These Are the Sad Songs
Via LRC, a link to a list (with audio) of “the 25 most exquisitely sad songs in the whole world.” I think I could come up with a better list, and I certainly know a few other folks who could. But this one will do: it can’t be all bad if it includes “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Lost Cause” (a particular favorite of mine), and “I Know It’s Over.” You can’t go too far wrong with Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash, either, though “In the Real World” and “Hurt” might not be the best picks.
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May 7, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Triangle Slim had a long-running contest on WXYC back in the ’80s to determine the saddest song ever recorded. I think John Prine’s “Sam Stone” won. (“There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes/And Jesus Christ died for nothin’, I suppose…”)
Meanwhile, one of my favorite movies of the last few years is Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World, a very funny satire. Highly recommended.
May 7, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Hey, how about Theora Kilogore’s immortal, This is My Prayer? Classic stuff, circa 1961
May 8, 2007 at 5:27 am
I don’t know if it can be described as equisite but the saddest song I’ve ever heard is Hank Williams Sr.’s “First Fall of Snow”. The primative lo-fi recording certainly helps.
May 9, 2007 at 9:18 am
“There is a general place in your brain, I think, reserved for ‘melancholy of relationships past’. It grows and prospers as life progresses, forcing you finally, against your better judgment, to listen to country music”.- Kary Mullis, Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry
May 12, 2007 at 3:06 am
[...] Spinner Magazine’s list of the 25 Most Exquisitely Sad Songs. My only big objection is to number one (What the fuck is it even doing on the list!?), but I also have cavils too numerous to list. The best part about the list is that you can listen to the songs as you flip through. (Link from the Tory Anarchist.) [...]
February 18, 2010 at 1:53 pm
‘I know it’s Over’ is indeed one of the saddest songs ever. Probably the saddest song I have heard is ‘Casimir Pulaski Day’ by Sufjan Stevens.
Also found this relatively unknown artist called Barnaby Griffin who specialise in sad songs.