I recently read an article on the 25 most exquisetly sad songs ever, and totally disagreed. There are WAY worse songs than the ones they listed. These songs are some of the saddest ever written.
He stopped loving her today - George Jones
"He said I'll love you 'til I die. She told him you'll forget in time. As the years went slowly by she still preyed upon his mind." "He stopped loving her today. They placed a wreath upon his door. And soon they'll carry him away. He stopped loving her today."
Space Oddity - David Bowie
"Ground Control to Major Tom. Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong. Can you hear me, Major Tom?" "
I'm feeling very still, And I think my spaceship knows which way to go. Tell my wife I love her very much she knows." The man overdoses on drugs and dies.
Seven Spanish Angels - Willie Nelson
"
She reached down and picked the gun up that lay smokin' in his hand
She said, “Father please forgive me I can't make it without my man”
And she knew the gun was empty and she knew she couldn't win
But her final prayer was answered when the rifles fired again"
Concrete Angel - Martina McBride
"Somebody cries in the middle
of the night. The neighbors hear, but they turn out the lights. A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate. When morning comes It'll be too late
." The song is about child abuse, and it has a story about a little girl
(named Angela Carter) who is
abused by her mother until the abuse goes too far, and the little girl
is killed. But luckily, she then "flies to a place where she's loved" --
in other words, she goes to Heaven, the place of angels.
Alyssa Lies - Jason Michael Carroll
"Because Alyssa lies to the classroom, Alyssa lies everyday at school. Alyssa lies to the teachers, As she tries to cover every bruise." What makes this song more tragic is that is was written in response to a real event. A girl who suffers from child abuse is beaten to death because nobody stepped in to help even though they suspected her mistreatment.
Whiskey Lullaby - Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss
"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." A couple who separate and eventually drink themselves to death: The man
because of the woman's infidelity and the woman because of her guilt. You tear up as the two sing "lalalala" in perfect harmony.
Send in the Clowns -Judy Collins
"Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer? Losing my timing this late, In my career? And where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns. Don't bother - they're here." This song by Stephen Sondheim from the 1973 musical A Little Night Music was never meant to be a soaring ballad; it's a song
of regret. And it's a song of a lady who is too upset and too angry to
speak. She is furious, but she
doesn't want to make a scene in front of Fredrik because she recognizes
that his obsession with his 18-year-old wife is unbreakable. So she
gives up; so it's a song of regret and anger, and therefore fits in with
short-breathed phrases.
Christmas Shoes - Newsong
"
Sir I wanna buy these shoes, For my mama please. It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size."
Not even a song about a real tragedy. Only written to make you feel horrible at Christmas for having living family members. What kind of God gives your mother cancer ON CHRISTMAS but not enough money to buy medicine.. or shoes? Just to teach the spirit of the season to total strangers. @^#$ this song.
Angel - Sarah McLachlan
"Let me be empty, Oh, and weightless, And maybe I'll find some peace tonight." Another horrible song about heroine. Must be a bitch of a drug.
A Team - Ed Sheeran
"White lips, pale face
Breathing in snowflakes." "And go mad for a couple grams
And she don't want to go outside tonight.
And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland or sells love to another man" Her life is ruined by 18 as she struggles with a drug addiction.
Tell Laura I Love Her - Ray Peterson
"But as they pulled him from the twisted wreck, With his dying breath, they heard him say:
Tell Laura I love her, tell Laura I need her, Tell Laura not to cry, My love for her will never die." A Race for $1000 so he could afford to buy his girlfriend a wedding ring.
Hurt - Johnny Cash
"I hurt myself today, To see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, The only thing that's real." While not his originally, Cash managed to make this Nine Inch Nails
song all the more poignant and tragic with its wonderful simplicity and
honesty. What makes it so sad though
is that it’s not a celebration, it’s a lament to what could have been,
an ode to mistakes made in years past.
