The Saddest Song of All

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: PattyG
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 11:50 AM

(Peter wrote) but what about "The Enigma" or "Gift of Years" - Eric Bogle (lyrics available on request) or "Absent Friends" as recorded by Vin Garbutt?

///I would love to have the lyrics to these songs.

My Old Man by Furies.

///I'd love to have the lyrics to this as well!

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 12:38 PM

An old WWI song gets my vote, "My Buddy." "Danny Boy," is a close second though.

DougR

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Mike Strobel
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 01:20 PM

From Clare to Here............By Ralph McTell

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Tiger
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 01:36 PM

Streets of London - Ralph McTell

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 01:52 PM

Just read this from a link by Wolfgang Hell, in another thread and it has got to be one of the saddest I've ever read: THERE WERE ROSES

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Bert
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 03:32 PM

You can't talk about sad songs without mentioning this one by 'ghing That's Not My Colorado

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: annamill
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 03:37 PM

Kat, Bert sang this at the gathering at my house this weekend.

Annap

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Allan C.
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 03:56 PM

Damn! How'd I miss that?

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 05:21 PM

Wow, you guys! Thanks, again, esp. you, Bert!

'ghing!

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Harald Schmidt
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 05:28 PM

No, one of the sadest song for me is: "The wind that shake the barley"

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 06:09 PM

Four people so far have mentioned "There Were Roses." The first time I heard it was in a session. This guy who I'd never met before was there and had to leave, so he asked if he could do a song. I expected a decent song from a decent singer. He stood up and started singing this song, and it wasn't long before it was so quiet, you could hear people breathe. He finished, and it was a good long while before anyone started playing again. I was trying to discretely wipe the tears away. Then I looked around and saw a few other people doing the same thing.

Kat, where did Wolfgang put the link?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE OLD HOUSE (George Jones)
From: Mark Clark
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 06:47 PM

I think George Jones wrote a song that Bill Monroe recorded caled "The Old House." Went kindly like this...

There's an old, old house that once was a mansion,
On a hill overlooking the town,
But time had made a wreckage where once there was beauty,
And soon the old house would tumble down.

(chorus)
But when the leaves start to fall in the autumn,
And the rain starts to drip from the trees,
There's an old old man who walks in the garden,
And his head it is bowed in memory.

They say he built the mansion for the love of a woman,
And they planned to be married in the fall,
But her love wilted in the last days of summer,
And the house stood empty after all.

(chorus)
But when the leaves start to fall in the autumn,
And the rain starts to drip from the trees,
There's an old old man who walks in the garden,
And his head it is bowed in memory.

Hope you like it as much as I do. It's hard to do that one with dry eyes.

- Mark

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: SueH
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 06:58 PM

I'll go along with 'Ae Fond Kiss', and 'From Clare To Here'. 'Do You think I Do Not Know', written by Henry Lawson. Also, although it isn't a folk song, Paul Simon's 'Slip Sliding Away'.

And Alan says his are 'The Water Lily', sung by Martin Wyndham Read, & 'The Moon Was A-Waning', written by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd.

I'm sure I'll think of some more.

Sue

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Mark Clark
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 07:04 PM

Oh, and let's not forget John Prine's tune "Sam Stone."

(chorus) There's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes,
And Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose,
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sad songs never last too long on broken radios.

That one will really bring you down.

Then there are all the old dying children songs and children trying to reach dying parents ("The Baggage Car Ahead") or save dying siblings ("The Leaves Mustn't Fall"). Pete Curry was right, this topic could fill a Web site by itself.

- Mark

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Sourdough
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 09:00 PM

One of my favorites is "The Child of the Railroad Engineer". When I get to the part where he goes by his house and his wife lights the green lantern meaning all is well, that the child has passed safely through the crisis, I have a small catharsis of my own.

Actually, I think every song you love has a line, a phrase or maybe even a verse that contains the essence of the song for you. Sometimes listening to a singer I can tell when he or she hoits that phrase. With some people, it is as though it becomes luminescent for a moment.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Pete Curry
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 09:13 PM

Dear BSeed/Charles Kratz: I fail to see what's so funny about rhyming "nursery" with "mercy"? Please explain. And kuddos to all who mentioned Stan Rogers' "First Christmas" and the fellow who pointed out the actual title of Tom Waits' "Waltzing Matilda" ("Tom Traubert's Blues"): the computer was drinking, not me. Do I dare mention Billy Holliday's classic wrist-slasher, "Gloomy Sunday"? Oops, I guess I did. Love and saddness to you all.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Tiger
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 09:20 PM

Mark....

I'll go along with you on "Sam Stone". I didn't think of it off the top, but it really moves.

I have a weakness for this kind of song - my poor wife wonders why I don't sing enough 'happy' songs. Still, I always gravitate to the tear-jerkers. How about:

"I Wonder if They Ever Think of Me"......Merle Haggard

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: JESTER!
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 09:25 PM

Well, I'm not sure if it's the same song the Furries sing (I'm not familiar with them) but Steve Goodman's "My Old Man" is one that several bandmates have forbid me to perform, on the grounds that it "Bums everyone out". The 2nd verse goes: "And oh, the fights we had when my brother and me got him mad. He'd get all red, and start to shout; we knew what was coming, so we tuned him out. And now the old man is gone And I'd give all I own Just to hear what he was saying when I wasn't listening To my old man".

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Pete Curry
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 09:32 PM

Let's hear it for the song that started this thread: "I Heard A Heart Break Last Night" was a hit for country singer Jim Reeves in 1967. Given that Jim Reeves is noted for his lack of "twang," his was probably not the version Shack heard. The song was written by the great Leon Payne who penned many of George Jones' early hits. It is fitting that someone named "Payne" should trigger such a thread, don't you think?

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Allan C.
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 09:49 PM

"Motherless Child"; "At A High Window" (sung by Garnet Rogers - Stan's son); Ewan McColl's "The Joy of Living"; Nina Simone singing just about anything.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: WyoWoman
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 11:41 PM

Ach, Peter T. Amazing. Holly Near did one some time back, the name of which I can't remember, but it was about the "Disapeared," and the refrain, "And the junta knows... And the junta knows..." just nailed my heart. Have you heard it?

WW

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 11:54 PM

WW- I've got it, the name is "Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida" My Spanish is ltd., but doesn't it mean something about the Desperate Mothers?, I know that she sings out the names of the disappeared in it. It's on her tape called "Imagine My Suprise".

Jeri, I think There Were Roses is in the Republican songs thread. I'll look for it. If it's not in the DT, I'll post it as a LYR ADD thread.

WW- the Leviathan has to be the saddest for me. I feel such kinship with all the critters and they have so little defense. Thanks.

kat

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jul 99 - 11:56 PM

Jeri: it's in the DT here

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Banjer
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 12:05 AM

I haven't seen mentioned an old song I can only recall as "Eastbound Train", about a little girl going to get her old daddy out of prison and the conductor that finds her onthe train without her ticket....Can't even remember who did it, but the voice I associate with it would be similar to Ernest Tubb.....

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Allan C.
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 07:16 AM

Kat, it means "There's A Woman Missing"

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 07:24 AM

Garnet Rogers was referred to in one of the posts above as "Stan's son." Stan was Garnet's brother.

Mike Regenstreif

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: WyoWoman
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 08:01 AM

Kat--Yup to that translation. Do you have a copy of"the Last Leviathan?" If not, I'll make you a tape. You should hear it, given your commitment to the critters.

WW

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Peter T.
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 09:12 AM

Dear WyoWoman/kat, I heard the song once, but didn't know its name. I will go and find the Holly Near album. Much appreciated (gracias a todos)
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Lowcountry
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 09:39 AM

I forgot who sang "The Last Cheater's Waltz." In a dark way, that is a very sad song.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Mark Clark
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 01:42 PM

Tiger,

Yes, that's a good one. Merle had a number of really sad songs. "If we make it through December" still gets me whenever I hear it on the raido.

It's funny how a song will get to you even when you don't want it to. The Country Geltlemen's tune (John Duffy?) "Bringing Mary Home" uses every cheap offensive trick in the book to illicit an emotional reaction from the listener and, even though I know I'm being had, it can still get to me once in a while. I guess I'm fundamentally a sap.

- Mark

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 01:57 PM

Lat Cheaters Waltz reminded me of another country one that come out in the 80's, Rose Colored Glasses. Thanks AllanC. for the translation. No, WW, I don't have a copy & would love to hear it. Thanks! Peter, I think you'll really enjoy that Holly Near one. I have another of hers, Sky dances, which has beautiful songs on it, including The Letter,by Ruben Blades, about people dying of AIDS, and Nicaragua Night. Both very sad songs. She also has one on there called "They Are Falling All Around Me" about the people she learned music from. When I have time, I'll try to get the lyrics posted.

kat

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Neil Lowe
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 02:26 PM

"Carmelita," by Warren Zevon (with a nod of gratitude to LEJ for nailing the title and composer for me from a misquoted line or two)

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Blue Jay
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 02:39 PM

JESTER mentions Steve Goodman's "My Old Man", but I think Goodman's "Ballad of Penney Evans" is one of the saddest and most moving songs ever written, detailing the plight, (in a cappella), of a "young widow of the war that's being fought in Vietnam. And I have two infant daughters, I THANK GOD I HAVE NO SONS, now you say the war is over, but I think it's just begun". This song is a real tearjerker.

Another of my favorite "sad songs" is Ian Tyson's BARNEY, about a rancher forced to shoot his old, decrepit horse. The song ranges thru nostalgia, reality, and depression. It's on an old Ian & Sylvia record, and evokes strong emotions: whenever I play it, people either love it or HATE it, ("how could you sing a song about something like that"?) Animal rights people tend to hate it, until they realize the song's not about killing animals, but rather BONDING WITH ANIMALS.

Both of these sad songs bring out exceptionally strong emotional responses, which a REAL sad song should.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Sam
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 02:48 PM

The best thing about a sad song is that it can come at you unexpectedly. I smiled when I read (about sixty emails back) that someone else used to cry at Puff, the Magic Dragon -- I couldn't get through that song as a boy.

Songs that have back-doored me in the last eight years:

George Jones: Good Year for the Roses Jules Shear: First Freeze After the Fall (the album with this song is one sad song after another). Bob Dylan: Lay, Lady, Lay (this is what I'm talking about since most people wouldn't even consider this to BE a sad song -- one time I was listening to this song and the line "I long to see you in the morning light / I long to reach for you, in the night" just struck me as achingly melancholy. I don't think it's ever struck me quite that way again, but I haven't forgotten. Roberta Flack: If Ever I See You Again

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Tiger
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 03:00 PM

I keep getting reminded of these, 'cause I have so many sad songs in my collection. But I'M not sad, really!

How about Woody Guthrie's "Deportees"?

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Allan C.
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 03:05 PM

Or Judy Collins' "Medgar Evers Lullaby"...(I think that is the right title. I lost the record long ago.)

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From:
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 07:34 PM

Leonard Cohen is more than sad -- he is into the reach-for-the-Prozac territory. But I agree, Famous Blue Raincoat is a great song.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Pete Curry
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 07:48 PM

For Kat: "Rose Colored Glasses" was by John Conlee. It was a hit (his biggest) in 1978.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 09:38 PM

Thanks, Pete. They used to play it on KVOC Am,, here in Casper, where I used to work. I started there in '79, so was guessing on the date. Really a beautiful song.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: WyoWoman
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 11:24 PM

I adore "Famous Blue Raincoat." It always just splays my little ol' heart. The line that brings me to tears is, "Thanks for the sorrow you took from her eyes. I thought it was there for good, so I never really tried."

The idea that we can take sorrow from each other's eyes... mmmm ... The idea that we take each other's sorrow so much for granted, or fail to notice it altogether.

God, I"m feelin' melancholy right now. (And I mean that in the best possible way... Interesting, isn't it, how we have these feelings that are "good" -- happiness, laughter, joy, etc. -- and all these other feelings that are "bad" -- anger, melancholy, sadness -- and we can't seem to just hang out with them and even indulge them from time to time without someone thinking we need "cheering up," or maybe medication (at least in the U.S.).

I think allowing yourself a good, deep melancholy wallow occasionally is quite healthy.

Ok. Now for a little joke:

What do you get when you breed Lassie with a cantaloupe?

(That's a Melon-collie baby...)

(sorry)

WW

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 06:15 AM

I always used to cry as a child when my mother sang "Sweet Little Alice Blue Gown". Whether it was the words of the song, her smokers' husky baritone or the clip round the ear she gave me I don't know!
Although it is terribly corny, I , cynic, that I am, always choke when singing "Old Shep" when he has to be (sniff) put down (gulp), and goes to doggy heaven (boo hoo).

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Cairo Waltz
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 06:50 AM

The Cairo Waltz, a triple fiddle tune, made me cry the first several times I heard it. The greatest Man I Ever Knew by Reba used to do me in much more than any George Jones song ever did. My grandson cries when I play fiddle, but that's a different kind of sad.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 07:59 AM

Roger--

Old Shep always does it for me, too. As a boy, I used to ask Dad to sing it, knowing that I would be in tears well before the end. I still experience tightness in the chest when I perform it; partly because of the content, and partly because it makes me think of Dad and his great tenor voice--now silent for me.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: GeorgeH
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 08:18 AM

A thread about sad songs and not a single mention of June Tabor; do you guys have no taste in melancholy and depression? At least Tim Jaques mentions Kate Rusby, who shows signs of following the same path. (Don't worry, Tim, they're both great fun in real life . . )

Also it strikes me that one or two nominations are "sad by association" . . .

Anyway; saddest song - June's (never recorded) rendition of the McGarrigles' "Heart like a wheel" - perhaps because that's a sadness most of us know. [Hearing the McGarrigles sing it was a distinct anti-climax.] Followed by the Australian song which starts "There's a man in my bed / I used to love him" but whose title I can't remember.

Saddest performance - again from June - is from the hard-to-find recording of the first of the Paschendaele Peace Concerts (a recording of which is still used at the Paschendaele museum); the narative of "Nurse Dorothy Nicol" intercut with "It's a long way to Tipparary" (the first is taken from one of Lynn Gregory (?)'s wonderful "oral history" books of the first world war, "The Roses of No Man's Land"). Indeed, if you want a recording of deeply powerful sad songs which is still uplifting and optimistic then I'd heartily recommend that whole CD. ("We died in hell . . they called it Paschendaele"). It - CD and concert - is about war and armed conflict generally, rather than just the first world war, and its performers and content are international.

George

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Peter T.
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 09:00 AM

The most ridiculous sad song I know is "After The Ball Is Over" which used to send me into a tailspin when I was 12, until one day I heard the lyrics to the verse. If you have never heard it, the guy rejects his beloved because he sees her kissing another man at the ball. He would not listen to her explanations, and many years later he gets a letter from the man, who was her brother! Only two reactions, really: why didn't she just yell out, he's my brother, you jerk! or was she French kissing her own brother, in which case...? Crushed my adolescent wallowing then and there. The famous chorus is still moving, but the rest, ridiculous!! And this is generally regarded as the first modern hit song.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: dwditty
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 09:20 AM

First of all, I would like to thank all the previous posters to this thread for not naming I Am..I Said. Frankly, when Neil starts chatting with the Barcalounger, I just crack up.

The Dave Van Ronk choices are high on my list. Here are two by Oscar Brown, Jr. One is Rags and Old Iron in which the singer is offering to sell his broken heart to the ragman - of course, the ragman declines. The other is A Young Girl - the tragic story of a 15 year old runaway.

Keep your chin down,

DW

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Shimbo
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 11:24 AM

Yes, there is some great stuff listed here. (I get picked on for singing sad songs!) Can't understand the inclusion of "Carrickfergus" - great song, but not a tear-jerker. Guess this shows that sadness is in the ear of the listener.

Now, my second pick for sad would be "Two Brothers", about the American Civil War.

My top pick would be Kris Kristoffersen's "Jody and the Kid".

This is all without going through the long list of songs I know. When I think of the oldies like "I Want a Pardon for Daddy", "Old Faithful", "Bridle on the Wall", "It's Been Lonesome in the Saddle since my Horse Died" (sorry, that last one is a cynical invention of a friend who disliked C&W)I wonder if any new songs can match the oldies for sadness. And what about some of the old English folk songs ( a few already mentioned) "The Four Marys", "The Unquiet Grave". AND I fully agree with the inclusion of Irish songs, particularly several from the various Irish uprisings eg "Kevin Barry".

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Jack (who is called Jack)
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 12:18 PM

There is a song on Emmy Lou Harris' Live at the Ryman album

I can't remember it all, theres a part that goes....

I'm lonesome for my precious children, they are so far away.

Does anyone know it?

We ought to post the lyrics here.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 12:36 PM

Little Joe the Wrangler & When the Work's All Done This Fall, esp. when my dad sings them.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Ferrara
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 01:35 PM

Wow, a fine thread. I sang "The Faded Coat of Blue" at the Washington Folk Festival. I followed a gut-wrenching song by Joe Hickerson about a guy who was wrongfully hanged, so I introduced it with "This is the LEAST depressing of the songs I have prepared." (I had already done "Tenting Tonight," and had also prepared "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight," which is a tear-jerker but doesn't really move me, and "The Vacant Chair.") I love "The Vacant Chair," especially because it was written for the family of the boy who was killed.

No one has mentioned "The Heart of the Appaloosa," by ?Frank Small?. I know a woman who said it took her 6 months to learn: 1 month to get the words and tune right, another 5 to get through it without breaking down.

I love "The Death of Queen Jane." To me it's one of the most personal and moving Child ballads. Every time I finish singing it, it takes me about a minute to come out of Queen Jane's funeral procession, with Henry the Eighth walking behind wringing his hands, and back to the 20th century.

Also love the ballad "Sheath and Knife," which is like Queen Jane in that it's a personal tragedy as well as a royal one. ALso love but can hardly bear, "Bonnie Susy Clelie." There, the pride and stubborness of Susy and her parents just tears me up.

Art, I rolled on the floor cackling at your nomination of "Waltzing with Bears" as the saddest song you know. Bill thinks it's pretty sad, too; he made it known, about 6 months after our crowd took it up, that he felt it suffered from over exposure and should be retired until about Y2K.

Darn it, people, I have just got to spend less time on Mudcat, and what happens? I ended up reading every darned post on this thread (and enjoyed every ill-spent minute). - Rita F