songs that make you cry

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...and two more.... who can't fail to be moved by 'Asleep' and 'Please please please let me get what I want' by the Smiths?

russ t, Friday, 21 March 2003 12:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

My Peter Gabriel weepie songs:
'Father, Son', 'Here Comes the Flood' (Exposure version), 'I Grieve', 'Sky Blue', 'Mercy Street', and of course 'Don't Give Up'...
Listening to these in sequence always makes me dissolve. I do it when I'm feeling especially depressed.

Anna Rose, Friday, 21 March 2003 18:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

David Bowie, "I'm Not Quite" (known later as "Letter to Hermione" -- but NOT that version.)

Recently: Iron & Wine, "Bird Stealing Bread"

jaymc., Friday, 21 March 2003 22:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Big Star's UPbeat songs, for some reason, don't make me cry or anything, but definitely overwhelm me in a positive way.

and lots of Neil

roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 21 March 2003 22:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

There are some tracks on Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Disintegration by the Cure that are weep-worthy, notably "How Beautiful You Are" "Last Dance" and one or two others. "Push" and "A Night Like This" (on The Head on the Door) both exude that same bittersweet heartbroken melancholly as well.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 March 2003 22:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

The song that always makes tears is Parallel Lines by Kings of Convenience. His voice falters, the bit where the piano comes in, and the bit about the lyrics waking to a sash of snow on the window, just reminds me of sad winters in the dacha. Lovely lovely but so sad. Another song Rainbo Conversation by Stereolab. Moving tune but the lyrics too -"I yearn for romantic passion" beautifully sung so sincere and humanistic. It makes you realise that life could be wonderful and that can bring tears of recognition and heartfelt warmth.Maybe its the words that can set me off! Thats why I like English language so much, so many ways of expressing emotion.

Liliya, Saturday, 22 March 2003 22:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

not a song but masayuki takayanagi and karou abe improvising prob gets me as close to tears of joy as much as anything.

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 22 March 2003 22:54 (twenty-one years ago) link


'It's only just begun' by Dionne Warwick.

Someone else mentioned Duranduran so I figured, hey fuck it, why not be honest for once?

Gatinha (rwillmsen), Saturday, 22 March 2003 22:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dismemberment Plan, "The City"

j.lu (j.lu), Saturday, 22 March 2003 23:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

last night, "Missing Miss MacColl" by Green Pajamas

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 23 March 2003 00:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

There's a certain point about halfway through Blood on the Tracks where my eyes invariably get a bit moist, I think it's usually around "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go".

o. nate (onate), Sunday, 23 March 2003 00:31 (twenty-one years ago) link


I think 'You're gonna make me lonesome when you go' would make a big stony statue weep brokenheartedly.

Gatinha (rwillmsen), Sunday, 23 March 2003 00:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

I Think It's About to Rain - Blacktop

That Girl (thatgirl), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

I only get weepy if I've been drinking, but I think I recall these doing it to me-

Van Der Graaf Generator - "Afterwards"
The Byrds - "The Bells of Rhymney"
The Byrds - "Goin' Back"
The Byrds - "One Hundred Years From Now"
Gram Parsons - "She"
Beach Boys - listened to it drunk one night and cried at some point, can't really recall where.
Saw Blunstone and Argent last year and cried when they did "This Will Be Our Year".

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 23 March 2003 03:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

er, "it" = Pet Sounds

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 23 March 2003 03:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

what? i don't cry.

(ok maybe just a little bit to Bob Dylan - Most Of The Time)

Dave M. (rotten03), Sunday, 23 March 2003 04:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

This Ascension "August Rain"

Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 23 March 2003 04:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

"maxine" by sharon o'neill really upsets me, especially ever since i saw the video for it. to me, its the saddest song in the world. if it comes on the radio when i'm driving i have to pull over and have a sob. there are some upsetting songs by tori amos, but i don't care to elaborate cos its too personal and embarassing. also "complicated" by heavens to betsy, "hot rock" and "burn don't freeze" by the sleaters (but probbly everyone knew that).

di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 23 March 2003 05:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dylan - "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," but only when I'm thinking about this specific person that was real real bad to me. ("You just kinda wasted my precious time / but don't think twice it's alright.") Hey, we've all had at least one. I like the way a lot of people are saying Dylan. There's hope for the world yet.

Others:
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" - Beach Boys
"This Guy's in Love With You" - Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass
"Stand By Me" - Ben E. King
"Midnight Train to Georgia" - Gladys Knight and the Pips (I can't believe no one's said this yet)
"And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" - The Pogues
"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" - The Beatles
"I Feel For You" - Chaka Khan (out of happiness)
"Girl from the North Country" - Bob Dylan
"Reason to Believe" - Bruce Springsteen
"Whispering Pines" - The Band
"Car / Girl Stand Still" - Catherine Wheel
"Down Colorful Hill" - Red House Painters
"Medication" - Damien Jurado
"Condor Ave." - Elliot Smith
"You Don't Know What Love Is" - Billie Holiday
"But Not For Me" - Chat Baker (again, out of happiness)

I cry a lot, I guess.

Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 March 2003 08:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think all of these have at one point:

The Beatles - "For No One"

The Rolling Stones - "Mother's Little Helper"

Led Zeppelin - "That's the Way"

Radiohead - "Let Down"

Slint - "Good Morning Captain"

Spice Girls - "Viva Forever" video

REM - "Green Grow the Rushes" (though I think there were a lot of extra-
musical reasons involved in the last two cases)

Joy Division - "Insight", "New Dawn Fades"

Concrete Blonde - "Joey"

"You Are My Sunshine"

The Velvet Underground - "Pale Blue Eyes" (I haven't listened to this in years largely for this reason. It might not have the same effect now.)

Morrissey - "Late Night, Maudlin Street"

Patti Smith Group - "We Three"

I have really vague general memories of weepiness during In Utero, Nirvana Unplugged, and Under the Pink but can't put my finger on any particular song or anything really at this point. I spent a good portion of that year in tears though so there was probably lots of stuff.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 08:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

(Probably "Pennyroyal Tea".)

sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 09:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Interestingly, I'm pretty sure that free jazz, modern classical (or probably any classical or jazz to be honest), Indian classical music, or IDM have never made me cry though they've achieved other effects, obviously. I'm trying to put my finger on why this is. In a way I have trouble explaining, I don't think that making me cry is necessarily that lofty a goal.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 09:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah pale blue eyes used to make me cry too, but now it makes me angry.

di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 23 March 2003 09:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't think that making me cry is necessarily that lofty a goal.

But what about if it's not the goal? I do not think that I would cry at something that was just plain schmaltzy. If it can make me cry, I assume there's some high level of quality involved.

Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 23 March 2003 09:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm not saying it's bad or a sign of poor quality either.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 09:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

In my case, it's questioning of the future, set in a beautiful arrangement with a beautiful singer, that gets me. Like in "Bells of Rhymney" that line "is there hope for the future?" gets me everytime. Or in "One Hundred Years from This Day" when Gram sings "nobody knows / what kind of trouble we're in / nobody seems to think / it all might happen again". Or in "This Will Be Our Year" when Blunstone sings "now you're here / we've only just begun / this will be our year / took a long time to come".

Yeah that kind of stuff just gets me, regardless of their "intention".

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 23 March 2003 09:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

Actually now that I consider it there's another song that almost gets me there that has really nothing to do w/ temporal concerns and really is about as twee as possible, "The Feathered Tiger" by the Kaleidoscope U.K. It is so precious, but in the right mood it totally grabs me.

Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 23 March 2003 09:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

'Pink Moon' by Nick Drake, I remember now, can make me bawl. And at least twice I have played it to girlfriends for the first time and watched them do the same. One cried, then got extremely happy at having been introduced to the music, then claimed she would not play it again, perhaps for months. It was just too much for her. I'm different in that if I'm bawling, I'm very indulgent and want it to happen. It feels like a cleansing.

mick hall (mick hall), Monday, 24 March 2003 10:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

nico's "these days" seconded. The Pogues "And the band played Waltzing Mathilda"

gaz (gaz), Monday, 24 March 2003 10:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hmm, there are a few:

Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
First time I listened to it I was lying in bad with the flu at 3 in the morning. It's just TOO lovely, and made the feel even worse than I did at the time, which was pretty bad!

Most of Abba Gold:
Dont' ask me why, but a few years ago I wept constantly to most of Gold. I think it was a bit too joyous for my own good . . .Waterloo and Dancing Queen being the most guilty ones, but everything else effected me far too much.

It's Too Late - The Streets
Sunday morning and this went on. I hadn't really listened to the album before, but this made me weep like a baby. "Nothing has significance/ and nothing else has relevence/ 'cause all I can see is her elagence" manages to be understated AND over-the-top at the same time, and gives me shivers even now.

Shining Light- Ash
The chorus "A full on chemical rection/ like dark divine intervention/ You are a shinig light" still does it for me - shocking I know, but what am I to do, it's still as lovely as lovely can be!

Who Knows Where the Time Goes? - Fairport Convention
It's at the start of the third verse where Sandy Denny sound REALLY English ("And I am not alone/ while my love is near me") that gets me. It's the way she pronounces "alone" I think . . . how strange am I?

I think it's the presence of unadulterated lovliness that does it. Before it came on constant rotation EVERYWHERE, Natural Blues made me feel a bit weepy. And I was watching a double bill on Sky Movies yesterday of Sound of Music and My Fair Lady . . . exactly the same thing happened. I found a tear running down my cheek during Do Ri Me, Favourite Things and Wouldn't be Lovely, among others! Oh, AND 16 going on 17, AND Street where you live etc etc etc.

Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 24 March 2003 11:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

Who Knows Where the Time Goes? - Fairport Convention

How right you are. I turn into such a "chick" when I hear this song.

Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 24 March 2003 12:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

oh man this thread is ruining my reputation as a hard-assed bee-yotch, but i have to confess my flatmate was listening to "pet sounds" yesterday morning and when "god only knows" came on i couldn't contain myself. boohoo.

di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 24 March 2003 20:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ash - Low Ebb/Folk Song/Aphrodite (the mighty Nu-Clear Sounds trilogy)
Tom Waits - Take it With Me
Xiu Xiu - Suha
Eels - 3 Speed/The Medication's Wearing Off/Selective Memory
Juno - The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow
Manic Street Preachers - This Is Yesterday
Bright Eyes - We Are Free Men
Dismemberment Plan - Respect Is Due
Suede - Still Life
Neil Finn - Try Whistling This (the ending always gets to me)
Pearl Jam - Parting Ways
Flaming Lips - Up Above the Daily Hum

Simon H., Tuesday, 25 March 2003 00:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

casiotone for the painfully alone - edith wong/baby it's you/tonight was a disaster
bruce springsteen - thunder road/badlands/atlantic city/
neil young - bethlehem/long may you run
tom waits - blind love/downtown train/hang down your head/innocent when you dream
daniel johnston - i don't wanna grow up
nico - i'll keep it with mine
glen campbell - wichita lineman
freddie fender - before the next teardrop falls
most dylan sends me into weepy fits, as does otis redding and most of the stuff on the peter laughner double lp.
i could keep going with this, but you get the idea. i'm a total marshmallow.

lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 00:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

Or maybe on some level pop makes an emotional connection for me that some other musics haven't yet?

sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 00:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

Camper Van Beethoven: All Her Favorite Fruit

kephm, Tuesday, 25 March 2003 04:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hallelujah - The Leonard Cohen and the Jeff Buckley versions; I can't pick one or the other. Also "I'm Your Man" by Mr. Cohen. The strain in his voice, the quiet yearning, gives dignity even to those creaky old synth lines. A pair of utterly amazing songs that bring tears to my eyes years after I first heard them.

"Letdown" by Radiohead. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. This song almost makes me wish I was a weepy, over-emotional teenager again. Fuck emo; this is where it's at.

"Waking Up Beside You" by Stabbing Westward. I will not entertain criticism here. This song is just too damn sad.

justin s., Tuesday, 25 March 2003 07:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

Forgot one. "Home" by Depeche Mode. The album is already beautifully textured and miserable to begin with, from beginning to end (yes, even those last few tracks which all sound alike). But this song is the kicker. It's one of their favorites to play live, and I can see why. It stands up against all criticism, the possible over-emoting, the maybe too-powerful strings, nothing detracts from the song's simple agony and heartbreak. God. If I don't stop I'm going to need to break out the Kleenex *grins*.

justin s., Tuesday, 25 March 2003 07:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

I just cried to Schoenberg's Erwartung.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 10:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Unoriginally, Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah and The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams. God Only Knows has done, as has The Not Knowing by Tindersticks. Lately, a song I can't remember the name of, possibly by a Man Called Adam, possibly not. It is pretty and has a northern child talking over it about cows and football.

Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 12:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Justin S - agree with the DM 'Home' choice - Gore has such a more emotive voice than Gahan. Quite why they need Dave is beyond me...!
Also, A Question Of Lust (which I'm sure Shirley Bassey could have a go at).
But the one that does it for me is the only track I like from 'Exciter' - 'Freelove'. One of their greatest songs.

Another song I heard at the weekend which always brought a lump to my throat was Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'The Power of Love'. Gorgeous

russ t, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 12:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

brighter - tinsel heart
field mice - and before the first kiss
field mice - willow
joy division - atmosphere
jam - beat surrender (no, can't explain why! it just happened!)
hood - cross the land
harper lee - ALL

kieron, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 22:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

OMG "willow" *slays* me. i can't even think about listening to it.

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 22:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah, and don't EVER listen to it on a break-up, especially if you've initiated it. it will have you in FLOODS.

kieron, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 22:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

oh, i've been there. hence why...

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 23:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

I was just getting sobby to "Lied der Waldtaube".

sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 27 March 2003 00:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

(Also by Schoenberg, of course.)

sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 27 March 2003 01:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

Red House Painters "Katy Song"
Matthew Sweet "Nothing Lasts"
Good Charlotte "Say Anything," "The Day That I Died" & "Movin' On"
Heavens To Betsy "Complicated" & "Paralyzed"
Sleater-Kinney "Lions & Tigers," "Good Things," "Heart Attack"
Queen "Under Pressure"
Flock Of Seagulls "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)"
Desaparecidos "Man & Wife, The Latter (Damaged Goods)"
REM "Perfect Circle," "The Flowers Of Guatemala" (the latter song worked better when I didn't know what it was "about")

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 27 March 2003 01:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

two months pass...
"Give Me the Reason" by Luther Vandross

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 13 June 2003 04:04 (twenty years ago) link

"Asleep and Dreaming," Magnetic Fields
"Bottle Up and Explode!," Elliott Smith
"Time," Tom Waits

Yaz(oo)'s "Only You" used to have that effect, but now it's just cute...

Sean Thomas (sgthomas), Friday, 13 June 2003 04:18 (twenty years ago) link

I very rarely hear a new song that makes me cry. I think the last one might have been "Snow is Falling in Manhattan" by Purple Mountains.

Chris L, Friday, 10 June 2022 01:45 (one year ago) link

eight months pass...

Pedro Soler & Gaspar Claus "Encuentro en Brooklyn" ^^^

Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Monday, 6 March 2023 12:22 (one year ago) link


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