Oh, I see a ROTD post coming! 
walrus
walrus
Random. The saddest songs you've ever heard....
- Thread starter davismanLV
- Start date
GGJaguar
Reverential Member
Yes, but we love them (and you) just the same.
But I'm glad you posted this, Tom. A lot of great stuff is being posted here, even if some postings are more geared to one's personal association to the song.
On the personal sadness level, when my Gramma passed when I was 14, I immediately went to the bedroom, lay back on the bed with headphones on and blasted this tune to help with the grief. This guitar tone and the Second Winter album it was on still knocks me out.
Johnny Winter's cover of "Memory Pain" from 1969. BTW the bass player on it is the young Tommy Shannon who would later become part of SRV's Double Trouble band.
Johnny Winter's cover of "Memory Pain" from 1969. BTW the bass player on it is the young Tommy Shannon who would later become part of SRV's Double Trouble band.
Maguchi
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It's actually a very good post. A lot of people have posted some great examples of their one saddest song.
West R Lee
Venerated Member
Well I'll have to set up the circumstances in which I first heard this song. I'd just found out my father was dying, and about the same week, my youngest son was born. Greg was born with a couple of complications.........nothing that couldn't be, and wasn't overcome, but potentially life threatening at the time. Greg was born in Longview, 120 east of Dallas and 60 miles west of Shreveport, and Longview wasn't equipped to handle those complications. Greg's mother was ripped open like a watermelon as he weighed over 11 pounds, so she was laid up in the hospital for at least 10 days.
The day after Greg was born, North Texas had a pretty serious ice storm and the doctors told us Greg needed a specialist at one of two NICUs, either Dallas or Shreveport. I-20 to Dallas closed about that time due to icing, and that only left Shreveport as an option. So with the fresh news of my father to be soon passing away, my wife laid up in the hospital in Longview, on a very cold day while snowing, I followed the ambulance to Shreveport as far as I could keep up, though they left me. I was wondering, worried and praying at the time that my new born son would make it. A very emotional time.
It was then, by myself, with all of this on my mind, while driving alone while snowing outside, I heard this song for the very first time. I cried. My father and I had lost many years through our mutual stubborness, but had become close maybe 10 year prior to his passing. It was March 5th of '89. I'll never forget the day I first heard "In the Living Years".
The song serves as a reminder to me to ALWAYS leave the lines of communication open with our children, no matter what. Life is short, and our children need us, and they need the guidance we can provide.
And Greg today, with his own two sons.
West
The day after Greg was born, North Texas had a pretty serious ice storm and the doctors told us Greg needed a specialist at one of two NICUs, either Dallas or Shreveport. I-20 to Dallas closed about that time due to icing, and that only left Shreveport as an option. So with the fresh news of my father to be soon passing away, my wife laid up in the hospital in Longview, on a very cold day while snowing, I followed the ambulance to Shreveport as far as I could keep up, though they left me. I was wondering, worried and praying at the time that my new born son would make it. A very emotional time.
It was then, by myself, with all of this on my mind, while driving alone while snowing outside, I heard this song for the very first time. I cried. My father and I had lost many years through our mutual stubborness, but had become close maybe 10 year prior to his passing. It was March 5th of '89. I'll never forget the day I first heard "In the Living Years".
The song serves as a reminder to me to ALWAYS leave the lines of communication open with our children, no matter what. Life is short, and our children need us, and they need the guidance we can provide.
And Greg today, with his own two sons.
West
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davenumber2
Member
Not necessarily sad, but bleak.
Originally released as a fast, punky version, they decided to slow it down. Both are great, but the slow one is it.
and the original fast version
Well sunrise in the land of the pharaohs
I see my broken arrows
Scattered 'cross the plain.
Well sunrise on the river in the city
I'm feeling pretty shitty
In the wreckage of my life.
So if you want to live;
Let's live together
In bows and feathers.
And find my decadence
And if you want to dare
Well we can take that long road
Cause dying is easy,
It's living that's hard.
Well sunrise in the land of milk and honey
She says "My little bunny
Is this all that there is?"
Well sunrise in the land of southern idols
Lines and hotel bibles
And fallen debutantes
So if you want to see what's in the shadows:
The burning meadows
Of our apocalypse
I dream of fallow fields
I dream of winter
Cause dying is easy,
It's living that's hard.
Originally released as a fast, punky version, they decided to slow it down. Both are great, but the slow one is it.
and the original fast version
Well sunrise in the land of the pharaohs
I see my broken arrows
Scattered 'cross the plain.
Well sunrise on the river in the city
I'm feeling pretty shitty
In the wreckage of my life.
So if you want to live;
Let's live together
In bows and feathers.
And find my decadence
And if you want to dare
Well we can take that long road
Cause dying is easy,
It's living that's hard.
Well sunrise in the land of milk and honey
She says "My little bunny
Is this all that there is?"
Well sunrise in the land of southern idols
Lines and hotel bibles
And fallen debutantes
So if you want to see what's in the shadows:
The burning meadows
Of our apocalypse
I dream of fallow fields
I dream of winter
Cause dying is easy,
It's living that's hard.
midnightright
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RBSinTo
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Me stumbling my way through "Stormy Weather" as I practice it for my music classes, sounds pretty sad.
RBSinTo
RBSinTo
This one give me the feels
meadowguild
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Lots of Townes Van Zandt songs belong on this list of the saddest
davismanLV
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It's true. One of my favorite encounters I read about was when one of his fans got to meet him and said, "Why are your songs so sad?"
He just looked at her and said, "My songs aren't sad. They're hopeless."
I like the distinction but I think when hope is gone, that's ultimately very sad.
meadowguild
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It Makes No Difference, written by Robbie Robertson, became Rick Danko's signature song. He's playing a beautiful Guild Jumbo Sunburst in this recording.
Brucebubs
Senior Member
Lou Reed - Berlin
The whole album ... in fact, the last track is even called 'Sad Song'.
The whole album ... in fact, the last track is even called 'Sad Song'.