NationStates Jolt Archive

Music's a powerful thing. We've all heard something that's inspired us, touched a nerve, made us mad, what have you. But what about sad music? What touches you? A hymn? A dirge? An especially bad pop song? :p

As for me, I'd have to go with The Last Man (http://ducker.org/~jrodman/The%20Fountain/01%20The%20Last%20Man.mp3), from the movie The Fountain. Clint Mansell's a genius -- he did the music for this movie as well as Requiem for a Dream, and he's rapidly becoming one of my favorite composers. He's very good with the simple, soulful, evocative orchestral music, the kind that makes you think without saying anything at all. Some other good tracks from that movie: Xibalba (http://ducker.org/~jrodman/The%20Fountain/06%20Xibalba.mp3), Stay With Me (http://ducker.org/~jrodman/The%20Fountain/04%20Stay%20With%20Me.mp3), and Together We Will Live Forever (http://ducker.org/~jrodman/The%20Fountain/10%20Together%20We%20Will%20Live%20Forever.mp3).

What about you?

Search Me O' God...Its an old hymnal that we used to play at alter call time back at my home church. The music is just so depressing.

Meh R.E.M.'s "Mad World" always seems to get me going. (In a sad way. Pervs.)

Pat Boone's version of "Enter Sandman"

It's a toss up between 'Forever Love (http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/x/xforever.htm)' and 'The Last Song (http://www.animelyrics.com/jpop/xjapan/thelastsong.htm)'.

Johnny Cash - Hurt. That has got to be the most depressing song ever....it is a good song though.

hmm there are quite a lot but cripple and the starfish by anthony and the johnsons is a very good and sad song. both the lyrics and his voice are quite touching.

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/9325/niceguy.jpg

This album was so bad that it made me cry.

Wings For Marie (Pt 1) and 10,000 Days (Pt 2) - together they form what is quite possibly the most beautiful song I've ever heard.

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/9325/niceguy.jpg

This album was so bad that it made me cry.

"And hence, Pat Boone went forth and made an album, and little children did cry in the streets, and there was much cringing and pointing of fingers with hearty amusement."

It can change from time to time depending on what the sadness is relating to. I guess some songs along that line would be Lacrimas Profundere - An Orchid for my Withering Garden, My Dying Bride - For my Fallen Angel, Live - All over you, Current 93 - All the pretty little horsies, Brainstorm - Reality Show, Candlebox - Far Behind, Better than Ezra - In the Blood, Al Kooper - Song & Dance for the Unborn Frightened Child, Hungry Lucy - Into Pieces, and many others. I kind of want to listen to some of those now, I haven't heard many of them in a while.

Johnny Cash - Hurt. That has got to be the most depressing song ever....it is a good song though.

Well, that was actually a Nine Inch Nails song but Johnny Cash did make it sound very depressing.

It's a 3-Way tie between Cat Power's cover of "Troubled Waters", Dropkick's "Four Dead Cheerleaders", or Straylightrun's "Now It's Done."
The first time I heard those, I was really hit hard.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled calloused and horrible Fiddlebottoms.

Cat Power's cover of "Troubled Waters"

oh cat power, she has some great sad songs, i only have "what would the community think" wich i like a lot, and her latest wich i don't really like a lot. i should listen to them again.

There are different kinds of sadness, but:

Shostakovich's 5th symphony 3rd movement (or perhaps the whole of it),
John Williams' music to Schindler's List,
Arvo Part's Spiegel im spiegel,
the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th symphony,
Eric Whitacre's 'When David heard',
Barber's Adagio for Strings,
Requiems by many people.

And on a more personal level, several compositions of mine have explored my own sadness and depression.

Oh and Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" is pretty sad, as well as "Indifference".

Lacrimosa performed by the Kronos Quartet and Dawn Upshaw on Night Prayers, don't know the composer unfortunately.

Lonely Woman by Ornette Coleman

Mahler's 3rd (I might be fucking this up, I don't have it with me) 1st movement performed by aaahhhhcrap, his name is close enough to Uwe Boll that that's all I can think of...Uri Caine...whew...

Some more, but that's off the top of my head.

oh cat power, she has some great sad songs, i only have "what would the community think" wich i like a lot, and her latest wich i don't really like a lot. i should listen to them again.
Don't let The Greatest turn you off her earlier albums, it's just an aberration induced by her newfound sobriety.
You Are Free and The Covers Record are much better.

Don't let The Greatest turn you off her earlier albums, it's just an aberration induced by her newfound sobriety.
You Are Free and The Covers Record are much better.

i'll trie to obtain them.

Mad World: Donnie Darko Edition.

The lyrics aren't that sad, but the tone is just plain haunting...

Gladiator Soundtrack, track 15

Fisherman's horizon - FFVIII soundtrack

A true epic peace. One feels as if one is on the beach, completely isolated sitting there with watching the waves with a fishing pole planted in the sand watching as the world goes by.

"Untitled 1" by Sigur Ros. (http://download.sigur-ros.co.uk/sigur_ros-untitled1-live.mp3)

(The actual song starts around 1:07 in that link)

My Youngman by Kate Rusby

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5AjblYI9KEY

This is going to sound a little cheesy, but:
"Already There" by Lone Star. My throat tightens every time I hear that song.

And I guess maybe "Simon" by Lifehouse.

]Mad World: Donnie Darko Edition.[/B]

The lyrics aren't that sad, but the tone is just plain haunting...

That was going to be my nomination. Michael Andrews knows how to create a score.

The Final Cut- Pink Floyd. That song just makes you want to curl up in a closet.

Wish You Were Here--Pink Floyd.

Dilba - Sorry
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXMfaisnKe4)
http://www.tsrocks.com/d/dilba_texts/im_sorry.html


Maria Mena - Just Hold Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC2ugAhYqz0)

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Just-Hold-Me-lyrics-Maria-Mena/3D82BDFABB7B3F1B4825712D0013C451


Tristania - Shadowman (http://www.lyricsdir.com/tristania-shadowman-lyrics.html)

These three.

X-Japan - Endless Rain (http://youtube.com/watch?v=UgC6-bh3A7U)

Finally Free (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZAerNMyhsI) has some moving bits(thought the vocals in that video are made of fail). And Vacant

Well, that was actually a Nine Inch Nails song but Johnny Cash did make it sound very depressing.

we know. However, even the NIN lead singer said he "didn't consider it his song anymore". He considers it Johnny's now.

Johnny Cash's cover of hurt is one of my favorite depressing or calming songs. I don't know the name of the other one, but it plays in the "Goodbye to the Romanovs" video on youtube. I suggest everyone see if they can find it.

Oh, I've heard a lot of sad songs. Lately I've been listening to "The Road of Tears" by Battlefield Band (a celtic folk group) a lot.

The saddest I ever felt listening to a piece of music was "Sons of California," (slow version) and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," but that's probably because I was at my dad's funeral.

Other than that, "Solitude," by Black Sabbath is very sad. As is "Red Water," by Type O Negative, about Christmas (with lines like "The table's been set for but seven, Just last year I dined with eleven"). My Dying Bride, as the name would suggest has a lot of really sad songs. "Dead Winter Reigns" by Blind Gaurdian is really sad. "Fate of Norns" by Amon Amarth is also pretty depressing.

Strangely, pieces of music don't make me particularly sad. Even those songs that are supposed to be very sad. (Most of them I find annoying, such as the Adagio for Strings, or just about anything with lyrics. Don't ask me why, I can't stand lyrics and songs for voice, unless they're done really, really well, a condition I've never heard fulfilled. Then again I don't listen to much music.)

Sad songs don't actually usually make me feel sad. They make me feel better, as I find the ones I like beautiful and awesome (in the "inspires awe" sense of the word).

"First Orgasm" by the Dresden Dolls might be up there.

Brothers on a Hotel Bed by Death Cab for Cutie. At first I thought it was nice, since brothers are so close they can sleep on the same bed, but then I realized he was talking about his girlfriend.

Also,
Closing In by Imogen Heap (which manages to be sad and fast at the same time.)
Calculation Theme by Metric
The Constants Are Changing by Boards of Canada
End of the Innocence by Don Henley

The Long Black Veil by the Cheiftains, the song is about a trial of a guy, who is fasley accused of murder. He has an alibi but doesn't say it because he was sleeping with his best friends wife at the time the victim was killed. To save his friendship with his best friend and his best friends wife's honor he remains silent and is hung. The woman feels so bad about what has happened that she walks the hills late at night to visit his grave in her long black veil.

Concrete Angel by Martina Mcbride

Sea Breezes by Roxy Music, Holy Mountains by System of a Down I found rather sad, Time: The Beginning by Megadeth as well, Changes by Sabbath and.... Sonny by Funeral For A Friend. All rather sad songs.

Bruce Springsteen - The River.

I saw Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl on a "happy songs" CD once... Strange, it often makes me sad.

Country music. I can't stand it, it's so depressing.

Bruce Springsteen - The River.


I always found Point Blank so much sadder even though The River is sad

Richard Marx - Hazard one that always gets me

Der Weg (http://musicstore.telusmobility.com/track.php?product_id=4094807)- Herbert Groenemeyer..

Johnny Cash - Hurt. That has got to be the most depressing song ever....it is a good song though.

Indeed.

Quite a few "sad" tunes can be considered great, I think.. but, to think of a recent example that most would know, maybe the tune played in the closing minute of The Elephant Man, which has been playing on t.v. recently, also used in the movie Platoon.

"Veronica", by Elvis Costello.

Phil Ochs - There But For Fortune

Always brings a tear to my eye.

Henryk Gorecki, Symphony No. 2 -- if you're not weeping at some point in that piece, you're simply not human.

Now if by "sad", you mean "so bad it makes you cry", I have only one entry.

"Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice.

GOD, I love Bowie.

Meh R.E.M.'s "Mad World" always seems to get me going. (In a sad way. Pervs.)

If you're thinking the song whose lyric includes:

"I find it hard to tell you
'cause I find it hard to take
but when people run in circles it's a very, very
mad world..."

The original is by Tears for Fears. R.E.M. may have covered it, and if they did, it's only because they couldn't possibly write something so delightfully gloomy on their own. The closest they came was "Everybody Hurts", and that tune's more annoying than sad, and needs the video to really drive home what sadness is in it.

There are different kinds of sadness, but:

Shostakovich's 5th symphony 3rd movement (or perhaps the whole of it),
John Williams' music to Schindler's List,
Arvo Part's Spiegel im spiegel,
the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th symphony,
Eric Whitacre's 'When David heard',
Barber's Adagio for Strings,
Requiems by many people.

And on a more personal level, several compositions of mine have explored my own sadness and depression.

You win the thread.

Lacrimosa performed by the Kronos Quartet and Dawn Upshaw on Night Prayers, don't know the composer unfortunately.

Lonely Woman by Ornette Coleman

Mahler's 3rd (I might be fucking this up, I don't have it with me) 1st movement performed by aaahhhhcrap, his name is close enough to Uwe Boll that that's all I can think of...Uri Caine...whew...

Some more, but that's off the top of my head.

If your "Lacrimosa" is a piece in 12/8 time with a violin taking the opening four bars, sung in latin and ending with "dona eis requiem, amen", then it's probably Mozart from his Requiem K.626.

Not so much the song but this even made me, the brick wall of emotions, tear up.

:( (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbEkKa-W55s&mode=related&search=)

Believe it or not, my "popular" entry is Ringo Starr covering Roger Miller's song "Husbands and Wives" from the album Goodnight Vienna. I simply cannot hear that song without sobbing. It played in both my parents' houses after they divorced.

Ehh, too many. I love sad music. However, the best songs in this style are typically far outside the mainstream, so bleak that they have no chance of commercial success. I don't find many popular artists all that sad anymore. Most of the time I still feel like the artists are merely aiming to entertain by attempting to convey a sad atmosphere. Very rarely does the sadness instead feel like a genuine expression of raw emotion.

An exception would be the aforementioned Gary Jules' version of "Mad World".

I can recommend one album in particular...Black Earth by Bohren & der Club of Gore. Fans of sad music in general might like to look at doom metal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_metal) as well, since it's a genre that doesn't seem to appeal to most metalheads but I consider myself a devotee. :P

I've been recommended "Requiem for Larissa" by Valentin Silvestrov as well. It's hard to track down, though. Anyone heard it and got an opinion?

That was going to be my nomination. Michael Andrews knows how to create a score.

The Final Cut- Pink Floyd. That song just makes you want to curl up in a closet.
Totally, utterly agreed with you, mon amis. *bows*

I've heard many, many ...
i'll offer (for now) The Wind That Shakes The Barley,
I Am Stretched On Your Grave (both versions from Dead Can Dance) and
Home Was Good from OSI.

I'm sure there's many others ...

Gloomy Sunday, Sarah McLachlan's version.

Oddly, I find NIN's version of Hurt more depressing than Cash's. Don't know why.

Well, I find Hurt (Quiet) more depressing. I can't recall what the regular Hurt sounds like.

It depends on the context; I found the Kaizer Walzer in The Last Emperor to be used in a profoundly sad way, for example.

Kamikaze and To A Husband At War are two of the saddest songs I can think of, both by 'I Hate Myself'.

Hank William's "Your Cheatin' Heart" usually does a number on me, but the one song that's spot on 100% liable to make me cry is the Irish song "From Clare To Here". (I never seem to be homesick except when I hear that one.)

You win the thread.

:) I love it, especially the cluster chords over 'My son' and the top C in the soprano at the climax about 8 minutes in.

'Sleep' is great also.

Henryk Gorecki, Symphony No. 2 -- if you're not weeping at some point in that piece, you're simply not human.

I'm gonna guess you mean the symphony of sorrowful songs, but thats his 3rd symphony, I don't know the 2nd. I shall try it out if it is anywhere near as good as the 3rd.

:) I love it, especially the cluster chords over 'My son' and the top C in the soprano at the climax about 8 minutes in.

'Sleep' is great also.



I'm gonna guess you mean the symphony of sorrowful songs, but thats his 3rd symphony, I don't know the 2nd. I shall try it out if it is anywhere near as good as the 3rd.

Nope I mean #2.

(I'm a professor of music at a university. I can be accused of forgetting where my head is, but not of which piece of music I mean ;) )

Nope I mean #2.

(I'm a professor of music at a university. I can be accused of forgetting where my head is, but not of which piece of music I mean ;) )

I shall make an effort to try to obtain a recording then considering your testimony.

(Undergrad music student :))