Way OT - favorite sad songs??
Been here for 10+ years and this is my first OP so please be gentle. I’m looking for recommendations for sad songs. Genre doesn’t really matter - I like a little bit of everything.
Been going through a rough patch and always helps me to hear someone else in the same place. Whatcha got? And thanks in advance.
"You Had a Bad Day" Daniel Powter
That song always makes me think about fantasy football.
Somewhere down in Texas - Jason Boland and the Stragglers.
Easy to sing along to, good chorus, very good for getting all up in the feels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcQlSU55s34
Same artist has one called Proud Souls that's also an excellent melancholy song:
My favorite subject...
”I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” -Hank Williams
”Misery and Gin” -Merle Haggard
”He Stopped Loving Her Today” -George Jones
“I Heard That Lonesome Whistle” -Hank Williams
“It’s Not Supposed To Be That Way” -Waylon
I could go on and on about sad old country songs that’ll make any person feel something..
Portishead - Sour Times
Nothing Compares 2 U - the Sinead O'Connor version is rightfully most popular, although my personal favorite cover is Chris Cornell's
The Cure - Pictures of You
Diana Ross - Mahogany
Led Zeppelin - All of My Love
Gordon Lightfoot - if you could read my mind
The Rose - Conway Twitty (whatever you do, don't listen to the Bette Midler version, that will make you want to jump out of a window for an entirely different reason)
If you really, really want to wallow in your depression, though, no piece of music works better than Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.
On the flip side, when you're at your darkest point, put on Ben E. King's Stand By Me. No matter how deep my slough of despond, that song somehow always pulls me out of trouble.
I'm surprised you didn't mention, "The Volga Boatman Had No Arms", by the Stalingrad 5.
I also forgot "A Song for While I'm Away" by Thin Lizzy
all by myself - eric carmen
ben - michael jackson
Harry Chapin's Cats in the Cradle always got to me during the years when my children were growing up and I was working 14 to 16 hours a day and many weekends in a high-pressure law practice and dealing with commutes of more than an hour each way between my home and my office.
The 1997 version of Elton John and Bernie Taupin's Candle in the Wind played at Princess Diana's funeral service also got to me.
I always feel like a bad father when I hear "Cats in the cradle".
Dead Flowers (Stones and other versions are all pretty good)
Jolene by Dolly Parton (Miley Cyrus does a version and actually knocks it out of the park)
Nothing Else Matters and One by Metallica
Grey Street by Dave Matthews
Bad and Running to Stand Still by U2
Change by Blind Melon
Anything by grunge masters Nirvana/Pearl Jam/Alice in Chains/Soundgarden that references heavy drug use and or suicide, which eventually took members of those bands (esp Brother/No Excuses by AIC and Black/Jeremy/Indifference by PJ)
And of course Tha Crossroads
"Holes in the Floor of Heaven" by Steve Wariner
Also forgot Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton
Murder in the City - Avett Brothers
When My Time Comes - Dawes
Don't Follow by Alice in Chains and The Scientists by Willie Nelson
Countless great ones, but 12 random personal favorites that might be new to some:
The Antlers - "Palace"
Porcupine Tree - "Sentimental"
Flotation Toy Warning - "Donald Pleasance"
Red House Painters - "Katy Song"
Gravenhurst - "Hourglass"
The Delgados - "Pull The Wires From The Wall"
Majical Cloudz - "Disappeared"
The Walkmen - "Red Moon"
Richard & Linda Thompson - "The Calvary Cross"
Tindersticks - "My Oblivion"
Ween - "I Don't Want It"
Richard Hawley - "Coles Corner"
So many Richard Thompson songs could be listed, I'm ashamed I didn't think to mention him.
These are all a little angsty, sad, art rock:
Pedro the Lion - The Poison
Pedro the Lion - Criticism as Inspiration
David Bazan - In Stitches
St. Vincent - Smoking Section
Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
Elliott Smith - Needle in the Hay
Less angsty:
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Sufjan Stevens - Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)
Over the Rhine - She
Cat Power - Metal Heart
Trouble by Cat Stevens
Lost Cause by Beck
Each Coming Night by Iron and Wine
Can't believe it took that long for someone to say "Trouble."
Boys don’t Cry - The Cure
"I met her at the border but she wouldn't come across"
Many artists.............
"Frogs" by Alice in Chains
Unplugged or studio version. Depression from the master
"Beyond the Realms of Death" by Judas Priest I want played at my funeral.
Fields of Gold-Eva Cassidy
For the best effect watch Michelle Kwan skate to it after she lost the gold.
If it's a heartbreak, son, "All I ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera. The movie version is my favorite.
Everything will turn out fine because you'll make it turn out fine.
"About Today" The National
"Nothing Compares to You" performed by Chris Cornell. I'm a 50 yr old man who cries like an idiot just thinking about that version of an already sad song.
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Unknown (To You) - Jacob Banks
Not Even The Trees - Hootie and The Blowfish
Rock Bottom - Eminem
My Immortal - Evanescence
Midnight Train to Georgia: Gladys Knight
...get's me every time.
Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy. That song randomly came on in a restaurant at the perfect time in my life, and it's been my go-to ever since.
The Freshmen - The Verve Pipe
Yes, really almost any song by Verve Pipe. So many good hits.
"It's Quiet Uptown" from the "Hamilton" soundtrack.
Another one from Hamilton -- Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story.
And while I'm here -- Stevie Wonder, All in Love Is Fair
"Creep" by Radiohead and " Drown" by Smashing Pumpkins.
"Little Motel" by Modest Mouse
Can Heavy Metal songs be considered sad? Two of my favorites are Metallica’s Fade to Black and Iron Maiden’s Paschendale.
Nights in White Satin instantly brings me to tears. I mean, “letters i’ve written, never meaning to send...” Shivers, man.
Metallica's version of Tuesday's Gone is fantastic.
Works for me.
I will offer Black Label Society- One More Bridge
Love me some melancholia.
I could literally pick hundreds of songs. Love the Smiths mentions and Nick Drake.
But lately I've been listening to a lot of Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music so:
Roxy Music - While My Heart Is Still Beating & My Only Love
Bryan Ferry - Windswept
Most early stuff from Ray Lamontagne is my go-to for melancholy, but the whole Till the Sun Turns Black album is very sad and mellow. My favorites of his:
Jolene (this is not the Dolly Parton song)
Empty
Till the Sun Turns Black
Seriously, though - listen to Jolene.
Trouble, gossip in the grain and till the sun turns black are fantastic albums. R.L. & the pariah dogs is great too.
Agreed. Trouble is a top 10 album for me. I could do without Supernova and Ourobors, but Part of the Light was a step back in the right direction for me.
“Changes” by Black Sabbath
"For No One" by the Beatles. Very depressing break up son.
"Found Out About You" by Gin Blossoms. Not sad in tone or tempo by the words are kind of haunting, especially in the context of the fact that the author was in the process of drinking himself to death as he was writing it.
Gravity Rides Everything - Modest Mouse
Creep by Radiohead
Some random favorites off the top of my head...
”Don’t Play That Song” - Aretha live at the Fillmore version
”Evaporated - Ben Folds Five
“Lived in Bars” - Cat Power
”Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby” - Counting Crows
“Ice Cream and Sunscreen” - Martha
“Your Deep Rest” - The Hotelier
”Don’t Swallow the Cap” - The National
”For My Next Trick I’ll Need a Volunteer” - Warren Zevon
“Burn Down the Mission” - Elton John
"Your Deep Rest" is an experience... especially if you make it through the rest of the album and that's the closer.
Holy shit it wrecks me each time.
Actually, I was thinking of "Dendron," but that album as a whole is a masterpiece.
The Hotelier and Foxing are the two best bands to come out of fourth-wave emo.