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!
Oh my goodness!!!!! This is AWSOME!!!! Thank you Holly for compiling all of our songs. Love this connection of music (and writing) that brings us all together. Such a special community this is 💜
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.
Thank you Suleika; obviously today's post hit home with me. I did not expect to receive so many kind words about my dad . . . . thank you all so much. Words matter . . . . : )
Thanks Marnie . . . . my brother and I are working on the playlist for my dad's memorial . . . some of his favorites make us laugh - he loved Boston and ELO lol . . .
What a significant loss you’ve experienced, and you’re plugging along through it, thankfully. But know others feel sorrow knowing you’re going through rough waters.
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.”
“Imagine” is to be played at my celebration of life. It captures my hopes for my loved ones and our world. It is so needed in our fractured, hurting world today. Thank you for your post.
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
Eva came to my mind as well. "Over The Rainbow" is the song that means the most and brings me to tears. "Fields of Gold" is another. Her life was cut short tragically but thankfully her music lives on.
My best friend was my older sister, Annette. She was killed in a car accident after dropping me off at my parents house. In the 43 years since her death, I’ve never experienced a close friendship. The song “The Long and Winding Road” hits my heart hardest. Every line speaks to my longing to see her again and to wonder if I ever will. When the song comes on the radio, my husband will turn it off because he knows it makes me cry. I don’t say anything when he does this because I know it comes from a place of love and desire to keep me from hurting. But every now and then, I put the song on because I need to feel the connection to my sister.
Alone Again Naturally, by Gilbert O'Sullivan (released 1972) is my all time sad song. The year of its release followed my mother leaving our family for the neighbor, and absconding with him and his 3 boys. With a narcissistic father incapable of empathy and connection, my 3 yo brain and heart became completely detached. The other day on a road trip to my home town to visit my elderly father whose memory is quickly retreating, this song came on and my memory shot back to the days of listening to it over and over and the melancholy that ensued. By the time this song came out I was 7, and had already been trained enough at the piano to read music. Once I finally got the sheet music, I played it again and again, singing with tears. It wasn't until just hearing this song last month on the radio with my visit to the homeland and my childhood encroaching on my autonomy, did I connect with the depth to which this song allowed me to process my loss, and feeling of being alone, when there was no one there with watchful eye and caring heart to guide me through. I love the first 2 verses of the tune:
"In a little while from now
If I'm not feeling any less sour
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top
Will throw myself off
In an effort to make clear to whomever
What it's like when you're shattered"
I thought over and over about taking my life as a young child. I would not doubt that the resolution found in this song to pull through and stay, trudging along in life as the singer seemed to be doing, made me feel not alone, and hence a life long yearning and knowing that surely there is a way has continued to support me in my darkest of hours.
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.
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.
It’s Quiet Uptown from HAMILTON never fails to bring me to tears. From “the unimaginable”...to “she takes his hand”...to “forgiveness”, the grief is profoundly moving.
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
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Lordy, that's almost 12 hours of sad songs! Deep dive!
Yesssss ♥️
Oooh, thank you so much! Can’t wait to listen!
Wow!! Just the best !!
Oh my goodness!!!!! This is AWSOME!!!! Thank you Holly for compiling all of our songs. Love this connection of music (and writing) that brings us all together. Such a special community this is 💜
Thanks so much. This is a great idea. I can't wait to listen to it. Thanks for taking the time to do it!
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.
Sending love and wishes for comfort ♥️♥️
Thank you Suleika; obviously today's post hit home with me. I did not expect to receive so many kind words about my dad . . . . thank you all so much. Words matter . . . . : )
It's so hard to lose a parent. Give yourself some time to grieve before you dive into this therapeutic playlist.
Thanks Marnie . . . . my brother and I are working on the playlist for my dad's memorial . . . some of his favorites make us laugh - he loved Boston and ELO lol . . .
Thank you for all these great tunes. I am so sorry for the loss of your dad. Sending love to you and your family for this difficult time.
Thank you so much for the kind words . . . .
I'm so sorry for your loss. Sending some love and strength your way. 💜
Thank you Dodie . . .
My deepest condolences on the loss of your father. I hope the time of finding comfort in your memories of him comes Sooner rather than much later.
Thank you for your kind words, Sandra.
Love and healing to you and yours
Thank you Neil.
What a significant loss you’ve experienced, and you’re plugging along through it, thankfully. But know others feel sorrow knowing you’re going through rough waters.
Thank you Kathryn
So sorry for your loss! ❤️ Sending Prayers for healing and comfort.
Thanks so much Gail.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
Thank you Laurie.
"Song for Sharon" is special. I am sorry you lost your Dad.
Thank you William.
"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
Yes, Bonnie has the uncanny ability to bring tears of joy, grief and strength, all at once!
Right?
I was thinking about writing about that one too, but ended up picking a different one.
Good choice!
Ohhh, I Love that song. Beautiful.
Oh God...Bonnie, I love you. Burning Down The House, Thing Called Love...Angel From Montgomery...on and on.
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
That tribute was beautiful and so powerful ❤️
I watch it on YouTube every day. Take care, Ela.
That was a beautiful and powerful tribute by his son.
Yes, so moving. Wish you well, Laura.
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.”
“Imagine” is to be played at my celebration of life. It captures my hopes for my loved ones and our world. It is so needed in our fractured, hurting world today. Thank you for your post.
I want that song also played on my celebration of life day.
I wanted it as my wedding song but I was overruled but I did have it played twice that day.
Blessings and thank you
https://youtu.be/YkgkThdzX-8 Link to the song.
thanks - I shared it on my Facebook blog - The Fringe 999 - always gives me goosebumps
I also chose Imagine as my sad song. Blessings to you on this day of remembrance.
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
Eva came to my mind as well. "Over The Rainbow" is the song that means the most and brings me to tears. "Fields of Gold" is another. Her life was cut short tragically but thankfully her music lives on.
I love Eva Cassidy as well! Thank you for sharing how her music impacted you. ❤️
Oh yes! That one gets to me too.So many feels!
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 ……
Love that entire album, Between the Lines, accompanied me through my teens.
Oh my. Awful, sad, so many words could be used to describe those events in your life. I send you comfort and joy.
My best friend was my older sister, Annette. She was killed in a car accident after dropping me off at my parents house. In the 43 years since her death, I’ve never experienced a close friendship. The song “The Long and Winding Road” hits my heart hardest. Every line speaks to my longing to see her again and to wonder if I ever will. When the song comes on the radio, my husband will turn it off because he knows it makes me cry. I don’t say anything when he does this because I know it comes from a place of love and desire to keep me from hurting. But every now and then, I put the song on because I need to feel the connection to my sister.
Alone Again Naturally, by Gilbert O'Sullivan (released 1972) is my all time sad song. The year of its release followed my mother leaving our family for the neighbor, and absconding with him and his 3 boys. With a narcissistic father incapable of empathy and connection, my 3 yo brain and heart became completely detached. The other day on a road trip to my home town to visit my elderly father whose memory is quickly retreating, this song came on and my memory shot back to the days of listening to it over and over and the melancholy that ensued. By the time this song came out I was 7, and had already been trained enough at the piano to read music. Once I finally got the sheet music, I played it again and again, singing with tears. It wasn't until just hearing this song last month on the radio with my visit to the homeland and my childhood encroaching on my autonomy, did I connect with the depth to which this song allowed me to process my loss, and feeling of being alone, when there was no one there with watchful eye and caring heart to guide me through. I love the first 2 verses of the tune:
"In a little while from now
If I'm not feeling any less sour
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top
Will throw myself off
In an effort to make clear to whomever
What it's like when you're shattered"
I thought over and over about taking my life as a young child. I would not doubt that the resolution found in this song to pull through and stay, trudging along in life as the singer seemed to be doing, made me feel not alone, and hence a life long yearning and knowing that surely there is a way has continued to support me in my darkest of hours.
Last two lines remind me of a phrase in Paul Simon's "Graceland":
...And I see losing love is like a window in your heart
Well, everybody sees you're blown apart
Everybody feels the wind blow
Ooh, ooh, ooh...
Here's a wonderful version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VTcBO4q5kY
Incredible lines and images and so true
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.
Alabama is immense
Laughing and crying you know it’s the same release - Joni Mitchell. That’s all.
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.
Suleika's husband Jon performs a gorgeous rendition of "What A Wonderful World." 💜
Yaas! Linda Rondstadt, amazing tune.
It’s Quiet Uptown from HAMILTON never fails to bring me to tears. From “the unimaginable”...to “she takes his hand”...to “forgiveness”, the grief is profoundly moving.
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.
Such a beautiful song ❤️
One of my very favourite sad songs, I always think of another song that probably came out at the same time- if you read my mind by Gordon lightfoot.
If you could read my mind
https://youtu.be/H46yXW4qR_M
This beautiful arrangement of Blackbird ❤️
Yeah, this is timeless. Jon does it best.
I love xorrine Bailey Rae with Herbie Hancock at the white house too, when Macca was awarded the Gershwin prize