thought of in a couple of decades and the last line came back to me, "May we be faithful to thy trust and worthy of thy past. That we may honor ______ school as long as time shall last." and started to tear up. Damned if I know why.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: LadyJean
Date: 24 Jul 10 - 12:24 AM

My prep school alma mater, and damned if I know why. I wasn't THAT fond of the place and it includes lines like "We 'vere the glory of thy name the ardor of thy youth. We sing our praises to thy fame, thy faith thy hope thy truth." By the time we have reached "vere the glory", I will be choking.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: kendall
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 04:34 PM

What bunch of softies!

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 01:56 PM

Just listened to this & blubbed like a baby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhWer8AcppQ

The singer is the late, great Johnny Mizo Dyani, one of the finest double bass players of all time who described this music always as Folk.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 12:13 PM

I have tried several times to get through I Come and Stand at Every Door and can't play it without tearing up and having my voice choke.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: meself
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 12:07 PM

"There's a Bridle Hanging on the Wall" (or whatever the title is).

I haven't heard it or cried to it since my mother sang it with me on her knee - but I have no doubt my reaction would be the same if I did hear it again.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: sharyn
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 11:57 AM

I second you on "Home, Lads, Home" Keith -- the last chorus gets me. And "The Tinkerman's Daughter" is a lovely song (but it doesn't make me cry.

Joe, I just let myself cry.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 11:09 AM

The trouble with many of these songs, is that I get choked up and can't sing 'em. I have to sing a song over and over again until I can get past that - and by then, the song has lost some of its impact for me. Sometimes, I think it's better to just sing through the tears and not worry too much about losing composure.

-Joe, an old Schmaltz-

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 10:55 AM

Most of mine have been covered.
Joy Of Living. Like others I have some great memories of times on those same mountains.
Home Lads Home. You musn't do it too often. I save it for November time. Dancing At Whitsun, Whitsun and November. Xmas in the Trenches.
Band Played W.M., but too long and sad for the singarounds I mostly do.
A first mention for The Tinkerman's Daughter by Michael McConnel.
@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7047
Or is it just me?

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 09:13 AM

Kendall: The problem with songs such as the Band played...is, too many people sing it because it is popular, and some have no feeling for the song.
It took me 20 years to be able to sing that song without coming all Untogether as they say in West bygod Virginia.

As someone very new to performing in public (and, TBH, not very good) I can identify with that. The first song I chose to sing unaccompanied in public was Sam Starrett's "John Condon". It took me almost 3 months of daily singing it in private before I could sing it in public without becoming "unglued"....and that despite the fact that early on I discovered that John Condon was 19, not 14, when he died and that the body in his grave is almost certainly that of a 35 year old from another unit.

Despite its probable historical inaccuracy, the song *as a song* "speaks" to me deep down and singing it is very emotional for me.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 08:56 AM

Anyone have any views on Richard Thompson's bittersweet lament Waltzing's For Dreamers? So very simple, so very sad.

I love this song, as sung by Linda Thompson - as I do most of Richard Thompson's work - and play it regularly. Luckily, I can keep a dry eye while I'm performing it!

However, Linda singing "The Dimming Of The Day" gets me every time.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: kendall
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 08:36 AM

The problem with songs such as the Band played...is, too many people sing it because it is popular, and some have no feeling for the song.
It took me 20 years to be able to sing that song without coming all Untogether as they say in West bygod Virginia.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 12:20 AM

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda clearly has the most votes on this thread ~~ &, in all seriousness, most deservedly surely. I record another vote for it.

Peter Bellamy's Farewell To The Land does it for me also ~~ I quoted this verse in my obit of Pete in The Guardian:

Now I raise my sons in a small caravan
For the cottage where my roots were put down
Has been sold by the farmer to a rich city man
Where he spends a few weekends from Town.

Truly heartbreaking.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 06:00 PM

The Song Goes On (by Mick Ryan for Cyril Tawney)

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: PHJim
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 11:16 AM

I learned My Buddy on the day my dad died. It's not a tear jerker for everyone, but I associate it with my dad.


Nights are long since you went away,
I think about you all through the day,
My buddy, my buddy, no buddy quite so true.
Miss your voice, the touch of your hand,
Just long to know that you understand,
My buddy, my buddy, your buddy misses you.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 09:04 AM

I have a very moving version of Alan Taylor's Roll On The Day. Allan's version brings tears to my eyes, but this one brings even more tears to my eyes.

I was given this version when I was in Holland visiting a shanty festival in a small village there.

It is a CD of Shanty's and Seasongs from different dutch choirs.

Anyway one of the tracks is Roll On The Day and is performed by a dutch choir called Together W. FR. I never thought much about who the lead singer was.

I found it real spooky to find out it was the late great John Wright singing with this choir. The song is in English.

I have just played it and by god it is a powerful and emotive version.

John Blanks does a beautiful version of this as well.

I brings back the memory of my dad in his last couple of weeks on this planet.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST,moira(flyingcat)
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 08:36 AM

for me there are many songs that make me weep but Ewan McColl's joy of living always does it. One of the others is Sylvia Barnes singing Prince Heathen, the visual images are so powerful and she sings it with such feeling. You can't fail to be affected by it, especially when she performs it live.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 04:38 AM

Donovan's 'Catch the Wind' beautiful lyrics. I've always rated him more than Bob Dylan despite the hype. Bob Dylan was a fraud who made a fortune out of singing about other people's suffering.

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Jul 10 - 06:49 PM

Yes "Joy of Living" does it for me too.
In my mother's final days and for while after, Eric Bogle's "Belle of Broughton", as well as one of Tommy Sands' songs decribing his own mother's later problems with dementia.
And "Crossing the Bar" - as sung by Craig Morgan and Robson.(Ear-marked for my father's funeral if/when that comes: no sign yet at 93+!)

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Jul 10 - 06:38 PM

MacColl's, Joy of Living gets me that way too Robb, but nowadays I'm not sure that that's not because it's arrived at number one on the funeral 'hit charts' and I only hear it when a friend has died. MacColl's funeral was reduced to melting butter as his voice came over the speakers singing it.
Two other of his songs affected me in this way, The Ballad of Sharpville reduces me to frustrated anger, and for some reason I still can't get through 'Ballad of the Carpenter' without choking up.
One of the most emotional pieces of singing I ever heard was recorded when Bert Lloyd was working with a collecting team in (I think) Albania. Word came through that there had been a tragedy in the next village and one of the team said he had to go as it was a neighbour who had died.
The team drove to a peasant's house to find a wake in progress, the victim being a young boy who had drowned. They had sent for the village singer, a young woman, who was the victim's sister, to formally sing a lament over the boy who had been laid out on the kitchen table, as was the local custom. It was the most emotianally charged piece of singing I've ever heard
Surprisingly, the family agreed to let the team record the proceedings, and it was included in a two programme series entitled 'The Lament' about funeral songs.
Still brings a lump to the throat.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: This Song Makes me Weep
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Jul 10 - 06:07 PM

San Carlos just showed up here. I've never heard it, but I can't get past the line "Que gatito grande!" without sobbing.