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Hi all,
Sometimes mood music can be my favorite - and of course, there are many moods captured throughout the universe of music that humanity has created.
I will start for the "most depressing, saddest" song:
Dust in the Wind
It's a great song - but it just brings me right down. It goes without say - you have to think these excellent songs from a music and songwriting perspective also.
In fact - also share an artist you like whose reportoire has the largest number of 'most depressing, hopeless sounding, sad songs'. I'll start this one too:
Gillian Welch
I'm hoping you guys help me discover some new great mood music for this emotion.
Share yours !!!
Last edited by Joe V; 06/15/18 05:11 AM.
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Hey Joe! Yeah Gillian writes some depressing songs but you should check out Mary Gauthier for the real deal! In fact, jump straight to Iris Dement! I love her but I have to be careful about listening to her too much because of how depressing her stuff is!
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Hi
Well for me it has to be. Everybody Hurts by REM.
But then that may be because of certain life experiences that I have had!
Best regards
Mike
BIAB2021 UltraPlus,AsusN55S1Tbssd, W10/64,Akai EIEpro Yamaha CVP405,SquireStrat, CoolsoftVMidSynth Novatation Impulse61 Ctr kbd, Cwalk blab Kontakt http://mikesmusic.byethost16.com/
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Sam Stone by John Prine. Lights out.
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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I have to second "Dust in the Wind." Man...know I'm thinking about that.
Never heard Gillian or Dement; but it's nice to hear others can't listen to too much of something like this without it impacting you. I'm VERY much that way; and have to guard myself to it. I'm attracted to it, yet it messes with me.
"Luka" was a song that always haunted me. To think there are children out there dealing with that is so sad.
"Cats in the Cradle" is a bit of a standard in this department as well. Maybe too obvious.
Chad (Hope that makes it easier)
TEMPO TANTRUM: What a lead singer has when they can't stay in time.
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Luka is sad. Dust In The Wind was the first song I learned fingerpicking on and I still cringe at those downer lyrics. Mr. Bojangles used to make me cry when I'd hear it. In country music there are too many to list. He Stopped Loving Her Today and Two Tear Drops come to mind. I'd rather not listen to many sad songs because they can get me too down. To quote Elton, "sad songs say so much". I don't even listen to the ones I write myself very often. I have to go to a very sad emotional place to write one. I don't like being there more than I have to be. 
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When I was younger I thought that "Blind Man in the Bleachers" was pretty sad. "Chiseled in Stone" by Vern Gosdin. More Recently the one that actually made me cry lately is a song by Jeff Bates called "Riverbank" that reminds me of my Dad. He loved fishing. And I took him fishing before he died. It wasn't easy for him to get up and down the bank. He had trouble breathing. I took him to his favorite spot. He always caught more fish than me, but that last time I caught more than him and it made me sad. So it is sad to me. Sometimes you run into a song that feels like your life, they can be sad and depressing. When I think about it sometimes when I listen to "50,000 Names on the Wall" brings my swell factor up pretty high. (My swell factor is how close I come to crying.) "Riverbank" busted me up though and caught me off guard..'cause I had never heard it before until recently. Another song that kind of caught me off guard the first time I heard it was "Almost Home" by Craig Morton. Some songs just really remind you of life places you've been and they can hit the soft spots.
C.Dan
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Some new names in there for me. And for sure - those that speak to a personal experience have maginified impact. A few others that came to me are:
1.) Eleanore Rigby - the beatles
2.) The River - Bruce Springstein - also Independendence Day and Point Blank from the same album.
Funny enough - I can't think of many more by the Beatles - who have probably the largest library of great songs out there. Maybe they were clever to sprinkle them judiciously throughout their reportoire. Bruce also has quite a few.
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I guess I'm strange because most sad songs lift my spirits. That's because many sad songs have an ironic twist. Oklahoma natives +++ Jason Boland And The Stragglers" +++ have a sad song called "Hard Times Are Relative". The song storyline is about two children 17 and 10 years old that are trying to make it on their own after both parents are killed in a mill fire. How's that for a sad story? C. Dan mentioned Vern Gosdin. Vern sang a song called +++ "The Number He Gave Me Was Mine" +++. The song is so sad it will make your toes curl. Nobody feels the pain like Vern when he is singing a sad song. He was truly one of a kind. Two songs that I fall back on whenever I'm down and need a lift are "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Long Black Veil". Both are considered country standards and have been recorded by many artists. +++ Elvis Presley +++ stated in a television show it is the saddest song he ever heard. My favorite version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" was sung by 12 year old Hank Williams Junior for the 1964 movie +++ Your Cheating Heart +++ . I enjoy Lefty Frizzel's version of "Long Black Veil". Mick Jagger and The Chieftains have a surprisingly interesting recording of the song.
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Hmn, for me I would have to say Lost in Paradise by Evanescence, Dark Paradise by Lana Del Rey, Sick of Losing Soulmates by Dodie, and Hymn for the missing by Red are up there on my list of "these are so depressing, but I adore them" songs. Hymn for the Missing: https://youtu.be/Y72_b3iMyoQLost in Paradise: https://youtu.be/3rnxlW5TrBsDark Paradise: https://youtu.be/vmWUUPl8DD4Sick of Losing Soulmates: https://youtu.be/m_DSRjGZNdgJust incase anyone is interested.  I'm not a huge fan of Lana Del Rey personally, with few exceptions. Dark Paradise was the first song I ever heard by her, and it was shortly after the loss of a significant other who I had been courting for 10 years. I won't go in to details, but I really resonated with that particular song and latched on to it for a few years. I made all sorts of abstract art pieces late in to the night listening to that particular song, just to vent and get things out of my system. It had almost become like a nightly ritual. So it has a pretty secured spot in my heart when it comes to music in general. Hymn for the Missing was another one of those songs. I have a tendency to listen to pretty angsty or melancholic music, haha.
Cheers,
Ember
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I've never heard "The Number He Gave Me Was Mine" ...I checked it out and it cuts to the bone.. Have you ever heard "Watching His Son Go Down", by Jeff Bates? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvcMvGfZK0A
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"All By Myeself" by Eric Carmen, period.
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It's hard to say the most depressing or the saddest. But this song by the great jazz singer Mark Murphy must rank among the top 10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDVodk4SunEHow Are You Dreaming from the album "Mark Murphy Sings" Another candidate might be Tom Jones' version of "I Who Have Nothing". Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
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Ok...this takes in in a slightly different way. "One" by Metallica. A different kind of sad." Especially with the video.
Chad (Hope that makes it easier)
TEMPO TANTRUM: What a lead singer has when they can't stay in time.
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Any tune off of "A Crow Looked At Me" by Mount Eerie. Mount Eerie is name of the solo project that Phil Elverum has had ongoing since the early 00's. The album is long, heartbreaking story. His wife was diagnosed with cancer and given a year to live. She was diagnosed only a few months after their daughter was born. A year later, as predicted, she passed away. The album documents him struggling as he watches her get sick and eventually die. It documents his grieving, his loneliness, and his accepting that he is now a widowed single parent. It is a brutally straight forward album that delves head first into the saddest parts of the human psyche. The first time I listened to it I had to stop a few times throughout the album. It isn't an easy listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4oFtQuiac0Above is a link to one of my favourites songs off it, "Forest Fire." Complete with such heart warming, feel-good lyrics as the ones below. "The year moves on without you in it Now it is fall without you I had to close the windows and doors without you coming through I kept them open for as long as I could But the baby got cold I watched the calendar bulldoze"
Cheers,
Deryk
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There are some really good songs in here. I'm feeling really inspired. Great topic.
Cheers,
Ember
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For the most depressing song..... I nominate BLOODROCK: DOA https://youtu.be/bUkeu4Zj7pAthis was a 70's hit song.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 06/19/18 03:26 AM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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One of the sadist songs that I have heard is St. James Infirmary. Here is one of the many versions of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v81oBVdcqKs
The bumper sticker said "I'm a veterinarian, therefore I can drive like an animal".
Suddenly I realized how many proctologists are on the road.
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Last edited by Joe -PG Music; 06/19/18 02:06 PM.
Cheers,
Joe
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+++ Bed By The Windows by James King +++ has to rate pretty close to the top of sad and depressing songs because it describes a future many of us may experience. I chose the studio version because most of the live versions I've heard James King has trouble making it through the song without breaking up because he gets so emotionally invested in the song. +++ HERE is a link to the song lyrics. +++
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