What is the Saddest Song Ever?

[Ian David]

Dr Harry Witchel is an expert in physiology and music and was asked by Nokia UK to conduct a study to find the saddest song ever. He analyzed people’s physical reactions to certain songs and came up with a short list. He measured their “tune trigger quotient” measuring heart rate, respiratory response and skin temperature to find the saddest, happiest and most exhilarating tracks.

The happiest songs were LDN by Lily Allen, Dancing Queen by Abba and Shiny Happy People by REM.

The saddest song ever was The Drugs Don’t Work by The Verve.

Dr. Harry said, “Music is undeniably powerful at triggering different emotional states. Changes in tempo and frequencies induce profoundly different emotional states.”

More:
http://dlisted.com/2006/12/13/what-is-the-saddest-song-ever/

[SteppingRazor]

1. No way. The saddest song ever is...

"The Band Played Waltzing Matlida" by Eric Bogle, as performed by The Pogues.


Although, yeah, that Verve song is pretty brutal.

on edit: "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed's a pretty good contender too.
Also "Dead Flowers" by Townes Van Zandt.

But I stil say the Pogues have it.

[Ron Green]

4. Speaking of Townes -

"Tecumseh Valley" ought to rank up near the top of a "saddest" list.

[Kolesar]

6. I am going to see a Pogues cover band tomorrow

"Boys from the County Hell". They play infrequent dates now that the members have moved to different parts of the country. I guess that they can get together when the lot of them come back home to visit family for the holidays.

Hard to believe my date had never heard of the Pogues, so I had to describe them to her: "Imagine Irish folk mixed with punk along the lines of the Clash", "with a lead singer who is usually drunk, yelling and slurring his words"

[Ron Green]

2. "Lush Life" by Billy Strayhorn.

Or maybe "Knoxville Girl" (it's in the public domain, don'tcha know?)

[opiate69]

3. "Tomorrow, Wendy" By Concrete Blonde

also, "Mary Bellows" by Nick Cave

[Lithos]

5. Sweet Jane is pretty sad

Either by the Cowboy Junkies or the original by The Velvet Underground

L-

[alfredo]

7. Janis Ian wrote two that could rank up there

"In The Winter" and "At Seventeen"

This song came with a bottle of aspirin (anti coagulant) and razor blades with instructions to cut with the flow, not across it.

"AT SEVENTEEN"

By Janis Ian

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth...

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say "come dance with me"
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn't all it seems at seventeen...

A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
Whose name I never could pronounce
Said: "Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve"
The rich relationed hometown queen
Marries into what she needs
With a guarantee of company
And haven for the elderly...

So remember those who win the game
Lose the love they sought to gain
In debitures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
In dull surprise when payment due
Exceeds accounts received at seventeen...

To those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me...

We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say: "Come on, dance with me"
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen...

-------------------------------------------------------------

Her delivery of this song makes it so much sadder

IN THE WINTER
(Janis Ian)



THE DAYS ARE OKAY
I WATCH THE TV IN THE AFTERNOONS
IF I GET LONELY
THE SOUND OF OTHER VOICES,
OTHER ROOMS ARE NEAR TO ME
I’M NOT AFRAID

THE OPERATOR, SHE TELLS THE TIME
IT’S GOOD FOR A LAUGH
THERE’S ALWAYS RADIO
AND FOR A DIME I CAN TALK TO GOD
DIAL A PRAYER, ARE YOU THERE
DO YOU CARE, ARE YOU THERE


AND IN THE WINTER
EXTRA BLANKETS FOR THE COLD
FIX THE HEATER, GETTING OLD
I AM WISER NOW, YOU KNOW
AND STILL AS BIG A FOOL CONCERNING YOU


I MET YOUR FRIEND
SHE’S VERY NICE, WHAT CAN I SAY
IT WAS AN ACCIDENT
I NEVER DREAMED WE’D MEET AGAIN THIS WAY
YOU’RE LOOKING WELL
I’M NOT AFRAID

YOU HAVE A LOVELY HOME
JUST LIKE A PICTURE. NO, I LIVE ALONE
I FOUND IT EASIER
YOU MUST REMEMBER HOW
I NEVER LIKED THE PARTY LIFE
UP ALL NIGHT, LOVELY WIFE
YOU HAVE A LOVELY WIFE


AND IN THE WINTER
EXTRA BLANKETS FOR THE COLD
FIX THE HEATER, GETTING OLD
YOU ARE WITH HER NOW, I KNOW
I’LL LIVE ALONE FOREVER
NOT TOGETHER NOW


Of course my wife, a singer, would throw in something to see if the audience is paying attention. She would change

AND IN THE WINTER
EXTRA BLANKETS FOR THE COLD
FIX THE HEATER, GETTING OLD

to:

AND IN THE WINTER
EXTRA BLANKETS FOR THE COLD
FEED THE GERBILS, GETTING OLD

Gerbils are funny, I have no idea why, but they are hilarious. Not sure what it does to their self image, but that's their cross to bear not mine.

[Kolesar]

8. "Who married young men, retired"

One of my misheard lyrics. That song addresses that need that adolescents have to "fit into a group". I think a lot of young people feel like outsiders. The problems of youth seem insurmountable, but what we don't know at seventeen is that they will pass.

This from the one who was picked last for basketball.

[alfredo]

9. My wife still has her "Cheerleader dreams." They pass but

have a nasty habit of returning at unguarded moments.

[alfredo]

10. Kindertotenlieder- Songs on the Death of Children by

Gustav Mahler. If you want sad music, this is it. It is based on poems written by Ruckert who lost two children in the span of 16 days. Mahler's music and Ruckert's words will rip your heart out.

Five poems are used. this is the third poem:

When your mother
steps into the doorway
and I turn my head
to see her,
my gaze does not alight
first on her face,
but on the place
nearer to the threshhold;
there, where
your dear face would be
when you would step in
with bright joy,
as you used to, my little daughter.

When your mother steps
into the doorway
with the gleam of a candle,
it always seems to me as if
you came in as well,
slipping in behind her,
just as you used to come into the room!
O you, a father's cell,
alas! how quickly
you extinguish the gleam of joy!


If that doesn't bring tears to your eyes, nothing will.




"'Round About Midnight" or as some call it "'Round Midnight" doesn't even need lyrics to tug at the heart. This sadness comes out when taken slower than how Monk played.

Who can forget Nancy Wilson singing " Guess Who I Saw Today"

Then there is George Jones's "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Still Gustav Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder" Has my vote as the saddest song (or in this case Song Cycle) in the world. For all the lyric go here:

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/assemble_texts.html?SongCycleId=107
It has translations for English, Spanish, and Italian. Bring Kleenex.

[bigwillq]

11. "The Promise"

by Tracy Chapman.

:cry:

[Duppers]

12. "I'll see you in my dreams" sung by Joe Brown at the tribute to George

Closing the tribute concert for George Harrison.

Joe lost his wife and performs this song in her memory too. It will touch anyone who has lost a loved one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mu8D69uxA0

[dipsydoodle]

18. I posted that back in October

and nobody seemed too impressed. Yes - I think I think you're right. I'm used to hearing other play it too - one of my pals runs Uke nights every 9 weeks or so at O'Neills opposite the British Library in Euston Road.

[Duppers]

22. hey, el

Well, I'm impressed by the song! Thank you for first posting it; I may have lifted it there, but I just don't remember.

Btw, I'm an American but lived in Cambridge for three yrs. in the late 80's, early 90's. I've always been curious about the Brits posting at DU, like how'd you find it and why the keen interest in U.S. politics?

Cheers!

http://www.alamy.com/thumbs/3/{FD5CE166-DBDE-472A-BA31-25293656F444}/ARPXE4.jpg

[Greyskye]

13. This song always made me tear-up when performing it live

The Green Fields of France

Eric Bogle

Well how do you do Private William McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
And rest for awhile beneath the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day and now I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916;
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,
Or, young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Refrain:
Did they beat the drum slowly,
Did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March
As they lowered you down?
Did the band play
"The Last Post And Chorus?"
Did the pipes play
"The Flowers Of The Forest?"

Did you leave 'ere a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
And although you died back in 1916,
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Enclosed forever behind a glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn, and battered and stained,
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
Refrain:

Ah the sun now it shines on these green fields of France,
The warm summer breeze makes the red poppies dance,
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds;
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there're no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard is still No Man's Land,
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
To a whole generation that was butchered and damned.
Refrain:

Ah, young Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why,
Did all those who lay here really know why they died?
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end war?
For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing and dying were all done in vain,
For, young Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again and again and again and again.
Refrain:

[Kolesar]

14. Apparently, Bogle had a repertoire of antiwar songs

Or, as I like to call it, a message of peace.
Are you a singer?

[Greyskye]

15. Yep, Bogle's amazing

I sang male lead (and played a few instruments) in a Celtic Folk group for many years. We got local gigs at Highland Games, Burns Night dinners, Caledonian club mtgs, St. Patrick's day parties, etc. It was a lot of fun until it stopped being a lot of fun, lol.

[Kolesar]

16. That does sound like a lot of fun

That is pretty close to my favorite programming. I just got back from a long weekend in a cabin in the mountains. XC skiing by day and tuning around the radio by night. Saturday night, the PSU station played The Thistle and Shamrock, the NPR show hosted by Fiona Ritchie. Then they went into a great mix of "folk" and what I call eclectic acoustic. Just me and my girl and a huge amount of lake effect snow. Came home cheery and tired.

[Greyskye]

17. You might like this then:

Our local-ish community radio station is (IMHO) one of the best in the nation, and they web-cast! http://www.kvmr.org/webcast.html

Wednesday nights from 8-10pm (Pacific) is Celtic Cadence (http://www.kvmr.org/personalities/a_hestbeck.html), which is very similar to Thistle and Shamrock.

I have a Pandora radio station, "The Eclectic Greyness", which has some of my favorite Celtic artists embedded, along with a lot of very different types of music. http://www.pandora.com/people/greyskye You might have to skip through quite a few songs to get to a Celtic one - I really should break out my genres more I suppose.


On edit: I just noticed up above that you went to see a Pogues cover band - I have quite a few "rogue folk" bands in my playlist as well. :evilgrin:

[dipsydoodle]

19. Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris - Goodbye

Try this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjTSRJLn15k

Unfortunately , it would seem , it's never been released on CD

[mark414]

20. probably either Gloomy Sunday or Strange Fruit

Billie version exclusively

[dipsydoodle]

21. Yes - Strange Fruit

is an extremely sad song.

Here's a performance by Billie which someone has posted on YouTube :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQTWVgKZtlg