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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: kendall Date: 09 Nov 11 - 12:52 PM There was no time to say goodbye by Tom Paxton. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST Date: 09 Nov 11 - 12:22 PM I have to agree with Ian Mather above. The Pub With No Beer sends shivers down my spine. Dan Sheehan, who wrote the original version, also wrote the second saddest song I know. It's called "When your short of a smoke" |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: frogprince Date: 09 Nov 11 - 12:17 PM Out of all the great ones mentioned here, Steve Goodman's "The Ballad of Penny Evans" stands out for me. I didn't see a mention of "Touch a Name on the Wall", by Joel Mabus, another one which I can't hear without breaking down. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Vic Smith Date: 09 Nov 11 - 09:25 AM "Strange Fruit" when it is sung by Billie Holiday. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,Alex Chapla Date: 09 Nov 11 - 09:14 AM I agree all of the above, but don't forget these songs of parting: 'Fotheringae' by Sandy Denny: Come the morning I'll be far away, far from these Islands and the far off Fotheringae (Mary Queen of Scots) 'From Boulder to Birmingham' by Emmy Lou Harris 'She Moved through the Fair' by Van Morrison et al 'A Message from Maria' by Joe Simon: Someone said she spoke your name just before she died Reminds you, relationships are all that matter.. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Musket Date: 14 Aug 11 - 11:11 AM Heard a friend sing "The Pub with No Beer" last week. Frightening... |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Elmore Date: 14 Aug 11 - 09:49 AM "Do you think that I do not know?" as sung by Priscilla Herdman. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Desi C Date: 14 Aug 11 - 09:03 AM For me Blue Side Of Lonesome does it, others that come very close are, I'm So Lonesome, Cold Cold Heart, I've Just Told Moma goodbye (all Hank Williams) |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 14 Aug 11 - 04:14 AM Since this thread is at the top again: The first sad song to really make an impression on me when I was only 5 or 6 was hearing The Shifting Whispering Sands on the radio. The image of that poor dead miner lying there - it's wasn't just that he had died (of starvation? injury? suicide?) but the fact that he was all alone, left there in the wilds with no one to remember or mourn him, and it was strangers who crossed his hands and buried him. (Something about that line really got me. Still does.) Funny how well I've remembered it through all the years - the bleached bones, the dry well and desolate sand drifting over what was once people's homes and lives. I have just cheated and checked the words in another thread to see if I was getting any of this wrong, but find I didn't. This song clearly made a strong impression. (That's one reason I love songs so much: their power.) I was only a little kid at the time, but to my mind this still qualifies as one of the saddest songs of all times, transcending being merely a tear-jerker to touch on our larger fears and unanswered questions. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,CoriSCapnSkip Date: 14 Aug 11 - 12:46 AM Skarpi, a version of the song you mentioned in English is "Father, Dear Father, Come Home With Me Now," one of many songs I could mention. The word is pub, not pup, and could also be barroom--not sure which term is used in this song. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Bobert Date: 13 Aug 11 - 10:42 PM I would love to hear it, GUEST... The saddest song I have ever heard (and alos on occasion perform) is "One Kind Favor" by Blind Lemon Jefferson... "My heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold Now I believe what the Bible told... B~ |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST Date: 13 Aug 11 - 09:15 PM Blood on the Saddle was written by my Grandfather, Everett Cheetham. It is a song of what really happened to his Best Friend. My Grandfather also sang this song he wrote. He traveled across country with Tex Ritter in the 1930's. Everett Cheetham was a Wonderful Cowboy. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,Brenbren Date: 25 Apr 08 - 09:40 PM Growing up my grandad always sang "The Lighting Express"...It was so sad. In my teen years I would hear Loretta Lynn singing " Dear Uncle Sam" That was during the VietNam war. It really is extra sad if you lost anyone to that war. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,Heather Date: 30 Mar 04 - 07:18 PM the saddest song in the world to me is called "I'll Catch You" by the get up kids...ohh and also "Chicago is so Two Years Ago" by boys night out |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST Date: 20 Dec 03 - 05:36 AM this is the only song that has ever made me cry... its tough to get past the first few lines, but if you really read into it you'll understand what he's saying. enough of the oldies, "walking by" something corporate: Your grand dad left home for the circus. He was young just like me, with hope to explore. He married a girl in Virginia. She could swing the trapeze; they could sleep on the floor. Your mother was born in December, on the one sunny day that winter gave up. She had warm summer eyes that flickered like fireflies, when she stared at the world. So why do you leave these stories unfinished, my Cheshire cat doorstop with tears in her eyes? Why do you look when you've already found it? What did you find that could leave you walking by? She was raised in a New England village. Then she moved to LA with her firefly stare, and you loved sunset strip when it sparkled, you grew up and you sparkled but why don't you care? So why do you leave these stories unfinished, my Cheshire cat doorstop with tears in her eyes? Why do you look when you've already found me? What did you find that could leave you walking by? These nights I get high just from breathing. When I lie here with you I'm sure that I'm real, like that firework over the freeway. I could stay here all day but that's not how you feel. So why do you leave these questions unanswered? The circus awaits and you're already gone. My Cheshire cat doorstop with fear in your smile, what makes it so easy for you to be walking by? And what did I do that you can't seem to want me? Why do we lie here and whisper goodbyes? Where can I go that your pictures won't haunt me? What makes it so easy for you to be walking by? |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Genie Date: 23 Jan 02 - 06:56 AM Please Do Not Post To This Thread
There is a link to the continuation thread a couple of posts above. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: ANTHEM FOR IRELAND (from Evans & Doherty) From: GUEST,Carol Date: 22 Jan 02 - 09:10 AM I'm new at this forum but I would like to submit a song that I find sad at times, hopeful at others. I have a hard time getting through it at memorial services. I haven't attempted to sing it at a gig in quite a while. Due to the more recent circumstances in Ireland, I think it would be an impossibility. It's called 'ANTHEM FOR IRELAND' and is sung to the tune of, get this, 'Danny Boy'. I'm not sure who wrote it but Evans & Doherty have recorded it. Maybe if it is song enough it will come true.
O Land of love, we bless thee gentle mother
Old wounds shall heal, unkindness be forgiven |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Genie Date: 22 Jan 02 - 02:36 AM Sinsull, thanks for telling me "Popcorn" is in the DT. I did try a forum and DT search at first and didn't find it. Now that I have found it, I agree, it's really sad. Mickey, Yes Woody did write it, but he wrote the poem considerably earlier than the copyright date would suggest. I've been trying unsuccessfully for two days to post THIS LINK To "The Saddest Song II". PLEASE POST CONTINUING COMMENTS THERE |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Desdemona Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:56 PM dandylionlover----you're killing me here! Was there really a SONG like that?! |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: tremodt Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:51 PM I say donegal donny |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: tremodt Date: 21 Jan 02 - 07:49 PM I say donegal donny |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,dandylionlover Date: 21 Jan 02 - 05:11 PM As a child I listened to my mother's old 78 records. One of the saddest songs I have ever heard was called MOMMY, CAN I TAKE MY DOLL TO HEAVEN WITH ME. Even as a child this song made me cry. Here are a few of the words I can remember. Oh, she was just a child of three. She loved her little ragged doll with all her heart And as they lifted her from underneath The car that struck her down Her broken hand still held her dolly tight. CHORUS: Mommy, can I take my doll to heaven with me? Mommy, can I take my doll to heaven with me? Will the angels think it's wrong If I bring my doll along? Mommy, can I take my doll to heaven with me? Another one my mother used to sing was THE LETTER EDGED IN BLACK. This is a song about receiving notice of her husband being killed in war. The new songs mentioned had sang tones about them but the really old songs could get so grossly sad and depressing. Anyway...just wanted to share........Sherry |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: breezy Date: 21 Jan 02 - 04:12 PM when my now 18 year old son was 6, he was taken 275 miles away to live with his mother and her lover. The song that I associated was Kenny Rodgers[sp] "I don't Call Him Daddy" -but he looks after me' My son and I are very close and I am so proud of how well he is doing and done. It helps to share |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of AllM From: GUEST,Mickey191 Date: 21 Jan 02 - 03:45 PM I've read them all-great thread. When I mowed Pat Murphy's meadow in the sunny long ago, always brings a tear for me. Lovely melody. Somewhere in this thread it was stated Woody Guthrie wrote Deportees. Is that true? I don't think the words fit the time frame for him. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: SINSULL Date: 20 Jan 02 - 04:37 PM Genie, They are in the Digitrad. Type kitty popcorn in the lyrics search and it comes up. I have a wonderful recording of it by Joan Morris. One of my favorites. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: swirlygirl Date: 20 Jan 02 - 04:35 PM Toss up between "Hey Jupiter" and "Putting the Damage On" by Tori Amos... sniff...sniff... Or maybe "Playboy Mommy" cos it's all about the loss of her baby... Quite a lot of Tori songs are sad really...amazing how happy she can make you feel though listening to her... :) xxx |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Genie Date: 20 Jan 02 - 04:30 PM I opened this old thread trying to find the words to "Poor Kitty Popcorn," which was nominated above as a terribly sad song and mentioned in another thread (about cats). Does anyone have the words (and tune?) Genie |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: kendall Date: 07 Feb 01 - 08:24 PM I must add, for the sailors, THE WHEELHOUSE DOOR, and Dave Malletts Old Blue Ox. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,jofield Date: 07 Feb 01 - 08:16 PM I couldn't possibly read this whole thread, but if George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today" isn't in here somewhere, it should be. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,Guest, Yorkshire Date: 07 Feb 01 - 06:46 PM Keith Marsden's terrible/beautiful song "Normandy Orchards." the words include; So many young men come learning to die. Normandy orchards are waiting to welcome new partners for death in the mad dance of war. The tune is a haunting slow waltz.If you don't know it - try to find it. Don't know if it is in the DT |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Lonesome EJ Date: 07 Feb 01 - 05:39 PM Townes Van Zandt's Tecumseh Valley, and Steve Earle's tribute to Townes, Fort Worth Blues are grabbers. I also noticed several mentions of Gram Parson's songs or singing in this thread. Hot Burrito #1 definitely a heart-breaker, but his duet with Emmy Lou on the Louvin Bros' Sleepless Nights gets me everytime...especially the soul-harmony on "why did you go? why did you go? don't you know, don't you know I need you?" The one I've given up on is I Come and Stand at every Door. I love the song, but I choke up about halfway through it. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,Geordie Date: 07 Feb 01 - 04:08 PM Festival of Friends by Bruce Cockburn, The Parting Glass, The Patriot Game, lass of Loch royale, Spring Hill Mine Disaster, Raglan Road, Davey Lowston by June Tabor and the saddest song of all...Talk To Me of Mindicino..ot really does make me weep. Geordie |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: RoyH (Burl) Date: 07 Feb 01 - 12:48 PM I didn't add in my last posting on this thread the Scottish song 'Land 'O The Leal'in which a couple nearing the ends of their days look back on their life together and lament the loss of a son. Nothing is more grievious than the loss of a child. I had a grandson who died before he had chance to live. I never even saw him. I find 'Land 'OThe Leal' one of the saddest songs of all. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Nemesis Date: 07 Feb 01 - 05:41 AM Hey, Mcpiper! Thanks for info - of course, it was only a matter of hours after asking you before my profound ignorance of the great Richard was updated by friends here. Anyway, this a great link! My saddest song? Well, there's a great sighing, bursting with poignancy, Russian Folk song we used to sing at school "The Steppes Song" goes something like "Ah, see, love! Look along the road we've travelled ..." If anyone knows more about that would surely appreciated it. Regards, Hille |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: mcpiper Date: 07 Feb 01 - 04:34 AM Hi Challis, How can I ever be simple again is by Richard Thompson, I just had a look over at OLGA, the words and chords are there, I don't know where you would find the tune, I got it off a Battlefield Band live video. I can't get past the line "she sang like a child...." What a great thread, makes me want to find the most mentioned songs, just to see if I can get through them. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: longarm Date: 06 Feb 01 - 11:40 PM 'When I go to see my son' from Tom Paxton's last album called 'Wearing the Time' If this one doesn't get to you nothing will!! |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,Frank M Date: 06 Feb 01 - 09:49 PM Phil Ochs 'when i'm gone'... it reminds me of the sadness of mortality and the insipitness of time lost |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,Arne Langsetmo Date: 06 Feb 01 - 09:06 PM Agreed on many, particularly Kilkelly, There Were Roses, Deportees, Streets of London, Sam Stone, This Old House, Who Will Sing For Me, Christmas In The Trenches, and the Stan Rogers ones. How about: (not in any particular order or ranking) Half of everything Eric Bogle ever wrote including: Singing The Spirit Home Tom Anderson: Da Slockit Light (yeah, I know, it's instrumental) John McCuthcheon: The Brown's Head Light (no, not the beer, dummy) John Prine: Paradise Garnet Rogers: Frankie and Johnny Jez Lowe: The Bergen Bruce "Utah" Phillips: The Telling Takes Me Home The Goodnight/Loving Trail Nevada Jane Si Kahn Aragon Mill Go To Work On Monday A whole bunch of Fred Small songs as well as "Heart of the Appaloosa" Nanci Griffith: Just Once In A Very Blue Moon Steve Gillette: Darcy Farrow Phil Ochs: The Crucifixion Desaparacidos(sp?) Ludlow Massacre The Writing of "Tipperary" (Iain Mackintosh version) The 41st Highlanders Farewell to Scotland (Dick Gaughan version) Anachie Gordon The Arbutus Way Down The Line World Turned Upside Down As I Walked Along The Road The Ballad of Joe Hill A Mother's PArting Words To Her Daughter - - - - - I'm sure there's hundreds more that I'm forgetting. Maybe a reason for that. ;-) Now before you get the idea that I need immediate professional care or even confinement for my own protection, I do know some happy songs as well, e.g.: Heart of the Appaloosa Nevada Jane Frankie and Johnny (Garnet Rogers version) Christmas in the Trenches Singing The Spirit Home Take that, Art. ;-) - - - - - My _personal_ all-time tearjerker, however, is "Kilkelly". I'm one of the diaspora siblings, all over stateside, of an immigrant family. And I dont' _do_ anything about it. The guilt and loss really gets to me at times when I hear that one. And on the way-too-rare occasions I see my cousins from Norway. Cheers, -- Arne Langsetmo
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Mrs.Duck Date: 06 Feb 01 - 03:43 PM Via the other thread I find a recording of Grace by Anthony Kearns so now I have my tune but still can't sing it 'dry'!! |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: harpgirl Date: 06 Feb 01 - 09:45 AM This is Kendalls list..not harpgirls.
Killkelly
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Nemesis Date: 06 Feb 01 - 06:34 AM Hi, Mcpiper! The band played W.M..is another Eric Bogle song (isn't it?) Yeah, that's a heartjerker too. But, tell me - more info on "How can I ever be simple again"? (Sorry, profound simpleton :) |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: mcpiper Date: 06 Feb 01 - 04:58 AM The song I can't get through the first verse of is "How can I ever be simple again." The song I can never finish is "The band played waltzing matilda." strange thing is, I keep trying. |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: richlmo Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:15 PM The one that tears me up when I'm trying to sing it is,Tecumseh Valley, by Townes Van Zandt. Another one is 'All That Glitters, by Dan Seals. Guess you can tell I have a daughter. I am a huge fan of sad songs, I'm sure I will think of several when I go to bed! |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Mrs.Duck Date: 05 Feb 01 - 03:02 PM Oh Grace just hold me in your arms ad let this moment linger They'll take me out at dawn and I will die With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye. Never get the hang of this! |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: Mrs.Duck Date: 05 Feb 01 - 03:00 PM Strangely enough I've just been looking at a thread about the song I consider to be one of the saddest I've ever heard and that is Grace about Grace Gifford who married Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham jail on the night before he was executed. Oh Grace just hold me in your arms ad let this moment linger They'll take me out at dawn and I will die With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye. Geoff and I visited Kilmainham jail on our honeymoon and sitting in the chapel I just wept thinking of how happy we were and how desperately sad they must have felt knowing that they could not be together. I want to start singing this song out but am not sure if I can manage to get through it. I've also forgotten the tune to the verses so if anyone can help I would be grateful. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: NO MAN'S LAND (Eric Bogle)^^^ From: Nemesis Date: 05 Feb 01 - 02:28 PM Dear Wyo, Saw your post - try this by Eric Bogle NO MAN'S LAND
1. Well, how do you do, Private William McBride,
cho: Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipes lowly?
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
3. The sun's shining down on these green fields of France;
4. And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride, |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,jaze Date: 05 Feb 01 - 02:04 PM "Brass Buttons"-Poco version--"But the sun comes up without her, it doesn't know she's gone. And it remembers nothing that she said"... Old Friends--Mary McCaslin Sing Me Back Home--Joan Baez and Jeffrey Shurtleff |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: GUEST,ina Date: 05 Feb 01 - 01:56 PM "He fades away " from June Tabor's "Against the streams"(written by Alistair Hulett). It's about a former asbestos miner dying from mesothelioma: "...And he Fades away not like leaves that fall in autumn turning gold against the grey he fades away like the bloodstaines on the pillow case that I wash every day he fades away..." A very touching and shocking song! |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: cowboypoet Date: 05 Feb 01 - 11:00 AM Four Strong Winds, by Ian Tyson "Still, I wish you'd change your mind if I asked you one more time, but we've been through that a hundred times or more." |
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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All From: RoyH (Burl) Date: 05 Feb 01 - 10:32 AM Without reading all through this post I wonder if anyone has mentioned 'Gloomy Sunday', a song so sad it was blamed for several suicides. For myself, I find the situations expressed in some songs bring me to tears. The English music hall song 'My Old Dutch' is about a couple married for 40 years, "and it don't seem a day to much" being taken to the workhouse. Albert Chevalier, the artist who popularised the song had a backdrop showing the workhouse gates with seperate entrances for men and women, reminding his audiences that separation of couples was the normal practise at that time. The thought of being parted from my own 'old Dutch' fills me with dread so I find this song unutterably sad. Further to this, two Ewan MacColl songs greatly affect me. 'My Old Man' because it so closely corresponds to the life of MY 'old man', and 'The Joy of Living' because of the circumstances that lead to it being written - Ewan,a life-long hill climber and rambler, found towards the end of his life that a favourite climb was now too much for him, aging and with heart problems. He wrote the song as a farewell to the things he had loved, and, I am sure, to those he loved but hadn't always been able to express this to. In the lyric he calls his wife "Dearest Companion", a most beautiful phrase, and he told his children "Farewell my chicks, now you must fly alone". My wife and I think of our son and his children as 'our chicks' and know that we'll never see the full extent of their flight through life, so we are greatly touched by this phrase. It has been said that the task of a poet is to make clear to us something that we always knew. Those last three songs have that effect in the Burl household. God bless our poets. God bless music |
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