Songs that make you cry

Subject: Lyr Add: SONG OF THE LONELY MOUNTAIN (Neil Finn)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 12:52 AM

This song (ending theme for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey always moves me. Thinking of the dwarves reclaiming the Lonely Mountain after being away for years and Thorin's death at the Battle of Five Armies near the end of the book... so sad. Plus the lyrics are beautiful.

SONG OF THE LONELY MOUNTAIN
(Neil Finn)

1. Far over the Misty Mountains rise,
Leave us standing upon the height,
What was before, we see once more,
Our kingdom, a distant light.

2. Fiery mountain, beneath the moon,
The words unspoken, we'll be there soon.
For home a song that echoes on,
And all who find us will know the tune.

(Chorus. Instrumental with an anvil as accompaniment)
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
Some folk we never forget,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
Some kind we never forgive,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
Haven't seen the back of us yet,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
We'll fight as long as we live,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
All eyes on the hidden door,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
To the Lonely Mountain borne,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
We'll ride in the gathering storm,
Till we get our long-forgotten gold.

3. We lay under the Misty Mountains cold,
In slumbers deep and dreams of gold,
We must awake, our lives to make,
In the darkness a torch we hold.

(Instrumental)

4. From long ago, when lanterns burned,
Until this day, our hearts have yearned,
Her fate unknown, the Arkenstone,
What was stolen must be returned.

(Instrumental)
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh

We must away, ere break of day
To find our song for heart and soul.

(Chorus)

(aye-aye-aye-aye)
Some folk we never forget,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
Some kind we never forgive,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
Haven't seen the end of us yet,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
We'll fight as long as we live,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
All eyes on the hidden door,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
To the Lonely Mountain borne,
(aye-aye-aye-aye)
We'll ride in the gathering storm,
Till we get our long-forgotten gold
Far away from Misty Mountains cold...

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: GUEST,ollaimh
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 12:06 AM

I second big mick's killkelly. it's hard to listen to it's so sad. I have it by mick Malone, a great rendition.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: meself
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 11:46 PM

Oh, the tears my little sister and I shed over our mother's rendition of 'There's a Bridle in the Lonely Stall' (don't know if that's the actual title).

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 06:21 PM

Robert Wyatt

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: GUEST,Gail
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 05:33 PM

Of the many Richard Thompson tearjerkers, my favourite is Galway to Graceland. I know it's tragi-comic ('She had Elvis I love you tattooed on her breast') but that's what makes it so poignant.
I'm not particularly interested in Elvis but this song isn't about him, it's about her.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: GUEST,Paul Spencer
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 06:56 AM

Oh my God! This topic was EXACTLY what I opened Mudcat to look for tonight, and there it was at the top of the list!

I've found that with Christmas in the Trenches too. And a few of Eric Bogle's songs. I don't sing that many tear-jerkers myself but there are some others that I'm sure would be like that, too, such as "He Fades Away" by Alistair Hulett.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: OldNicKilby
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 06:52 AM

Greg Hastings wrote a Song for the Aberfan Disaster. I have tried to learn it many times but I am quite unable to sing it without getting a serious lump in my throat. But it won't stop me trying

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 05:15 AM

Gordon Bok singing Steven Sellors' 'Mourning Dove' - adoptee to birth mother.

On the day when I was new
You held me once -
No one held you
I think of you as a mourning dove
That only flew on wings of love

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: GUEST,Kathy - Guest
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 02:46 AM

Two songs come to mind immediately.

"There Are No Words" written and sung by American folk singer,
Kitty Donohoe. Written after the attacks on 9/11.
She actually sang it at one of the memorials. Can be heard on Youtube.

"If I Had Only Known" sung by Reba McEntire. Very sad song as well.

"The Promise" by Donovan - a very sad song of lost love.
I don't think he recorded this song on any album - written in more recent years. I heard him sing it in a concert in Monterey, California about 3 or 4 years ago. The lyrics are so beautiful but very sad.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Elmore
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 09:49 PM

Do You Think That I do Not Know? Words by Henry Lawson, Music by Slim Dusty, sung by Priscilla Herdman. (and many more)

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Ron Davies
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 08:26 PM

I don't think I saw this one yet.

It gets me every time--though I've heard it for years:    Home , Lads, Home

Maybe it has something to do with the perfect pastoral imagery contrasted with the slaughter of WW I--and the slaughter is all the more vivid for being understated.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: GUEST,Eddie1
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 05:55 PM

Eric Bogle - As If He Knows (horses being slaughtered at the end of WW1)
Tom Paxton - She Sits On The Table (about domestic violence0
Finbar Furey - Lonely One (doing a repeat gig at a venue and seeing the girl from last year)

Eddie

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 05:17 PM

This one from John Prine
I have a hard time playing it

Hello in there

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 04:48 PM

1) The previously mentioned "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (the John McDermott version).
2) Red Foley's "Old Shep" (the Elvis version in particular is touching).
3) "Working Man" - by the late Rita MacNeil (dedicated to the coal miners of Nova Scotia).

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: 2581
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 02:12 AM

Oh, yes, and "Humperdink The Coon Huntin' Monkey" by Billy Edd Wheeler. But those are tears of laughter!

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: 2581
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 02:08 AM

"Philadelphia" by Neil Young.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Crowhugger
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 12:53 AM

I'm glad someone else has a long list too! This month my favourite tear-wringer is Once Upon a Time. There's another arrangement I love just a bit more but I didn't find a recording online.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Apr 13 - 09:11 PM

All the Good People
Bird on a Wing
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Catfish John
Christmas in the Trenches
Dink's Song
Entre les Etoiles
Follow Me 'Ome
Hobo's Lullaby
Hot Buttered Rum
I Wish You Were Here
In Sugaring Time
Lies
Lo, How a Rose
Margery Grey
Mary Hamilton
My Love Come Rolling Down
The Old Figurehead Carver
The Parting Glass
Precious Friend
Reunion
Sailor's Rest
What You Do with What you Got
White Squall

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: kendall
Date: 13 Feb 00 - 12:29 PM

I just attended a private gathering of about 50 people, and, among them was Helen Schneyer. I asked her to sing LONESOME ROBIN. She did, and, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. She cussed me out afterwards, but, it was worth it.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Crowhugger
Date: 13 Feb 00 - 06:14 AM

Ditto:

especially Mary Ellen Carter, Scarlet Ribbons, Christmas in the Trenches, She's Like the Swallow...

Plus:

Un Canadien Errant, about the grief of exile. Apple of My Eye, by Rosalie Sorrels. Ripple, by Garcia & Hunter, has several bits that knock me for a loop at different times. Same with Brokedown Palace. Attics of My Life...ok, true confessions of a wannabe deadhead. There's a song my mother sings, written by Malvina Reynolds I think, about a woman fighting-mad with the vagaries of aging. It reminds me that she'll die one day. Catfish John, by B. McDill & A. Reynolds for its assumption in the last verse that choosing not to show anger means that one does not feel it. Hey, do I have an "issue" here?

The list of potential bib-snotters is huge, just the current hit parade varies with my life.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 09:24 PM

Let me link the thread: A Song That Moved You.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Midchuck
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 07:35 PM

Garnet's Small Victory. I learned it to embarrass my sisters, some of whom are horse fanatics. I knew it would make them cry. Then I found it made me cry, so I don't do it in public. Serve me right.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Banjer
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 07:30 PM

Among my top tear jerkers are Amazing Grace, and a Civil War Era song titled "Coming To Us Dead". (can be found in the DT) There are others as well, but these two definately rate up on top. "The Eastbound Train" is another which just came to mind.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 06:41 PM

Andrew Lloyd Webbers "Pie jesu" knowing the inspiration for that song really makes me eye's water.. And just recently listening to Steeleye Span's Harvest of The Moon brought back many happy memories of my youth in England. Happiness and sadness two extremes that work for me. Yours,(mopping the decks again)Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: DonMeixner
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 05:46 PM

The Lock Tay Boat Song,

The Last Watch on the Midlands,

My Old Man,(J.J. Walker)

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Ely
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 05:28 PM

"Sammy's Bar"

"1913 Massacre"

"Prairie Grove" (the one about the 19th Iowa Infantry)

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: canoer
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 05:16 PM

RiB,

So glad you revived this thread. A number of my choky favorites, and some to look up.

Agreed on Artisan. When I saw them last year, they intro'd "Mary Ellen" by saying they heard it once and knew there wasn't any other song for them to close with.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 05:08 PM

"What a Wonderful World" by Satchmo or any singer who is paying attention to the words.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 04:21 PM

Has anyone noticed how often, often, often the name of Stan Rogers has come up? All that strength of voice and delivery, the wonderful identification with the feelings of real people.

Damn whoever started that fire on the airplane!

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 03:55 PM

Went to see a fine British acapella group by the name of Artisan last Thursday. They finished up with Stan Roger's "The Mary Ellen Carter". I'm supposed to be the emcee and I'm off stage with tears in my eyes wondering if I can pull myself together for the closing.

I think it was not just the song, but the performance enhanced it.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: BarbaraLynn
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 08:38 PM

For me, it's "Skye Boat Song". I have it by Alex Beaton, but I think any version would do it to me. For the last several years, it has been the song that represents to me all the "lost causes" in the world -- people longing for freedom, people suffering when they try for it, and so on. I just hate it when anyone anywhere has a just longing and a just dream and falls short in spite of all good effort.

BarbaraLynn

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: AnTirKitten
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 07:53 PM

*sniffles* And who can forget Geordie, I always start losing it at the "My Geordie never stole neither cow nor calf/He never hurted any" part and am seriously teary-eyed by the time the maid offers to give up her children if it would spare her lover's life. *sniffle*. And 500 Miles always makes me cry. And this may sound odd but the first time I ever heard Coming Back to Me Now by the Jefferson Airplane there were tears in my eyes. Lemon Tree by PPM is another sure "faucet" song for me as is Annachie Gordon by Loreena McKennit *snif snif sob*

I think I'll go find my kleenex now.

Cat

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: billmcgowan
Date: 18 Dec 99 - 10:06 AM

ORPHAN GIRL -gillian welch and david rawlings-

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: emily rain
Date: 17 Dec 99 - 08:35 PM

damn. i tried to sing "there were roses" again today and choked up in the funeral verse. i'm just a sentimental fool.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: kendall
Date: 17 Dec 99 - 05:59 PM

Fields of Athenry is based on a true incident, and, there is nothing to laugh about. The british government sat back and allowed a million Irish to starve.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Mbo
Date: 17 Dec 99 - 05:58 PM

Did anyone mention "The Wall" by The Statler Brothers--a tearjerker and a goosepimpler.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Fred
Date: 17 Dec 99 - 05:51 PM

I don't know. A few songs maudlin enough to include are rancid pop songs of the past. I think of Sonnie and Cher's "You Better Sit Down Kids" and Wayne Newton's "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast.' Not sure if temptation to cry is response to sappy words or awful performances? But the ones that really get me are those bluegrass songs about Mama: "No Mother or Dad" by Flatt and Scruggs; "Memories of Mother and Dad" by Bill Monroe; "Some Old Day" by the Country Gentlemen; "White Dove" by the Satnley Brothers...

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Mbo
Date: 17 Dec 99 - 05:33 PM

Don't laugh--the Fields of Athenry gave me teary eyes...

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: JamesJimFolk
Date: 17 Dec 99 - 05:15 PM

MidChuck, I can't say I've ever heard Scarlet Ribbons sung to the tune of Bury me...., but it's good to run across someone with a creative mind (I'll give it a try). I'd bet you are a songwriter (for sure). I'd bet that either tune will still make me cry.

JJF

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Caitrin
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 06:00 PM

IceWolf, I first heard Kilkelly performed by The Full Moon Ensemble, and it affects me the same way. Every time I sing it, I get watery at the end.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Ken Wilson
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 05:07 PM

There are lots of folk and popular song here. Has anyone heard "Dido's Lament" from Purcell's opera "DIdo and Aeneas". It is probably the most heartrending song I have heard that encompasses both love and death. "Remember me".

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 11:12 AM

Icewolf,

The song Kilkelly is a song that was written by Peter Jones, and taken from a bundle of actual letters that were found. It is a wonderful song. If you do a forum search on the word "Kilkelly" you will find the chords. If you do a DT search on that word, you will find the lyrics.

All the best,

Big Mick

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: DonMeixner
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 07:53 AM

Mid,

You have a lot to be proud of in that boy. Nuture him, support him(within reason), and make sure he sends home royalty checks endorsed over to you, his manager. A mind like that has a place in the "Folk" biz.

Don

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 07:26 AM

Re "The Jeannie C." My son is a brilliant chap, but he inherited my sick, evil, sarcastic sense of humor - squared. He was a great Stan fan, even in High School, though he had to keep it a dark secret from his contemporaries, who would have laughed at him for liking folk music (this was the '80s, not the '90s.)

But I told you that to tell you this: One time we had Stan's recording of the Jeannie C. playing, and when he sang "..John Price is drowned and slipped away..." My son interjected "...so we can split his sandwich."

I've never been able to take the song seriously since. It is a great song, so it's a shame.

Re Scarlet Ribbons: I think it's improved by singing it to the melody of "Bury Me Beneath the Willow." But there I go again.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Andy McD
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 07:22 AM

1917 as sung by Emmylou Harris.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: IceWolf
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 07:02 AM

One that I simply know as "Kilkelly", but have no idea who wrote it... goes like this:
Kilkelly Ireland, 18 and 60, my dear and loving son John,
Your good friend the schoolmaster, Pat MacNamara's so good as to write these words down.
Your brothers have all gone to find work in England, the house is so empty and sad.
The crop of potatoes is sorely infected - a third to half of them bad.
And your sister Bridget and Patrick O'Donnell are going to get married in June.
Your mother says not to work on the railroad and be sure to come on home soon.

This time of year, I find it hard to make it all the way through without choking up. And I've yet to find a way to sing around a lump in my throat.

--IceWolf

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: DonMeixner
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 12:53 AM

For me its Jerry Jeff Walkers " My Old Man"

Stan Rogers "The Jeanie C" and "Last Watch on The Midlands" ( I built too many boats to enjoy their sinking ver much)

Priciila Herdman and Henry Lawsons "The Water Lilly" and "Reedy River"

Don

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: JamesJimFolk
Date: 16 Dec 99 - 12:29 AM

Scarlet Ribbon has always been difficult for me to both hear and sing. My father loved it and would cry every time I sung it. I can't get through it now without thinking of him (and breaking up). Dad died in 1991.

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 11:47 PM

Slider,

Could that by Child's Song written by Canada's own Murray Mc Lauchlan? "Goodbye, Mom. Goodbye to you, too, Pa".

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Songs that make you cry
From: Slider
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 11:18 PM

Not too many words of explanation,but a couple that come to mind are "The Dutchman" by Steve Goodman and another song that was on a David Bromberg album many long years ago, the title of which escapes me, but was a song about leaving home for the first time ,or for good. It had little accompaniment at first but builds to an emotional crescendo that left me and my roommates welling up, all of us thinking ,I guess, of the similar experience we had just gone through and how things would never be the same at home. Anybody remember the title? Gee Whiz! Nothing like a bit of holiday melancholy. Just don't let the tears dilute your eggnog.