What is the saddest song?

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 23 Sep 18 - 03:52 PM

Mary Chapin Carpenter ......Take your pick.
"Goodbye again"
"John Doe number 24"

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Stewie
Date: 23 Sep 18 - 07:58 PM

Another entrant via Bok. Steven Sellors poignant song of an adoptee to birth mother.

Mourning Dove

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Elmore
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 01:30 PM

Do You Think That I Do Not Know? sung by Priscilla Herdman. Words by Henry Lawson. Tune by Slim Dusty.{I think}

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 06:31 PM

My Father by Judy Collins always struck me as sad, probably because we all have the same thing to look forward to, slowly watching your dreams fade away. In the same vein, we have Phil Och’s Changes and When I’m Gone, more poignant than wrist slitters though.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: JMB
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 06:36 PM

I find it ever so difficult to choose what I feel is the saddest song at this moment, given that I have either written, covered or collected a mass amount of sad songs.

I listen to sad songs when I'm feeling depressed, as I see it as a comfort that someone else has created such a beautifully written song expressing their sorrow to which I can relate at the time.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: JMB
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 06:38 PM

To continue: In regards to writing songs, I have written songs such as one called Red and Silver that has stuck with me ever since I wrote it fourteen years ago. I'll probably share sometime.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 06:59 PM

The mediæval English "Worldes Blis" is so comprehensively black and despairing about every aspect of human existence it never fails to cheers me up.

"Frenet Ha'" is a good Scottish contender - the surviving fragment breaks off in mid-verse with the hero about to kill himself in despair at the death of the love of his life.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 03:36 AM

Gentle Annie

If you knew the inspiration for the lyric.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: GUEST,Knockroe
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 11:41 AM

The Death of Queen Jane - Mícheál Domhnail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aeNwpU19pA

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 11:57 AM

"Needle of Death" Bert Jansch

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 01:55 PM

I like sad songs, they often tell a story, have a depth of meaning, and can serve as a catharsis for both singer and listener. Some great examples already listed here - from Clapton to Gordon Bok- , but I will
add a few that I find to be the saddest
heartbreakers: .


I think it's going to rain today - Randy Newman

Tecumseh Valley - Townes Van Zandt

Streets of London - Ralph McTell

Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie

Who Knows Where the Time Goes -Judy Collins

Charlie Darwin - Low Anthem

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: topical tom
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 02:42 PM

One of the saddest songs I have heard is "The Leaves They Mustn't Fall."I do not recall who sang it nor do I recall most of the lyrics.Some of the lyrics following that line are
                  Oh no, they mustn't fall.
                  Please tie them on so they will stay.
                  I've lost my mom and dad,.now my sister's all I have.
                  Don't let the falling leaves take her away.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 03:02 PM

I don't know if "sad" is the correct word to describe Robert Cray's " Right Next Door" but it's a very moving song.

Robert Cray Youtube

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Iains
Date: 25 Sep 18 - 04:39 PM

I would   nominate the unquiet grave.


https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+unquiet+grave+luke+kelly+

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 03:01 AM

call me a pedant,but:
"The Unquiet Grave is a sad lyric, but the tune is not that tear jerking.

call me disrespectful but:
I used to sing it next to one of those dancing flowers and it always got a laugh.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 07:13 AM

The first post asks about the sad song you played over and over when …..

And that is what leaves a song with a 'taste', what was happening in your life at the time you first heard it. For that reason I found 'The Last of the great Whales' unbearable.
The one I played over 'Don't think twice' - and as an antidote 'There ain't no sweet man worth the salt of my tears'

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 07:15 AM

And the song with the saddest subject and the jolliest singalong tune
Threescore and ten

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Elmore
Date: 26 Sep 18 - 08:40 PM

Margarita by Harvey Andrews.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Gordon Jackson
Date: 27 Sep 18 - 08:26 AM

In folk music, I'd go for The Trees They Do Grow High. In modern music, I'd say Steve Earle's Lonelier Than This.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: GUEST,The Drift Cafe
Date: 27 Sep 18 - 09:06 AM

The saddest song of all time is "Close the Coalhouse Door" by Alex Glasgow, about the hardship and death relating to coal mining, he latter added a verse "Bairns about the Aberfan disaster, it will make you cry, there is no sadder song.

Subject: RE: What is the saddest song?
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Sep 18 - 01:02 PM

She Sits On The Table by Tom Paxton.