Hello beautiful community! I couldn't help but make a playlist with every single song you all suggested (barring songs that just aren't on Spotify, of course). Really looking forward to listening to this, getting misty, then thinking about all of you wonderful people listening to it, and then getting even more misty. Thank you for all of your suggestions!
When I was 14 years old my 24 year old brother David was killed in a car accident. He lived about 4 hours away and I didn’t see him often but he had visited a month before, in May, for my birthday. He had given me Jackson Brown’s Late for the Sky (on vinyl as it was 1975). It was many years before I could listen to anything from that album, especially the title track, without sobbing.
I inherited a fairly large record collection from him, lots of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac and many more, opening my mind to lots of music that was new to me. It was a very difficult time in my life; the tears brought on by the music somehow made me feel close to David and helped me to heal.
Oh boy . . . from the Melancholy Playlist . . . . . "River "- Joni Michell, "Walk On By" - Smokey Robinson version, "Old Man" - Neil Young, "Kingdom of Rain" - Sinead O'Connor and The The, "Breaking Us Into" - Joe Jackson, "Song for Sharon" - Joni Mitchell, "Smoking Section" - St. Vincent and the biggest tearjerker of all for me . . . "Wasted Time" by Joe Jackson. Sometimes you just need to wallow in it. I lost my dad last week and can't visit these songs just yet but there is something powerful about sharing these emotions through music and lyrics. Thanks for this topic today.
Recently, it's the Foo Fighters featuring 16-year-old Shane Hawkins on "My Hero" -- a tribute to Shane's late father. I have tears in my eyes each time I listen to and watch this heart-breaking and inspiring performance. I'm also sitting up straighter -- my heart and inner strength getting a booster shot. ❤
Suleika and Jon -- what recent sad song inspires you?
Ahhhh...The Depression Hit Parade...(the term I used coined by my dear friend, Ellin). The song, "Martha" by Tom Waits, especially the version by Lisa Hannigan and Cormac Curran. My tears come from age 14, an unrequited love, for a boy four years older-he was so kind and such a gentleman. (We were Army BRATS and BRATS in the same neighborhood then, all became friends) He used to lend me his albums, recommend books, discuss literature with me and treat me like I had a brain. WE would sit on the curb in the front of my house (Frankfurt Germany) and life opened up for me, dreams, knowledge, longings...I adored him. His ending was tragic many years later, but my tears are for the boy who opened my mind. Thank you Suleika for your story this week...it reminds me so of my own daughter and Carmen, for the prompt so that we all get to expand our "Depression Hit Parade". I love a good, planned cry.
Interesting that here I live in NYC and today is 9/11. A day of remembrance in my soul. After this horrific event I would go to Strawberry Fields across from the Dakota, where Lennon lived and was killed. Yoko donated the space in Central Park in honor of John. As you walk into the space there’s a beautiful Mandela with the word “Imagine” in it. After 9/11, John’s death, my 2 divorces, I always played “Imagine”. It helped me cry, gave me hope, and when hearing John sing it feels like a balm of hope washes over me and others and all the pain we inflict on one another or we inflict on ourselves. To me it’s a song of forgiveness and tells me “let me do better each and every day.”
Someone mentioned Billie Holiday, and her version of "Strange Fruit" guts me every time. But the first song that came to my mind is Eva Cassidy's "I Know You By Heart" from her "Eve By Heart" CD. It is a song about lamenting love and loss through each season. It ends with autumn, walking paths of orange and gold. Eva left us in autumn, November 1996, age 33, of melanoma. The album came out almost a year later. I was particularly attached to her spirit, and dreamt about her for years after she passed. The song makes me cry still, and not just for Eva, but for the universal lamenting of love and loss throughout my life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crUm-v6o-0s
Thank you Carmen and Suleika for this interesting prompt. The first saddest song on the planet for me is Linda Ronstadt's version of "What'll I Do?" The other sad song is actually Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World"...so beautiful it's sad, so sad it's beautiful. When I hear it I always cry from so many different emotions all at once. Sadness is definitely one of them.
Thank you for this! Of course I have been listening to We Are by Jon Batiste and the whole album is so upbeat and full of joy that I was wondering why is my favorite song "Cry"? Why is that the song I know all the words, belt them out and listen to over and over?
My son once asked me why I always listen to such "depressing music" and I guess my music choices do lean towards beautifully mellow, sad tunes. I just looked through my song list and had a hard time choosing what to share in this post! I finally narrowed it down to these few.
Also, I live outside New York City and I thank you for such a special opportunity to share and learn today, September 11th.
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters- Elton John
Killing Me Softly- Roberta Flack
A Long December- Counting Crows (this one reminds my of my late father and "the smell of hospitals in winter")
Songbird- Fleetwood Mac
So many of my favorites have been listed in this morning's comments: Eva Cassidy's Fields of Gold, James Taylor's You Can Close Your Eyes, Joni Mitchell's River... sweet reminders of songs I love.
This is the first time I've written anything because I'm a fiber artist and am rather timid when it comes to writing but this really struck a cord, no pun intended! One of my favorite bands is Roxy Music and Brian Ferry's soulful crooning voice. Back in the 70-80's my favorite album was Siren and the song End of the Line. My then husband had checked out emotionally and for years I tried to help him but came to the realization that I couldn't. I listened to this song over and over then and it still brings me to tears, not only for what we lost but for it's beauty. It took me another 20 years to have the courage to end the relationship but grateful I am. I have been in the most loving, kind relationship, where we support each other and are walking side by side on our life's journey.
Miles Davis - tossup between Flamenco Sketches and Blue in Green
I could go on, but suffice to say - the thing these have in common is the ability to stop time. I completely surrender to the sheer magic of the mood they create and experience an inwardness, yet also a release, and a soothing sense of sadness if that makes sense. An opening into the vast.
Hello beautiful community! I couldn't help but make a playlist with every single song you all suggested (barring songs that just aren't on Spotify, of course). Really looking forward to listening to this, getting misty, then thinking about all of you wonderful people listening to it, and then getting even more misty. Thank you for all of your suggestions!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Cc0J9tarr1rjJMiAS38at?si=604896ea4a7042e0
When I was 14 years old my 24 year old brother David was killed in a car accident. He lived about 4 hours away and I didn’t see him often but he had visited a month before, in May, for my birthday. He had given me Jackson Brown’s Late for the Sky (on vinyl as it was 1975). It was many years before I could listen to anything from that album, especially the title track, without sobbing.
I inherited a fairly large record collection from him, lots of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac and many more, opening my mind to lots of music that was new to me. It was a very difficult time in my life; the tears brought on by the music somehow made me feel close to David and helped me to heal.
Oh boy . . . from the Melancholy Playlist . . . . . "River "- Joni Michell, "Walk On By" - Smokey Robinson version, "Old Man" - Neil Young, "Kingdom of Rain" - Sinead O'Connor and The The, "Breaking Us Into" - Joe Jackson, "Song for Sharon" - Joni Mitchell, "Smoking Section" - St. Vincent and the biggest tearjerker of all for me . . . "Wasted Time" by Joe Jackson. Sometimes you just need to wallow in it. I lost my dad last week and can't visit these songs just yet but there is something powerful about sharing these emotions through music and lyrics. Thanks for this topic today.
"Here in the dark, in these final hours, I will lay down my heart and I feel the power . . ."
I Can't Make You Love Me, by Bonnie Raitt
Recently, it's the Foo Fighters featuring 16-year-old Shane Hawkins on "My Hero" -- a tribute to Shane's late father. I have tears in my eyes each time I listen to and watch this heart-breaking and inspiring performance. I'm also sitting up straighter -- my heart and inner strength getting a booster shot. ❤
Suleika and Jon -- what recent sad song inspires you?
With Love,
Linda
Ahhhh...The Depression Hit Parade...(the term I used coined by my dear friend, Ellin). The song, "Martha" by Tom Waits, especially the version by Lisa Hannigan and Cormac Curran. My tears come from age 14, an unrequited love, for a boy four years older-he was so kind and such a gentleman. (We were Army BRATS and BRATS in the same neighborhood then, all became friends) He used to lend me his albums, recommend books, discuss literature with me and treat me like I had a brain. WE would sit on the curb in the front of my house (Frankfurt Germany) and life opened up for me, dreams, knowledge, longings...I adored him. His ending was tragic many years later, but my tears are for the boy who opened my mind. Thank you Suleika for your story this week...it reminds me so of my own daughter and Carmen, for the prompt so that we all get to expand our "Depression Hit Parade". I love a good, planned cry.
Hi Everyone!
Interesting that here I live in NYC and today is 9/11. A day of remembrance in my soul. After this horrific event I would go to Strawberry Fields across from the Dakota, where Lennon lived and was killed. Yoko donated the space in Central Park in honor of John. As you walk into the space there’s a beautiful Mandela with the word “Imagine” in it. After 9/11, John’s death, my 2 divorces, I always played “Imagine”. It helped me cry, gave me hope, and when hearing John sing it feels like a balm of hope washes over me and others and all the pain we inflict on one another or we inflict on ourselves. To me it’s a song of forgiveness and tells me “let me do better each and every day.”
Someone mentioned Billie Holiday, and her version of "Strange Fruit" guts me every time. But the first song that came to my mind is Eva Cassidy's "I Know You By Heart" from her "Eve By Heart" CD. It is a song about lamenting love and loss through each season. It ends with autumn, walking paths of orange and gold. Eva left us in autumn, November 1996, age 33, of melanoma. The album came out almost a year later. I was particularly attached to her spirit, and dreamt about her for years after she passed. The song makes me cry still, and not just for Eva, but for the universal lamenting of love and loss throughout my life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crUm-v6o-0s
At seventeen by Janis Ian
My sister had a tough time growing up with a nuro muscular disease CMT
Kids and teens can be so mean .
The crazy thing is after my stem cell I too got the disease.
Adults are kinder ……
Thank you Carmen and Suleika for this interesting prompt. The first saddest song on the planet for me is Linda Ronstadt's version of "What'll I Do?" The other sad song is actually Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World"...so beautiful it's sad, so sad it's beautiful. When I hear it I always cry from so many different emotions all at once. Sadness is definitely one of them.
Wichita Lineman…I need you more than want you and I want you for all time.
This song reminds me of the love, grieving, and heartache that we carry with us through the everyday.
When my father passed, this song broke my heart, then eventually helped heal it.
https://youtu.be/H46yXW4qR_M
This beautiful arrangement of Blackbird ❤️
Carmen and Suleika,
Thank you for this! Of course I have been listening to We Are by Jon Batiste and the whole album is so upbeat and full of joy that I was wondering why is my favorite song "Cry"? Why is that the song I know all the words, belt them out and listen to over and over?
My son once asked me why I always listen to such "depressing music" and I guess my music choices do lean towards beautifully mellow, sad tunes. I just looked through my song list and had a hard time choosing what to share in this post! I finally narrowed it down to these few.
Also, I live outside New York City and I thank you for such a special opportunity to share and learn today, September 11th.
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters- Elton John
Killing Me Softly- Roberta Flack
A Long December- Counting Crows (this one reminds my of my late father and "the smell of hospitals in winter")
Songbird- Fleetwood Mac
So many of my favorites have been listed in this morning's comments: Eva Cassidy's Fields of Gold, James Taylor's You Can Close Your Eyes, Joni Mitchell's River... sweet reminders of songs I love.
This is the first time I've written anything because I'm a fiber artist and am rather timid when it comes to writing but this really struck a cord, no pun intended! One of my favorite bands is Roxy Music and Brian Ferry's soulful crooning voice. Back in the 70-80's my favorite album was Siren and the song End of the Line. My then husband had checked out emotionally and for years I tried to help him but came to the realization that I couldn't. I listened to this song over and over then and it still brings me to tears, not only for what we lost but for it's beauty. It took me another 20 years to have the courage to end the relationship but grateful I am. I have been in the most loving, kind relationship, where we support each other and are walking side by side on our life's journey.
I need to drop everything for:
The Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony -
John Coltrane - Alabama
Sarah Vaughan - Dream
Carmen McRae - Dedicated to You
Miles Davis - tossup between Flamenco Sketches and Blue in Green
I could go on, but suffice to say - the thing these have in common is the ability to stop time. I completely surrender to the sheer magic of the mood they create and experience an inwardness, yet also a release, and a soothing sense of sadness if that makes sense. An opening into the vast.