Sad Lines in Sad Songs

[Bigboote]

Yea, John Prine. "Hello in There" has to be the saddest, most poignant song I've ever heard from him:

Me and Loretta, we don't talk much more
She sits and stares through the back door screen
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen
Someday I'll go and call up Rudy
We worked together at the factory
But what could I say if asks "What's new?"

I first heard that done by Bette Midler. It wasn’t till years later that I heard it by John Prine. Yeah, it is a tearjerker, start to finish.

 

[Scud49]

Alex Taylor, James's brother, really delivered on one of his famous brother's songs:

I'm thinking 'bout a broken heart
I'm talking 'bout the break of dawn
You love me while I'm here
Then you can miss me when I'm gone
Sweet misunderstanding
Won't you leave a poor boy alone
I'm the one eyed seed of a tumbleweed
In the belly of a rolling stone
Back on the highway, yeah, yeah, yeah
Back on the road again

 

[Bigboote]

This is The Pearl, a song that Emmylou Harris wrote. The whole thing is a tearjerker, but these lines stand out for me (soldiers speaking):

Our path is worn, our feet are poorly shod
We lift up our prayers against the odds
And fear the silence is the voice of God

I'd always wondered what the song had to do with the Steinbeck book, then I saw an interview in which Emmy said that one day she marveled that a pearl comes from something irritating an oyster. In the last verse of the song, "we behold the pain become the pearl." She doesn't write many songs, but when she does, I listen.

 

[McFly]

Lines not needed.

 

[bluedevil]

"My friends from college they're all married now"....that song gives me chills...."Operator you can keep the dime" is also a sad line ..I think Jim Croce was the king of sad lines...

 

[CL82]

It's sad, so sad (so sad)
It's a sad, sad situation
And it's getting more and more absurd
It's sad, so sad (so sad)
Why can't we talk it over?
Oh it seems to me
That sorry seems to be the hardest word

 

[Golden Husky]

Nearly every line in Danny O'Keefe's Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues is poignant.

 

[RedStickHusky]

~I said I'm so happy, baby I could die.
~She said drop dead then left with another guy.

 

[Mulder]

-I found love letters by his bed-
-dated 1962-
- He had underlined in Red-
- Every single 'I Love You'

 

[Bama fan]

Nearly every line in Danny O'Keefe's Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues is poignant.

 

[Scud49]

Ah, yes, Danny.....what a talent:

Prisoners of the heart in search of love and peace
Hung in desperation, longing for release
I'm just a traveler, angel, you're my ride
Take me past the place I've passed the last time that I died

 

[Bama fan]

"People got used to seeing them both together
But now he's gone and life goes on
Nothing lasts forever,oh no"

This is one of my all time favorites songs, and it has some downright sad lines.

 

[Mulder]

-Famous last words of a fool, you won't break my heart and I don't love you, Famous last words of a fool.-

 

[Scud49]

James Taylor - "Old Blue" - such a great song, and not well known-

Now, Old Blue died and he died so hard, Made a big dent in my back-yard.
Dug his grave with a silver spade, Lowered him down with a link of chain.
Ev-er-y link I did call his name...
Singing "Here'old...Blue-ue... "Good dog you"

Now, when I get to heaven, first thing I'll do. When I get to heaven, first thing 'awm do.
When I get to heaven first thing I'll do, Pull out my horn and call old Blue...
I'll say, "Here Old Blue come-on dog" "Good dog you."
I'll say, "Here Blue-e" "I'm a coming there too"
"Down boy... good dog"

 

[Bama fan]

Here is one Linda Rondstadt made famous. J D Souther wrote it and does a superb job singing it. A lot of sadness in this one.

 

[Scud49]

Blood, Sweat and Tears - God Bless the Child:

And all you're spendin' ends
They won't be 'round any more
No, no, no more
And rich relations
May give you
A crust of bread and such
You can help yourself
But don't take too much

 

[Bama fan]

I heard one today that is particularly sad and quite moving. "All their lives they dug their graves, two miles of earth for a marking stone." Or worse perhaps: "Bone and blood is the price of coal." This event happened when I was young, and not too long after it occured Western Pennsylvania had a bad one too at U S Steel's Robena mine.

 

[CTBballfan243]

I heard one today that is particularly sad and quite moving. "All their lives they dug their graves, two miles of earth for a marking stone." Or worse perhaps: "Bone and blood is the price of coal." This event happened when I was young, and not too long after it occured Western Pennsylvania had a bad one too at U S Steel's Robena mine.

Check out U2's version

U2 - The Ballad of Springhill Mining Disaster

Cette chanson écrite par Peggy Seeger sous le titre original The Ballad of Springhill pour commémorer la catastrophe survenue à la mine de Springhill en 1958...

www.youtube.com

 

[Steelerone]

Neil Diamond -
Morningside,
The old man died.
And no one cryed,
He surely died alone.

 

[Steelerone]

I heard one today that is particularly sad and quite moving. "All their lives they dug their graves, two miles of earth for a marking stone." Or worse perhaps: "Bone and blood is the price of coal." This event happened when I was young, and not too long after it occured Western Pennsylvania had a bad one too at U S Steel's Robena mine.

Wow, RTA, that one brought back some memories. I grew up about ten miles from Harmarville and I can remember in both grade and elementary school many classmates being pulled out of class because of a cave-in at the mines. A lot of the men in my neighborhood worked in the coal mine and I can still see their faces. After awhile the coal dust just wouldn't some out and their faces were streaked. No matter what job I've had during my entire life I always felt I was lucky. I can remember doing traffic at 2 a.m. in February on Rt. 6 when it got so cold I could not lift my arms but I thought, "You know what, I'm not hundreds of feet underground breathing coal dust with cold water dripping on me". Sorry to pontificate but that post hit me hard.

 

[Bama fan]

Wow, RTA, that one brought back some memories. I grew up about ten miles from Harmarville and I can remember in both grade and elementary school many classmates being pulled out of class because of a cave-in at the mines. A lot of the men in my neighborhood worked in the coal mine and I can still see their faces. After awhile the coal dust just wouldn't some out and their faces were streaked. No matter what job I've had during my entire life I always felt I was lucky. I can remember doing traffic at 2 a.m. in February on Rt. 6 when it got so cold I could not lift my arms but I thought, "You know what, I'm not hundreds of feet underground breathing coal dust with cold water dripping on me". Sorry to pontificate but that post hit me hard.

That Harmar mine was the supplier to the old Wheeling -Pittsburgh Steel Corp. Not far from there, the old Harwick Mine was the site of one of the worst mining disasters ever in the early part of the 20th century. Almost 200 miners died that day in a huge explosion.


died that day in a huge explosion

 

[AmeriConn]

 

[npignatjr]

Brad Paisley Allison Krause. Whiskey Lullaby
Lyrics

She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette
She broke his heart, he spent his whole life tryin' to forget
We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind
Until the night
He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory
Life is short, but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said, 'I'll love her till I die.'
And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby
The rumors flew but nobody knew how much she blamed herself
For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath
She finally drank her pain away a little at a time
But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind
Until the night
She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away his memory
Life is short, but this time it was bigger
Than the strength she had to get up off her knees
We found her with her face down in the pillow
Clinging to his picture for dear life
We laid her next to him beneath the willow
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby

 

[npignatjr]

Over You
Miranda Lambert
Weather man said it's gonna snow
By now I should be used to the cold

Mid-February shouldn't be so scary
It was only December
I still remember the presents, the tree, you and me

But you went away
How dare you, I miss you
They say I'll be OK
But I'm not going to ever get over you

Living alone here in this place
I think of you, and I'm not afraid

Your favorite records make me feel better
'Cause you sing along with every song
I know you didn't mean to give them to me

But you went away
How dare you, I miss you
They say I'll be OK
But I'm not going to ever get over you

It really sinks in, you know
When I see it in stone

'Cause you went away,
How dare you, I miss you
They say I'll be OK
But I'm not going to ever get over you

 

[Ozimoto]

Growing up in coal mining region of western Maryland adjacent to West Virginia and having ancestors who were involved in coal mining, this song for me is incredibly sad, though maybe not for most people who are unaware of what a life of coal mining in Appalachia meant for so many at the turn of the 20th century.

"Schooldays over, come on then John, time to be gettin' your pit boots on
On with your sark and moleskin trousers, it's time you were on your way
Time you were learning the pitman's job and earning a pitman's pay"