The three saddest songs ever..
Some people like happy upbeat music and I am one of them. However, I love sad songs. Somehow the more melancholic music speaks to me in a much more powerful way. In fact a few particular songs can always be relied upon to bring a lump to my throat and I thought I might share them with you and see what you think.
Coming in at number three in the melancholia charts is “The winner takes it all” by Abba. I suppose it’s the ultimate breakup song, a genre that Abba was particularly good at creating. Towards the very end of the song there is a note that Agnetha hits which is not only sublime but emotionally devastating - listen out for it. It’s virtually operatic and it matches the intensity of the words and melody. I love the bleak sadness of this song only eased by how gorgeous Agnetha looks.
At number two is a lifelong favourite which was a massive, if surprising, global hit back in 1974. It was recorded by the relatively unknown Canadian singer Terry Jacks. The song is “Seasons in the Sun” and it’s all about dying. It has a pretty melody and a catchy chorus but the words are dark. Always liked it!
So what is the saddest song I know? It’s called “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro. It is one which packs an absolute emotional punch. The song starts so innocently, almost twee, but mid way through the songs the violins begin to surge signalling something is wrong and by the time we arrive at final verse the the bells roll, the choir sings and the tears flow.
“One day while I was not at home
While she was there, and all alone
The angels came
Now all I have is memories of honey
And I wake up nights
And call her name
Now my life's an empty stage
Where honey lived, and honey played
And love grew up
And a small cloud passes over head
And cries down on the flower bed that
Honey loved..”
God but that really gets me and it always has. You would surely need a heart of stone not to be moved by that.
Now to be clear I don’t sit and listen to these songs every day but just every now and again I might hear them and they land right on my emotional hot spot.
#1. John Prine ~ I Remember Everything. #2. Blaze Foley ~ If I Could Only Fly. #3. Joey ~ Concrete Blonde.
Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.
Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.
Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!