The Saddest Music in the World

[CellarDoor]

A few years ago I saw a strange movie called "The Saddest Music in the World" (Guy Maddin, 2003). It was loosely about a music competition for the saddest music in the world.

So here are some of the songs that bring me down :

[I won't count all the beautiful classical adagios (ah, Barber...)]

1- "Electro-Shock Blues" (Eels)
The ultimate depressing track ! It's the perfect illustration of what happens to person suffering from depression: inability to make decisions, monotone speech, repetitiveness... Harrowing!

2- "In the Backseat" (Arcade Fire)
3- "Sometimes" (My Bloody Valentine)
4- "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." (Sufjan Stevens)
5- "Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2" (Neutral Milk Hotel)
6- "Holes" (Mercury Rev)
7- "Decades" (Joy Division)
8- "Day Is Done" (Nick Drake)
9- "Washer" (Slint)
10- "Leave Me Alone" (New Order)
11- "Caution" (The Chameleons UK)
12- "Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)" (Grandaddy)
13- "The Fox in the Snow" (Belle & Sebastian)
14- "Hands Away" (Interpol)
15- "Playground Love" (Air)
16- "Spirit Ditch" (Sparklehorse)
17- "No Surprises "(Radiohead)
18- "Something's Wrong" (The Jesus and Mary Chain)
19- "Reservations" (Wilco)
20- "The Sound Of Silence" (Simon & Garfunkel)
21- "Pink Bullets" (The Shins)
22- "Maybe Not" (Cat Power)
23- "Leb Wohl" (NEU!)
24- "Heysatan" (Sigur Ros)
25- "Time" (Pink Floyd)

[joannajewsom]

Good list. There are so many sad songs, so I'll have to really think about this. Here are a few that immediately come to mind:

"Gloomy Sunday"- Lydia Lunch (and of course the original song, which is infamous for supposedly causing people to commit suicide).

"I Know It's Over"- The Smiths ("and as I climb into an empty bed, oh well, enough said"- yes, Morrissey, 'nuff said)

"Pierre"- Carole King
The fact that I find this one sad is kind of funny, because it's a children's song. I don't know, something about it really makes me sad every time I listen to it. One time I was listening to it in my car, and I just started crying. I had to pull over. Ugh, I've shared too much.

[telefunker]

here are a few that come to mind:

billie holiday - strange fruit (sickenly harrowing song)
simon & garfunkel - bridge over troubled water
nirvana - something in the way
nirvana - where did you sleep last night?
paul simon - diamonds on the soles of her shoes
paul simon - homeless
queen - these are the days of our lives
queen - save me
sonic youth - the diamond sea
sonic youth - unmade bed
the beach boys - i just wasn't made for these times
the beach boys - let's go away for a while
led zeppelin - stairway to heaven
leonard cohen - famous blue raincoat
leonard cohen - avalanche
r.e.m - perfect circle
r.e.m - losing my religion
don mclean - american pie
blue oyster cult - don't fear the reaper
pink floyd - time
john lennon - mother
bat for lashes - daniel
the beatles - yesterday (this and the one below are my favourite beatles songs)
the beatles - and i love her
smashing pumpkins - landslide (stevie nicks cover)
smashing pumpkins - 1979
elton john - candle in the wind
elton john - sacrifice
claude michele schonberg - i dreamed a dream (from les miserables)
claude michele schonberg - empty chairs at empty tables (from les miserables)
claude michele schonberg - drink with me (from les miserables)
the cure - lovesong
mother love bone - chloe dancer
tori amos - silent all these years
coldplay - fix you
big star - thirteen
the killers - when you were young
michael jackson - stranger in moscow
michael jackson - who is it?
milton nascimento - trem de doido
green day - time of your life
james taylor - you've got a friend


and these songs aren't perhaps particularly sad, but are so good that they never fail to stir it up within me:

jimi hendrix - all along the watchtower
bob marley - is this love
the kinks - waterloo sunset
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no fat chicks

[1234567890]

Nirvana- paper cuts
hole- doll parts

[RFNAPLES]

Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
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[RFNAPLES]

More sad songs:

(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song - B.J.Thomas
All By Myself - Eric Carmen
At Seventeen - Janis Ian
Cat's In The Cradle - Harry Chapin
Creep - Radiohead
Cry Me A River - Julie London
Crying - Roy Orbison
Deacon Blues - Steely Dan
Don't Let it End - Styx
Everybody Hurts - REM
Goodbye To Love - Carpenters
Goodbye To You - Michelle Branch
He Stopped Loving Her Today - George Jones
Here Without You- 3 Doors Down
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart - Bee Gees
How Do I Live Without You - LeeAnn Rimes
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Hurt So Bad - Little Anthony and the Imperials
I Am A Rock - Simon and Garfunkle
I Will Remember You - Sarah McLachlan
Last Kiss - J Frank Wilson
Love Hurts - Nazareth
No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley
Rainy Days and Mondays - Carpenters
Remember (Walkin In the Sand) - Shangri-Las
Send In the Clowns - Judy Collins
She's Leaving Home - The Beatles
Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word - Elton John
Stan - Eminem
Tears In Heaven - Eric Clapton
Teen Angel - Mark Dinning
Tell Laura I Love Her - Ray Peterson
The End of the Road - Boys II Men
The End of the World - Skeeter Davis
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
Whiskey Lullaby - Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
You Don't Bring Me Flowers - Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand
You'll Think Of Me - Keith Urban
You're Beautiful - James Blunt
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

[joannajewsom]

Good call on Green Day "Time of Your Life," telefunker. Senior year of high school, they put together a graduation video with that song. It's one of the songs that just begs to be played over a montage.

[albummaster]

The Winner Takes it All - ABBA (1980)
The Farewell - Antichrisis (1998)
In My Life - The Beatles (1965)
Changes - Black Sabbath (1972)
Knocking on Heavens Door - Bob Dylan (1973)
Redemption Song - Bob Marley & the Wailers (1980)
I Will Follow You into the Dark -Death Cab For Cutie (2005)
Many Rivers to Cross - Jimmy Cliff (1969)
Twenty Four Hours - Joy Division (1980)
Hurt - Nine Inch Nails (1994)
Almaz - Randy Crawford (1986)
More Than This - Roxy Music (1982)
Cosmic Dancer - T-Rex (1971)
Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads (1985)
The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve (1997)

[teodor_matz]

The saddest song ever must be: Hospital by The Modern Lovers

[Charicature]

I actually started this as a topic on another message board last year. My top 10 was:

1. Tears In Heaven - Eric Clapton (written after his 3 year old son died falling out of a high-rise apartment window)

2. I'll Be There - Escape Club (written for the friend of the lead singer whose wife had died)

3. Think Of Laura - Christopher Cross (fond rememberance of a girl who made everyone happy but was "taken away so young")

4. Teen Angel - Mark Dinning (girlfriend dies tragically running back into a car stalled on train tracks, just to recover the narrator's high school ring)

5. Time In A Bottle - Jim Croce (written to express his regret over not being around as his son grew up - about time lost)

6. Blasphemous Rumours - Depeche Mode (two stories posed: one girl, bored with life attempts suicide and fails; another, who loves life, is hit by a car and dies - the chorus ends with "I think that God's got a sick sense of humor and when I die I expect to find him laughing")

7. It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday - Boyz II Men (really about the end of a relationship, but so applicable to the death of a loved one...it's really about remembrance of happier times)

8. Cat's In The Cradle - Harry Chapin (narrator doesn't have time for his son as he quickly grows up, and suddenly the son doesn't have time for him anymore)

9. Halfway House - Jesus Jones (song very few people have heard, was released on their last EP in 2004, song about the final ending of a close relationship)

10. Dust In The Wind - Kansas (We all know what this one's about)

There were a lot of others tossed around, and I even booted three original entries from the list, including "In the Ghetto" by Elvis.
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