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The Saddest Song Ever written

Related threads:
What is the saddest song? (121)
Saddest Songs, Take Two (23)
The Saddest Song of All (238)
The Saddest Song of All--Part II (78)
Saddest tunes (2)
Search for the saddest song ever. (38)
BS: The saddest read of all (32) (closed)


GUEST,Sinsull 18 Apr 00 - 08:24 PM
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Hagbardr 18 Apr 00 - 08:38 PM
Mbo 18 Apr 00 - 08:40 PM
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Subject: The Saddest Song Ever Written
From: GUEST,Sinsull
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:24 PM

This group justs loves to wallow in death and despair. We killed off at least eight people at "Hearme" last night. So here is your chance to get it all out of your system. Give us the saddest song you have ever heard. Or create it. I am debating between "The Baggage Coach Ahead" and "Only Me". "Old Shep" doesn't count. Have fun... I guess.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,EJ
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:37 PM

Massacre (Ballad of) Glencoe


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Hagbardr
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:38 PM

The Pub with No Beer!

Hagbard


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:40 PM

I'm not sure about the song version, but Eileen Ivers playing "The Dear Irish Boy" is enough to break your heart. I think the saddest song ever is gotta be a toss up between "Unbreakable Heart" by Carlene Carter and "These Dreams" by Jim Croce.

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Hotspur
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:42 PM

"There Were Roses" always makes me cry...


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Amos
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:45 PM

And what exactly is wrong with "Old Shep", I'd like to know??


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Callie
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:51 PM

Almost Blue -Elvis Costello


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:55 PM

"A Love So Beautiful" by Roy Orbison...

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Sinsull
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 08:55 PM

Amos - I grew up on "Old Shep" and love it - or him, whatever. I just thought it was too obviously the saddest song ever written and had to be eliminated from competition. I can't sing it without snivelling. Also, I just had to part with a beloved cat. Too close to home.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Timbrel
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 09:05 PM

OK folks...easily the saddest song I'VE ever heard is "Kilkelly." I heard it for the first time on the radio one long-ago night when I was far away from my family and feeling lonely anyway...by the end of the song I was choking back tears, and when I sing it to people who have never heard it, they do the same.

"The Dutchman" is also particularly touching to me.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Tay
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 09:09 PM

Gordon Bok's "Schooner Ellenmore" is my nomination. Another sad one is "Battle of Shiloh Hill".


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Midchuck
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 09:29 PM

In Heaven There Is No Beer.

(sometimes called No Beer In Heaven Polka)

Peter.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 09:40 PM

Gee Timbrel, you should have been here last night. You could have heard a live performance. Caitlin's song prompted my inquiry in the first place. Still think motherless babies are sadder than homesick immigrants.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mooh
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 09:43 PM

Kilkelly Ireland, and Brothers In Arms (Dire Straits)

Peace and tears, Mooh.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 09:49 PM

The Letter Edged in Black. (I'm showing my age, I guess.) From the same era, "Please, Mr. Conductor."

"He Won't See His Mother When the Work's All Done This Fall."

Wow! I could go on and on, I think!

Dave Oesterreich


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Kelida
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 09:58 PM

Any sort of instrumental dirge.

Fallen Flowers--by I can't remember who. Steve McDonald maybe? I think that's his name. . .

Molly Malone (knowing that there are some people who just hate that song)

Fiddler's Green--don't know why, but I just think it's sort of sad

Lara's Theme--makes me want to cry (or learn balalaika)

Foggy Dew--the song about the battle, not the other one

Danny Boy

Scotland the Brave

Actually, there is a lot of music that makes me cry--don't tell anyone, but I really am sappy deep down. . .

Peace--Bridget


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:07 PM

Roisin Dubh makes me cry--especially when the Dubliners play it...

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: kendall
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:15 PM

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. also, Old Gilbert. a song about a man who lost his love to another man, then while he was drunk, they impounded his dog and put it to sleep. He didnt know, so, spent the rest of his life looking for it. The verse that gets to me is.."then, someone found him dead one day 'neath a table in a pub, with a collar and a chain clutched in his hand. Mr Bojangles isnt exactly a pick me up!!


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Amergin
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:21 PM

Faded Coat of Blue Carrickfergus Christmas in the Trenches Any song about homesickness, because I am constantly homesick for my home in North Idaho, even though I only live a ten hour drive from it. The Highwayman And the list goes on.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:32 PM

DOESTERR - "PLEASE, MR. CONDUCTOR" = "THE LIGHTENING EXPRESS"? AND AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SOBS THROUGH HALF OF "SONGS OUR DADDY TAUGHT US"?

FADED COAT OF BLUE, THE LETTER EDGED IN BLACK, SOMEBODY'S DARLIN'

EXCUSE ME. I AM GOING TO GO UP MY PROZAC DOSAGE.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:46 PM

Well, I'd been thinking of putting this into a Thought Of The Day thread, but didn't want to bum EVERYBODY out. I might be guilty of Thread Creep, but I figure that people reading this one are probably willing to think sad thoughts... Anyway, here goes.
17 years ago today, the US embassy in Beirut was carbombed, killing about 70 people. 17 of them were American. Fewer than a handful were military. One, not one of the soldiers but one of the Americans, was a USAID employee, a Quaker, and my father. I wish someone would write a song about that.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:53 PM

They are still remembered, Mrrzy. In my hometown, we have a memorial for those 70 who were killed. The azalea bushes surrounding the memorial were beautiful...a bittersweet scene. There are 70 pear trees lining the main road through town--one tree for each person who died that terrible day. The trees have survived 17 years worth of hurricanes...some lost branches...others had to be replaced...but they're still there, reminding us of the terrible price they paid. I think about them everytime I drive past...

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Night Owl
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:53 PM

"Lilac Bush and the Apple Tree"-Kate Wolfe; "Show Me The Road"- Bill Staines. (At least for this moment in time....)


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: JamesJim
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:57 PM

"Old Blue."


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:13 PM

Mbo, where do you live? I've never seen ANY memorials to this one, and I'd really like to. It would be comforting.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:18 PM

Mrrzy, I had forgotten. I won't ever again.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:20 PM

Jacksonville, NC. We have a Beirut Memorial. Flags go up by each tree every Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Veteran's Day. A lot of the Marines who were killed were from Camp Lejeune.

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:21 PM

The memorial has these simple heart-breaking words on it: "They came in peace..." Mrrzy, it's making me cry too now...

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Robo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:28 PM

As my brother Clifton has already noted elsewhere, "Desperados Waiting for a Train," plus "Randall Knife" and "Let Him Roll," all by Guy Clark, plus "My Old Man" by Steve Goodman.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:29 PM

Crying is good. The bombing that killed Dad was the one in April, not the one in October (later) that killed all the Marines. I am impressed that you have memorials for both, the one killing mostly civilians got swept under the rug pretty fast...or is it a more general one to the entire terrorism decade (as I think of it), beginning Nov 1979 when the Teheran embassy was taken over, and mutating in the early 1990' between the World Trade Center bombing? After that, we started growing our own, viz. the OK City bombing, whose anniversary is tomorrow.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:35 PM

It kinda is sorta angled a bit more towards the October bombing, but it actually honours ALL the Americans killed in Lebanon from 1982-84.

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:40 PM

Oh golly gee. Kilkelly, Silver Haired Daddy, Randall Knife, Christmas in the Trenches, too many


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 11:44 PM

Anachie Gordon


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Petr
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 12:02 AM

I would say Kilkelly Ireland also.

I am sorry for your father Mrzzy and for all those killed in those incidents. But if they came in peace, why did the US bomb the Shouf mountains in Lebanon from the coast an event that preceded the bombings. I also think the US


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mbo
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 12:10 AM

Uh-oh...

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,JenEllen
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 12:44 AM

'Live Long Day' for lovesick blues
'Feed Jake' for the dead pet sobs
'Red Headed Stranger' something about being 'wild in his sorrows' that does it every time
And most recently 'Last Trip Home' for sad finality
~Elle


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Song Dog
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 01:42 AM

The saddest song I know is "Mamie". I sang it a couple weeks ago only 3 or 4 listeners. Iv'e never seen it in print or met anyone who knew it I learned it from my dad many years ago. I love the sad ones the best, but I always hesitate to sing them . Im afraid they will bum everyone out. I promised to get it to Max as soon as I can get it on disc so he will have the tune also. I,ll have to do it again sometime.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mark Clark
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 02:34 AM

The discriminating lover of sad songs might like to read through The Saddest Song of All and The Saddest Song of All--Part II. These earlier threads covered a lot of really sad territory.

      - Mark


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 10:42 AM

No biggie, Mbo. However, Petr, the bombing in April killed mostly diplomats, who had come in peace (I almost typoed piece! Ew!), and --to a much greater extent-- local office workers just trying to have jobs. Anyway, at that time, "peace" had been "declared" by the US government, and civilians like Dad were taken from their other posts if a) they spoke French and b) had no dependent children. I (the youngest) finished college midyear, got my degree in February, and the very next week they transferred Dad, who was in the Housing and Urban Development office of the U S Agency for International Development (AID), not in the military. They took everyone off danger pay, and dropped the barricades. Luckily for my family, the terrorists bombed the Embassy so soon after the restaffing that Mom hadn't finished packing out of Bangkok yet. In fact, I didn't even get the postcard that said that Dad had arrived in Beirut, and was eagerly awaiting Mom, until after they found his body, which wasn't right away. And I didn't have my graduation ceremony until the month after he was killed. But since this particular bombing was out of the news pretty quickly, and the subsequent one killed upwards of 300 Marines, I can see why you'd have the impression that people there were not there for peaceful reasons. I agree with what I think you say, that the death of military personnel in wartime, which this is even if undeclared (viz. the much more recent African bombings of US Embassies) is not the same type of tragedy as the death of civilians on peaceful missions in war zones. Especially when said civilians had actual assurances from the people sending them that they were not, in fact, war zones.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Kelida
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 11:25 AM

"My Grandfather's Clock" Which I learned about 10 years ago, and it still makes me cry.

"The Highwayman" The poem, especially--not just the song version of it.

"For My Bride" as sung by Bob Ford on his tape Fiddler's Green.

"Old Blue"

"Heavy Horses" by Jethro Tull--I'm a big fan of horses, and the thought of some horses not being around anymore jusst breaks my heart.

"Too Old to Rock and Roll" also by Jethro Tull--kind of a tragic song. . .

Most songs about war make me sad because I'm a pacifist and I don't actually believe in violence towards anyone, so of course I think war is one of the worst things ever created by humans because it hurts EVERYONE. Especially songs about the innocent bystanders in war--the children.

Peace--Bridget


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SDShad
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 12:51 PM

"No Man's Land" by Eric Bogle is up there ("Willie McBride," "The Green Fields of France," depending on who you ask)

"Love, Reign O'er Me" by the Who

"The Needle and the Damage Done" by Neil Young

to name a few....

Chris


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 01:26 PM

I can't pick the saddest -- there are so many -- but I agree with one of the folks above that "Almost Blue" by Elvis Costello is in the running.

But "Love, Reign O'er Me"? I always considered that song to be about rebirth, redemption, trancendence -- not sad at all, in my opinion.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 01:29 PM

Here's my question... Where's all the great contemporary folk music that's happening these days in this list?????

Most of the stuff listed here, my MOM would call old fart music! Not that there's anything wrong with being an old fart.. I'm saving mine up now, in a pickle jar under the stairs!! LOL!!

John Gorka, James Keelaghan, Lui Collins, Don Ross, Garnet Rogers, Ferron, Liz Sarapheanos, Connie Caldore, Stephen Fearing, Alex Houghton, Lenny Gallant, Blackie And The Rodeo Kings... ect ect ect...

Just to name a few...

{~`


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 01:37 PM

OK, then, how about Heart of the Appaloosa, by aileen and Elkin Thomas? It's about Chief Joseph, and how the heart of the appaloosa will never die.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 01:41 PM

Lyrics here,, srooy, thought Elkin wrote it, but it's copyrighted to Fred Small.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 01:46 PM

My Grandfather's Clock's sentimental value was lost when my brother removed the letter"L" and did a parody.

Clinton - How much time do you spend under the stairs with your jar? I'm worried.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: kendall
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 01:53 PM

How about Dave Malletts song..You say the battle is over, you say the war is all done, go tell it to those with the wind in their nose who run from the sound of the gun, write it on the sides of the great whaling ships, on the ice flow where concience is tossed, with the wild in their eye it is they who must die, it's we who must measure the loss...........It's a protest song about the killing of whales, seals and other animals..powerful..


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 02:02 PM

I have thought long and hard about this and decided that the winner in my opinion is, Pie Jesu, from Requiem by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Although this was dedicated to his father, the Pie Jesu was inspired by reading a newspaper article (cannot remember if it was Vietnam or Cambodia) A young boy was given the option of killing his sister and joining the soldiers or dying with her. He chose death with his sister. Arguably it could be considered a triumph of honour and good over evil. However, it is one song that I am unable sing because it makes me cry; and I consider it the winner for this reason. Yours, Aye. Dave


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SDShad
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 02:26 PM

Whistle Stop--

I guess for me "Love, Reign O'er Me," taken in the context of the whole of Quadrophenia, has always seemed to me to be more about the wanting for "rebirth, redemption, trancendence", the gaping emptiness where the album's protaganist can only seek for them, than anything else. Uplifting in a sad way, or sad in an uplifting way, as Townshend so often accomplishes.

All a matter of perception, I guess.

Chris


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Petr
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 04:44 PM

I feel I should explain what I started to say, my server cut me off yesterday. The Embassy bombings were a tragic and cowardly act (Im certainly not taking their side). Terrorists often target peaceful civilians as well as military. The US did become involved however when the navy shelled the Shouf mountains (I dont think you can call that a peaceful act) By doing so they put their own citizens at risk and subsequently were unprepared for the suicide bombings (who is). Anyway I didnt want to turn the tragedy of your fathers death into a debate but I think the US govt was unprepared and failed to appreciate what they were getting into and the consequences of that shelling of the terrorist camps (the operation was called Reach Out and Touch Someone). Petr.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 06:33 PM

Codicil to my last post re- Pie Jesu it was Cambodia, The article was in the New York Times, The boys sister had been mutilated. Yours, Aye. Dave


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,flattop
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 10:46 PM

Mrrzy, I don't think anyone can fully express your feelings about your father's death except you. You probably won't find someone else's lyrics fill that void or makes sense of senselessness.

A Chicago cab driver told S.I. Hayakawa that, after a riot where blacks had thrown stones and almost hit his mother, the cab driver had organized a group of friends and beat up some blacks. Hayakawa asked him, 'Did you get the guys who threw rocks at your mother?' Violence and revenge seldom seems to hit ideal targets. More often it's stupid and senseless.

Keep writing - whether it's Mudcat messages or lyrics or just notes to yourself.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: sophocleese
Date: 19 Apr 00 - 11:07 PM

Mrrzy, I am truly sorry for your loss. I think that you are the one who could write about your father's death. Even if its not a great song it could help you. I have a friend who's second child died at two months of crib death. Not only did he have to deal with the grief involved there but, possibly, because he, not the mother, was the primary caregiver he was also accused of killing he babe, had to stand trial and was acquitted of all charges. That was 8 years ago. He used to be a poet but he hasn't written a line since then and is depressed as hell, struggling through it and with it but will not write. I keep thinking that he's bottling it up and needs to get it out, but its his call, I could be wrong. All I can do is suggest. Nonetheless he is an excellent father today to two children.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: TheOldMole
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 01:54 AM

I'm Just Here To Get My Baby Out of Jail - Everly Brothers

A wonderful sad song about the end of relationship is "Life as We Knew It" by Fred Koller and Walter Carter

"The Little Girl and the Awful Dreadful Snake"


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: mjm
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 02:04 AM

Wild Geese, Ian & Sylvia. Actually, I think it was composed by just Ian Tyson.

m


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 02:14 AM

Only Mbo mentioned Roy Orbison, but I would say Crying Over You would reign amongst the top ten.. I like K D Lang singing it with him... yours, Aye. dave


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Teasle
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 05:38 AM

The Last Leviathan makes me cry ...

Eric Bogle's My Youngest Son Came Home Today

and because it evokes memories of my Mum who, when alive, used to get me to sing this often - Danny Boy.

John 'O' Dreams

Unicorns - both Bill Caddick songs.

It's endless isn't it - the list..


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 07:45 AM

'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' - Hank Williams


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 08:18 AM

SDShad (Chris) -- There is room for more than one opinion about the meaning of a work that is as complex and ambiguous as Quadrophenia. I have always heard "Love, Reign O'er Me" as the song Jimmy sang after his aborted suicide/baptism, when he awakened to his own identity and worth as an individual rather than as a member of a group that he had previously identified with but ultimately found wanting. I hear sadness and regret in the song, but also self-awareness and a knowledge of something greater. So it's not sad to me, but I respect your own perspective on it as being just as valid as mine. Like a lot of art (I have a lot of respect and admiration for Townshend), it doesn't just deal with one theme or emotion at a time -- it jumbles a lot of them together, just like "real life" does, allowing each listener to relate to the elements that mean the most to him or her individually.

In the "sad song" sweepstakes, I would also mention "Independence Day" by Bruce Springsteen -- he wrote it about his father's death, and it's a very moving song. I realize that expressing admiration for Springsteen probably comes pretty close to heresy in the opinions of some, but I offer no apologies for it -- he's another of the great ones, in my opinion.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SDShad
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 08:28 AM

Whistle--

You make a persuasive case re: "Love." I guess I was just in a very Jimmy-like place, identity-wise, when I discovered Quadrophenia, so the whole album is tinged with a lot of sadness for me, with a coda of hope.

I agree re: "Independence Day." I'd add "The River" and "Racing in the Streets" as Bruce songs that should be on this list.

Chris


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 08:37 AM

Chris, it would be interesting to compare notes. I was a die-hard 15-year-old Who fan when Quadrophenia came out, and it became the principal soundtrack to my tumultuous existence for the next two years. I know I'm not the only one.

Glad you agree on Springsteen's worth. There's a persistent impression out there among a lot of people that Springsteen is a sort of rock'n'roll Sylvester Stallone, so I wasn't sure I'd get much support for my nomination.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SDShad
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 08:54 AM

I was 19 when I bought Quadrophenia, in nineteen eighty-mumble-mumble...some years later than its release. Me second year away from home at college, and a difficult one. I'd been a Who fan from about 15 or 16 though.

And "soundtrack to my tumultuous existence" is about right. That album was one of several that kind of saw me through to a much better place a year or two later ("Darkness on the Edge of Town" was another, BTW). It's my favorite of the Who, by a considerable margin, and has a special place in my heart.

And yes, Springsteen is one of the greats. I think many of his best will still be listened to, and sung, 100 years from now. There's a few that could easily enter "the folk process."

Mister "Thread Drift,"

Chris


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,rhj
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 12:37 PM

I am Stretched on Your Grave and the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Rabucco (sp?)


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Kim C
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 12:56 PM

Okay, admittedly, I love sad songs. Don't know why, 'cause I'm happy.

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda Tecumseh Valley (and just about anything by Townes Van Zant) He Stopped Loving Her Today Raggedy Ann (I turn it off if our country oldies DJ turns it on) The Blizzard Christmas in the Trenches what's that other Eric Bogle song? The Green Fields of France? The Vacant Chair They'll Bury Me Tonight Annie Laurie (I think it's just the melody and what this song makes me think of) The River (just downright dismal)

I'm sure I could think of more if I had the time. I like drama, which is probably why I like sad songs, but one of the greatest compliments I can get after a performance is, "you made me cry when you sang (insert title here)..."


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Mbo_ay_ECU
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 01:28 PM

Trhj, YES!!! "The Chorus of The Hebrew Slaves" from Verdi's opera Nabucco is EXCELLENT! "Va pensiero sull' alli dorato..." ("Go thought on golden wings...") The song was sung by 100,000 people at Verdi's funeral. I would have love to have heard that...must have been heart-breaking and up-lifting all at once...

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Otis
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 03:24 PM


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Otis
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 03:27 PM

Kendall - you mentioned in your post of 4/18 the song "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". I love this song and have only heard it sung in an Irish bar in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. I almost know it by heart, but do you have any idea where I can get the words? Thanks!


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SDShad
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 03:38 PM

Otis--

Here: on this here blue clicky thing. It's really easy to go up to the top of any thread page, and at DigiTrad Lyrics Search type in a snippet or title that you're looking for. You'll find there's a parody or two of this song in there, too.

Chris


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Marion
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 03:59 PM

The Jeannie C. by Stan Rogers.

Also, does anyone know "War Bride's Waltz" by Aengus Finnan?

Marion


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Irish Rover
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 04:48 PM

I think the Butcher Boy and Step It Out Mary are real tear jerkers. I have seen many weep.( and most of it was NOT from my playing). also to us heathen Irish, four green fields and Streets Of London


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Irish Rover
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 04:54 PM

aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh someone stole my cookie! I am NOT a guest!


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Brit
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 07:06 PM

Yes, you yanks (and confederates) are way out in front when it comes to maudlin sentiment, Mrzzy and Mbo. But we're learning, as shown by our response to the demise of Princess Di. Losing a Dad ain't that bad. Millions (sadly, yes, millions) lose daughters and sons who will never rate a footnote in history. Which reminds me of a song that should make this list: My son John, by Tom Paxton, who also wrote quite a moving song about Phil Ochs's suicide. I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Leonard Cohen yet, nor Dory Previn. The latter incidentally wrote a good song about Veteran's Day, or at least I assume it was ("On the veterans' big parade, marched the businessmen's brigade/Whilst behind the high school band the ladies' fife and drum corps played..." or similar). But when it comes to putting them in order, something by ERic Bogle's got to be the winner.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Amergin
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 07:54 PM

How about On the Road From Srebinica (SP?) by Tom Paxton sad song with a message of hope at the end but still brings me down.

Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin Even though it's not a sad song, I find Circles by Harry Chapin so beautiful it makes me slightly teary eyed. (not that it takes much).


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 11:04 PM

Srebrnica is the closest I come sans html for accents. I love the Slavic use of "r" as a vowel...


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,SingsSadSongs
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 11:12 PM

How very close to your bladders your eyes are


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Mikey (michael_ayles@yahoo.com)
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 12:01 AM

Possibly the saddest song I've ever heard is "Gone to Pablo", by Luka Bloom. Of the ones listed, I really have to agree with Kilkelly Ireland, which I think could kill off any room in the world, as well as The Needle and the Damage Done. I can't think of anything else right now...

Mike


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Lonesome Cowboy
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 12:22 AM

The saddest song may have as much do to with our experience of the piece as it has with the tune and lyrics. When I heard Iris Dement sing her "Easy's Gettin' Harder Every Day", I began to weep. When Iris Dement sings a song you can hear that it comes first from her heart then through her vocal chords. I found myself wiping away the tears at the end of the show when the lights came on. I'll never forget the pure joy of feeling that sorrow.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: thosp
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 12:23 AM

i guess for me it's
Strange Fruit sung by Billie Holiday

peace (Y) thosp


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 10:47 AM

I have to say that in my opinion Josh White did a MUCH, MUCH better job with "Strange Fruit" than Billy Holliday. Although I'm not sure "sad" is exactly the word for either of their versions.

Dave Oesterreich


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Jonathan Ramsey
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 11:41 AM

"A Daisy a Day" by Strunk

"No Man's Land", Eric Bogle, is very sad. I'm amazed how many titles this song goes by since it's a recent song and copyrighted. How many songs get retitled by people who sing them when the writer is still alive and very well known internationally.

Any of Bogle's anti-war songs:

"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" "My Youngest Son Comes Home Today"

"The Waterlily" is very sad. I've been asked to sing it in several places. No one ever remembers the name - "Sing the 'Dead Baby' song."

Jonathan


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Otis
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 03:04 PM

Thank you Chris for the link. Just what I was looking for. Happy Easter!


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Otis
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 03:34 PM

Sinsull: You mentioned "The Lightening Express" in your post. Great song. Do you know where I can find the words? Thanks


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: thosp
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 04:15 PM

doesterr!!
i would agree that sad doesn't fit --when i posted i thought that TRAGIC would be more appropriate --but i went with the post anyway-- as far as Josh Whites' version -- i've never heard it ---- but of all the songs i've ever heard in the sad/tragic vein -- Strange Fruit overshadowed all of them in my mind when i was considering the post

peace (Y) thosp


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,steveo
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 04:38 PM

I hate to say it, but "Danny Boy". SteveO


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: thosp
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 04:53 PM

:)

SteveO i guess your just a softee

peace (Y) thosp


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Kara
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 06:21 PM

In the Getto, sent chills down my spine the first time I heard it and still does; Now it makes my boy Jack cry too.


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Subject: ADD: Please Mr. Conductor ^^^
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 06:22 PM

Otis, as I remember them: The Lightening Express from the depot in town
Had started out on its way
All of the passengers that were on board
seemed to be happy and gay.
But one little boy who sat by himself
Was reading a letter he had.
You could plainly see by the look in his eyes
The contents of it made him sad.

The stern old conductor was making his rounds
Taking tickets from everyone there
Finally reaching the side of the boy
Gruffly demanded his fare.
"I have no ticket to give you, sir, but I'll pay you back some day."
"Then I'll put you off at the next stop we make."
But he stopped when he heard the boy say

"Please, Mr. Conductor, don't put me off of this train.
The best friend I have in this world ,sir
Is waiting for me in pain.
Expecting to die any moment, sir
And may not live through the day.
I've got to reach home and kiss mother goodbye
Before God takes her away."

A girl sitting near was heard to exclaim
"To put him off is a shame."
Taking his hand, a collection she made
Til the boy's fare was paid on the train
"I'm obliged to you miss" the boy said to her.
"You're welcome, I'm sure. Never fear."
But each time the conductor would pass through that car
The boy's words would ring in his ears.

"Please, Mr.etc. ^^^


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Subject: Lyr Add: ANGELS IN THE BACKSEAT (Robert Ateyo)
From: GUEST,flattop
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 08:07 PM

A month or so back, while driving into Toronto I thought, what a stupid species I belong to. Any intelligent animal, like a skunk or raccoon, that found itself on highway 400 near the junction with the 401 in rush hour, would have the intelligence to stand in front of a vehicle and get it over with. Instead we edge through traffic shifting gears and straining our ears to hear traffic reports. Commuting, rather than following the advice in the book Your Money or Your Life, is a modern human tragedy that we share with people in cities all over the world. What a way to spend our lives.

I don't know about saddest song, but a sad song that deals with the stress and pain of commuting is Robert Ateyo's 'Angels in the Backseat.' Robert Ateyo said that he wrote it after driving early in the morning to a gig in a pub, playing and drinking, then driving home late at night. At one point he started wondering how he managed to not kill himself driving. He decided that he must have angels in the backseat looking after him....
__________________

Angels in the Backseat
By Robert Ateyo

My eyes are getting heavy
I've been on the road since seven
Crying tears of lead
And I'm on my way to heaven
I've got a couple of angels in the backseat
They're showing me the light and the way

I can't wait to get to heaven
It's a place I never been to
Spent some time in hell
It's something I am no longer into
There's some dead people I'd like to talk to
I've been missing them way too long

Well I'm always in a hurry
Just to get to where I'm going
The big hand moves a little faster
And the little hand moves slower
And if I don't lose this bottle
This might just be last call

The clock upon the wall
It has a funny way of showing
When your time is all used up
And you know you must be going
All the money that you saved up
Can't buy you a nickel of time
All the money in the world
Can't buy you any more time

My eyes are getting heavy
I've been on the road since seven
Crying tears of lead
And I'm on my way to heaven
I've got a couple of angels in the backseat
They're showing me the light and the way


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Herma
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 04:16 PM

Songs that always make me sad are: Aye waukin' O, beautifully sung by Derek Moffat of the McCalmans, as well as the Flowers O'The Forest sung by them. "Only a woman's heart" by Mary Black and "Give yourself to love" by Kate Wolff In short, there seem to be a fair number of songs that still can really move you when you are open to the emotion; from my point of view, good that we are still able to be moved by them.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Guest; josh joshbyrne@hotmail.com
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 04:49 PM

"Queen of the Rails" by Utah Phillips


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Branwen23
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 05:08 PM

my vote goes to Kilkelly....

-Branwen-


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: bobby's girl
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 05:30 PM

The song that never fails to make me cry - which is a bit awkward as its on a tape I play in the car- is Margarita by Harvey Andrews, which is about his Great Aunt who's fiance was killed in the 14-18 war. She keeps his photo on the wall, and asks her nephew how the photo looks. Sadly, because she has gone blind, she doesn't realise that the sun has faded the photo, and he now exists only in her mind's eye - I sob every time!


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Ezdel
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 05:43 PM

How about "The Streets of London" or "Before They Close the Minstrel Show."

(help i can't find my cookie)


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,ruby
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 06:45 PM

id say give my love to rose, johnny cash no mans land, eric bogle and the band played waltzing matilda ,eric bogle


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 07:01 PM

It's interesting to consider what it is that makes a sad song, though.
There are plenty of ballads and broadsides with the most tear-jerking maerial, yet there's a 'factor X' that a real hair-tingler needs.
Shoot me down if I'm being over-imaginative, but I've ofen found that the most arresting songs, in terms of that lump-in-the-throat, dewy-eyed reaction, are those that are like the old church hymns.
I don't know whether it's an atavistic thing harking back to the days when religion was hammered into us to instill a mixture of terror and bewilderment, or whether it's that the Almighty managed to get some tunes back from the Devil, but I still find a classic Anglican evensong uplifting, even though my original faith is long gone. Perhaps that's why I always get very emotional with that wonderful song that Coope Boyes and Simpson do so well, 'Only Remembered'.

Yrs, an incorrigibly sentimental old fart.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Gervase
Date: 12 Jul 00 - 07:45 PM

Bugger! We're all dropping cookies all over the shop tonight.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: L R Mole
Date: 13 Jul 00 - 10:33 AM

Hmm...thinking about songs I wouldn't be able to get through singing myself, and the one I know I'm incapable of is "No One Is Alone" from "Into the Woods".The show itself is all terror and loss and hilarity of childhood, but that one...oh, boy. Clouding up now, just thinking about it.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: winniemih
Date: 13 Jul 00 - 11:55 AM

I vote for a song that Connie Dover does on her Somebody cd, "Rosemary's Sister" written by Huw Williams. It's the tale of a woman killed by a bomb that fell during the Blitz of London,WW2. The combination of Connie's exquisite voice and the death of this nameless woman does it to me every time.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Bullmoose
Date: 13 Jul 00 - 10:52 PM

Saddest one I ever heard was "Maria" by Townes Van Zant, live at Kerrville in June '95 ---- about a starving, broke Mecican couple (wife 9 months pregnant) walking across Texas looking for a burned0out van to live in.... Sad, sad, sad.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: WyoWoman
Date: 13 Jul 00 - 11:38 PM

Did Townes V.Z. write "Tecumseh Valley?" I can't remember... but that's one of the saddest I know...

(Did we talk about this in another thread? It seems that I've believed forever that he wrote it and someone straightened me out about that ...)

ww


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,guitarist
Date: 13 Jul 00 - 11:54 PM

well, Lord Franklin -- stranded in Arctic ice for two years before finally starving to death, while your wife waits and wonders -- now that's sad!

Greenfields of Canada, the Planxty version -- "the sheep run unshorn, and the land's gone to rushes -- the handyman's gone, and the winders of creels" -- such a picture of desolation, in so few words.

For reasons I can't explain, "Arthur MacBride" always makes me tear up. I mean, it's a happy story right? Arthur and his cousin beat the shit out of the recruiter and go on their merry way. I think maybe it's the sense that it's only a story, in real life Arthur and his cousin actually do end up in France, and get shot in the morning. Meanwhile, the recruiter is out looking for fresh meat...


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: mike putt
Date: 14 Jul 00 - 06:28 PM

I have to agree with Hotspur. "There were roses". It took me months before I could finish this song without crying.


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Subject: Lyr Add: "I SHOULD LIKE TO DIE," SAID WILLIE
From: little john cameron
Date: 15 Jul 00 - 01:20 AM

This is a poem, no’ a song. It took me three goes tae type it.

“I SHOULD LIKE TO DIE,” SAID WILLIE

“I should like to die,” said Willie, “if my papa could die too:
But he says he isn’t ready—‘cause he’s got so much to do:
But my little sister Nellie says that I must surely die,
And she and Mamma—then she stopped because it made me cry.

“I remember that she told me once, while sitting on her knee,
That the angels never weary while watching over her and me:
And if I was only good—Nellie told me so before—
That they let us into Heaven when they see us at the door.

“I shall know no more of sorrow. I shall know no more of sin.
I shall see Mamma and Nellie, for I know they’ll let me in:
But I’ll have to tell the angel when I meet him at the door,
That he must excuse my Papa, because he couldn’t leave the store.

“I know I shall be happy, and shall always want to stay—
I should like to hear the singing—I should love the endless day:
I would like to look at Jesus—I d love him more and more,
And I’d gather water-lilies for the angel at the door.

“Nellie says that it may be I shall soon be called away—
If Papa was only ready I should like to go today;
But if I go before him to that world of light and joy,
I guess he’ll want to come to Heaven to see his little boy.”

Anon.

Capitals and punctuation added. --JoeClone, 1-Mar-02.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: pastorpest
Date: 15 Jul 00 - 10:12 AM

Here is another old fart song which is sad when you know the context: Loch Lomand. None of our songs compare with the horrendous sad disasters in three of every four operas.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 00 - 10:57 AM

The saddest song ever written was "Gloomy Sunday", originating in Hungary in the 1920's or 30's. It was responsible for several suicides during that time. The song was later recorded by Billie Holliday.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Ship'scat
Date: 15 Jul 00 - 03:12 PM

How about "Last Cigar"?

Real pathos should come from the pen and voice of one who's been there and done it. This ancient (and anonymous) midshipmen, perhaps a year into a two year cruise in 1860, is out of cigars. How bad can it get?

Maybe he went on to force those damn torpedoes at Mobile Bay or face down the iron-cladded Merrimac on Hampton Roads behind nothing but wooden walls. But what pained him the most? No cigars while patroling the Bight of Benin, that's (probably) what!

"I watched the ashes as they came fast drawing to an end. I watched them as a friend would watch beside a dying friend." Now that's sad.

KC


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Deadlyfiddler
Date: 15 Jul 00 - 09:52 PM

Geez ! It's gotta be Teddybear ( Breaker 10 4 Good buddy an all that stuff )


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Big Show
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 12:47 PM

I agree with "Teddy Bear" too (Red Sovine I think)...


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Giac, not at home
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 01:07 PM

Thought I put these in this thread a few days ago, but the post seems to have vanished ... hmmmmm. Anyhow:

1913 Massacre
Little Joe
Put My Little Shoes Away


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Lena
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 08:02 AM

Heavy ones could be:

Open your eyes(Irish lullaby-does anybody know it here?!)

"La Guerra di Piero"(this soldier is walking in this forest when he meets another soltier from the other army.Piero sees the fear in his enemy's eyes,sees the vulnerability of the man and sees he's a young fellow like him,and esitates.The other soldier turns out not to be that kind and shoots him straight away.Piero's last words are for his girlfriend, "Nina,my love,to die in may takes much too much courage Nina,my love,straight to hell I'd rather go there in winter")

"False/True love"(trad/Eaton/Murphy)


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Nikki
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 08:41 AM

Well, when I was a little tyke, my mother could make me cry by singing "Oh, Susannah." Later, it was "The Moon Shines Tonight on Pretty Red Wing" (the tune more of us probably know as "Union Maid.") My father always said that "your bladder's too close to your eyeballs" thing. But a couple of newer songs that I feel are quite sad are "I Remember Loving You" which I think might be by U. Utah Phillips, and "Here's to You Rounders" - sung by Bok & Trickett - I don't have any railroad bums in my family as far as I know, but there's something about those two that touches me.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 08:23 AM

I agree with GUEST, in fact he/she beat me to it in quoting 'Gloomy Sunday'. I also find 'Danny Boy' has tear jerking qualities when one realises that Danny is being spoken to by a dying lover, who says that her grave will be warmer when she hears his prayers. My parents were both strongly afected by jimmie Rodgers' @Whisper Your Mothers Name'. Iwould also submit Ewan MacColl's 'Joy of Living' written by him when he knew that his time was growing shorter. He refers to his wife as "dearest companion" and adresses the most affecting line to his children, "Farewell my chicks, now you must fly alone". As a father and grandfather that line had me in tears. The song is a masterpiece, written by a great artist and humanitarian.


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Subject: RE: BS: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 08:27 AM

I stand by all the statements I just made, but apologise for the typos


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: kendall
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 09:07 PM

Where Are You going my little one...?

Loch Tay boat song.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 09:20 PM

This was my first "Thread". Thanks for renewing it, guys. Utah Phillips' "I Remember Loving You" is definitely on the list. If you haven't heard Kendall do it, buy the CD.

"Danny Boy", I thought, was a mother saying goodbye to her son knowing she would never see him again. Any experts in the house? (Silly question!)


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Lee Shore
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 09:57 PM

Saddest: Hound Dog, Bay at the Moon" sung by Odetta. Saddest phrase in a song: "Aint nobody loves me but my mother, and I think she may be jivin' too" -BB King. The Irish sweep the catagory though, with Danny Boy, Parting Glass, Valley of Knockanoor and a thousand others. As G.K Chesterton says: "For the great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, for all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad." Of course, Chesterton might have allowed as how the Brits had a little something to do with making Ireland sad.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Lee Shore
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 10:14 PM

Have to add Stan Rogers' "Harris and the Mare."


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,john c
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 02:03 AM

"Blues Run the Game" - cos its true and they did. At least for poor old Jackson.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: bobbi
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 02:11 AM

Poor Lil' Babes In The Woods.

(Sniff... Sob)


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: kendall
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 08:23 AM

No Time to say Goodby by Tom Paxton


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,mmm1a
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 03:54 PM

Saddest song is the one that is never heard.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: jaze
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 06:46 PM

"Making Believe" as sung by Emmylou. /also her "Ballad of a Runaway Horse".


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Whiskey
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:33 PM

What's wrong with Harvey Andrews' "The Soldier" or whatever it's called. That's really sad, in my view. If you've never heard it, try to find it and give it a listen...although it's getting a bit dated now, it's still thought provoking.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,tim
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:26 PM

go rest high on that mountain by vince gill

going home

amazing grace

tears in heaven by eric clapton

grown men dont cry- tim mcgraw

gloomy sunday


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Steve N.
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 08:09 PM

"Come All Ye Tender Hearted"....Peter Rowan sang it on an album of his. This one is way beyond sad, as we Bluegrassers would say....it's PITIFUL.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,duart
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 10:03 AM

It has to be "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell for its general condemnation of big city apathy, or "Leaving Nancy" by Eric Bogle, for its simple examination of any son taking a last farewell of his mother.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,gandalf the grey
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 07:35 PM

Without a doubt it is " mary had a little lamb" by Paul macCartney.What a sad excuse for a #1 hit song,but i bet he made a million.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Michelle
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 11:41 AM

Besides most Hank Williams songs :) I would have to say

Hey Jesus by the Indigo Girls Adrian by Jewel (esp. as it's a true story) and. . .The Superman Song by Crash Test Dummies

And thanks to all the other suggestions on this thread--I've gotten some good suggestions here.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 12:35 PM

All of the above plus "Dancing At Whitsun" -- took me ages to learn it, cuz I'd tear up around the second verse -- all those villages with no one left but old men and women and children.

Then again, how about "No More Beer From Kendall" and Johnny Handle's "The Old Pubs." Those are pretty sad songs about some pretty sad subjects, too.

Bat Goddess


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,jenn
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 02:45 PM

the saddest song, one that always makes me want to cry is "The Green Fields of France"

"did they play the death march as they lowered you down? Did the band play the last post in chorus? Did the pipes play the Flowers of the forest?


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 03:04 PM

My first thread...Now I wonder if the saddest song has been written.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Puflet
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 03:37 PM

'Thieves like Us' New Order 'Missing' Everything but the Girl

Actually, I think half the thing about sad songs, or what makes them particularly poignant for me, is the state of mind I am in when I first hear them, and it is therefore associations as well as something about the songs themselves - with these, it's a sense of loss and hopelessness.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Deckman
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 05:12 PM

For me, it's the traditional ballad "Castle Grand."


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 01:48 AM

Bogle's "No Man's Land" is a choker when you have somebody lying in France. Rab Burns' "Ye Banks and Braes" is in the running, as is "The Rowan Tree". [Can ye tell I'm a Scot??]


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,janey
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 06:01 PM

Heaven Knows No Frontiers (as sang by Mary Black) Nothing more needs be said.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,frankie
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 06:23 PM

Did anyone mention "Victor Jara". I don't remember who wrote it but Arlo did a version that always reduces me to a blubbering heap. f


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 06:53 PM

I wish you were here to be underfoot,
I wish you were here to get in my way,
To call me from work, to call me to play,
I wish you were here again.

Oh, what did I do that had to be done,
And what did I read that had to be read,
When I could have turned to watch you instead?
I wish you were here again.

The monuments rise, the monuments fall,
The papers are signed and turn into chaff,
But I can recall the sound of your laugh.
I wish you were here again.

I wish you were here to be underfoot,
I wish you were here to get in my way,
To call me from work, to call me to play.
I wish you were here again.

-- Malvina Reynolds


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Subject: Lyr Add: IF PAPA WERE ONLY READY (Philip P Bliss)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 04:45 PM

The "poem" posted by Little John Cameron above intrigued me, so I did a bit of research, and found that it is a song after all—although I couldn't find the tune anywhere.

Copied from The P.P. Bliss Lyric Archive (and slightly edited by me).

IF PAPA WERE ONLY READY
(Philip Paul Bliss, 1867)

"I should like to die," said Willie, "if my papa could die too,
But he says he isn't ready 'cause he has so much to do.
And my little sister Nellie says that I must surely die,
And that she and mama—then she stopped, because it made me cry.
And that she and mama—then she stopped, because it made me cry.

"But she told me, I remember once, while sitting on her knee,
That the angels never weary watching over her and me,
And that if we're good (and mama told me just the same before)
They will let us into heaven when they see us at the door.
They will let us into heaven when they see us at the door.

"There I know I shall be happy and will always want to stay.
I shall love to hear the singing. I shall love the endless day.
I shall love to look at Jesus. I shall love him more and more,
And I'll gather water lilies for the angel at the door.
And I'll gather water lilies for the angel at the door.

"There will be none but the holy. I shall know no more of sin.
But I'll see mama and Nellie, for I know he'll let them in,
But I'll have to tell the angel when I meet him at the door,
That he must excuse my papa 'cause he couldn't leave the store.
That he must excuse my papa 'cause he couldn't leave the store.

"Nellie says that may be I shall very soon be called away.
If papa was only ready, I should like to go today.
But if I should go before him to that world of light and joy,
Then I guess he'd want to come to heaven to see his little boy.
Then I guess he'd want to come to heaven to see his little boy."

["If Papa Were Only Ready" is song #415 (of 750) in "Sacred Songs and Solos" compiled by Ira David Sankey, published ca. 1888. (There were several editions.)]


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,ylime
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 05:09 PM

I always cry when I hear the Last Leviathan, and deportee gets me pretty bad too. I have never heard the song version of Christmas in the trenches performed,but the poem is one of the most powerful I have ever heard

emily


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Neebrainbow@aol.com
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 05:13 PM

saddest song....hmm.. a tough one but " The Hobboes lullaby" by Woody guthrie (?) sung by Emmy Lou Harris is up there The Band played Waltzin' Matilda is a great Anti War song Fire and rain , James Taylor but as a boy a record called " A little dog cried" always set me howling with tears. My brother would put the record on the player and see who would cry first!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 05:34 AM

Has to be Liam O Raghallaigh, which starts:

An chuimhin leat an oiche ud...

(Do you remember that night)

the night in question being the night of the wedding that the widowed bride is remembering; she says (I translate): "Do you remember that night, the streets full of action - priests and brothers talking about our wedding..."

It goes on into a desperate and tragic lament; in the second verse she sings: "A bride and a widow I was left on my wedding night..."

By the third or fourth verse she's describing in graphic detail how the body of her beloved must be: "The eels have your eyes, and the crabs your sweet mouth; your two long, bright, bright-shining arms are under the harsh discipline of the salmon".

And she ends with a curse on the craftsmen who made the boat, saying that if they'd gone to a place known for its good quality wood, the boat would not have sunk, and "My thousand-times treasure would not have drowned on the coast of Malbay".

The tune, too, is a keen, beautiful, eerie and tragic.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Shonagh
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 03:15 PM

-The Cruel Mother -The Twa Corbies -Barbara Allan -Get me through December on Nat MacMasters album In my Hands

Theres plently more but i just cant think of any!!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: kendall
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 05:29 AM

Not that it matters, but, I believe Hobo's Lullaby was written by Goebel Reeves.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Em
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 04:17 PM

Saddest song (at least, the most tragic song) has to be "4 O'Clock In The Morning." Dunno who wrote it but I heard it sung by the Pogues. It really is a depressing little number.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Lucius
Date: 03 Mar 02 - 11:54 PM

Fairytale of New York by the Pogues, THe Ballad of Penny Evans by Steve Goodman or any one of a dozen tunes by Tom Waits.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Zipster
Date: 04 Mar 02 - 05:53 AM

Context obviously adds to the effect. I had boght the single of Drive (by the Cars???) before Live Aid as she liked the song. It was only when it was used against video images that it made me weep like a bucket.

Context again, Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton.

Recent thread reminded me that the phrase, "no mammies kisses and no daddie's smiles", in Nobody's child can set me off.

I welled up listening yesterday to Matt McGInn singing Q4 about the sense of pride and identity that Glasgow as a city was once able to take from the ships they built and sent to sea.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 03:08 AM

Amazing fact that we do see In this here U S A The Supeme Court it stopped the vote And put in Bush that day

Twas Bush who can not talk and chew Is run by CIA With Stragelove well in place right now Last chance for USA

The people waft all too the sky On internet and TV They trip right over homeless folks In this society

No need for films of World War two The FBI has come And focused on it's certin folks With some concentration

The many armies of US Go bombing everywhere With death of countless innocents The people still don't care

What will it take to wake us up I really do not know With atom bomb in sutcase now We really have to grow

Amazng Grace you do recall Turned a slaveship around You folkies all now is the time To be twice as profound (Would you believe how late I just stayed up) c 2001 Eric Levine Feel free to improve it But that is what I am so so sad about


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Rayshuck
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 09:21 AM

The song "Long before your time" which we as an Irish Group play at every gig, but as the singer I cannot hold back the tears. Maybe I`m too sentimental but the poem/song "If Papa were only ready" which I read for the first time creates immediate emotional tears. My wife thinks I should cease playing/singing emotional songs...what say. Ray


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 09:49 AM

The Orphan Train (Tom Russell)...
Kilkelly


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Sandy McLean
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 12:01 PM

Slippers With Wings
Put My Little Shoes Sway
Long Before Your Time
First Fall Of Snow
Little Rosa
Nobody's Child


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 12:23 PM

Would not go so far as to call these the saddest, but they do capture the feeling - First Christmas by Stan Rogers and Wedding Dress Mary by Tom Russell. Roger's White Squall and Russell's song about the fighting rooster can evoke a strong reaction.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 12:49 PM

Little Mark Lester singing "Where is Love" in the 60's musical 'Oliver!"

Neil Young's "Pocahontas"

Charlotte Church singing "Panis Angelicus" in 'Joan of Arc' (must be the context)


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Cluin
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 01:10 PM

My Dad used to get my sisters crying (but not me, man, NO WAY!) every time he picked up his guitar by singing Hank Snow's "Little Buddy".

And I still can't sing "Puff the Magic Dragon". Don't know why, but there ye go....


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: banjomad (inactive)
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 05:34 PM

If you think you know SAD think again.
Try listening to two Irish tunes, 'Bean An Fir Ruadh, and 'Donal Og'
here is great sadness,
Sadly Dave


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Songsmith
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 03:29 AM

JP Cormier's "Another Morning"
Lennie Gallant's "Island Clay"


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: rich-joy
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 03:35 AM

hmmmmmm ... my vote is still going to Kate Wolf's "The Heart"


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 02:33 PM

I'd say the Simon and Garfunkel recording of "Silent Night."


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Geordie
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 10:09 AM

Raglan Road, Annan Waters,The Minstrel Boy, The Sally Gardens, Red Brother, Red Sister[Bruce Cockburn} North Country Blues, The Patriot Game, Gentle Annie.......oh, there are soooooooo many.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Strupag
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 12:02 PM

I's interesting that Eric Bogle's song "The Green Fields of France" comes up a few times and yet what is even sadder is the fact that the song Title written by Bogle was "No Man's Land". It had also the line in the chorus "Will the rifles fire o'er ye" and this was also changed.
Bogle was referring to the first world war's "No man's Land" and the "rifles" line referred to a military funeral.
When the Irish bands started to do the song they saw the need to change the title and the line. That is truly sad.

Andy


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 01:13 PM

Well, if MacArthur Park doesn't qualify, I nominate:

That's my girl, she's my world . . . But that ain't my truck.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: mike the knife
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 03:50 PM

A couple of Eric Bogle tunes "Green fields of France" & "And the band played Waltzing Matilda" get me every time. Tom Waits' "Kentucky Avenue" , I mean damn, who doesn't tear up when he's going to: "Steal a hacksaw from my dad and cut the braces off your legs" or "Take the spokes from your wheelchair, and some Magpie's wings, tie 'em to your shoulders and your feet" Whoah. btw, Where can I find a recording of "Randall Knife?


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,BlueJay
Date: 03 Dec 02 - 03:31 AM

My vote still goes to Steve Goodman's "Ballad of Penney Evans", because IMO, in the near future, many young wives and mothers will be reliving this song. Right or wrong, this will happen, and until someone comes up with a better song for our times, "Penney Evans" sums it all up for me. BlueBlueJay


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Geordie
Date: 03 Dec 02 - 10:32 AM

Just out of curiosity what was the line about the rifles firing o'er yyou changed to in No Man's Land ?


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Declan
Date: 03 Dec 02 - 10:47 AM

It was changed to "Did they sound the Death march".

Incidentally I don't think the change was politically motivated if that's what was implied in the earlier post. You'll have to ask The Furey's why they actually changed the words but for what its worth the line "Sound the Death March" comes from another song with various titles (The Locke Hospital/Streets of Laredo/St James' Infirmary). which follows the words Play the drum slowly and play the fife lowly.

I expect Eric Bogle borrowed from this style of song for the chorus of "No Man's Land" and the Furey's decided to put some of the words of the original song back in. Incidentally my favourite version of the song is the one by June Tabor who uses the original Eric Bogle words.

In any case it seems to me that no thread about sad songs would be complete without mentioning June Tabor, whos concert at Sidmouth two years ago made the Doom and Gloom song contest sound like the happy hour.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Crump
Date: 03 Dec 02 - 03:51 PM

It has to be "Home Lads Home". An anon' poem put to music by a member of Bread and Roses and sung most effectively by Cockersdale. The recording features the late and much missed Keith Marsden.


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Subject: Lyr Add: JUST BEHIND THE TIMES
From: GUEST,Newfiegirl
Date: 03 Dec 02 - 09:44 PM

"Just behind the times"

A party in our little Village,
People gathered in a little room,
A meeting of importance there to hold,
They had decided that their Minister,
Although they loved him well,
He must resign, for he was growing old.

They wrote to him this letter,
And he read it or'er and or'er,
As burning tears fell on each cruel line,
For written in this letter
Was your sermons are today,
It also read, your just behind the times.
                              
Just behind the time so they told him,
Your just behind the time,
Your voice has lost it's sweetness,
Like bells that lost it's chime,
He cannot hold their attention,
He faulters or'er his lines,
His power is gone, and few will mourn,
For he's just behind the times.

The Church was crowded Sunday morning,
For it was rumored round the town,
That a new Minster was going to preach.
In that same old dusty Pulpet
Where he had ruled for years,
Another man had come, his flock to teach..

Well he spoke of love and politic's,
And he spoke of fashions grand,
Of sights he'd seen in many distant cline,
The old man sat and listened,
And he slowly bowed his head
I guess they're right,
I'm just behind the time.

Just behind the time so they told him,
Your just behind the time,
Your voice has lost it's sweetness,
Like bells that lost it's chime.
He cannot hold their attention,
He faulters or'er his lines,
His power is gone, and few will mourn,
For he's just behind the times.

Well the sermon it was ended,
And the old man sadly rose,
Will you let me say a word before I go,
As down the isle he staggred,
To the Pulpit as of yours,
With faulting steps and face as white as snow.
                                        
I have buried all your loved ones,
And I've wept beside their graves,
I've shared your joys and sorrows many times,
At last he made a start,
The pain had broke his poor old heart,
His last words were,I'm just behind the times.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 07:23 PM

"I Know You by Heart"-sung by eva Cassidy
Danny boy


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Neighmond
Date: 04 Dec 02 - 08:07 PM

The old version of "little Bessie" is a tearjearker-
I always did like the song "one day at a time"


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Nevada
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 04:35 AM

Hi Everyone!
Does no-one else think that "Family" is the saddest song ever? sorry i cant remember who wrote it but if you agree with me then you'll know it anyway!
                Luv AAA x


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,ParaHandy
Date: 05 Dec 02 - 02:06 PM

I will go (title might be different) - telling the story of the Highlanders who went to fight for king and country who on returning were thrown off their land.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Rain Dog
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 12:55 PM

I think the Tom Waits song Georgia Lee is one of the saddest songs

It has been covered by Solas and also by Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman. After the Waits original I think the Roberts & Lakeman version is a very good one.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Teribus
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 02:23 PM

Another Eric Bogle song - "As if he knows"


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: akenaton
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 01:54 PM

Mary Chapin Carpenter's   "John Doe no 24"..Is one of the saddest songs Iv ever heard....Ake


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Jeep man
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:00 PM

Its gotta be "Little Bessie", hands down. Jim


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Brakn
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:22 PM

The Man Who Couldn't Cry - Loudon Wainwright
It Only Hurts For A Little While - Margo Smith
She's Leaving Home - Beatles
and a few other that have already been mentioned.

Too many...


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,anais
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:38 PM

the ones that i cannot listen to all the way through (let alone sing) without getting teary are "down where the drunkards roll" and
"christmas in the trenches"...i can sing "annan waters" and i'm fine, but if i hear robbie o'connel sing it i'm a goner. same goes for the nina simone version of "just like tom thumb's blues"...there's something so desolate in her voice. anais


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 09:09 PM

Most of my "favorite" saddest songs have already been mentioned; Annachie Gordon, Kilkelly Ireland, There Were Roses, White Squall, The Joy of Living have all had me in tears over the years. Christmas in the Trenches doesn't make me cry, but sometimes when I sing it, I get a shiver down my spine when I get to the lines "But the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame/ And on each end of the rifle, we're the same."

Another Stan Rogers song - Lies - I find incredibly moving (although not sad). But it took me months to get to the point where I could sing it without losing it/getting all choked up on the last verse.

A couple of more recently-written sad songs: Paxton's The Bravest - packs quite an emotional whallop, and Perfumes of Arabia (written by Maggie Holland about the [first] Gulf War) is - sadly - possibly more appropriate today than when it was first written. I'll go ahead & post it here (but in a separate message), as it's still so relevant & doesn't seem to be in the DT yet...

Cheers,

YY


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: aibreán
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 09:24 PM

These all instantly make me low:

Love Song: Vashti Bunyan
Blind Love: Tom Waits
Ne Me Quitte Pas: Nina Simone
Mill O' Tifty: Old Blind Dogs
The Two Trees: Loreena McKennitt


*sniff*

-aibreán, fool for sad love songs.


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Subject: Lyr Add: PERFUMES OF ARABIA (Maggie Holland)
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 09:39 PM

PERFUMES OF ARABIA (Maggie Holland)

I was driving on a journey when I turned my radio on
Thinking to hear a story or some old familiar song
But all I heard were voices telling me a foreign war
They were counting Scuds and Patriots, they were telling me the score

I heard the voice of the airman as his plane fell from the sky
I heard the man in the foxhole as he watched his brother die
I heard the last sad song of the dolphin as he drowned in a filthy sea
I heard the mother weep aloud for her dead child on her knee

They say the sands are filled with corpses and the wells are filled with blood
The snows on the distant mountains make many's the tiny shroud
The clouds are black as thunder, they do not hold sweet rain
There is only death and poison to fall to earth again

I couldn't bear to hear it so I turned the volume down
Turned into a garage in some little Hampshire town
Filled up my car as I took the air of this green and pleasant land
And then I recognized the smell of blood upon my hand

I've tried sandalwood and roses, I've tried eau de cologne as well
Calvin Klein, Chanel number 5, it cannot ease the smell
I've tried in every Body Shop I can find throughout the land
But the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.


On Maggie Holland's 1992 album Down to the Bone
Sung by Martin Carthy later in the year on his and Dave Swarbrick's album Skin and Bone. An earlier live version sung by Martin Carthy on October 17, 1991 at Graffiti's, Pittsburg was released in 2001 on The Carthy Chronicles.

VAF

(note: found the lyrics on a website (http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/martin.carthy/songs/perfumesofarabia.html); can't help wondering if the third line should be: "But all I heard were voices telling me of a foreign war" - but the only other website I found with the lyrics has the exact same typos (which I've corrected) as this one ["filithy" instead of "filthy" and "moutain" instead of "mountain"], so I don't entirely trust either of them. Unfortunately, I don't have a recording to hand, so I can't check.)


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 10:37 PM

"Perfumes of Arabia" (above) is the first time I've tried to post a song here for "harvesting"; I read the FAQ & tried to do it properly - making sure to put in the line breaks - but there seem to be too many spaces between lines... can anyone tell me what I've done wrong?

Cheers,

YY


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Robin2
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 11:28 PM

Oh my, so many already mentioned, Killkelly, The Bravest, Desperados Waiting For The Train,

I would add "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive", by Darrell Scott
And the the song "Sometimes", by Jonathan Edwards a song to his departed wife. A song about learning to live alone


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Subject: Lyr Add: DEAREST MARTHA (John McCutcheon)
From: Robin2
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 11:47 PM

Oops, forgot this one. A real tear jerker

Dearest Martha
words & music by John McCutcheon

Dearest Martha, when you find this, there'll be nothing you can do
To change the way our lives have turned out, it's not up to me and you
All the bills are paid through New Years, all the notes are in the drawer
The insurance ought to help, I wish I could have left you more

Now, no one could call me lazy and I know that I ain't dumb
And no one in this valley knew these awful times would come
As the costs keep climbing higher, the prices never rise
While our mouths are filled with questions they just fill our ears with lies

That banker I made wealthy just ten short years ago
Now sits across his pin-striped desk politely saying "No"
Men who've never known a hard time or soiled their soft white hands
Turn farmers into failures and drive us from our lands

In years to come there'll be the stories, such tales they're sure to tell:
"A fourth generation farmer, and he let it go to hell!"
I know that I'm a good man, but I never can forget
There's nothing left to leave the children but a thousand acre debt

But I read it in the papers and I see it on TV
How everything is back on track, what the hell is wrong with me?
I've worked as hard as any man to bring the ground to grain
But each September brings the harvest, the heartache and the blame

So, Martha, lay me in the orchard underneath the flowering plum
And face me to the east so I can see the rising sun
And remember when the days were young and happy ones for me
And the land was ripe with promises as far as I could see...


So sorry this is true...


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,K
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 04:45 AM

The beautiful voice of Kate Wolf gives sad songs that extra dimension. A few of her songs are mentioned here. To me Kate's cover of Woody Guthrie's poem 'One By One' is the saddest song I know


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Brakn
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 06:58 AM

Luther Vandross - Dance With My Father

Definately not folk but certainly sentimental.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Ethereal Purple
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 10:54 PM

Puff the Magic Dragon definitely - although my friends all think I'm mad :-)
Hobo's Lullaby
Streets of London
Patriot Game
Donna Donna
Hallelujah - the Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright versions... it's an amazing song!
Tears in Heaven - Clapton
Lara's Theme
Love Story
Send in the Clowns - just the tune, I guess.
Someday I'll fly away - from Moulin Rouge
Last Kiss
Arms of an Angel and When She Loved Me - Sarah McLachlan
Bridge over troubled water
Plaisir D'Amour - any version... but maybe, especially Joan Baez.
River in the Pines
Norah Jones always makes me feel sad.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 21 Dec 03 - 01:08 AM

Ethereal Purple,

It's not just the tune of "Send in the Clowns" that's sad - it's a poignant, bitter, wistful song about two people who can never quite get their relationship to work. And (I assume) Sondheim used the phrase "send in the clowns" in reference to the circus practice of sending in the clowns to distract the crowd when a serious mishap (probably tragic more often than not) has occurred.

So "Send in the Clowns" is an excellent choice all round!

Cheers,

YY


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Wilson
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 01:51 PM

I was very angry when I found out that I was not registered in an Exam that I am suppose to write. It really pained me a lot.

I was very sad that day, but I just had to leave it like that because that's the challenges we have to face sometimes and we have to overcome them


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Rasener
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 02:42 PM

I happen to think that George Papavgeris wrote a song called Empty Handed in 2002. It was basically about somebody who had invested all his money into his/her business and it went pear shaped, and the person had to go home and tell the family. It happened to me and I would think many more. I hope I have interpreted that correct George, becuase it sure does make me think of the worst time in my life (not the same sort of business - but the feeling was the same).

Empty Handed Lyrics

George Papavgeris Live singing Empty Handed

Got tears in my eyes as I watch it.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: LukeKellylives (Chris)
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 02:48 PM

The Town I Loved So Well - Luke Kelly

Raglan Road - Luke Kelly

Tramps and Hawkers/Come me Little Son - Luke Kelly

The Wild Rover (MUCH different than the one you're thinking of) - The Irish Tradition

As I Roved Out - Planxty

And a lot of others...


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Ravenheart
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 02:51 PM

Coming upon this old thread, I see a reference to a song by Tom Paxton about Phil Ochs' suicide, but none to "No More Songs," which was simply a suicide note set to a tune.

Ochs' "The Scorpion Departs but Never Returns" should qualify as the second-saddest song, overtly about the disappearance of a nuclear submarine but reflecting the death of an age and loss of meaning.

"We will forgive you, we will forgive you
Tell me we will forgive you"


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: mrmoe
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 02:52 PM

"this nearly was mine" from south pacific.....


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Deckman
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 03:15 PM

I'm glad that someone re-visited this thread. I have another choice: "Mary Of The Wild Moor." Bob


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Eye Lander
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 03:46 PM

I agree 'The Dutchman' sung by Hilary (MGAS) and a coup1e of others, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' and 'Victor Jara' both Mike Harding's versions.

Jillie


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: oldhippie
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 07:11 PM

Donald & Lydia - John Prine

Down To Seeds and Stems Again


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 09:39 PM

I was just listening to "Mary of the Wild Moor" performed by Helen Schneyer. A long drive back from NYC. True tear jerker. And "Are All Your Matches Sold, Tom" Shameless!
My first thread. Seven years ago. WOW!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Arkie
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 10:02 PM

Milly's Cafe and White Rose by Fred Eaglesmith and two songs recorde by James KingHere Today and Gone Tomorrow and Roy Lee.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 02:05 AM

Brian Hoskin listed one of my all time favorites by

Hank Williams - 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'

A few others that bring tears are:

'The Death Of Kathy Fiscus' [April the 8th, the year '49]

I was 'glued' to the radio during that tragic event and I got out my guitar and sang that song every year for 50 years....Ironically,
I got the phone call that my brother died on April the 8th, 2001.

'Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer' has sad and fond memories also,
I was 10 years old when my brother's B-17 was shot down on his VERY
LAST mission in 1944 in WWII (He was crew chief and Top Turret Gunner). With two engines out and losing fuel, they dumped
all the guns and everything they could, including all the guns and
the Norden bombsight in the Adriatic Sea, having minutes of fuel remaining when they made it to a little DOT of an island off Yugoslavia.

After his death in 2001 I was able via the internet to locate several of the personnel he had flown on that FINAL mission and on previous other missions.

The Pilot of that B-17, and a bombadier, a navigator, a belly turret gunner and a photographer/waist gunner from other earlier missions.

and '50,000 Names On The Wall'

Gene


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Jim Lad
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 02:12 AM

Old Shep.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 05:46 AM

I'm not exactly certain who wrote it. but country singer George Jone recorded a song called "He Stopped Loving Her Today". That song is about equal in it's sadness with Tom Dundee's "McBride Argyle Station Furnished Rooms".

Stephen Lee


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Gan Ainm
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 10:26 AM

"Rosemary's Sister" - by Huw & Tony Williams [ think that's their names ]
"Your Mother & I" - Louden Wainwright III
"Galway To Graceland" - Richard Thompson
- but all beautiful songs


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,cookieless bloke
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 02:14 PM

Sand and Water by Beth Nielsen Chapman, written after her husband died. Listen to it and don't cry, you ain't got heart.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Herge
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 02:20 PM

Jacob's dream from the new Alison Krauss CD - Boo Hoo


Herge


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Etan
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 02:34 PM

I've been indulging my masochism by reviewing this thread, and I'll indulge in a bit of sadism by adding to it. Some of my favorite sad songs have been mentioned several times ("No Man's Land", "The Dutchman", "Streets of London") but some are oddly missing. My nominations for the ten saddest songs of all time, in the not yet mentioned division, are ...

1) Molly, by Biff Rose
    (If you've never heard Biff Rose, this song deserves a listen.)
2) Angel Over Montgomery, by John Prine rec with Bonnie Raitt
    (Best version is the duet on the Steve Goodman benefit album.)
3) Freeborn Man of the Travelling People by Ewan MacColl
    (Is this actually a trad song 'discovered' by MacColl?)
4) Changes by Phil Ochs
5) Walking on a Wire, by Richard Thompson, sung by Linda Thompson
6) Brother Can Spare A Dime, Yip Harburg
    (You've got to hear him sing his own song to fully appreciate it)
7) Ashoken Farewell, Jay Ungar
    (You don't need words to make a song achingly sad.)
8) Rambling Man, by Hank Williams
    (Sung at an exquisitely painful slow tempo.)
9) Joe Hill, lyr Alfred Hayes, mus Earl Robinson
    (Not to mention Billy Bragg's reworking of it re Phil Ochs)
10) Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, by Bob Dylan
    (also Percy's Song by BD.)

I am now going to hunker down behind a conveniently located virtual stone wall, while the brickbats fly.

-- Etan Ben-Ami


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 03:15 PM

"White Girl" by Peter LaFarge. Now, this is sad. It's about a Native American young man rejected by the white girl of the title. I used to perform the song back in the 60s. I learned the song from a copy of Sing Out mag ( I think it had Peter on the cover), and there was no tempo indication given. Years later, I heard Johnny Cash's version, and he seemed to sprint through it!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 03:29 PM

There are so many. Sometimes on music night we'll get into the saddest mode you can imagine and at some point someone will order a round of "the happiest song you know". Otherwise we'd all slit our wrists...

I agree that sometimes a tune is just as sad as lyrics; Campbell's Farewell to Red Gap' and 'Lament for the Reverend Archie Beaton' come to mind.

The songs I think of as MOST sad are those that speeak of human frailties. For instance, 'The Fields Have Turned Brown' which has him roaming the world for years secure in the knowledge that when he went home again they'd be there waiting- and when he does, they have been dead for years...

'Kilkelly' is heartbreaking. 'No Man's Land' as sung by Collette Costa leaves me snivelling.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Amanda (Emotinal Girl)
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 04:32 PM

Hmm... I Like Your Guardian Angel By Red Jumpsuit Apperatus And Your Call By SecondHand Serenade There Are Also Alot Of Sad Songs By Evanescence She Wrote A Song Called Last Song Im Waisting On You. And It Talks About Her Ex Boyfriend And How He Was An Alcohallic and he would always hurt her (as In Telling Her Stuff Like He Hates Her.) and then one day he Pined Her Down And Screamed That he Wanted Her To Die.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 07:09 PM

"Molly" by Biff Rose can be heard at his website. It is worth it!!

He's still active.

Back in the '70s I opened the show for Biff at Charlott's Web--a fine folk club in Rockford, Illinois.

Art


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: 14fret
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 07:21 PM

Casey's Last Ride.


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Subject: Lyr Add: MOLLY (Biff Rose)
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 07:41 PM

Molly

When I was a young man,
I ran away from home.
I went to join the circus.
I went to see the cotton candy world
And make me lots of money.
On my own . . .
For Molly.
Oh, my pretty Molly.
She's waiting all alone.
Someday soon I will return to her.

Then I made the big time,
Bright lights show biz.
I'm really in the circus.
There's only one thing wrong . . .
I haven't saved a penny
On my own,
For Molly,
Ah, my pretty Molly,
But she's writing every day;
Molly understands so it's OK

Ride a windy boxcar
And see a thousand children,
Young and old.
Oh, that greasepaint smile
Can hide your soul.
Here comes the carousel;
Guess which town it is;
Feel the thrill.
Greasepaint covers everything
But winter's chill.

I'm reading Molly's letter.
The ink is fading
And the page is turning yellow.
Long ago
I promised Molly,
Don't you know
I will close my eyes and go to her.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 07:51 PM

You can hear MOLLY and other things at:

www.anzwers.org/free/biffrose/music.html

Art


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: CET
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 08:02 PM

I would have to vote for Myfanwy, although I don't speak Welsh. The tune makes grief seem tangible, especially the last, drawn out "ffarwell".

Also, Sins, I'm amazed you haven't mentioned the great "Poor Kitty Popcorn."

Edmund


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 08:11 PM

I would have but a few people here moan and look at their watches whenever I bring her up.
Poor Kitty Popcorn
Is buried in a snowdrift now...

It's the MEOOWW ow ow ow owwwwww that seems to bring out the worst in people.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Dbgrate
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 09:51 PM

John Prine's "Six O'clock News",as sung on his "Souvenirs" album I find very moving.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Celtaddict
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 10:47 PM

Etan, I admire your 'not yet mentioned' category, as some (Tecumseh Valley, Ellenmore) are rarely mentioned, but no one has brought up
   Anach Chuain (sung in the Irish; about a sunken boatload of young                people from one small village)
   The Brean Lament (which is also on my Most Beautiful Tracks Ever Recorded list)
   Hard Road to Peacham
   Lullaby Behind the Lines


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Arkie
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 11:02 PM

The mention of He Stopped Loving Her Today reminded me of another song, by Cal Smith, I think, "She Used to Talk A Lot About Texas".


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 01 May 07 - 04:20 PM

Puff the Magic Dragon made me cry when his green scales fel like rain


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Subject: Lyr Add: THE LITTLE BOY THAT SANTA CLAUS FORGOT
From: Rog Peek
Date: 01 May 07 - 06:26 PM

when I was a small child, my Dad used to sing me to sleep on occasions, God rest his soul. the song I most requested was:

THE LITTLE BOY THAT SANTA CLAUS FORGOT.

At the time, I couldn't imagine anything more sad and it always made me cry:

Christmas comes but once a year for ev'ry girl and boy,
The laughter and the joy they find in each toy.
I'll tell you of a little boy who lives across the way;
This little feller's Christmas is just another day.

He's the little boy that Santa Claus forgot,
And goodness knows he didn't want a lot.
He sent a note to Santa for some soldiers and a drum;
It broke his little heart when he found Santa hadn't come.

In the street, he envies all those lucky boys,
Then wanders home to last year's broken toys.
I'm so sorry for that laddie;
He hasn't got a daddy,
The little boy that Santa Claus forgot.

These days I'd say it's Eric Bogles 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'


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Subject: Lyr Add: A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND (Springsteen)
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 01 May 07 - 06:52 PM

OK for me: anything about dogs dying since my darling Puppers died in Sept '06
Click to see my darling, handsome Puppers

So songs like Old Shep and 'Shannon" just can't be played in my house.

Another very sad song for me is Springsteen's "A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND" about a Viet Nam widow . My Aunt lost her fiancee in Viet Nam and I was just old enough to understand that and be horrified by it.

Lyrics:


It's cloudy out in Pittsburgh
It's rainin' in Saigon
Snow's fallin' all across the Michigan line
Well she sits by the light of her Christmas tree
With the radio softly on
Thinkin' how a good man is so hard to find

Well once she had a fella
Once she was somebody's girl
And she gave all she had that one last time
Now there's a little girl asleep in the back room
She's gonna have to tell about the meanness in this world
And how a good man is so hard to find

Well there's pictures on the table by her bed
Him in his dress greens and her in her wedding white
She remembers how the world was the day he left
And now how that world is dead
And a good man is so hard to find

She got no time now for Casanovas
Yeah those days are gone
She don't want that anymore, she's made up her mind
Just somebody to hold her
As the night gets on
When a good man is so hard to find

Well she shuts off the TV
And without a word
Into bed she climbs
Well she thinks how it was all so wasted
And how expendable their dreams all were
When a good man was so hard to find
Well it's cloudy out in Pittsburgh

Other really sad songs - anything on the Everly breothers album "Songs our daddy Taught Us"! Songs like:

Put My Little Shoes Away
Lightening Express


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Jim Lad
Date: 01 May 07 - 07:13 PM

Daisy a Day


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Beer
Date: 01 May 07 - 09:51 PM

The First Fall of Snow
Molly Bond
I Don't Remember Loving You
After the Ball is Over
Orphan Train
How Will I Ever Be Simple Again
Long Long Before Your Time


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 01 May 07 - 10:06 PM

Tom Dunde's "These Cowboys".

Stephen Lee


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Rog Peek
Date: 02 May 07 - 02:30 AM

Jimmy Newman by Tom Paxton - pretty sad!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Beer
Date: 02 May 07 - 07:45 AM

Good song Rog.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: alanabit
Date: 02 May 07 - 10:32 AM

If it has been mentioned here at all, it has not been mentioned lately: Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going To Rain today." It sounds like a depressed man trying to give all the reasons why he ought to be more cheerful, but he hasn't got a chance.
"If You See Her Say Hello", from Dylan's "Blood On The Tracks" is another real heartbreaker.
Joni Mitchell's "Cactus Tree" is another one, which I love, but which you don't find on a lot of party hits albums...


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Menno
Date: 02 May 07 - 11:26 AM

Hmm... Currently, the Tears for Fears song "Mad World" is going through my head... I may have to learn it. It even has a Wikipedia entry. But "The band played Waltzing Mathilda" is also a good one. Also, "Johnny has gone for a soldier". A few years ago, Billy Joel's "So it goes" hit exactly the right tone.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: guitar
Date: 02 May 07 - 01:21 PM

There is a song by a guy called Ferlon Husky and it is called
the drunken driver and it is the worst cowboy song ever written you laugh at it until you cry, the subject is about a drunken man who runs into his his two children and kills them.

I mean who can anyone write a song like this, I know the subject isn't funny, but for some strange reason it is.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: alanabit
Date: 02 May 07 - 03:02 PM

It's not fair, I know, but the image of "Country" among a lot of UK folkies, is that it is all about cod religious homilies and poor orphan boys (if possible with their one eyed, three legged dogs) being pursued by drunken fathers and getting lifts from big hearted truckers. If we are honest, we know damned well that there are plenty of excellent writers and players in country music. The image persists though and we find it hilarious!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Pete
Date: 02 May 07 - 03:16 PM

I haven't read all 227 entries but I've seen The Band Played Waltzing Matilda a few times. Has anyone mentioned No Mans Land, sometimes called The Green Fields of France or Willie McBride, also by Eric Bogle. Apologies if they have and I've missed it.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 02 May 07 - 03:31 PM

Are the people who think country music is all about blind orphans, drunks and prison, the same people who think the UK folk scene is all about arran sweaters and fingers in the ear!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,ib48
Date: 02 May 07 - 04:13 PM

definately that one    SEE THE TREE HOW BIG ITS GROWM,    is it called honey,its bloody terrible.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: cptsnapper
Date: 02 May 07 - 04:29 PM

" Valentino " as sung by Joanna Carlin. Also Gordon Lightfoot's " Song For A Winter's Night " but that's because someone heard me sing it & kept on asking me to repeatit. It transpired that his wife & children died the song summed up what he would have liked to have said to them.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Puck
Date: 02 May 07 - 04:30 PM

I thlnk that sad songs can be very personal. Sleep on Beloved by Waterson Carthy does it for me. I wanted to sing it at my Mam's funeral but to my everlasting shame just could not manage to do so such was my grief

P


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: emjay
Date: 02 May 07 - 05:35 PM

It's almost pointless to add to a thread as long as this one is, but I just found it and read through all the posts. And I had tears in my eyes just from reading the list.
I started reading with just one song on my mind as the saddest, but so many mentioned others and I had to agree --
But with the all the mention of Eric Bogle's great songs, no one mentioned, "Singing the Spirit Home" and that made me think of "Grace." Both of those songs about someone who is executed.
And Conor Makem's words to the tune of "Old Maid in the Garrett." His song is "Spanish Stars" and though no one dies, hope did die and it belongs on this list. Same for Marion Parsons' "What He Gave," about the cellist who played for Sarajevo in the market place after everything else was destroyed. In her song many poeple died.
And all the others mentioned and not mentioned.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: emjay
Date: 02 May 07 - 06:45 PM

I don't know why I think of Spanish Stars as a sad song. I guess it's the words, not the cheerful melody! Maybe it is a good one to listen to after all the death and dying.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 May 07 - 10:53 PM

Dave's Wife,
There was a maiden lady in my mother's ladies group. I can't remember her name but was always called "Miss and her last name". She lived with her mother - two ancient old ladies waiting to die. One day she confided in me that she had been engaged to a cavalry officer just before WWI. He died in battle and she never married. She went from pathetic and almost funny to broken hearted heroine over night. What a sad story. i will have to remember her name and write her story.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: cptsnapper
Date: 03 May 07 - 12:11 AM

There's also " Where Did Loving Go? "by Sharon Fountain.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Megan L
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:30 AM

I guess for everyone the song that turns the tap is individual. for me it has to be Matt MaGinn's Ibrox Disaster one of those who as the song says died in flower o their manhood was a friend of mine his father had taken him to his first football match.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mick Tems
Date: 03 May 07 - 05:30 AM

Bee's Wing by Richard Thompson - it still brings another lump in my throat!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:35 PM

Sinsull, that's an interesting story. I had a great aunt who never married. She was the younger sister and when her older sister (my Grandmother) married, she was expected to go live with her and help her out with her new baby. Well, 3 kids later, she finally was able to live her own life. The story goes that in 1940 she got a job at an insurance company (she worked there until retirement) and began dating a fella from Church. Well, we entered the war in 1941 and he joined up and got killed in D Day. She went back to live my Dad's family and never uttered another word about marriage or having her own life. She helped raise me in fact. She was my sister's godmother even.

WE've tried to ask about it within the family but its a forbidden subject. There was a rumor that she was a lesbian and some of my family believe this too. I don 't think so. I got the feeling she had some terrible personal sorrow she was living with. She was so close to my Grandmother that every time something bad or good happened to Gran, my great-aunt would latch onto that as a reason to stay with her. When my grandfather died unexpectedly at the age of 64, it was a forgone conclusion that the two sisters would stay together until one of them died.

I wonder how many maiden aunts have similar stories.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Dartford Warbler
Date: 03 May 07 - 07:34 PM

Bad News Is All The Win Can Carry
by Richard Thompson

The words are sad enough and when you hear them with the tune.. :-)


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: HuwG
Date: 04 May 07 - 03:10 AM

On the BBC mock panel game QI, it was suggested that the song Gloomy Sunday took the title of the saddest song ever written.

Stephen Fry: One man heard a beggar humming the song, immediately gave him all his possessions and jumped to his death off a bridge.
Clive Anderson: That's great busking, isn't it?


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 04 May 07 - 03:31 AM

I don't think anyone has mentioned any of the many sad poems of Henry Lawson that have been set to music. Start with Past Carin'. Real music to slit your wrists by.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Mark H.
Date: 04 May 07 - 05:21 AM

Some to consider:

Return No More, For Three Of Us, Fare Thee Well Sweet Mally, and Keepsake - all by Robin Williamson;
Dominoes - Syd Barrett;
Ballad of Hollis Brown - Dylan, as recorded by Nazareth;
Hello God - Dolly Parton.

For me, it's Keepsake, Dominoes or Hello God.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 11:03 AM

Elizabeth Berrell was the lady who lived with her mother. It suddenly came to me this morning.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 11:27 AM

Bright Eyes... sob sob! Why do film makers love to make little children cry so much?


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Banjiman
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 11:43 AM

saddest song? It's As If He Knows: Eric Bogle

Blood Hell it's sad!


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: kendall
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 12:21 PM

There is a fine line between sad and maudlin.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: topical tom
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 02:41 PM

From the Digitrad: "Put My Little Shoes Away". Click


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 03:02 PM

Another Songs Our Daddy Taught Us treasure. (Everly Bros)


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 03:02 AM

'Hello in There'--John Prine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1mlkLeITt8

'Bleak Midwinter's Night'--Mairead Nesbitt
(First third of this video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vf6zgxle-g


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 05:06 AM

Some songs I can hardly even think of without choking up. One is Richard Thompson, "Never again" - particularly as sung by Shirley Collins.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 06:44 AM

Anyone suggested 'Down by the Dockyard Wall, I will wait for you' by Shep Wooley, I always find the last verse difficult to get out.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: mrmoe
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 07:00 AM

....from South Pacific - this nearly was mine


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,kevin fletcher
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 08:07 AM

My wife always leaves the room when I play 'Put my little shoes away' as she says she can only take so much sadness. If you don't know it, check out the Everly Bros version from the album 'Songs our daddy taught us'


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,Southfolk
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 08:14 AM

How's about the traditional song "Fairyboy", heard a young lass sing it in a club tother night fair brought tears to me peepers.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: frogprince
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 11:31 AM

I listed a few, then went through the thread. All but two of my list have been mentioned more than once. I found just one mention of Steve Goodman's "Ballad of Penny Evans": "Now it's every month I get a check, from some Army Bureaucrat; and it's every month I tear it up, and I send the damn thing back". The one remaining on my list is "Touch a Name on the Wall", by Joel Mabus; nothing else cuts me to the bone in quite the same way: "God damn the liars and tin plated heroes who trade on the blood of such men. God give us the strengh to stand up and tell them...NEVER AGAIN."

As to "Teddy Bear" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today", to me the saddest thing is that people have bought into that level of manipulative maudlin drivel:
He stopped loving her last week;
What's that smell around his door?
Bring a baggy that won't leak;
He stopped loving her last week.


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 02:09 AM

Lorena
Vacant Chair
Past Carin'

AD in Oz


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Subject: RE: The Saddest Song Ever written
From: GUEST,m
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 02:54 AM

The ruins on the shore, Nic Jones

Roll on the day, Allan Taylor


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