Random. The saddest songs you've ever heard....

[davismanLV]

I'll go first. I know the lyrics and I know the chords. But honestly I just can't get through this song without breaking down.

So do you have a song like that?? Please share....



The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
She came from Spencer
Across the hill
She said her pa had sent her
'cause the coal was low
And soon the snow
Would turn the skies to winter
She said she'd come
To look for work
She was not seeking favors
And for a dime a day
And a place to stay
She'd turn those hands to labor
But the times were hard, Lord,
The jobs were few
All through Tecumseh valley
But she asked around
And a job she found
Tending bar at Gypsy Sally's
She saved enough to get back home
When spring replaced the winter
But her dreams were denied
Her pa had died
The word come down from Spencer
So she turned to whorin' out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
And it was many a man
Returned again
To lay himself beside her
They found her down beneath the stairs
That led to Gypsy Sally's
In her hand when she died
Was a note that cried
Fare thee well
Tecumseh valley
The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her....

 

[12 string]

Eric Bogle writes the saddest songs I know. "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" concerning the battle of Gallipoli is one. He wrote a song called "No Man's Land" which we have discussed here; often we sing it on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day. ("Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the pipes lowly? / Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down? / Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus? / Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"). "Now I'm Easy" is sung from the point of view of an old man looking back on a life that was anything but. Bogle is from Australia and plays 12 string guitar left handed... I think everybody plays the opposite way in the Southern Hemisphere.

The song which has been knocking me out lately is the one John McCutcheon wrote about the night John Prine died.

 

[GAD]

 

[LeFinPepere]

Probably this one.Even before I read the lyrics and learned about what Mayfield went through. I love this song, but it really makes me feel sad.

 

[GGJaguar]

 

[GGJaguar]

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Eric Bogle writes the saddest songs I know. "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" concerning the battle of Gallipoli is one. He wrote a song called "No Man's Land" which we have discussed here; often we sing it on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day. ("Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the pipes lowly? / Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down? / Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus? / Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"). "Now I'm Easy" is sung from the point of view of an old man looking back on a life that was anything but. Bogle is from Australia and plays 12 string guitar left handed... I think everybody plays the opposite way in the Southern Hemisphere.

The song which has been knocking me out lately is the one John McCutcheon wrote about the night John Prine died.

Bogle was as good as it gets. Thanks for the post!

Here's the saddest song I know of, then and now (with Tele content on both and a minor chord on neither):

 

[HeyMikey]

Specifically this later version that Dean recorded a few years before his death. It’s so much more intimate than the original over produced version. Beautiful song but it’s hard to keep from tearing up.

 

[chazmo]

I'm the same way with this one, Tom. Can't even sing with it on the radio without breaking down.

 

[GGJaguar]

These two are hard for me to play. I rarely get through to the end. Good thing I've never tried playing them in front of any kind of audience.

 

[Westerly Wood]

 

[crank]

Down To Seeds and Stems Again Blues is a song I perform with some regularity.

Long Black Veil is kind of sad.

Stella Blue

 

[Westerly Wood]

maybe not the saddest music I ever heard, but certainly the slowest. btw, I loved this album...

 

[schoolie]

I like this one because it tells a story with a few verses and few words.

and a sad Elliot Smith song

 

[Minnesota Flats]

 

[crank]

Death Don't Have No Mercy

 

[Westerly Wood]

this version won the award for saddest song ever recorded...

 

[Westerly Wood]

oh man...Dread would have loved this one...to be fair, a lot of pigeons were harmed in the making of this song...

 

[5thumbs]

This one by Tommy Prine singing about his father is a good one too:

 

[tonepoet]

Here's the saddest song I know of, then and now (with Tele content on both and a minor chord on neither):

Saw Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen do this live a few times in Michigan back in the early 1970s. They were based in Ann Arbor, Michigan before they moved to California. They were certainly different than seeing the average rock band performing back then.