1. Queen - Too much love will kill you2. Evanescence - My immortal
1: I'm just the pieces of the man I used to beToo many bitter tears are raining down on meI'm far away from homeAnd I've been facing this aloneFor much too longI feel like no-one ever told the truth to meAbout growing up and what a struggle it would be...I'm just the shadow of the man I used to beAnd it seems like there's no way out of this for meI used to bring you sunshineNow all I ever do is bring you downHow would it be if you were standing in my shoesCan't you see that it's impossible to chooseNo there's no making sense of itEvery way I go I'm bound to loseToo much love will kill youJust as sure as none at all...
2:I'm so tired of being hereSuppressed by all my childish fearsAnd if you have to leaveI wish that you would just leave'Cause your presence still lingers hereAnd it won't leave me aloneThese wounds won't seem to healThis pain is just too realThere's just too much that time cannot erase...
― MK1981, Friday, 5 May 2006 13:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― 35 Hertz (35 Hertz), Friday, 5 May 2006 13:22 (eighteen years ago) link
"I wrote a poem on a dog biscuitAnd your dog refused to look at itSo I got drunk and looked at the Empire State BuildingIt was no bigger than a nickel
And if it don't improve, then I have to moveI never thought that I would end up hereMaybe I should just change my style"
- Galaxie 500, Fourth of July
― Le Bateau Ivre, Saturday, 27 July 2013 02:09 (ten years ago) link
i love that song.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Saturday, 27 July 2013 02:12 (ten years ago) link
came here to post "i may not always love you", from god only knows. i've heard that song 1,000,000 times but that line still gives me chills.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Saturday, 27 July 2013 02:13 (ten years ago) link
Ditto. Spine freezes hearing that line, every goddamn time.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Saturday, 27 July 2013 02:15 (ten years ago) link
For me it's the part where he sings 'the world would show nothing to me/so what good would living do me?' - Likewise I've heard it more times than I can say but it still tears me to shreds
― Pingu Unchained (dog latin), Saturday, 27 July 2013 05:50 (ten years ago) link
With the money from her accidentShe bought herself a mobile homeSo at least she could get some enjoymentOut of being aloneNo one could say that she was left up on the shelfIt's you and me against the world kid she mumbled to herself
Levi Stubb's Tears by Billy Bragg
― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 27 July 2013 12:08 (ten years ago) link
This one gets me:
"I saw your picture, hanging on the back of my door." - Crystal Castles Not in Love
It's simple but in the context of a sad song it says so much.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Saturday, 27 July 2013 12:16 (ten years ago) link
"Lua" by Bright Eyes remains the saddest song in my awareness, and while "I know that it is freezing but I think we have to walk" is far from the saddest thing about it, it a) is still pretty damn sad, and b) establishes the tone for what's to come.
― The Butthurt Locker (cryptosicko), Saturday, 27 July 2013 12:19 (ten years ago) link
"It's four in the morning the end of December/ I'm calling you now just to see if you're better"
― fervently nice (Treeship), Saturday, 27 July 2013 12:21 (ten years ago) link
I agree about Lua btw. Sad song and im glad bright eyes isnt a punchline anymore. For me no song is as sad as the nmh song that starts like this:
"Daddy please here this song that I sing/ in your heart theres a spark that just screams for a lover to bring/ a child to your chest that could lay as you sleep / and love all you have left like your boy used to be."
― fervently nice (Treeship), Saturday, 27 July 2013 12:27 (ten years ago) link
Casimir Pulanski Day by Sufjan Stevens is too sad for me to listen to. I don't even remember how it opens.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Saturday, 27 July 2013 12:30 (ten years ago) link
xp: yes to famous blue raincoat. I was just coming here to post that. but it's "writing", not "calling". he wasn't calling anyone at 4 in the morning.
― how's life, Saturday, 27 July 2013 12:31 (ten years ago) link
Good catch
― fervently nice (Treeship), Saturday, 27 July 2013 12:34 (ten years ago) link
Maybe the lateness of the hourMakes me feel bluer than I am...
Bill Withers - Hope She'll Be Happier
― viacom dios, Monday, 29 July 2013 00:42 (ten years ago) link
Ahem.
― The Butthurt Locker (cryptosicko), Monday, 29 July 2013 04:14 (ten years ago) link
Gotta go with Springsteen at his most pop:
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack. I went out for a ride and I never went back.
Abandoning your family never sounded catchier or more fun.
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 29 July 2013 04:19 (ten years ago) link
I have a mandolinI play it all night longIt makes me want to kill myself
― fervently nice (Treeship), Monday, 29 July 2013 04:46 (ten years ago) link
100,000 fireflies is probably my favorite song btw. i think i've made that claim about other songs on ilx but i'm pretty sure this is the real answer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvSY4NYkySM
― fervently nice (Treeship), Monday, 29 July 2013 04:48 (ten years ago) link
also saddest closing-ish lyrics:
you won't be happy with mebut give me one more chanceyou won't be happy anyway
― fervently nice (Treeship), Monday, 29 July 2013 04:49 (ten years ago) link
Ride the blue wind high and freeShe'll lead you down through miseryLeave you low, come time to goAlone and low as low can be
-TVZ
My love is dead and buried yonderBeneath the weeping willow treeWhat wrecks my life and makes me wonderIs because he died for me
-Carter Family
― rip van wanko, Monday, 29 July 2013 04:53 (ten years ago) link
also saddest closing-ish lyrics:you won't be happy with mebut give me one more chanceyou won't be happy anyway― fervently nice (Treeship), Monday, July 29, 2013 4:49 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― fervently nice (Treeship), Monday, July 29, 2013 4:49 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― daavid, Monday, 29 July 2013 04:59 (ten years ago) link
knowing he is capable of writing songs like this -- and about 1/2 of his songs on the 90s albums, through 69 love songs are near this level -- it's disappointing to me that his recent material is mostly kitschy, conceptual bullshit
― fervently nice (Treeship), Monday, 29 July 2013 05:01 (ten years ago) link
the saddest stephin merritt lyric is, i think, from "as you turn to go": "I know I'm not supposed to say I'm sorry / I know you've had more loves than Mata Hari / But you know you're the star of my life story / And I'm so sorry."
Also Momus's voice is lovely in melancholic mode. I wish he wrote more songs in that vein.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW6YQYlftCE
― fervently nice (Treeship), Monday, 29 July 2013 05:16 (ten years ago) link
Cause I lost my job two weeks before ChristmasAnd I talked to Jesus at the sewerAnd the Pope said it was none of his God-damned business
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oKFkc19T3Dk
― afroslack, Monday, 29 July 2013 06:06 (ten years ago) link
xp- It's kind of hard to pinpoint the saddest Merritt lyric because it also depends on the context of the music. That line from "As You Turn To Go" is wonderfully sad but on top of my head i can think of at least 3 or 4 worthy contenders.
― daavid, Monday, 29 July 2013 06:18 (ten years ago) link
also OTM that Momus's best songs are the sad ones.
― daavid, Monday, 29 July 2013 06:19 (ten years ago) link
Many rivers to cross,but I just can't seem to findmy way over.Wandering, I am lost,as I travel along the white cliffs of Dover.
Many rivers to cross,and it's only my willthat keeps me alive.Well, I've been licked,washed up for years,and I merely survivedbecause of my pride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgzWqfZo8fY
― c21m50nh3x460n, Tuesday, 30 July 2013 04:11 (ten years ago) link
"Good times for a change"
― OutdoorFish, Wednesday, 31 July 2013 12:56 (ten years ago) link
HERPLACENTAFALLSTOTHEFLOOR
― Does the RS Tsarnaev Cover Offend You, Yeah? (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 31 July 2013 13:25 (ten years ago) link
I am saddened to hear "The bugger in the short sleeves fucked my wife," the first line of Guts by John Cale.
― A bee in her hair. (Dr. Joseph A. Ofalt), Wednesday, 31 July 2013 13:40 (ten years ago) link
"It was only one hour ago. It was all so different then."
― SongOfSam, Wednesday, 31 July 2013 20:18 (ten years ago) link
With a growing sense of dreadAnd a hammer in my headFully clothed upon the bedI wake up to the world that I've been living in
― only dogg forgives (Eazy), Wednesday, 31 July 2013 21:09 (ten years ago) link
I got a callI got a phone call from my motherYour dad is changingHe is becoming something other
― JoeStork, Sunday, 21 December 2014 20:02 (nine years ago) link
"I see myself on TV, I'm a faker, a paper clown.It's clear to all my friends that I habitually lie; I just bring them down."
-- the Who, "However Much I Booze"
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 21 December 2014 21:04 (nine years ago) link
"I should have forgotten you long ago, but you're in every song I know"
Busby Berkeley Dreams by Magnetic Fields
― Kitchen Person, Monday, 22 December 2014 12:57 (nine years ago) link
"The last horizons I can see are filled with bars and factories / and in them all we fight to stay awake" - Last Horizons, Gin Blossoms
― Poliopolice, Monday, 22 December 2014 18:53 (nine years ago) link
I can hardly bear the sight of lipstickOn the cigarettes there in the ashtrayLyin' cold the way you left themAt least your lips caressed them while you packedAnd a lip print on a half-filled cup of coffeeThat you poured and didn't drinkBut at least you thought you wanted itThat's so much more than I can say for me
George Jones - A Good Year For The Roses
― The Thelonius Monk of nu-ki? (Dan Peterson), Monday, 22 December 2014 20:49 (nine years ago) link
I was raised by snakesI lie all the time
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 23 December 2014 16:26 (nine years ago) link