The Saddest Song of All

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 04:02 AM

Donal Og and, in a modern context, John Gorka's 'Ballad of Jamie Bee' has an exquisite sadness, as do any number of Cohen songs.

WyoWoman, I agree that 'Famous Blue Raincoat' is a gem, but the line you misquoted refers to taking the 'trouble' from 'her eyes', not 'sadness'. Cohen is a first-rate poet and, as such, would choose his words very carefully.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Deni of Mad Rush
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 05:18 AM

The Banks of Green Willow is the saddest song of all. A young captain takes his pregnant bride to sea, and when she goes into labour, can't break the journey, so she says, '..then tak' me by the fingers, and cast me overboard and have nae pity on me'. He does, and 'see how she swims and see how she swaggers, and she'll no leave off swimming til she comes to safe harbour. When the Captain finally finds her, she is, 'lying there died on the cold sea strand...her babe it was born and lying at her feet'. After that, it actually gets worse, and now they all three lie sleeping on the banks of Green Willow. When I've sung this song, half the audience have been sobbing, although the woemn usually tolerate it more stoically.

Second saddest song for me is one I've heard sung by June Tabor. It concerns childhood and though nothing horrible happens, it has such a yearning, hopeless-but-still-beautiful quality it makes me feel very upset. 'It was a long wet year, and still she looked for summer.'Perhaps someone out there knows the title and songwriter. What skill! Those long wet summers move most of us to tears, but it seems to me that if you can't have a happy childhood then what hope is there.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Greg
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 05:48 AM

I came here to carve my feckless love's name, as she did once, in the driftwood at Shingle Head. The song that echoes in the void she left is Andy Stewart's "Chill Eastern Winds"

"There's none that could blame me for wanting her beauty, But it lies like a snowflake in the hands of a child. When the warmth of my love tried to reach out and hold her, It's then she was gone, to prove she's still wild"

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: bob schwarer
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 07:18 AM

"Orphan Train". Real sad.

Once I rode an orphan train
And my brother did the same
They split us up in misery
James was five and I was three

Bob S.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Blackcat2
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 09:06 AM

The Pub's Got No beer

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Wesley S
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 09:40 AM

Birmingham Sunday - Richard Farina as sung by Joan Baez. I heard it again in Spike Lee's documentary called "Four Little Girls". I was moved by the story of the prosecuting attorney that said he listed to the song every day until he could bring the bombers to trial.

One that always chokes me up is "My Fathers Hat" sung by Chet Atkins. Yes - Chet sings. I don't know the name of the composer. But I challenge anyone to listen to that song without getting misty. Especially if your father has passed on.

I'm sure I can think of more but those two popped into my head right off. Interesting thread.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Bullfrog
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 12:16 PM

There's a film called "The Dead Can't Lie" (or possibly "Gotham" in the U.S.) in which a street singer does the most heart-breakingly beautiful version of "Danny Boy".(Any body know who hte actor/singer was?) And how about The Flying Burrito Brothers'"Hot Burrito #1" When Gram's voice cracks on "I'm your toy, I'm your old boy" it gets me every time.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 12:26 PM

There's always Garnet Rogers' "Off the Rails."

"He went off the rails at White River Junction....."

But you'd have to have been in White River Junction to know how sad that is.....

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: kendall
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 01:14 PM

the Old Blue Ox, written by Dave Mallett (the Garden song) its about an old man who wandered away from the nursing home looking for his fathers ox. He doesn't realize that 50 years have passed and people he was looking for are dead or moved away.its also a true story. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda.. The Wheel house Door, as sung by Gordon Bok. Utah Phillips' I remember loving you. Lonesome Robin Old Gilbert, Slim Dusty

I cant speak for others, but, these songs tear me up, and, as Joan mentioned, its probably the sense of loss. Oh, hell.. I get all blubbery just writing them down.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 02:01 PM

The saddest songs for me are the ones where there could have been a different ending, and those about bad things happening to people where they have no say - "Death of Queen Jane," and "Victor Jara" (words by ???/tune, Arlo Guthrie). Alice mentioned "There Were Roses." The first time I heard it was from a quiet voiced singer in a loud bar. Everyone quieted down to hear him (a miracle) and I was blubbering by the time he finished. The saddest songs have some sort of happy element (sometimes just a memory of happiness) in them as well - like James Keelaghan's "Kiri's Piano," and someone mentioned Garnet Roger's "Row of Small Trees," Jon's suggestion "Maggie." It adds contrast and makes the sadness even more intense.

They're all songs where you feel what happens instead of just hear about it. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one furtively wiping away tears at the end of a song.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Mark Clark
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 02:56 PM

Doug,

What is the source of your lyrics for "Old Shep"? The verse I use goes...

With hands that were trembling I picked up my gun,
I aimed it at Shep's faithful head,
I just couldn't do it, I wanted to run,
I wished they would shoot me instead.

Just wondering,

- Mark

Subject: Lyr Add: KUIAMA (Electric Light Orchestra)
From: Mbo
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 06:35 PM

For me, it's the beautifully heart-breaking "Kuiama" by The Electric Light Orchestra

KUIAMA--Electric Light Orchestra

My, my Kuiama, she came in the morning
She smiled but the tears on her little face
Showed the pain that had been in that far off place
So sad, treated so bad.

My, my Kuiama, don't break your heart trying
To say how your ma and your pa passed away
And they left you to wander the ruin and decay
Real mean, that bullet machine.

See here Kuiama, now ten thousand miles
Is a long, long way and you're here today
And you won't go back so you might say
Hello, how do you do.

Kuia stop your crying, there's no bombs a'falling
No horsemen in the night a'riding
Through your dreams and tearing at
Your life, baby goodnight.

No more silver rain will hit your ground
And no more guns will sound
And no more life be drowned
No more trenches where the soldiers lie
And no more people die
Beneath that big black sky.

Wake up Kuiama, I got something to tell you
It's just I mean, well that is to say
That I'm trying to explain but I'll start again
For You, I must be true.

Kuia in this country, they got rules with no reason
They teach you to kill and the send you away
With your gun in your hand you pick up your pay
So cool, that no mercy tool.

Kuia please believe me, I just couldn't help myself
I wanted to run but they gave me a gun
And they told me the duty that I owed to my
Fatherland, I made my stand.

Kuia I just shot them, I just blew their heads open
And I heard them scream in their agony
Kuiama, she waits there for me
True blue, you saw it through

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: bobby's girl
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 06:51 PM

There are just so many - maybe I cry too easily! The version of "My old man" which I know and cry at is the one written by Ewan Mcoll, but then there's also Bonny light Horseman, the Passchendale Suite sung by CBS,and then ther's "Whose Garden was this?" by Tom Paxton, which I used to sing, when I could get to the end without sobbing!

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Fred
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 08:50 PM

Man, I skimmed a long way thru this thread before I found any of the saddest songs I know. "Old Shep" is a Red Foley classic, about a faithful dog the singer nonetheless must kill. Musical melodrama, as he picks up the gun and "aimed it at his curly head/ But I just couldn't do it..." ["so I strangled the f*****r instead."] Seriously, if you want truly suicial songs, you must raid the vaults of mountain music:

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: doug
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 08:55 PM

mark sorry,i don't know my source, i learned that when i was about 14, which was several days ago. still, it's a right sad song. my daughter still cries when i sing it, and she's over 14 herself. but i think i did shoot old shep, cause the next verse i know is:

now sheppie has gone where the good doggies go, and no more with old shep will i roam, but if dogs have a heaven, theres on thing i know, old shep has a wonderful home.

your version? doug

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Fred pt. II
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 08:57 PM

Sorry, I hit the wrong key.

--"Put My Little Shoes Away" a dying child gives away all his toys, but saves his shoes for kid brother --"Little Joe": another dying kid, who worries about how his death will affect his kitten and other concerned parties --"When the Work's All Done This Fall": a dying cowboy realizes he waited just a little too long to go see Mother --"Don't Make Me Go to Bed and I'll Be Good" How would you feel? You just sent your kid to bed, and now he's up there dying --"Teardrops Falling in the Snow" a stalwart mother awaits delivery of her dead son's body --"I'm Just Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail" a stalwart mother retrieves her criminal son --"Mother the Queen of my Heart" a stalwart mother comes back from the dead to spoil her son's poker game

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: doug
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 09:01 PM

i'll still vote for old shep, but what about thank you for calling?

yes operator, i'll hang up the phone. Yes, yes i know, my party is gone, but i'll always love her, i guess til i die, thak you for calling, goodbye.

the tune makes it even sadder.

who is it by?

doug

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Mbo
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 09:19 PM

Reminds me of ELO's "Telephone Line":

Hello--how are you?
Have you been alright, through all those lonely nights?
That's what I'd say, I'd tell you everything
If you'd pick up that telephone

O.K., so no one's answering
Well, can't you just let it ring a little longer?
I'll just sit tight, through the shadows of the night
And let it ring forever more...
So sad.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 09:58 PM

Usually its a song that gets inside my head...At the Getaway I sang a song called "Far from their Homes" that makes me feel the sadness of the coffin ships. I have to be careful singing that one. Another one like this is Bogle's "Leaving Nancy", which is about Eric leaving his mother at the train station. It reminds me so much of when i left my own mother at the bus station as I headed off to Vietnam. I didn't know if I would see her again, nor she if she would see me. He captures the emotion so well, that again I have to be careful.

I am also deeply affected by "Where have All The Flowers Gone". Also a song written by Tim Irvine of Colorado which is called "After The War". Both of these songs make me see faces of comrades from Vietnam. I miss them today, and these songs remind me of them. It takes a lot of control for me not to cry. In fact, I usually do.

All the best,

Big Mick

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: grgptrsn
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 10:13 PM

one that always gives me the chills and that pre-tear feeling in the eyes is "the weaker soldier" by will oldham.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Mbo
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 10:18 PM

For some reason, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" always makes me want to cry...

--Mbo

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Diego
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 10:21 PM

theres one verse in Tom Waits "A little rain"

She was 15 years old And never seen the ocean She climbed into a van With a vagabond And the last thing she said Was, "I love you mom."

And a little rain Never hurt no one

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: kendall
Date: 09 Dec 99 - 10:40 PM

Old Shep is one of the songs I recorded for Folk Legacy, and, it is the only song my daughter Deb asks me not to sing.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: doug
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 12:06 AM

to mbo' re: he ain't heavy

me too. doug

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Longneck
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 02:14 AM

Pete here from Perth, Australia. I think that Tom Paxton's song 'When I Go To See My Son' has got to be up there with the best of them. Of course 'The Pub With No Beer' strikes a chord here in Oz!!!

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: marcelloblues
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 07:13 PM

I do not know any song by that great soul named Tom Waits which doesn't contain some kind of deep sadness. For more, somewhere in my head a lot of John Coltrane's music, is really filled up by sad kind of blues. More and more: Bob Dylan's BALLAD OF HOLLIS BROWN, traditional (?) ST. JAMES INFIRMRY, Sonny Boy Williamson's DECORATION DAY BLUES. I use to sing the Decoration Day Blues at a local weekly jam session, it always works good not only for me, but for the whole audience and staff. Seems like going so down can create a magic climax, it makes you feel better Thinking of the blues has taken me, now, a little more blue than before Cheers

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 07:57 PM

Seeing Tom Waits mentioned, Time is a song that I have played over and over when I am feeling sad.

Jon

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: manylodges
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 08:15 PM

my favorite sad song is "ma ma look sharp" a song about a young man who is dieing after a battle, and is aking his mother to find his body.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: TheMuse
Date: 11 Dec 99 - 12:32 AM

Don't know if it's the saddest song, but pretty darned close, "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt always gets me. The main line that says it all is:

"I can't make you love me if you don't, you can't make your heart feel what it won't"

TheMuse

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: James Stanley
Date: 11 Dec 99 - 02:33 PM

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: James Stanley
Date: 11 Dec 99 - 02:36 PM

I accidently posted a blank thread, so the saddest song of all may be no song at all. Two worthy of consideration are "Ballad in plain D" by Bob Dylan, and "The Last Thing on my Mind" by Tom Paxton.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: GUEST,PeterB
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 11:40 AM

to Deni of Mad Rush - The June Tabor Song 'It was a long wet year' is called Seven Summers and was written by Dave Goulder

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: GUEST,Bob Heitz
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 04:39 PM

This is for Bill in Alabama

Do you have Old Shep recorded, and if so, how can I buy it? I have searched the WEB for your recordings. For the other participants, I am trying to collect all of the recordings of Old Shep that I can locate. Most of what I have (48) are in the country genre. Any help would be appreciated.

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: Mark Clark
Date: 04 Feb 01 - 05:23 PM

GUEST,Bob Heitz, Do you have Elvis' recording in your "Old Shep" collection? It was on the first or second album he ever recorded, one simply titled "Elvis."

      - Mark

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: GUEST,Bob Heitz
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 02:26 AM

Yes Mark, I have Elvis; both the original and an alternate version where he changed only two words. The original version was released as cut B.02 on his first album titled "Elvis"

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: English Jon
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 04:57 AM

At the moment: Any of the songs with

"meeting is a pleasure and parting's a grief but an inconstant lover is worse than a thief for a thief will but rob you, take all that you have but an inconstant lover brings you to your grave"

Subject to change, of course.

Jon

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: mkebenn
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 07:27 AM

Wow, I read it all, late for work, shit, but I got a couple not mentioned."Flying Arrow" Mason Prophet{Talbot bros pre Harvest}, Bo Jangles{'nother dead dog}, and Kristofferson's "Casey's last ride"..he stumbles as he's leavin', and he wonders if the reason is the beer that's in his belly, or the tear that's in his eye..sigh.. Mike

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: GUEST,skarpi at work
Date: 05 Feb 01 - 07:36 AM

Halló all. We got one sad song here in Iceland witch i think its saddest song i ever have heard. It is called " Á Kránni " In English " At the pup " It is about family who are loosing a child and the father drinks his sorrows at the pup, in middle verse the the other kid comes and ask his to home bescouse the little one was asking asking about him. I think i can get an English version of the lyric. It is a great melody but the lyric is sad. Of course we have more songs but think this one is the saddest. skarpi Iceland.

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

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."

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!

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

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,
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside?
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done.
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916,
Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

cho: Did they Beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fir o'er you as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sound The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you always 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

3. The sun's shining down on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man's Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

4. And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

HTML line breaks added --JoeClone, 8-Nov-01.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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 :)

Subject: RE: The Saddest Song of All
From: harpgirl
Date: 06 Feb 01 - 09:45 AM

This is Kendalls list..not harpgirls.

Killkelly
Old Gilbert... (Slim Dusty)
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda... Eric Bogle
The Blizzard... Jim Reeves
Little Buddy... by Hank Snowe
Golden Guitar
Gently down the stream of time
Ashes on the sea... Utah Phillips
Old Rover... (Hank Snow)
My friend Smokey Green sings one about a father being torn between traditional values and his son dying of AIDS.I t is guaranteed to make you come "all untogether"

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'!!