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Sad Lines in Sad Songs

Waquoit

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

JordyG

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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"
 

CL82

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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
 
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BlueDolphin

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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
 

JordyG

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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

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

 
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Practically every line fits the criteria but, ultimately, it's the heartbreaking plea of everyone when hope is lost, "Please don't go."


I'll hold your hand till it goes cold
I'll hold my tears until you go
With all the life that leaves your bones
It soaks the purpose of my own
ooo ooo ooo please don't go
I love you more than you can know
You've got a home inside my soul
It's like a mountain soaked in snow
It's in the earth the river flows
ooo ooo ooo please don't go
ooo ooo ooo please don't go
I've kept my own side of the bed
Thinking you'd be home again
I hold myself so I can sleep
My pillow holds the screams of me
ooo ooo ooo please don't go
ooo ooo ooo please don't go
So lay yourself down on my chest
Cause I know how to hold you best
I'll keep you through these last few breaths
And kiss and love you till the end
ooo ooo ooo please don't go
ooo ooo ooo please don't go
 

Zorro

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"I saw your other man today, he was wearin my brand new shoes"
Ballad of the Seeds and STems, Commander Cody.
 

Bigboote

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Carole King - It's Too Late

Oh, the one that gets me on Tapestry is the title song. Just Carole and her keyboard. Two couplets that I find particularly striking:

Once he reached for something golden hanging from a tree
And his hand came back empty

And

I wept to see him suffer
Though I didn't know him well

 

Bigboote

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This is one of those sounds that sounds upbeat but is really depressing. There are a lot of striking lines in it.

One thing they don't tell you 'bout the blues when you got 'em
You keep on sinking 'cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't no end -- least not for Lillian

No one remembers when she started her skid
She was only 27 and she had five kids
Coulda been the whiskey, coulda been the pills
Coulda been the dreams she was trying to kill

But there won'd be a line in the news of the world
'bout the life and death of a Red Dirt Girl named Lillian

 

Bigboote

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(Loreena McKennitt Lady of Shalott)

My favorite tearjerker of Loreena's is Annachie Gordon. One of those old songs about a forbidden love; there are many great versions of it, but hers is my favorite.

The closing lines are

And he kissed her poor lips till his heart it turned to stone
And he died in the chamber where his love she lied in

If I sit and listen to it, I'll have tears streaming down my face by then.

 
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Never gonna fall in love again
I don't want to start with someone new
'Cause I couldn't bear to see it end
Just like me and you

No, I never wanna feel the pain
Of remembering how it used to be
Never gonna fall in love again
Just like you and me

My favorite sad song. It doesn't get any better than Never Gonna Fall in Love Again by Eric Carmen.
 
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Farewell Waltz - Waterloo Bridge
I think this is one of the saddest song and is used for graduation song.

 

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