Songs we sing to keep from weeping

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 11:51 PM

I am better off crying and getting it over with. Why try to keep from weeping? Sooner or later it has to happen.

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: CapriUni
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 11:46 PM

LOL, DougR!

Who wrote that one?

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: DougR
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 10:49 PM

"I'm Glad I Made You Cry, 'Cause Your Face Is Cleaner Now."

DougR

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Robin2
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 10:05 PM

The Mary Ellen Carter by Stan Rodgers

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Trevor
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 12:16 PM

I like 'Weather the Storm' by Ralph McTell. But is it a folk song................. (ironic question)

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: CapriUni
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 11:55 AM

Mary --

Actually, here I'm using "weep" in a semi-metaphorical way, as a symbol of being simply overwhelmed by circumstance.

I don't sing these songs to keep the tears from falling, exactly, but to give me the strength to pick myself up after I soak my pillow and get back out there.

But you're right. In this culture, especially, we often feel the need to be given permission to cry, and sad, weepy songs do that. They give us the sense that we're not the only ones who've felt this way -- the composer of the song did, too.

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Marymac90
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 12:27 AM

Rod McDonald wrote Sailor's Prayer, and it has long been a favorite of mine. I guess I don't keep a mental list of songs to KEEP myself from crying, (though I really do LIKE hopeful, positive songs) because I have a difficult time letting myself cry. I'm more interested in ones that will help me TO cry. One is the Black national anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, especially the second verse, which refers to "the blood of the slaughtered".

Mary McCaffrey

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: heric
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 12:23 AM

Though my sails be torn and ragged and my mast be turned about Though the night wind chill me to my very soul Though the salt spray sting my eye and the stars no sight provide Give me just enough morning light to hold

I will not lie me down, this rain a-raging I will not lie me down in such a storm And if this night be unblessed, I shall not take my rest Until we reach another shore

If the only water's salt and I cannot quench my thirst I will drink the rain that falls so steady down If night's blindness be my gift, if there be thieves upon my drift I will praise the dark that shelters me from them

If my friends be drained and weary and it seems their hopes are lost There's no need for their bones on this blackened bottom And if death wait just off the bow, we need not answer to him now We'll stand on and face the morning light without him

Rod MacDonald

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: CapriUni
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 12:06 AM

What's fabulous? "The Sailor's Prayer"?

I know it is. One of my favorites. Ten years ago, when my mother was dying, I don't know how I could have gotten through the days without it.

It's a modern song, but I cannot, at the moment, remember who wrote it, but I believe the full lyrics are in the DT, if you can get there.

Gordon Bok does a wonderful cover of it on his album Rougue's Gallery of Song for the Twelve String, which is how I first heard it.

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: heric
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 11:56 PM

Capri that's fabulous. I just hung it up above the computer.

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Kaleea
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 11:45 PM

When one needs cheering up, one, of course, turns to Hank! "I'm goin down three times but I'm only comin' up twice!." and then a few choruses of "Thar's a tear in ma beer cuz I'm cryin fer ya dear . . ." which leads to the inevitable " . . .I got a hotrod ford & a two dollar bill; I know a spot right over the hill; thar's sodeepop & th' dancin's free; so if ya wanna have fun come along with me" and winds up with "Crawfish pie, jambolaya and a filet gumbo!" And before I can say gimme a six pack I'm all cheered up!

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 08:11 PM

Texass Willie McCorderoy's "Oh Woman I Couldn't Cry When You Left Me Since The Sleep Done Jammed-Up My Tearducts".

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Amergin
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 07:09 PM

lonesome valley...

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: kendall
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 05:59 PM

I cant sing when I feel like weeping. There is a line in "Rocksalt and nails" that goes .."I walk out alone and look at the sky, too empty to sing, too lonesome to cry."I understand the too empty to sing..

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Kim C
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 05:10 PM

Any upbeat yodelin number will do.

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Janie
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 11:45 AM

Hymns, especially joyous gospel songs, 60's protest songs, and believe it or not, Neil Young's song (title probably not quite right) "Don't Let It Bring You Down, It's Only Castles Burning"

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Burke
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 11:32 AM

Some hymns make me weep & others keep me from weeping. Easter hymns are good for not weeping. Some that come to mind Crown Him with many Crowns, All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, Lift High the Cross, I know that my Reedemer Lives. Come to think of it, For all the Saints (used last Sunday) sung to Ralph Vaughan Williams Sine Nomine, is not weepy.

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: CapriUni
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 10:01 AM

CamiSu --

That sort of weeping is a different animal entirely from the sad weepy songs.

Speaking of hymns, I also find strength in "How can I keep from singing?" which is discussed here.

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: CharlieA
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 09:55 AM

another train. not sure who originally wrote it. very good for that. Cxxx

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: CamiSu
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 09:46 AM

I don't know. Hymns maybe. But sometimes I weep anyway for the joy and power the song has.

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: Morticia
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 09:20 AM

Row on......but it doesn't seem to be working today

Subject: RE: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: GUEST,McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 09:05 AM

Finnegan's Wake.

Subject: Songs we sing to keep from weeping
From: CapriUni
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 08:44 AM

There is much to be said for the songs that make us feel weepy and sad -- and much is being said, over in Songs that make you weep.

But now, I'd like to ask a different question: "What song do you sing to keep from weeping?"

What songs give you the courage to take a deep breath and keep on going when the world seems to be falling apart around you?

One that does it for me, consistantly, is: "A Sailor's Prayer" by (drawing a blank -- I know it's in digitrad, but the search doesn't seem to be working for me). Its chorus goes:

I will not lie me down this rain a-raging.
I will not lie me down in such a storm.
And if this night be unblessed,
I shall not take my rest
Until we reach another shore.

What are your favorites?