Songs that stab you right in the heart.

[OfficeMax]

I was just in Missoula a couple of days ago.....

 

[theophile]

These two from the same album:

 

[FONSguy]

"Can I Change My Mind" from Roy Buchannon & Live Stock (Billy Price on vocals)
"TB Sheets"- Van Morrison
"I had a Dream Last Night" - Buddy Guy

 

[motorstereo]

4 pages and no mention of "the Possum"? Pick almost any song he sang over his 7 decades in the business. His tearjerkers get the point across better than anyone I've ever heard to stand in front of a mic.

 

[mr.jones]

 

[Condorsat]

The Johnny Cash song "There ain't no good chain gang" always remined me of the proposition that somethings in life just suck .. nothing good about it.

Cash's version of "Hurt" … made me realize that there really is no good "end" in life. IMHO & experience .. if life has taught me anything … it's that the end is never good. "Everyone I know, goes away in the end". This video brings that point home like no other. It's the last video you see in the Johnny Cash museum in Nashville TN before you exit.

 

[archie2]

This thread is for songs that just about bring you to your knees such is their emotional impact. These songs may be inherently sad, all on their own, or remind you of someone who is gone now. Perhaps these songs got you through a difficult time in your life, or celebrate an especially happy memory for you. By all means, muse about your song's personal meaning if you're up to it.

I have a few.

1) In Spite of Me, by Morphine. Oh man, this song, this song. It is so hauntingly beautiful, so very sad. Not long after my son was born, I was working in Newburyport, a swishy town over the river from the more blue collar Amesbury. I was ripping plywood with my circ saw and the wind kept whipping sawdust in my face. The customers weren't at home and my boss was somewhere else, so I had the truck doors open to listen to the radio. A lot of things were going through my head: how small and fragile my son was, how my own father had died before I got a chance to know him, what an overbearing ass my boss was, why do we have to die, and so on. In Spite of Me came on, echoing around my little work site and somehow wringing about a gallon of tears out of me before it was over. Not a fluke--just hearing that opening mandolin(?) riff sets me off, every time.

2) Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, by B. J. Thomas. When I was little, my dad would get sick from time to time and have a bad "episode." It was very scary for the whole family as his behavior would be unpredictable during these fits and mostly we just tried to agree with him and go along with whatever he suddenly wanted to do, like pretending that my mother was dead so he could collect the life insurance on her. One way we could tell that he was sick was he would play Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head on his 8-track, over and over. It's such a painfully cheerful song, but it didn't fit what was happening to my father at the time. He never got better and we finally had to leave him there, in Montana. Every time I hear this song I think of my father, may he finally rest in peace.

3) Tiny Tears, by Tindersticks. My mother died about two years ago, after a series of strokes that felled her over a ten day period. She was the most important person in my life, always there for me, always willing to listen to any problem I had. She was so alive, so completely there that I honestly thought she had at least another ten years. She was still driving herself around in her silver Buick, staying up late, buying cheesy little presents for my son, always wanting us to visit her, call her, go out to lunch with her. We did, of course, but it was never enough for her liking and I suppose a lot of kids feel guilty about all the times they should have called, should have visited, should have---whatever---and didn't because our own lives got in the way. I was playing the stereo rather loudly so I could hear it while I took a shower. I was alone in the house and at this point in time my mother had lost most of her expressive language, really terrible as that was her thing--talking. I was getting myself cleaned up before I went to visit her in critical care, and I forgot that I had this song on my MacBook. I think I cried as many tears as the shower was putting out, because my number one fan was dying (my mother thought all of my jokes were so funny, and they are not, trust me) and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The way the man sings this song, it's just so powerful and incredibly sad--if I hear this song around other people, I have to leave the room.

Whoa, that was some sad stuff! Okay, it doesn't have to be that sad--a song can simply move you--I tried to give you a few examples and maybe I got carried away. Doesn't matter; let's hear from you!

Songs that impact us are usually those that trigger personal memories as in your examples. Everyone has at least one or two. I like the songs that trigger no particular memories but are impactful in their own right. A few such songs that immediately come to mind are "Sounds Of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, "Solitaire" by The Carpenters, "Softly As I Leave You" by Elvis recorded live in Las Vegas, "Aber Heidschi Bumbeidschi" by Bianca, "Precious Lord" by the Blind Boys Of Alabama and "Sleepwalk" by Johnny and Santos.. I'm sure I can think of more if I put my mind to it.

 

[Poinzy]

"Feed The Birds" from 'Mary Poppins'.

 

[judsonw]

"Swim" by Mount Eerie. Though honestly, most tracks on "A Crow Looked at Me" are beautifully tragic. The whole album is him dealing with the loss of his wife to cancer.

 

[bimasta]

Barber: Adagio for Strings. This work often appears on lists of the saddest classical selections ever written. I think this is partly due to the music and partly due to its association with occasions of public mourning. It was broadcast after the announcement that FDR had died and was also played at JFK's funeral.

Heartwrenching. Usually played in the version for string orchestra, it began as a string quartet — even more moving because of the intimacy.

Also, and you probably know it, Stravinsky called it "the most beautiful music ever written" — Quintet for Strings, Adagio, by Schubert... as he was dying. It is the final faint flickerings of the soul, ineffably poignant — then a sudden rebellion with all the ferocity of a warrior heart — Do not go gently into that good night / Rage, Rage against the dying of the light — but it cannot last.

There are many versions but for me only the Lindsay Qt captures it. Once heard, no other ensemble can satisfy.

 

[Lo-Fidelity]

There was a song a few years back about a service man coming home from Afghanistan or Iraq, and when he arrived he was no longer with us.

I looked but could not find it.

The loss of these fine young men is heartbreaking.

Can anyone help me with this song?

 

[mstrane21]

"Swim" by Mount Eerie. Though honestly, most tracks on "A Crow Looked at Me" are beautifully tragic. The whole album is him dealing with the loss of his wife to cancer.

Gracious... that's really dark.

 

[robgmn]

Taps, when played on bagpipes.
Father & Son by Cat Stevens.
Butterfly Kisses by (?)Bob Carlisle.
Cat's In The Cradle
Lullabye Billy Joel version
My Little Man by Ozzy
I'm Not Gonna' Miss You by Glen Campbell

 

[sqlsavior]

For a personal reminder of unrequited love, most anything from "Days Of Future Passed" will do.

As for where the artist was coming from, John Lennon's primal scream therapy on "Mother" seems quite genuine.

 

[WillVT]

It's interesting how the majority of the songs named here are at least 30-40 years old. Is that because nostalgia is related somehow to some of the feelings portrayed in these songs?

Anyway, here's a song from just last year. I think these guys are great. They are really bringing back soulful, intimate rock music in a great way. This song doesn't bring up any specific thing for me, just something to relate to with any kind of struggle or pain.

 

[NAD80]

True Companion by Marc Cohn. Married almost 25yrs. Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits. That Certain Girl by Warren Zevon . Cat's in the Cradle, Cat Stevens, can't listen to it. Miss my dad too much. The Wrong Side of Heaven, I Apologize , by Five Finger Death Punch. The Sound of Silence by Disturbed. Memories, by Within Temptation. Possession , by Sarah Mclachlan .Broken by Seether Feat. Amy Lee And my wife has , When a man loves a woman by M Bolton. My heart will go on by Celine Dion. Amazed by Rascal Flats.

 

[cason]

Billy Holiday's "Strange Fruit"
Kenny Chesney's "That's Why I'm Here"
Lorrie Morgan's early songs, especially "I Guess You Had to Be There"
Tracy Lawrence's "Time Marches on"

many others

+1 for Kenny Chesney’s That’s Why I’m Here. Also Allison Krause’s Whiskey Lullaby.

 

[Shominy]

This idea was done-
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/what-is-the-absolute-saddest-song-you-know.441350/

Nevertheless, for me it's Tomorrow, Wendy by Concrete Blonde, penned by Andy Prieboy. Haunting lyrics and even more haunting music.

"This is for any of you who knows anyone, about Wendy by a friend of ours named Andy Prieboy
Of all the voodoo
This is a song about a woman with AIDS,
Which someone in this room has, A few of these people in this room has.
And you'll go through it and you'll know and we should stop it
This is for Wendy"

 

[grillebilly]

 

[Todd Dodds]

Heartwrenching. Usually played in the version for string orchestra, it began as a string quartet — even more moving because of the intimacy.

Also, and you probably know it, Stravinsky called it "the most beautiful music ever written" — Quintet for Strings, Adagio, by Schubert... as he was dying. It is the final faint flickerings of the soul, ineffably poignant — then a sudden rebellion with all the ferocity of a warrior heart — Do not go gently into that good night / Rage, Rage against the dying of the light — but it cannot last.

There are many versions but for me only the Lindsay Qt captures it. Once heard, no other ensemble can satisfy.

HELP!
Often, trying to navigate through the weeds of classical titles on Spotify and Tidal, I never know what search words and terms are going to find a particular piece. So, I find the Adagio part of the Schubert you've listed, and as near as I can tell it was by the Lindsay Quartet...so far, so good. But then I tried to look into the Lindsay Quartet a little deeper and got lost when they apparently are also known simply as The Lindsays? Suddenly I'm listening to a really neat I Shall Be Released, with guitar and clarinet. It looks like the same outfit that started as a quartet doing classical, but in more recent years has branched out into contemporary stuff as well? Same outfit, or just a mixup with the names? Either way, good business.

Oh, and I Shall Be Released is one of those songs that always gets to me, what with the association to Richard Manuel.