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by Julia Buckley
Sad songs make me cry. My family will tell you that happy songs make me cry also, and even seemingly neutral songs can elicit tears. I am a person who responds to music, and that usually involves weeping. I am not sure why.
When I was pregnant, I became the laughing stock of my family for crying while listening to Ray Stevens' MISSISSIPPI SQUIRREL REVIVAL on the country radio station. It's one of the dumbest songs ever written, but somehow in my maternal state I found the depths of sadness in the song.
Anyway, aside from that embarrassment, I think I can identify a truly sad song, and somehow I take great satisfaction from a good tear jerker. If you asked me I could list 100 good sad songs on the spot, but I'm going to choose a top five of truly satisfying sad songs.
Number One: KILKELLY, IRELAND
My husband and I made the mistake of listening to this on a cassette tape back in the 80s when we were headed out on vacation together. It had gotten dark, and we were driving down a pitch black expressway, not talking and therefore really listening to the lyrics of this song. When it was over, we looked at each other, and we both had tears running down our faces. Here it's sung by the Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell (although we heard it by the group ARRANMORE). I recommend listening to the words with your eyes closed so you can get the full effect. Tears guaranteed.
2. Whiskey Lullaby, Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss. Country singers have a lock on the sad song, and this one is hauntingly beautiful. This duo sang it live at the Country Music Awards (and they won one).
3. Early Morning Rain. This song gets deep into my bones, whether it's this Peter, Paul and Mary version or the Gordon Lightfoot version (Lightfoot wrote the song). There's something about a sad person in the rain . . .
4. Where've You Been? Kathy Mattea. As someone who's lost a family member to Alzheimer's, I find this song particularly wrenching, but even before that this one got to me. It was written by Mattea's husband, who had gone through something similar in his family.
5. You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive Patty Loveless. Patty Loveless has what she terms "a hill country voice" and it's utterly poignant in this song about coal mines and the destruction they wrought on families too poor to escape them.
6. Streets of London, Ralph McTell. Okay, I lied--I had to include an encore song here. Ralph McTell wrote this song in 1969, but he left it off his debut album because he thought it was too depressing; by 1974 it was released as a single in the UK and at one point was selling 90,000 copies a day (or so says Wikipedia). I see this as more evidence that people love sad songs.
I could go on and on. But of course I've missed some truly sad ones. What are they? Tell me so I can add them to my list.
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17 comments:
Julia, we've got some musical tastes in common. I love Kathy Mattea and used to sing Streets of London (might be able to remember it if I picked up the guitar and thought very, very hard). But the song I remember listening to for the first time on the radio in the car on the way to work was Collin Raye's "Love, Me."
Another for the list: Garth Brooks, "Ireland."
Ah, yes--Colin Raye has some very sad ballads. I'll have to check out the Garth Brooks tune. :)
"Danny Boy" is the classic tear-jerker song. Chokes me up every time I hear it. And a trumpet playing taps.
Yes, Sandra--I considered both Danny Boy and Sonny Boy, but since I think they're considered the universal sad songs, I thought I'd dig for more obscure ones. But yes--I used to sing Danny Boy to my children, and I would cry WHILE I was singing it. Imagine how they loved that.
If you've never heard it, try to listen to the King's Singers' version of Danny Boy. Just lovely.
Don McLean's "Empty Rooms" is almost unbearably sad.
No video that I can find of McLean singing "Empty Chairs" -- but here are the lyrics. The tempo is slow and mournful -- he almost speaks the words rather than singing them. It's from the American Pie album.
Words & music (c) by don mclean
I feel the trembling tingle of a sleepless night
Creep through my fingers and the moon is bright
Beams of blue come flickering through my window pane
Like gypsy moths that dance around a candle flame
And I wonder if you know
That I never understood
That although you said you'd go
Until you did I never thought you would
Moonlight used to bathe the contours of your face
While chestnut hair fell all around the pillow case
And the fragrance of your flowers rest beneath my head
A sympathy bouquet left with the love that's dead
And I wonder if you know
That I never understood
That although you said you'd go
Until you did I never thought you would
Never thought the words you said were true
Never thought you said just what you meant
Never knew how much I needed you
Never thought you'd leave, until you went
Morning comes and morning goes with no regret
And evening brings the memories I can't forget
Empty rooms that echo as I climb the stairs
And empty clothes that drape and fall on empty chairs
And I wonder if you know
That I never understood
That although you said you'd go
Until you did I never thought you would
[from http://lyrics.doheth.co.uk]
Oh, Sandra, I love that song! And what about VINCENT, on the same album? And McLean's voice just adds to the sadness--that fine reedy tenor. Did you ever hear him sing Roy Orbison's CRYING?
Oh, yes, I love "Vincent" too. And I've heard him sing "Crying" -- just gorgeous. I wonder what McLean is up to these days. "American Pie" was a big hit, but he never achieved the status he deserved.
Don McLean has a web site!
www.don-mclean.com
And he's on tour right now and will be in my area at the Birchmere in Alexandria in November.
Here's a video of McLean singing "Vincent" (aka "Starry Starry Night"):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipFMJckZOM&feature=related
Thanks! Are you going to see him in concert?
Okay, this post has left me humming "Sad Movies Always Make Me Cry" by Boney M. I don't find it a particularly sad song, but it's now stuck in my head.
One song that has been a guaranteed tear-jerker for me since childhood is the folksong "My Grandfather's Clock." I still can't get through it without sniffling.
Now, if you want really sad songs, you must try some from about 100 years ago. My mother occasionally tells of one that her father (who was born in 1886) used to sing to her about a little girl crying on a train, while an irritated passenger tells the child's father to get the child's mother, but the father replies, "'I can't,' he said, 'for her mother is dead in the baggage car ahead.'" Cheery little thing, isn't it?
WOW. And you are SO right about My Grandfather's Clock. Whenever we used to sing this (we did lots of singing in the car when I was a tike), I got all choked up on the line "When the old . . . man . . .died."
The train song has all the elements of a true tear-jerker: a small child; a mean adult who doesn't understand; and, of course, the death of a loved one. Some of the same elements as Oliver Twist or Harry Potter.
This morning I awoke to "You can let go now, Daddy," on the radio, and despite its bordering on, well, schmaltzy, I cried again.
I don't know that one. But I'm guessing it's country music--they are the kings and queens of tearjerkers.
Nick Drake, "day is done"...
"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. It's been recorded by several ontemporary artists, and it's still a very poignant song that doesn't so much tell a story as hint at the depths.
And guarenteed to bring on the tears: "Me and Little Andy" by Dolly Parton.
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