[jimdgoulding]

This topic didn't originate with me but I don't think the original author would mind.  Somebody once said "the best art comes from sadness".  Here's two from me. . Something Cool- June Christy, and a tune maybe not heard much outside of Houston, Pledging My Love- Johnny Ace.  Not for the faint hearted.

[Docere]

Well, I can't say I have a "saddest", but as I am currently listening to Chan Marshall aka Cat Power, I would nominate the track Names from the You Are Free album. The song itself is a rather poignant number, perhaps more so for following another melancholic masterpiece, Maybe Not. Anyhow, that is my nomination for this hour. Next hour it will probably be something from Emilianna Torrini, then Lisa Gerrard... I'm in female vocals mode.

Cheers - er, or Sads!
Raymond

[Wind Chaser]

Into The Ocean touches a chord with me...

I'm just a normal boy
That sank when I fell overboard
My ship would leave the country
But I'd rather swim ashore

Without a life vest I'd be stuck again
Wish I was much more masculine
Maybe then I could learn to swim
Like 'fourteen miles away'

Now floating up and down
I spin, colliding into sound
Like whales beneath me diving down
I'm sinking to the bottom of my
Everything that freaks me out
The lighthouse beam has just run out
I'm cold as cold as cold can be
be

I want to swim away but don't know how
Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean
Let the waves up take me down
Let the hurricane set in motion... yeah
Let the rain of what I feel right now...come down
Let the rain come down

Where is the coastguard
I keep looking each direction
For a spotlight, give me something
I need something for protection
Maybe flotsam junk will do just fine
the jetsam sunk, I'm left behind
I'm treading for my life believe me
(How can I keep up this breathing)

Not knowing how to think
I scream aloud, begin to sink
My legs and arms are broken down
With envy for the solid ground
I'm reaching for the life within me
How can one man stop his ending
I thought of just your face
Relaxed, and floated into space

I want to swim away but don't know how
Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean
Let the waves up take me down
Let the hurricane set in motion... yeah
Let the rain of what I feel right now...come down
Let the rain come down
Let the rain come down

Now waking to the sun
I calculate what I had done
Like jumping from the bow (yeah)
Just to prove I knew how (yeah)
It's midnight's late reminder of
The loss of her, the one I love
My will to quickly end it all
Set front row in my need to fall

Into the ocean, end it all
Into the ocean, end it all
Into the ocean, end it all
into the ocean...end it all

[Zayra]
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)

I want to swim away but don't know how
Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean
Let the waves up take me down
Let the hurricane set in motion (yeah)
Let the rain of what I feel right now...come down
Let the rain come down
Let the rain come down

Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
(In to space)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
(I thought of just your face)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)
Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)

[Wind Chaser]

Hate Me...

Hate Me lyrics

(If you're sleeping are you dreaming
If your dreaming are you dreaming of me?
I can't believe you actually picked me.)

(”Hi Justin, this is your mother, and it's 2:33 on Monday afternoon.
I was just calling to see how you ware doing.
You sounded really uptight last night.
It made me a little nervous, and a l... and... well... it made me nervous, it sounded like you were nervous, too.
I just wanted to make sure you were really OK,
And wanted to see if you were checking in on your medication.
You know I love you, and...
Take care honey
I know you're under a lot of pressure.
See ya. Bye bye”)

I have to block out thoughts of you so I don’t lose my head
They crawl in like a cockroach leaving babies in my bed
Dropping little reels of tape to remind me that I’m alone
Playing movies in my head that make a porno feel like home
There's a burning in my pride, a nervous bleeding in my brain
An ounce of peace is all I want for you. Will you never call again?
And will you never say that you love me just to put it in my face?
And will you never try to reach me?
It is I that wanted space

Hate me today
Hate me tomorrow
Hate me for all the things I didn't do for you

Hate me in ways
Yeah ways hard to swallow
Hate me so you can finally see what’s good for you

I’m sober now for 3 whole months it’s one accomplishment that you helped me with
The one thing that always tore us apart is the one thing I won’t touch again
In a sick way I want to thank you for holding my head up late at night
While I was busy waging wars on myself, you were trying to stop the fight
You never doubted my warped opinions on things like suicidal hate
You made me compliment myself when it was way too hard to take
So I’ll drive so fucking far away that I never cross your mind
And do whatever it takes in your heart to leave me behind

Hate me today
Hate me tomorrow
Hate me for all the things I didn’t do for you

Hate me in ways
Yeah ways hard to swallow
Hate me so you can finally see what’s good for you

And with a sad heart I say bye to you and wave
Kicking shadows on the street for every mistake that I had made
And like a baby boy I never was a man
Until I saw your blue eyes cry and I held your face in my hand
And then I fell down yelling “Make it go away!”
Just make a smile come back and shine just like it used to be
And then she whispered “How can you do this to me?”

Hate me today
Hate me tomorrow
Hate me for all the things I didn’t do for you

Hate me in ways
Yeah ways hard to swallow
Hate me so you can finally see what’s good for you
For you
For you
For you

[Children voices:]
If you're sleeping, are you dreaming,
if you're dreaming are you dreaming of me.
I can't believe you actually picked me

[ecramer]

Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren

Long afloat on shipless oceans
I did all my best to smile
'Til your singing eyes and fingers
Drew me loving to your isle
And you sang
Sail to me
Sail to me
Let me enfold you
Here I am
Here I am
Waiting to hold you

Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you hare when I was fox?
Now my foolish boat is leaning
Broken lovelorn on your rocks,
For you sing, "Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow:
O my heart, O my heart shies from the sorrow"

I am puzzled as the newborn child
I am troubled at the tide:
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Should I lie with Death my bride?
Hear me sing, "Swim to me, Swim to me, Let me enfold you:
Here I am, Here I am, Waiting to hold you

[BradJudy]

Beloved Wife by Natalie Merchant ranks pretty high on my list of sad songs.  So does "Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos. 

[bpape]

Leader of the Band by Dan Fogelberg. 

It's a sad song by itself.  To me it's moreso since it's about his father, who was my high school band director, dying.

Bryan

[Vinnie R.]

Beloved Wife by Natalie Merchant ranks pretty high on my list of sad songs.  So does "Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos. 

Definitely those two are on my list as well.

Also... "For No One" (lennon/mccartney), but not the Beatles version... the Rickie Lee Jones version is what I have in mind.

And I find the Smith's "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" a sad one 

[fiveoclockfriday]

Ever since I first heard Keep Me In Your Heart by Warren Zevon, it jumped to the top 5 or so of my list. The words are sweet, but I think the context was what got to me; basically it was his last song, as he knew he was dying, and this would be his last album, and some of his last days with his wife and family. I know he had to take days off of the recording because he was too weak at times. Simple, but beautiful.


Keep Me In Your Heart
written by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderón

Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath
Keep me in your heart for awhile

If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less
Keep me in your heart for awhile

When you get up in the morning and you see that crazy sun
Keep me in your heart for awhile

There's a train leaving nightly called when all is said and done
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sometimes when you're doing simple things around the house
Maybe you'll think of me and smile

You know I'm tied to you like the buttons on your blouse
Keep me in your heart for awhile
Hold me in your thoughts, take me to your dreams
Touch me as I fall into view
When the winter comes keep the fires lit
And I will be right next to you

Engine driver's headed north to Pleasant Stream
Keep me in your heart for awhile

These wheels keep turning but they're running out of steam
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-li-li-lo
Keep me in your heart for awhile

Keep me in your heart for awhile

[nathanm]

Man, there's so many good ones.  Here's a few on the top of my list:

"Barbriallen" by Simon and Garnfunkel  I don't know from chords, but this one must be in D-minor because I weep instantly when I hear it.
"When I Am Laid In Earth" Dido and Aeneas - Henry Purcell
"The Return" Warning (UK)  Kind of a supernatural\frankenstein-ish story where a man goes through great pains to revive his dead lover and when she finally wakes up she asks him to kill her.

[Wind Chaser]

Sad Songs - Elton John 

Speaking of N Merchant - whatever happened to her?  River from Tigerlilly gets a vote as well.

[stereocilia]

If there' still room on this mix tape I'd like add "Blue Guitar" from Cowboy Junkies.

[honesthoff]

"I Wish My Baby Was Born" by The Be Good Tanyas
Do yourself a favor and don't listen to this track or anything from Chinatown.  I'm fixin' to cry right now just thinking about it.

[chadh]

I own one album of Beck's.  In my mind, I find it impossible to distinguish one track on that album from another.  It always seems a single extremely captivating but overwhelmingly melancholy piece.  The album is "Sea Change", and it would be impossible for me to pick a single, very sad track from it.  If truth be told, it may be that no individual track is overwhelmingly sad.  But the whole album, put together, is mind-blowingly sad.

Chad

[nathanm]

Oh yeah, "Sea Change" is totally the cryin'-in-your-beer album.  "Guess I'm Doing Fine" would be my pick.

[BradJudy]

Speaking of N Merchant - whatever happened to her?  River from Tigerlilly gets a vote as well.

She's put out four solo albums, a live album and a "retrospective" album of her solo work.  She's been around and putting things out, although it's been a couple of years. 

[ecramer]

Joy Division - Love will tear us apart

When the routine bites hard
and ambitions are low
And the resentment rides high
but emotions won't grow
And we're changing our ways,
taking different roads
Then love, love will tear us apart
again (4)

Why is the bedroom so cold
Turned away on your side?
Is my timing that flawed,
our respect run so dry?
Yet there's still this appeal
That we've kept through
our lives
Love, love will tear us apart again (4)

Do you cry out in your sleep
All my failings expose?
Get a taste in my mouth
As desperation takes hold
Is it something so good
Just can't function no more?
When love, love will tear us apart
again (4)

[lazydays]

you should listen to the words in J.J. Johnson's "Lament."
gary

[jimdgoulding]

The album Only The Lonely- Sinatra.  "What's New?" from that is mighty, mighty sad.  "If You Go" by Shirley Horne from her album You Won't Forget Me.  "Heart Like A Wheel" from the self titled album by Kate and Anna McGarrigle.  "Famous Blue Raincoat" from Jennifer Warnes album of Leonard Cohen songs. 

[Jim N.]

"I Wish My Baby Was Born" by The Be Good Tanyas
Do yourself a favor and don't listen to this track or anything from Chinatown.  I'm fixin' to cry right now just thinking about it.

The Uncle Tupelo version (sung by Jeff Tweedy) is quite good (and sad) too. As is "Moonshiner", "Lilli Schull", "Punch Drunk", "Postcard" hell, just about anything Jay Farrar sang.

"Cyprus Avenue", "Beside You", "Madame George" and "Slim Slow Slider" by Van Morrison.