The sad music playlist

Tsunami · 9 Dec 2011, 03:42 AM

Since we're digging into music here, I thought this one deserves a topic (well, I am a clinically depressed but in all honesty, listening to sad music has helped me through some very rough times since it gives the feeling you're not on your own with your sadness. Also, very often a sad song if you pay attention well has a hopeful undertone somewhere, although this is not a default obviously)

Some good ones to start with:

So Slow - Sophia
Where are you now? - Sophia
Swept back - Sophia
Something - Sophia (yes, they're quite sad as a whole, their entire catalogue...)
The flower song - The God Machine
It's all over - The God Machine
In Bad Dreams - The God Machine
My Immortal - Evenascence (preferably the piano-only version)
Illusion - VNV Nation
The Grey Ship - EMA
There is a Light that never goes out - The Smiths
How soon is now? - The Smiths
Asleep - The Smiths
Nothing compares 2 U - Prince / Sinead O'Connor
I faught in a War - Belle & Sebastian
I'll stand by you - The Pretenders
Seven - The Connells
Hurt - Nine Inch Nails (yes, I prefer the original, as much as I respect Johnny Cash but this it a NIN song)
Vienna - Ultravox
All we ever wanted (was everything) - Bauhaus
Burning from the inside - Bauhaus
Charlotte Sometimes - The Cure
Last Stop: this Town - Eels
Sometimes you can't make it on your own - U2
October - U2
All I want is you - U2
Still I'm sad - the Yardbirds
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
Angie - The Rolling Stones
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Run - Snow Patrol
The Sparrows & The Nightingales - Wolfsheim
Heart & Shoulder - Heather Nova
A Place nearby - Lene Marlin
Disorder - Joy Division
Day of the Lords - Joy Division
The Church-bells & the Razor-blades - Silke Bischoff

I could have picked a long list of goth artists but often their melodrama is too much over the top, making it more absurd than a song that really moves you.

robert@fm · 9 Dec 2011, 07:52 AM

"Sad Songs They Say So Much" -- Elton John
"Manic Depression" -- Jimi Hendrix, covered by Jan Hammer
"Ohne Dich (schlaf' ich heut Nacht nicht ein)" -- Münchener Freiheit (lovely upbeat tune, but the lyrics are downbeat)

robert@fm · 9 Dec 2011, 08:30 AM

"Song for Guy" -- Elton John (inspired by the then-recent death of London Zoo's Guy the Gorilla; mostly instrumental, the only lyric is "Life isn't everything" towards the end)
"Solang' man Träume noch leben kann / Keeping the Dream Alive" -- Münchener Freiheit (same tune, different lyrics, but I think that in this case the English lyrics are a fairly close translation of the German ones)
"I Won't Be Home For Christmas"

-- Blink-182
"Song Sung Blue" -- Neil Diamond (his "Cracklin' Rosie" is one of only two songs I've heard of which is about an inflatable sex doll -- and the only one of the two to get past the radio censors)
"I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" -- Elton John

robert@fm · 9 Dec 2011, 08:33 AM

Another one I've just remembered, I'm surprised you didn't get to it first.

"Losing It" --Rush

Malc 44 · 10 Dec 2011, 03:05 AM

So Long Marianne - Leonard Cohen
The Weeping Song - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Love on The Rocks - Neil Diamond
Please, please, please let me get what I want - The Smiths (covered by Slow Moving Millie as used in the TV ad)

FredOnline · 10 Dec 2011, 04:37 AM

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths
Teddy Bear - Red Sovine
Honey - Bobby Goldsboro
MacArthur Park - Richard Harris

Now you may think the last one isn't sad, but let's face it, he put in a lot of effort to make the cake and then it got totally ruined!

seobts · 10 Dec 2011, 09:41 AM

Miss you - Westlife
Unbreakable - Westlife
From the bottom of my broken heart - Britney
Hurt - Christina
Song from the secret gardens

robert@fm · 10 Dec 2011, 10:39 PM

Wild World -- Cat Stevens (though the Jimmy Cliff cover is probably better known)
Remember (Walkin' In The Sand) -- The Shangri-Las
The Turn of a Friendly Card (the entire five-part suite) -- The Alan Parsons Project
Time -- both the Alan Parsons Project version and the Pink Floyd version (which was produced by Alan Parsons); two different songs
Monday Monday -- The Mamas & The Papas
Look Through My Window -- The Mamas & The Papas
Glad to Be Unhappy -- The Mamas & The Papas
(edited to add) Silent One -- Jan Hammer

Tsunami · 12 Dec 2011, 06:34 AM

Tool - Wings for Marie/10000 Days (both combined)

18 minutes length, complex musical structures, and yet... this pierces through your heart like few other songs. It combines feelings of love and admiration with a sadness dwelling in between the lines.

A Perfect Circle - Orestes
A Perfect Circle - Three Libras
Echo & The Bunnymen - How can we hold on to a dream?
The Gathering - Alone

Currently listening to EMA... "Great grandmother lived on the prairie with nothing, nothing, nothing... I got the same feeling inside of me: nothing, nothing, nothing...". Combined with an almost aching vocal, this leaves a deep mark for sure.

robert@fm · 14 Dec 2011, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fang01271027

Only You
Stay

Who did these two? As is often the case (particularly with such short titles), there have been many different songs with these two titles, so just giving the song title without the artiste is meaningless.

The 1950s Only You (can't remember who did it, there were several) is very different from the early 1980s Only You by Yazoo (covered in an à capella version by the Flying Pickets), and I wouldn't call either song particularly sad. Likewise, the Hollies and Rush both did songs called Stay (I think the Hollies' one was covered by Neil Sedaka).

drew · 14 Dec 2011, 11:16 PM

Hope it is okay to admit that I have cried to music about three times.

Dolly Parton singing the original track music to a movie where she
played a prostitute in Texas that was in love with her school mate
that now was the Town's Sheriff and him too was still in love with her.

Dolly actually made that song herself.
"I will always love you."

It later got known by a Soul singer that make another version.
I cry to the original but not to the cover.

Another song that made me cry was a folkmusic tune from Norway.

I trust it is a christian song about saying "far well" to close friends.

third song is a Romanian funeral song that seems to not exist
other than on one old LP from Colombia. Most likely Allan Lomax
series of World Music? Four to seven old woman singing a very old
melody and text about losing a relative through death?

Very sad melody.

Tsunami · 15 Dec 2011, 08:22 PM

Nothing wrong with crying over music, that just means the music reached for your emotions. Only good music manages to do so.

"Stay" could also be the song from Shakespear's Sister, which was a big hit in the early nineties and indeed a rather sad song.
Coincidencally probably, Siobhan Fahey has been a depressive for most of her life, and has been on hiatus numerous times for a while because of her depressions.

Robin Proper Sheppard of Sophia and the God Machine, apparently has manic depression (which would somewhat explain the sadness in the lyrics which is the one big thing both bands have in common... musically he took a drastic change after the God Machine dissolved and he started Sophia but the sad lyrics remain a constant factor. Note it is a friend of mine who met Robin numerous times who told me about his depressions, but I do seem to recall him talking about it in interviews too. I would love to meet this person as he's been a huge inspiration on me. The song "Purity" changed my life literally as it was so overwhelming it made me decide to get on stage myself, which is what I've done ever since on regular basis I first heard that song)

He has a few more hopeful songs too though, such as "Portugal" ("and I decided tomorrow I'm gonna be a better person, no it's never too late to change")

Some other sad songs:

"Everything must go" - Manic Street Preachers
"74-75" - The Connells (fantastic band, grotesquely underrated. Song is very melancholic, maybe not gloomy but for sure extremely melancholic)
"Isobel" - Dido (seems to be about suicide or about vanishing from all and everyone you know)
"Comateen I" - Indochine (the chorus is uplifting but the parts in between deal with drug overdose and suicide attempt -- the hopeful chorus is a stark contrast which makes the song switch from sad to soothing several times)
"Kayleigh" - Marillion
"Blasphemous rumours" - Angelzoom (the original by Depeche Mode isn't that sad but Angelzoom's version turns it into a song hard to fight tears)
"Kein Weg züruck" - Wolfsheim
"Sonnet" - The Verve
"The Drugs don't work" - The Verve
"Bittersweet symphony" - The Verve

Richard Ashcroft of the Verve by the way is clinically depressive (like myself)

Tsunami · 15 Dec 2011, 08:26 PM

Also, Kirlian Camera did some very intense sad songs on their album Invisable Front.

One of my all-time favourite songs, "K-Pax" is from that album. It shifts between sadness and hope, where the dream is a metaphor for the hope that takes the narrator away from the sadness of waking up:

"Sunday morning, maybe March, and I must turn my face to you
I must realise what is that arch enemy looking for your blue
but with willing and merciful arms
Don't say a word... The world is gone"

Malc 44 · 20 Dec 2011, 09:19 PM

I Think It's Going To Rain Today - Randy Newman (covered by UB40 amongst others)

robert@fm · 26 Dec 2011, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robert@fm

The 1950s Only You (can't remember who did it, there were several) is very different from the early 1980s Only You by Yazoo (covered in an à cappella version by the Flying Pickets), and I wouldn't call either song particularly sad.

This bothered me, so I Googled for it; the 1950s Only You was originally sung by the Platters under the name Only You (And You Alone) (though the covers nearly always omit the parenthetical bit of the title), released in 1954 (it flopped) then re-recorded and released in 1955 (this was the hit version known today).

The Yazoo song was a hit for them in 1982, and then for the Flying Pickets at Christmas 1983 (the latter has thus become a "Christmas song" by association, like We Are the Champions by Queen and The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, although there's nothing remotely Christmassy about any of these; the last one is more a Hallowe'en song).

YouTube videos:
Only You -- The Platters
Only You -- Yazoo
Only You -- The Flying Pickets

None of these strike me as remotely sad, so goodness knows what the spammer was referring to...

9 Dec 2011, 03:42 AM	#1
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	The sad music playlist Since we're digging into music here, I thought this one deserves a topic (well, I am a clinically depressed but in all honesty, listening to sad music has helped me through some very rough times since it gives the feeling you're not on your own with your sadness. Also, very often a sad song if you pay attention well has a hopeful undertone somewhere, although this is not a default obviously) Some good ones to start with: So Slow - Sophia Where are you now? - Sophia Swept back - Sophia Something - Sophia (yes, they're quite sad as a whole, their entire catalogue...) The flower song - The God Machine It's all over - The God Machine In Bad Dreams - The God Machine My Immortal - Evenascence (preferably the piano-only version) Illusion - VNV Nation The Grey Ship - EMA There is a Light that never goes out - The Smiths How soon is now? - The Smiths Asleep - The Smiths Nothing compares 2 U - Prince / Sinead O'Connor I faught in a War - Belle & Sebastian I'll stand by you - The Pretenders Seven - The Connells Hurt - Nine Inch Nails (yes, I prefer the original, as much as I respect Johnny Cash but this it a NIN song) Vienna - Ultravox All we ever wanted (was everything) - Bauhaus Burning from the inside - Bauhaus Charlotte Sometimes - The Cure Last Stop: this Town - Eels Sometimes you can't make it on your own - U2 October - U2 All I want is you - U2 Still I'm sad - the Yardbirds Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd Angie - The Rolling Stones Paranoid - Black Sabbath Run - Snow Patrol The Sparrows & The Nightingales - Wolfsheim Heart & Shoulder - Heather Nova A Place nearby - Lene Marlin Disorder - Joy Division Day of the Lords - Joy Division The Church-bells & the Razor-blades - Silke Bischoff I could have picked a long list of goth artists but often their melodrama is too much over the top, making it more absurd than a song that really moves you.

10 Dec 2011, 09:41 AM	#7
seobts Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 0	Miss you - Westlife Unbreakable - Westlife From the bottom of my broken heart - Britney Hurt - Christina Song from the secret gardens Last edited by ReuvenNY : 10 Dec 2011 at 01:31 PM. Reason: Signature removed

10 Dec 2011, 10:39 PM	#8
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	Wild World -- Cat Stevens (though the Jimmy Cliff cover is probably better known) Remember (Walkin' In The Sand) -- The Shangri-Las The Turn of a Friendly Card (the entire five-part suite) -- The Alan Parsons Project Time -- both the Alan Parsons Project version and the Pink Floyd version (which was produced by Alan Parsons); two different songs Monday Monday -- The Mamas & The Papas Look Through My Window -- The Mamas & The Papas Glad to Be Unhappy -- The Mamas & The Papas (edited to add) Silent One -- Jan Hammer Last edited by robert@fm : 10 Dec 2011 at 10:59 PM.

9 Dec 2011, 07:52 AM	#2
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	"Sad Songs They Say So Much" -- Elton John "Manic Depression" -- Jimi Hendrix, covered by Jan Hammer "Ohne Dich (schlaf' ich heut Nacht nicht ein)" -- Münchener Freiheit (lovely upbeat tune, but the lyrics are downbeat)

9 Dec 2011, 08:30 AM	#3
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	"Song for Guy" -- Elton John (inspired by the then-recent death of London Zoo's Guy the Gorilla; mostly instrumental, the only lyric is "Life isn't everything" towards the end) "Solang' man Träume noch leben kann / Keeping the Dream Alive" -- Münchener Freiheit (same tune, different lyrics, but I think that in this case the English lyrics are a fairly close translation of the German ones) "I Won't Be Home For Christmas" -- Blink-182 "Song Sung Blue" -- Neil Diamond (his "Cracklin' Rosie" is one of only two songs I've heard of which is about an inflatable sex doll -- and the only one of the two to get past the radio censors) "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" -- Elton John

9 Dec 2011, 08:33 AM	#4
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	Another one I've just remembered, I'm surprised you didn't get to it first. "Losing It" --Rush

10 Dec 2011, 03:05 AM	#5
Malc 44 Essential Contributor Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 365	So Long Marianne - Leonard Cohen The Weeping Song - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Love on The Rocks - Neil Diamond Please, please, please let me get what I want - The Smiths (covered by Slow Moving Millie as used in the TV ad)

10 Dec 2011, 04:37 AM	#6
FredOnline The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 2,616	Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths Teddy Bear - Red Sovine Honey - Bobby Goldsboro MacArthur Park - Richard Harris Now you may think the last one isn't sad, but let's face it, he put in a lot of effort to make the cake and then it got totally ruined!

12 Dec 2011, 06:34 AM	#9
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	Tool - Wings for Marie/10000 Days (both combined) 18 minutes length, complex musical structures, and yet... this pierces through your heart like few other songs. It combines feelings of love and admiration with a sadness dwelling in between the lines. A Perfect Circle - Orestes A Perfect Circle - Three Libras Echo & The Bunnymen - How can we hold on to a dream? The Gathering - Alone Currently listening to EMA... "Great grandmother lived on the prairie with nothing, nothing, nothing... I got the same feeling inside of me: nothing, nothing, nothing...". Combined with an almost aching vocal, this leaves a deep mark for sure.

14 Dec 2011, 11:16 PM	#11
drew The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,626	Hope it is okay to admit that I have cried to music about three times. Dolly Parton singing the original track music to a movie where she played a prostitute in Texas that was in love with her school mate that now was the Town's Sheriff and him too was still in love with her. Dolly actually made that song herself. "I will always love you." It later got known by a Soul singer that make another version. I cry to the original but not to the cover. Another song that made me cry was a folkmusic tune from Norway. I trust it is a christian song about saying "far well" to close friends. third song is a Romanian funeral song that seems to not exist other than on one old LP from Colombia. Most likely Allan Lomax series of World Music? Four to seven old woman singing a very old melody and text about losing a relative through death? Very sad melody.

15 Dec 2011, 08:22 PM	#12
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	Nothing wrong with crying over music, that just means the music reached for your emotions. Only good music manages to do so. "Stay" could also be the song from Shakespear's Sister, which was a big hit in the early nineties and indeed a rather sad song. Coincidencally probably, Siobhan Fahey has been a depressive for most of her life, and has been on hiatus numerous times for a while because of her depressions. Robin Proper Sheppard of Sophia and the God Machine, apparently has manic depression (which would somewhat explain the sadness in the lyrics which is the one big thing both bands have in common... musically he took a drastic change after the God Machine dissolved and he started Sophia but the sad lyrics remain a constant factor. Note it is a friend of mine who met Robin numerous times who told me about his depressions, but I do seem to recall him talking about it in interviews too. I would love to meet this person as he's been a huge inspiration on me. The song "Purity" changed my life literally as it was so overwhelming it made me decide to get on stage myself, which is what I've done ever since on regular basis I first heard that song) He has a few more hopeful songs too though, such as "Portugal" ("and I decided tomorrow I'm gonna be a better person, no it's never too late to change") Some other sad songs: "Everything must go" - Manic Street Preachers "74-75" - The Connells (fantastic band, grotesquely underrated. Song is very melancholic, maybe not gloomy but for sure extremely melancholic) "Isobel" - Dido (seems to be about suicide or about vanishing from all and everyone you know) "Comateen I" - Indochine (the chorus is uplifting but the parts in between deal with drug overdose and suicide attempt -- the hopeful chorus is a stark contrast which makes the song switch from sad to soothing several times) "Kayleigh" - Marillion "Blasphemous rumours" - Angelzoom (the original by Depeche Mode isn't that sad but Angelzoom's version turns it into a song hard to fight tears) "Kein Weg züruck" - Wolfsheim "Sonnet" - The Verve "The Drugs don't work" - The Verve "Bittersweet symphony" - The Verve Richard Ashcroft of the Verve by the way is clinically depressive (like myself)

15 Dec 2011, 08:26 PM	#13
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	Also, Kirlian Camera did some very intense sad songs on their album Invisable Front. One of my all-time favourite songs, "K-Pax" is from that album. It shifts between sadness and hope, where the dream is a metaphor for the hope that takes the narrator away from the sadness of waking up: "Sunday morning, maybe March, and I must turn my face to you I must realise what is that arch enemy looking for your blue but with willing and merciful arms Don't say a word... The world is gone"

20 Dec 2011, 09:19 PM	#14
Malc 44 Essential Contributor Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 365	I Think It's Going To Rain Today - Randy Newman (covered by UB40 amongst others)