songs that bring the most jaded to tears...

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okay...you're nearing or have hit 30 (or have gone much, much further), you've seen/heard it all, blah blah...and yet, once and a while a song wriggles through your armor and MAKES YOU FUCKING CRY (even if just a little bit). so fess up, what's the last tune that made your hard-ass self a little misty? (tears of joy acceptable...)

― mono.mono, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I was driving into NYC from Philly to see friends visiting from the midwest when some combination of the skyline in crisp afternoon light and "THE LAWS HAVE CHANGED" by the NEW PORNOGRAPHERS just made me well up. I think I must have listened to the song 5 times in a row as I sat in traffic on the turnpike.

(i'm not sure what the hell the lyrics concerning pharohs, microphones and forming lines to thrones (???), but I think Neko Case could sing about most anything and I wouldn't mind too much...)

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I'm not 30 yet, but Tupac's "Changes" never fails to make me well up

― Vestigal Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush EVERY. DAMN. TIME. There must be some subliminal message buried within wherein Kate orders you to "CRY LIKE THE BIG GIRL'S BLOUSE YOU REALLY ARE!"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

innocence mission - snow
low - shame
chet baker - i get along without you very well

shit...maybe i'm not jaded after all. but I *feel* like an asshole. curious

― william fields, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do" kills me. I want it played at my funeral.

― shookout (shookout), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Piano Magic - Comets

I dare anyone not to cry to it.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

"This Woman's Work"

OTMFM

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

aha! Thread connection!
Robyn Hitchcock thread pt.2 : most artistic creations are incubators of undesirable programs

― Buttmaster Flash (Eleventy-Twelve), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

not much of thread connection. i'm not talking about the machinations of the meta-program here...I'm talking about HUMAN TEARS!

VISCERAL RESPONSES!

WHAT SONGS ARE CAUSING THEM?!

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

b-b-but to me crying, like sadness, is an undesirable program!

― Buttmaster Flash For Lulu (Eleventy-Twelve), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

what about tears of joy?

this also happens with music:

ohmygodthisissobeautifuliamoverwhelmedandmovedtotears response

this perhaps the more interesting occurence. there are a lot of songs which are just sad for the sake of being sad. i can do without those mostly...

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

"Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush

― Bobby Peru, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:05 (twenty-one years ago)

related (but subtly difft) =
Ambushed by unexpected emotion

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Tears of sorrow, tears of joy...oh, come at once for the sweetest boy...

― What we want? Sex with T.V. stars! What you want? Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I think tears of joy represent a deep sadness. Ya crybaby.

― Eleventy-Twelve (Eleventy-Twelve), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

'Neil Young - Only Love Can Break Your Heart' on a live '78 concert recording from (I think) Detroit. Every damn time.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i cannot recall any songs ever bringing me to tears. it's probably the drugs

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 23:49 (twenty-one years ago)

In certain historical circumstances, a good live bootleg of 'Stuck Inside of Mobile w. the Memphis Blues Again' can have lachrymal effect!

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 00:01 (twenty-one years ago)

i have no idea why, but for the longest time i could not listen to "jesus etc." by wilco without tearing up.

― j-dizzle, Wednesday, 23 March 2005 04:04 (twenty-one years ago)

This Woman's Work is a tearjerker, certainly.

Usually when music makes me cry it's more to do with it just being really fucking good music, though, rather than anything to do with the sentiment expressed in it. And being drunk helps.

This past weekend I put on the Section 25 DVD of live stuff from 1980 and cried. I wasn't even watching it, just the music was enough.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 04:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I usually feel a tear or two coming on at Smog's "To Be of Use".

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 04:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Nina Simone's "Everything must change," especially at the end when her voice seems to catch on the "...everything, everything...Must. Channnge."

― brittle-lemon, Wednesday, 23 March 2005 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

"No One is Alone"
"Naive Melody"
"Hard Drive"
"Auld Lang Syne"

― Burr (Burr), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 05:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, this is massively weird. Today I just started listening to a new track and after about two minutes, when the choir kicks in, I find myself choking up a bit.
The song?
The Ewok's Yub Nub Celebration
If you are a geek of a certain age, it might have the same effect.
Absolutely plucks my heartstrings.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 06:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Van Morrison "Madame George"
Ghostface Killah / Mary j Blige "All That I've Got Is You"

no idea why but either one just slays me

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 06:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"It's over, it's over, it's OOOOOOOVER. It's OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVER!"

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 06:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I think this is, like, the fourth thread about this in the past three weeks haha, but I will reiterate that New Order's, "Age on Consent" still gets me all swallowing.

And sometimes The Buzzcocks, "Ever Fallen in Love" because it's just such a perfect song. And ever since someone told me that John Peel said he choked up every time he heard "Teenage Kicks" I kind of do the same.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 07:00 (twenty-one years ago)

poorthreatre...dig Grotowski?

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 08:03 (twenty-one years ago)

one of our local radio stations has an unreleased live recording of sinead o'connor singing jealous which never fails to bring a tear to my eye

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 08:05 (twenty-one years ago)

poortheatre...dig Grotowski?

I'm an experimental theatre major! I have no choice! :)

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 08:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Cocteau Twins' "Musette and Drums" once reduced me to a helpless ill-defined blob of protoplasm in the corner of my living room. Just totally without warning.

Recently, "Hope There's Someone" by Antony and the Johnson's did a similar thing. Just unbearably lonely/sorrowful in an elegiac, grandiloquent manner. Maybe that's the connection there, I don't know.

― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

mickey newbury - frisco depot. this is the saddest song I've ever heard, newbury has a voice more beautiful than willie nelson's and the tune is a model of aching weariness

Frisco's a full day from home
if you can afford to fly
But it might as well be the moon
Lord when you're as broke as I am

Here I sit with my head in my hands
watching the trains roll by
Lord the Helping Hand Mission man warned me
that the nights here got cold

When you're cold there's nothing as welcome as sunshine
When you're dry there's nothing as welcome as rain
When you're alone there's nothing as slow as passin' time
When you're afoot Lord there's nothing as fast as a train

[ steel ]

Well Frisco's a mighty rich town now that ain't no lie
Well they got some buildings that reach up a mile into the sky
But no one can even afford the time just to tell me why
Here's a world full of people with so many people alone

When you're alone you aint got much reason for living
But While you're alive gotta live with your pain
Unless you've been alone for so long
there's no one left who'll forgive
And you find yourself searching your mind
for the links to the chain

― debden, Wednesday, 23 March 2005 10:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Flaming Lips, Do You Realize?? is a fantastic tearjerker if you're (a) in the throes of love or (b) close to death.

― Huey (Huey), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Down From Dover by Dolly Parton

― Maria D. (Maria D.), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

North Country Fair

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

back around thanksgiving i was driving back home after visiting the folks and family for the holiday and decided to rock out to basement jaxx kish kash on the way. i was singing along with "good luck" and out of nowhere got all choked up and weepy and couldn't sing any longer.

same thing happened several years ago while trying to sing along to the replacements' "satisfied" in the car.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

More.....

"Sumerhead" by the Cocteau Twins (off Four Calendar Cafe) can probablly conjure a tear or two, but more because it's so inexorably linked in my memory with a reconciliation of sorts with an estranged girlfriend way back when.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

This might sound unlikely, but the Wonder Stuff's live rendition of the Waterboys' "Fisherman's Blues" (which can be had on the compilation, Love Bites and Other Bruises) kinda gets to me too (fuck the orignal, though, Hahahahahaha).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Mystic Chords of Memory covering "We Could Send Letters"

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Give Me the Reason" by Luther Vandross is a close second -- for me -- to "This Woman's Work" in the painfully bittersweet department. It's not as visceral as Kate's track, but the narrative (the dumped denies the returning scorner) is heartbreaking, yet sung so sweetly and with such subtlety. I kid ye not.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

innocence mission - snow

I'll second that.

Whenever I'm incredibly frustrated & on the verge of tears I put on Radiohead's "No Surprises", which usually helps open the floodgates.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Matthew Sweet's "Devil With the Green Eyes" used to bring me to tears when I was thinking about how to tell my first husband I wanted a divorce. The lines "What are you gonna do now
That you're tired of faking it?" and the part about living in a prison would choke me up every time.

― Maria D. (Maria D.), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"Traces" by Classics IV. I couldn't believe it either.
"Hot Burrito No. 1" used to get me too.

― Billy Pilgrim, Wednesday, 23 March 2005 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)

satisfied by the replacements. definatly.

― j-dizzle, Wednesday, 23 March 2005 21:19 (twenty-one years ago)

j-dizzle OTM

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh Christ yes, Satisfied will do it.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Daft Punk - One More Time (Because of a certain meaning i ascribed to the song)

Pavement - Grounded (something about that guitar line at the start)

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Wednesday, 23 March 2005 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

'Satisfied' is good choice. Here's a surefire one I haven't heard for a while, 'Le Plat Pays' by Brel.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

le plat pays - good call.

mon enfance by brel too

― debden, Thursday, 24 March 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

About 20% of the songs written by Stephin Merritt do this to me the first time I listen to them.

― daavid (daavid), Thursday, 24 March 2005 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

You people honestly wept while listening to these songs? Or did they just make you really sad....

― PB, Thursday, 24 March 2005 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

my eyes moistened and I wasn't sad.

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Thursday, 24 March 2005 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"Not for the Season," the Jeff Tweedy acoustic version.

I don't even like Wilco that much and I have no idea what the lyrics mean ((\they're about a girl, right?) and IT. FREAKING. KILLS. ME.

― Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Thursday, 24 March 2005 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Lyra Jane OTM

i've downloaded some Jeff Tweedy solo sets over the years. put that boy next to an acoustic guitar and chills and tears are bound to happen.

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Thursday, 24 March 2005 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

This Moment - Jayhawks. I hadn't heard it for the longest time until they played it on the radio recently. Got something caught in my eye simultaneously. Or something...

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 25 March 2005 04:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Cold Morning Light - Todd Rundgren

and about 1/2 the of the rest of Something/Anything.

Nyah, I don't cry, but I guess I get to thinking how deep some of these songs truly are.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 25 March 2005 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

Can we discuss and trade some songs that absolutely hurt? That make the day a little bit grayer and the air a little bit colder?

Some that immediately spring to mind:

The La La Song by Casey Dienel
http://www.last.fm/music/Casey+Dienel/_/The+La+La+Song

and Love Don't Love Nobody by The Spinners
http://www.imeem.com/people/oQaHAPU/music/1FPPZ3kr/the_spinners_love_dont_love_nobody/

― nothinbutcuts, Saturday, 3 January 2009 11:48 (seventeen years ago)

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