Dust in the Wind always brings me right down.

And on the radio, I recently heard The Dutchman, by Makem and Clancy - just hits way too close to home about aging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=429PaSejZCE

I know most of you have probably heard Dust in the Wind - but if you didn't look for it or stumble across it, I think the Dutchman is a little more obscure. If you haven't heard it before - tell me your impressions, and if you can think of a song that saddens you more than this one.
(thought I would bring everyone right down today lol)

Ahh - another just hit me - Elenore Rigby....why is she picking up that rice ? but such a sad image...

Which ones get you ?

Just when I needed you most does it for me.

You should have a listen to Steve Goodman's original version (1973?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg3HXhVO3HE

So much easier to name songs that are "Angry", "Rebellious", tell stories, love songs. Actually, sad love songs is extremely common - I suppose it's harder to find sad non-love songs, which is what I meant initially. I wonder if anyone has ever analyzed the most common themes in songwriting - How would you order them ? Sad ones have to be on the bottom. And if you write - which themes would you say most run through your songs - do you think that says anything about you ? ; )

On the Everly Brother's old vinyl album: "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us" is a song titled "Lightning Express" that never fails to open my waterworks.

Another is Bluegrass tenor Mac Wiseman's "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" The Cox Family also does a fabulous version.

I Drive Your Truck

Hello In There




HELLO IN THERE

We had an apartment in the city
Me and Loretta liked living there
Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown
A life of their own left us alone
John and Linda live in Omaha
And Joe is somewhere on the road
We lost Davy in the Korean war
And I still don't know what for, don't matter anymore

Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger
And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello"

Me and Loretta, we don't talk much more
She sits and stares through the back door screen
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen
Someday I'll go and call up Rudy
We worked together at the factory
But what could I say if asks "What's new?"
"Nothing, what's with you? Nothing much to do"

Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger
And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello"

So if you're walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes
Please don't just pass 'em by and stare
As if you didn't care, say, "Hello in there, hello"

Hurt



I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real

The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become
My sweetest friend?
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become
My sweetest friend?
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I will keep myself
I would find a way

Songwriter: Trent Reznor

I never heard that before so thanx for listing it.

I Drive Your Truck and Hello in There are two other good ones. There are a couple more on John Prine's first album that you could have included, such as Sam Stone.

Sam Stone hit home here as a some of my friends came back from that war with issues.

How about...

"Choking" by floyd jane?

http://www.floydjane.com/Songs/Choking.htm

i've been here since ten this morning
there's no end in sight
just my luck, i get stuck
with all the drunks tonight
when it comes to talking troubles
i might raise my voice
i'm working as a waitress
cause i've got no choice
my feet hurt so badly
i can barely stand
that busboy's so damn lazy
he won't lend a hand
another dollar tip
another pack of kents
i'd quit right now if i knew how
else to pay my rent

sometimes i wonder what it's all for
life's just a b-movie with no back door
is this someone's idea of a clever joke
since i was seventeen
i've been choking

my old man past away
seven years it's been
a heart attack at fifty-two
his job did him in
you bust your [*****] all your life
but it never pays
he left me here with nothing
but three kids to raise
i'm forty-six tommorow
you think my children care
it gets to where you count on them
not being there
they say to set your sights
on the highest star
that's just to keep you from seeing
where you really are

sometimes i wonder what it's all for
life's just a b-movie with no back door
is this someone's idea of a clever joke
since i was seventeen
i've been choking

John Prine

Sam Stone


Lyrics
Sam Stone came home,
To the wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas.
And the time that he served,
Had shattered all his nerves,
And left a little shrapnel in his knees.
But the morhpine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
With a purple heart and a monkey on his back.

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.

Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long.
He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
And soon he took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
And the gold roared through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains,
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.

Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon,
Climbing walls while sitting in a chair.
Well, he played his last request,
While the room smelled just like death,
With an overdose hovering in the air.
But life had lost it's fun,
There was nothing to be done,
But trade his house that he bought on the GI bill,
For a flag-draped casket on a local hero's hill.

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,

For me it's "Mr Bojangles". As a pet lover hearing the following lyric sung gets me every time, knowing that, that animal was all he had for companionship!

"He spoke with tears of fifteen years how his dog and him
Traveled about
The dog up and died
He up and died
After twenty years he still grieves"

Something about Piano Man by Billy Joel always gets to me - and someone else mentioned it, but Johnny Cash's rendition of Hurt is another contender.

On a more obscure note, Karissa by Sun Kil Moon always gets me. It's an ode to a distant relative of his who passed away. It captures a really unique melancholic feeling, for me at least. It addresses how you feel when you lose someone close enough to you that it jars you, but doesn't destroy you. It's a unique mood I think most of us can relate to, but the way it's presented on this song is melancholic, haunting, and beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBNdOTu2Wn0

Whiskey Lullaby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZbN_nmxAGk

Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss