Sad Lines in Sad Songs

[Zorro]

The tear jerker of all time! Woody Guthrie-"Put My Little Shoes Away"
You will do this won't you Mother?
Please remember what I say
Give them all my toys, but Mother,
Put my little shoes away…
Arrrrgghhh!!

 

[Rocket009]

Today I'm gonna write a sad song
Gonna make it really long
So everyone can see
That I'm very unhappy

 

[Hope]

Lesley Gore—It's My Party

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to
cry if I want to, cry if I want to
you would cry too, if it happened to you

 

[Aluminny69]

There were many Teen Tragedy Songs in the fifties and sixties. LAST KISS may have been the saddest:

We were out on a date in my Daddy's car
We hadn't driven very far
There in the road, straight ahead
The car was stalled, the engine was dead
I couldn't stop, so I swerved to the right
Never forget the sound that night
The cryin' tires, the bustin' glass
The painful scream that I heard last

Well, when I woke up
The rain was pourin' down
There were people standing all around
Something warm a-running in my eyes
But I found my baby somehow that night
I raised her head and when she smiled and said
"Hold me darling for a little while"
I held her close
I kissed her our last kiss
I found the love that I knew I would miss
But now she's gone, even though I hold her tight
I lost my love ... my life, that night

Well, where oh where can my baby be
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven
So I got to be good
So I can see my baby
When I leave this ol' world

source: J. Frank Wilson and The Cavaliers - Last Kiss Lyrics

 

[Woof 101]

First thought would be Joe South with "walk a mile in my shoes."
Then this.....

 

[tomcat]

From Mark Knopfler's "Heart Full of Holes:"

And you take work in hell, be glad it's not worse
And you get to the back of the queue

Every time I've heard those two lines I've thought of so many people whose jobs are like death....

I won't tire you with all the song's lyrics. They are, to say the least, bittersweet.

 

[Bigboote]

Duke Ellington (not sure who the lyricist was), Sophisticated Lady. The vocal by Yvonne Lzunauze chokes me up every time. The lines that get me:

No, Sophisticated Lady I know
You miss the love you lost long ago
And when nobody is nigh, you cry

 

[Bama fan]

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Song sung blue, everbody knows one

 

[JordyG]

The tear jerker of all time! Woody Guthrie-"Put My Little Shoes Away"
You will do this won't you Mother?
Please remember what I say
Give them all my toys, but Mother,
Put my little shoes away…
Arrrrgghhh!!

The great Woodie Guthrie. "This Land Is Your Land" should, in my opinion, be this country's National Anthem. It moves me more than any other song about this great country.

 

[Phillyconn]

SGT MacKenzie- We Were Soldiers


Lay me down, in the cold, cold ground
Where before, many men have gone

When they come I will stand my ground
Stand my ground, I’ll not be afraid

Thoughts of home take away my fear.
Sweat and blood hide my veil of tears

Once a year say a prayer for me
Close your eyes and remember me

Never more shall I see the sun
For I fell to a Germans gun

Lay me down, in the cold, cold ground
Where before many men have gone

 

[meyers7]

About the death of her sister.

It's gonna be a dark cold December
With shaking lilies in the yard.
& your sweet face I will remember
How I'm gonna miss your stubborn heart.
So forgive me for my weakness
I guess my faith is a little stoned.
The angels cried on a Friday
The day that God walked you home.
So goodbye Sister heroine
I'll remember everything, I love you.
Goodbye beauty Queen
Your crooked heart & your beat up
dreams, I love you...
It hurts to laugh here without you
A piece inside of us is gone.
Mama tries to smile too
Ain't never seen that woman try so hard.
No more working Alvarado
No more liars, tramps or thieves.
Your skin & bones don't cast no shadow
on an empty bed in Motel Six
So goodbye Sister heroine
I'll remember everything, I love you.
Goodbye beauty Queen
Your crooked heart & your beat up
dreams, I love you...
We all threw roses at your feet
While you burned our crosses in the street
So if you're looking down on me,
I love you.

Sister Heroine - Beth Hart

 

[meyers7]

Poor Eddie

And now my bitter hands
Cradle broken glass
Of what was everything

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky
But Why
Why can't it be mine

Black - Pearl Jam

 

[TerpWomenFan]

And when he died, all he left us was alone

 

[oldude]

Mike and The Mechanics: The Living Years.

I wasn’t there that morning
When my Father passed away.
I didn’t get to tell him
All the things I had to say.

I think I heard his spirit
Later that same year.
I know I heard his echo
In my baby’s new born tear.
I just wish I could have told him in the living years.

 

[Bama fan]

About the death of her sister.

It's gonna be a dark cold December
With shaking lilies in the yard.
& your sweet face I will remember
How I'm gonna miss your stubborn heart.
So forgive me for my weakness
I guess my faith is a little stoned.
The angels cried on a Friday
The day that God walked you home.
So goodbye Sister heroine
I'll remember everything, I love you.
Goodbye beauty Queen
Your crooked heart & your beat up
dreams, I love you...
It hurts to laugh here without you
A piece inside of us is gone.
Mama tries to smile too
Ain't never seen that woman try so hard.
No more working Alvarado
No more liars, tramps or thieves.
Your skin & bones don't cast no shadow
on an empty bed in Motel Six
So goodbye Sister heroine
I'll remember everything, I love you.
Goodbye beauty Queen
Your crooked heart & your beat up
dreams, I love you...
We all threw roses at your feet
While you burned our crosses in the street
So if you're looking down on me,
I love you.

Sister Heroine - Beth Hart

Now that is depressing.

 

[Scud49]

Eric Clapton - "Better Make it Through Today"



Life is what you make it,
That's what the people say.
And if I can't make it through tomorrow,
I'd better make it through today.
I have had my share of troubles;
It's nothing new to me.
When I look around me,
All I see is misery.
Life is what you make it,
At least that's what the people say.
And if we can't make it through tomorrow
We'd better make it through today, through today.
Through today.

 

[ochoopsfan]

MacArthur Park. Sung by several.
What is sadder than "Who left the cake out in the rain"

 

[Gutter King]

The whole of Southeastern is a target rich environment for this thread. That album will stand the test of time.

"Children of Children"

I was riding on my mother's hip
She was shorter than the corn
All the years I took from her
Just by being born.

And of course.....

You can really take your pick of any line from Jason Isbell's "Elephant," but I'll go with this one:

I buried her a thousand times, given up my place in line
But I don't give a damn about that now
There's one thing that's real clear to me
No one dies with dignity
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow
Somehow

 

[Beemer]

Harry Chapin's "Cats In The Cradle" is one of the saddest songs I've ever heard.

 

[meyers7]

MacArthur Park. Sung by several.
What is sadder than "Who left the cake out in the rain"

Thought sure this post was gonna be by Triad.

 

[Waquoit]

I'm glad no one actually posted the winner yet (Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town) because I hate it.

 

[JordyG]

There's a lot of lines in this song but here is the one that gets me every time.

Trent Reznor - Hurt

"Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here"

 

[JordyG]

Thought sure this post was gonna be by Triad.

Lol. After all this time you still ain't no good.

 

[CL82]

This was written by Clapton after he lost his four year old son:


Would you hold my hand
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand
If I saw you in heaven?
I'll find my way through night and day
‘Cause I know I just can't stay here in heaven

 

[meyers7]

There's a lot of lines in this song but here is the one that gets me every time.

Trent Reznor - Hurt

"Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here"

And then Johnny does this with it.

 

[BlueDolphin]

Johnny Cash: Long Black Veil

Ten years ago, on a cold dark night
There was someone killed 'neath the town hall light
There were few at the scene, but they all agreed
That the slayer who ran looked a lot like me

She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave when the night winds wail
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me

The judge said, "Son what is your alibi?
If you were somewhere else then you won't have to die"
I spoke not a word though it meant my life
For I had been in the arms of my best friend's wife

She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave when the night winds wail
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me

The scaffold is high, and eternity nears
She stood in the crowd and shed not a tear
But sometimes at night when the cold wind mourns
In a long black veil she cries over my bones

She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave when the night winds wail
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me, nobody knows but me, nobody knows but me

 

[Bama fan]

Carly Simon, in 1971, was way too young and lovely to sing this song. But she killed it :
My father sits at night with no lights on, his cigarette glows in the dark.

 

[JordyG]

And then Johnny does this with it.

Yes. For me Reznor's version was a bit morose, self indulgent and perhaps a bit petty. Johnny though made it a personal commentary on his life and work. A gift of tragic honesty to his children and to the world. He indeed made it his song from now on.

 

[Bama fan]

This old Irish song about the famine and its effects is the saddest thing I ever heard. Even without lyrics it is so doleful.