Regarding the definition of "sadness" desired: the basic quest is
for songs that really grab you, evoking much empathy. EXCLUDED
should be songs of a maudlin, sentimental, or self-pitying nature.
The musical genre of the song is not particularly important;
however, much preferred are highly acoustic performances or low-key
electric ones.
Examples of such songs might be:
Andersen, Eric: For what was gained (Avalanche)
Nelson, Willie: Always on my mind (Always on my mind)
Jimmy's road (The IRS Tapes)
Ochs, Phil: No more songs (The best of PO)
Rehearsals for retirement (The best of PO)
For the above songs, both "For what was gained" and "Jimmy's road"
involve young men who are killed in war. The sadness of the other
three songs is accentuated due to personal circumstances
surrounding the artist performing the song.
Feel free to email me directly as I will eventually post a summary
listing. Thanks for your help.
Linda Ronstats(sp?) recording of "Long, Long Time" is the quintessential
sad song. Something about that pedal steel guitar...
The song was implicated in a rash of teen suicides here a few years ago.
I don't know the songwriter or the original album. I have it on her
greatest hits album.
--
Ruth Cross >
nor...@usht10.hou130.chevron.com >
>
Tim Keenan
Department of Forest Resources
UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK
*-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-*
+ +
| My baby came to me this morning |
+ She said "I'm kinda confused....... +
| If me and B.B. King was both drownin' |
+ Which one would you choose?" +
| And I said " Wo-o-oh, baby |
+ Wo-o-oh, baby +
| I said " Wo-o-oh, baby---- |
+ Babe, I ain't never heard you play no blues." +
| |
+ .................S. Goodman +
*-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-*
> Feel free to email me directly as I will eventually post a summary
> listing. Thanks for your help.
Well, he _did_ ask for email, but since everybody else is posting I will
too.
Eric Bogle -- The Green Fields of France (a.k.a. "No Man's Land" and
about 20 other titles).
Eric Bogle again -- And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
John McCutcheon -- Christmas in the Trenches
(Gosh, WW I generated lots of sad songs, didn't it?)
Fred Small -- Larry the Polar Bear
Stan Rogers -- The Lock Keeper (A song about the relative merits of life
on the road and life at home; especially sad when taken in
the context of Stan's own short life, too much of which was
spent on the road.)
Stan Rogers again -- Lies
Richard Thompson -- 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
(Anybody know the name of the song Thompson does in concert, about the
girl he meets working in the factory in London? Something about a
"Butterfly's Wing"? Even sadder than the Vincent song; I don't know if
it's recorded yet, though.)
(Hey, as long as we're on the subject of Vincents...)
Don McLean -- Vincent (or is it called "Starry Starry Night"?)
June Tabor -- well, just about any cut from any album since "Abyssinians".
For starters, two Bill Caddick songs: "She Moves Among Men"
from "Abyssinians", and "Aqaba" from "Aqaba".
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-__ __ /_ Jon Berger "If you push something hard enough,
//_// //_/ jo...@netcom.com it will fall over."
_/ --------- - Fudd's First Law of Opposition
I strongly recommend "The Chimneysweeper," on Greg Brown's album
_Songs of Innocence and of Experience_. (The lyric comes from a
William Blake poem.)
A few other suggestions:
Loudon Wainwright III: "Sometimes I Forget" and "The Picture"
(both on _History_)
Bill Morrissey: "Man from out of Town" (_Inside_)
"John Haber"
"Small Town on the River" (first album)
Leonard Cohen: "(Seems So Long Ago,) Nancy"
"One of Us Cannot Be Wrong"
John Gorka: "The Sentinel"
Bob Dylan: "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"
--
- Ron Mura, Boston, Massachusetts rm...@world.std.com
Kate and Anna McGarrigle "Hearbeats Accelerating"
I Eat Dinner
I'm Losing You
Leave Me Be
St. James Hospital
Loudon Wainwright III "History"
Sometimes I Forget
Janis Ian "Breaking Silence"
Tattoo
I think they're all each artist's most recent release.
'It's Over, Goodbye'
Some time ago, when I used to get together with friends in
Santa Fe to sing songs, a subgroup of three women invited me
to come to their sad song sing, which they reserved for
themselves, since the rest of the folk song club didn't care
for those sad songs, but I said that I loved sad songs. I
asked how sad, and they said "as sad as you can get." So I
sang the following song, which was written by the Australian
folk poet Henry Lawson around the turn of the century, put to
music possibly by Slim Dusty, and sung by Priscilla Herdman
on her album of the same name. It was based on a true story,
told by the woman in question to Lawson.
When I was done, the three Sad Sisters said, "No, not that sad!"
The song was :
The Waterlily
Lonely young wife in her dreaming discerns
A lily decked pool with a border of ferns.
And a beautiful child with butterfly wings,
Trips down to the edge of the water and sings
Come momma, come, quick follow me.
And step on the leaves of the waterlily.
And the lonely young wife, her heart beating wild
Cries, wait till I come, till I reach you my child.
But the beautiful child with butterfly wings,
Steps out on the leaves of the lily and sings
Come momma, come, quick follow me.
And step on the leaves of the waterlily.
And the wife in her dreaming steps out on the stream,
But the lily leaves sink and she wakes from her dream.
Oh, the waking is sad for the tears that it brings,
And she knows it's her dead baby's spirit that sings,
Come momma, come, quick follow me.
And step on the leaves of the waterlily.
Come momma, come, quick follow me.
And step on the leaves of the waterlily.
By the way, Priscilla Herdman was a queen of sad songs, on
that album. Three more that come to mind are
The Bush Girl, also written by Henry Lawson
Here's To You Rounders, written by Don Lange about his grandad
Do You Think That I Do Not Know, again, by Henry Lawson
A couple more that I like:
The Dutchman, by Steve Goodman
There Were Roses, by Tommy Sands
That's enough for a start.
Rob D.
BTW, his recording contract is now with ARC (American Recording Company).
They changed their name recently from Def American.
greg
everything the man wrote makes me weep for one reason or another
James Keelaghan:
Jenny Bryce
Rebecca's Lament
Princes of the Clouds
Steve Gillette:
Darcy Farrow
Andy Barnes (member of Greenpeace in Britain):
The Last Leviathan
I can probably think of LOADS more..
Jefro
> The musical genre of the song is not particularly important;
OK, how about Albinoni's Adagio in D-?
Hobo's lullaby is pretty sad. Songs about
railroads and motherhood (not necessarily
together) are often very sad, for some
reason. Songs of shipwrecks are usually
fearsome, but sometimes sad. Old Blue
is sad: "link by link, I'd call his name."
Almost anything by Richard Thompson, but particularly
Night Comes In, off the Pour Down Like Silver album
The End of the Rainbow, off "I want to see the bright lights tonight".
Almost anything sung by June Tabor, especially
Where are you Tonight off Aqaba
And, finally, anything written by Richard Thompson and sung by June Tabor!
Waltzing's for Dreamers, only sung live so far as I know.
In fact, I think I'll change my .sig for today.
Morgan Conrad One step for aching,
Applied Biosystems Two steps for breaking,
m...@apldbio.com Waltzing's for dreamers
415-570-6667 and losers in love.
That's on "Scraps of Paper," an album full of pretty sad songs. As a
matter of fact, every song except two on that album is a sad song.
The album is on Flying Fish Records in the USA.
{lotsa stuff deleted - we've already read it a few times, right? ;-)}
My nominee is a song called "Grace." Unfortunately, I can't tell you who wrote
it, but all the Irish pub singers hereabouts (and lots of other places too, I'm
sure) know it. The chorus goes:
Oh, Grace, just hold me in your arms
And let this moment linger
They'll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I place
This wedding ring upon your finger
We won't have time to share our love
For we must say goodbye
Would some kind person fill in the who's and what's for the requestor?
--
___________________________________________________________________________
Ed M. Auvers | Bitnet: AUV...@DRYCAS.BITNET
(a.k.a. "Salieri") | Internet: AUV...@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU
Vampire aficionado |
Writer of vamp fiction | "I think, therefore I'm dangerous."
Apprentice folkie | + + + + + + +
Beater of bodhrans |"To work 'til you're dead / for one room and a
-------------------------------| bed / is not the reason I left Mullingar!"
|--------------------------------------------
There was a thousand dollar wedding, supposed to be held the other day
And with all the invitations sent, the young bride went away
When the groom saw people passing notes, "Not unusual," he might say
"But where are the flowers for my baby?
I'd even like to see her mean old Mama,
And why ain't there a funeral, if you're gonna act that way?"
I hate to tell you how he acted when the news arrived
He took some friends out drinking, and it's lucky they survived
'Cause he told them everything there was to tell there along the way
And he felt so bad when he saw the traces of old lies still on their faces
So why don't someone there just spike his drink,
why don't you do him in, some old way?
Supposed to be a funeral, it's been a bad, bad day . . .
The Reverend Dr. William Grace was talking to the crowd
All about the sweet child's holy face and the saints who sung out loud
And he swore the fiercest beasts could all be put to sleep the same silly way.
But where are the flowers for the girl? She only knew she loved the world.
And why ain't there one lonely horn with one sad note to play?
Supposed to be a funeral, it's been a bad, bad day . . .
Oh, supposed to be a funeral, it's been a bad, bad day
Bob Weir "Looks Like Rain" (might fall into the self-pity category, but a good
song nevertheless ...)
Dick Gaughan "Song For Ireland" (perhaps not overtly sad, but certainly
extremely poignant ...)
"Last Train From Poor Valley" (Norman Blake recorded and popularized it some
years back.)
Becky Miller
gayla a rabdyke
gwor...@carina.unm.edu
Sad songs...
Fred Koller: "Life As We Knew It"
Jethro Tull: "Slow Marching Band"
Fairport Convention: "Crazy Man Michael"
D.
--
* The Minstrel in the Gallery "Heteroskedastic" *
* D. A. Scocca sco...@uncvx1.oit.unc.edu *
* "My love does not, cannot _make_ her happy. My love can only *
* release in her the capacity to be happy." --J. Barnes *
Ugo
*************************************************************************
Ugo Piomelli
Associate Professor The less I seek my source
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering For some definitives
University of Maryland Closer I am to fine
College Park, MD 20742 Emily Saliers
*************************************************************************
>:
>: I'm interested in making a compilation of sad, poignant songs
>: (don't worry, I'm alright mama!). I would appreciate suggestions
>: of such songs. Please be as specific as possible; i.e., include
>: artist, song title, and album information, perhaps in the format
>: below.
_I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry_ by Hank Williams
_From Hank to Hendrix_ by Neil Young (Harvest Moon)
_It's The Little Things_ by Robert Keen (West Textures)
jb
- the midnight train is whining low -
cb
Ruth Cross >
nor...@usht10.hou130.chevron.com >
>
1. "Marcie" -- from Joni Mitchell's first album
2. "Dublin City" --traditional, I'm hearing in my mind's ear the version on
the Bok/Muir/Trinket album "Bay of Fundy". There are a few other
quite sad songs on that album.
3. "Carolina" -- by Townes van Zandt, as sung by Nanci Griffith on "Other Voices,
Other Rooms". His song "Poncho and Lefty" comes to mind also. Emmylou
Harris sings that somewhere.
4. "What Have They Done to the Rain" -- by Melvina Reynolds, as sung by Joan Baez
on one of her early albums.
5. "Deportees" -- by Woody Guthrie. I'm thinking of Arlo's version, for example.
I also can't resist a few songs from another genre, since they are likely to get me
tearful:
"Das Abschied" -- last song in Mahler's song Cycle "Das Lied von der Erde"
"Die Earlkonig" ("THe Earl King") by Franz Schubert -- sad and SCARY
I could go on and on...
---
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Fookson
Internet: je...@cns.nyu.edu Center for Neural Science
Dept of Psychology
New York University
Phone: (212) 998-7782 6 Washington Place, Rm 866B
Fax: (212) 995-4011 New York, NY 10003
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just got done reading Nelson's sort-of autobiography (purchased at
Buck-a-Book for $2, which unfortunately won't help Willie out much with
his tax problems, and obviously written before them),
and he says in it the reason he will never write another
song like "Crazy" or "Funny How Time Slips Away"
is that whenever he feels such a mood coming on,
he works himself right out of it;
its counter to his current philosophy of life.
(Too bad for us lovers of timeless heartbroken songs.)
The odd thing about it all is that the originator of this thread cited
Nelson's "Always on my Mind" as an example of the kind of "non-maudlin"
(by thread-guy's estimation) sad songs he was in quest of...
so Nelson's still sad enough for some
(not for me, lately; elegiac is more like it)
This sudden lonlieness is making me dangerous
Please don't watch me as I fall apart
'Cause I'm sad and I'm angry
And armed with a broken heart.
And Tom Paxton's "What could I do" about wife-battering.
Here's the songs that do this for me.
When I'm Sad, I Cry by Tom Hunter. I don't remember which of his 3 albums
this is on. Tom's local to SFBayArea, his
albums are on Long Sleeve Records.
Although it's been a long time, don't
know if Long Sleeve is still around or
if Tom's stuff is still in print.
He's great!
Kilkelly, Ireland ??? I heard Robbie O'Connell do this in concert.
It's also on a 2-CD set (I've heard) called
"Bringing it all Back Home"; I don't know
what group does it on this CD.
julie (julie dickinson, jdic...@novell.com)
--Dave Palmer
--
"But as you all know, and as fate would have it, I didn't die.
I landed on the top of a police car. And he died. ... You gotta sing
it with that kind of enthusiasm. Like you just squashed a cop..."
Arlo Guthrie
--
Alison Scott [Ali...@moose.demon.co.uk]
Chester, England
Confabulation is the 1995 British National SF convention (Eastercon).
For more details email Confabulation at Con...@moose.demon.co.uk
Yeah, but she doesn't do it any favours.
>
> Sad songs...
>
> Fred Koller: "Life As We Knew It"
>
> Jethro Tull: "Slow Marching Band"
>
> Fairport Convention: "Crazy Man Michael"
What? I've rarely heard such a garbled, incomprehensible, (for that
matter inconsequential) piece of dippy hippy drivel in my life. Next
thing you know you'll be recommending that piece of high maudlin
kitsch "Who knows where the time goes"
--
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Piers Cawley, 2 Widford Park Place, Chelmsford, ESSEX, CM2 8TB. |
| pdca...@iest.demon.co.uk pdca...@cix.compulink.co.uk |
| Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, there lived a . . . |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
It's another song that demands a lot of the singer; I've heard some
absolutely awful renditions of it done by well meaning singers who
should have known better.
Sadly this song has been sung to death over here (Andy refers to it as
"The Bloody Whale Song") then again it has paid for the home studio
and a rather lovely bouzouki(sp?) from Oakwood.
Andy is also the best writer of traditional songs I've ever met, if
you get a chance (ie: if you meet him (or me) at a festival, ask him
to do _Turn, Turn ye Seasons_).
Weelll, up to a point Lord Copper; to actually sound good it needs to
be sung by a 'damn good singer, preferably whilst sober, and people
like that tend not to be ten a penny.
Damn you! I was trying to forget that one. It can sound awfully
maudlin in the wrong hands... In the right ones though...
_Romeo and Juliet_ as sung by Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls on
_Rites of Passage_, _Turn me About_(?) by Mary-Chapin Carpenter on
_Come on, Come on_.
Oh yeah, he hasn't made this into a song yet, but how about this.
The Florins and the Farthing
The year was 1914 and the men were off to war
To fight for King and Country, for that's what young men are for;
To be brave; to leave their loved ones; to kill, perhaps to die;
There loved ones' lot to stay behind, to wait and wonder why.
The bravado and beer was flowing in the public bar
And lovers swore to wait till lovers came back from afar;
Each nailed a florin to a beam that spanned the Crown
And as each man returned home safe, a florin would come down
The men went off in trains with farewell kiss and fond goodbye,
In trains that took them off to boats, more trains, and then to die;
A line of florins waited for the swift return of all
And beside them hung a farthing, poor, solitary and small.
Was that all that he was worth, or was it all that she could spare?
Was the forfeit of a florin more than one poor purse could bear?
And as they nailed it to the beam, did she feel ashamed?
Bur a farthing or a florin, it's a symbol just the same.
Symbols of constancy of lovers left to wait,
Symbols of their hope, and maybe offerings to fate;
And as each soldier came home, as each couple reunite,
A florin was brought down for every man came back from the fight.
A florin was brought down for every man back through the door,
But in the Crown at Hartest, you will still see twenty four;
Twenty four who never came back from the fields of France alive
And a solitary farthing makes the numbers twenty five.
---Les Barker
Les is actually far better known over here as a writer of comic poems
(and very funny they are too), but an album of his serious material,
_Some Love_, recorded by people like Martin Carthy and June Tabor is
available from Mrs Ackroyd Records, 62 Cotton Hill, Manchester M20
9XR, England (of course)
Okay, here goes, but be warned some of these are pretty obscure and
will be well nigh impossible to find in the States.
1. Adrian May is an English singer/songwriter who writes killingly
funny and achingly sad songs in roughly equal quantities, although he
has now settled down with a girlfriend and is not writing so much of
the sad stuff. (Which, were he not such a nice bloke, would be sad, as
his sad songs are gorgeous.)
Favourites are:
Simple as the Need
I can't resist quoting the first verse of this:
Just to reassure ourselves that we are human we look for love
Just to stop ourselves from turning into stone
Though we're terrified, we take our hearts and courage in both hands
When you ask for love, you're never more alone.
And it hurts to know that hurting is so easy
And it hurts to know that love can go so wrong
Why can't love be as simple as the need for love is strong?
Why can't love be as simple as the need for love is strong?
My favourite version of it is the one sung by my SO and her singing
partner on their tape _Simple as the Need_, they go out as Panzie
Potter and it's on the PanZ label (told you it was obscure) if you're
interested mail me and I'll tell you more.
Also recommended:
_After All Those Goodbyes_, and _I Am No Good at Love_
2. Other stuff with less detail
Keith Marsden:
_Prospect Providence_ (on the Cockersdale tape of the
same name, Fellside records), this one doesn't start sad, but packs a
whallop at the end.
_The Vampire_ (on the same tape if memory serves), a poem by Kipling
with a tune by Keith.
Most of Keith's serious stuff has a poignancy that can catch at your
throat and heart before you realise at it; highly recommended.
Rod Shearman:
_Is the Big Fella Gone_ (sorry I don't know any details), a beautifully
sad shanty lamenting the death of the whales.
John McCutcheon:
Damn! the names escaped me (something like litany or lament), but it's
on the _Signs of the Times_ Album with Si Kahn. I almost crashed the
car the first time I heard this one.
_The Old Browns Head Light_ (Live at Wolftrap?) About the
decommissioning of a lighthouse.
Tony Winn (another friend from Chelmsford):
_Goodbye my Romeo, Farewell Juliet_, on Short Stories' eponymous tape.
Mark
Yeah, I second and third this one!
: Sweet Agnes (I *hope* I have that title right ... about a woman
: who's family is celebrating her 90th birthday.)
Lovely Agnes, by Sally Rogers, and achingly sweet.
I also like [his face reddening] "Roses From The Wrong Man" by Christine Lavin.
aw, c'mon- not sure if willie wrote it, but Rock From a Rolling Stone (on
the Clean Shirt disc with waylon) still breaks my heart.
cb
ALso from Christine - - "The Kind of Love You Never Recover From" Last
time I saw her do this live many in the audience started crying.
susan krauss
skr...@panix.com
Or "Joanna" by Chris Williamson which always chokes me up a little,
although I have no idea what the history of the song is.
*BB*
ptj
--
Hey, like, do what y'wilt, y'know. And, like, don't hurt anyone, okay?
-Cherry PopTart
You know, I always think of THE DUTCHMAN as a moving song,
but not necessarily sad. I think Goodman celebrates
the Dear Margaret/Dutchman relationship as a testimony
to loving devotion.
: This isn't country and whatnot, but in (I believe) the '30s
: there was a popular song in Hungary called GLOOMY MONDAY that
: led to a spate of self-inflicted deaths due to the innate
: morosity of the song and the tune.
: --
: Ted....
This was "Gloomy Sunday". The verses were sung to the singer's
recently deceased beloved, and he is thinking of joing her.
--
Dorothy Westphal, Sunnyvale, Calif. % Always expect the good. %
west...@zuni.litc.lockheed.com % %
Sad: "Jimmy Newman", by Tom Paxton (it's about a soldier who dies in
a hospital in Vietnam on the day he was supposed to go home)
Upbeat: "Blue Red & Grey", by Pete Townsend ("I like every minute of the
day")
Any other examples?
--f2
-----------------
"First, we take Manhattan;
Then we take Berlin!"
Ruth Cross > Em rio que tem piranhas,
nor...@usht10.hou130.chevron.com > jacare nada de costas.
>
Joe Henry:
"Short Man's Room" (same album)
"Date For Church" (Shuffletown)
John Gorka:
"Houses In The Fields" (Jack's Crow)
Richard and Linda:
"Walking On A Wire" (Shoot Out The Lights)
Karla Bonoff:
"Lose Again" (her 1st album)
"Someone To Lay Down Beside Me" (same)
The Jayhawks:
"Settled Down Like Rain" (Hollywood Town Hall)
Jimmy Buffett:
"That's What Living Is To Me" (Hot Water)
"It's My Job"*
*Actually, it's Livingston Taylor who plays a slow version of this song
live which really tugs at my heartstrings.
fIREHOSE:
"In Memory Of Elizabeth Cotten"
(a beautiful acoustic song from a normally hard-rocking band)
Pat Metheny Group/Pedro Aznar:
, ,
"Mas Alla" (First Circle)
Nancy Griffith:
"It's A Hard Life" (Storms)
--
| mike a - dept chem |
| Max *Plonk* Institute |