Wistful Sad Songs

[Woodsman]

For sad, wistful songs that you could make into a video or short film? My head went right to Harry Chapin - songs like Better Place to Be, Cat's in the Cradle, W*O*L*D, Taxi . . . they all tell a poignant story or situation.

I agree with this. Harry Chapin was one of my favorite singers. I had the please of seeing him twice in concert. So I had the pleasure too of shaking his hand twice and telling him I enjoyed the show because of his habit of greeting everyone after the show and signing shirts, etc. for his World Hunger cause.

On another note (no pun intended) I'm surprised on St. Patrick's Day that no one mentioned Danny Boy. I saw a TV program years ago where Eric Clapton covered the history of this song. He recorded many an Irish pub singer doing their renditions. I would love to get a copy of this on DVD but I can't find it anywhere and most people never even heard of it. At the end of the program Eric Clapton does his own rendition of Danny Boy and that, in my opinion, was a wistful sad song if there ever was.

[Lallans]

I
On another note (no pun intended) I'm surprised on St. Patrick's Day that no one mentioned Danny Boy. I saw a TV program years ago where Eric Clapton covered the history of this song. He recorded many an Irish pub singer doing their renditions. I would love to get a copy of this on DVD but I can't find it anywhere and most people never even heard of it. At the end of the program Eric Clapton does his own rendition of Danny Boy and that, in my opinion, was a wistful sad song if there ever was.

The Londonderry Air, which I mentioned, is the original title for what is now know as "Danny Boy".

[auld argonian]

The Londonderry Air, which I mentioned, is the original title for what is now know as "Danny Boy".

The most misty-eyed version of that was in Brassed Off when the band played it outside the hospital where their director was lying in bed suffering from black lung.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F5vBsY9VZ8

...always gets me...

Best

AA

[thescot]

The most misty-eyed version of that was in Brassed Off when the band played it outside the hospital where their director was lying in bed suffering from black lung.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F5vBsY9VZ8

...always gets me...

Best

AA

Whoa, buddy. I've never seen that, and it was really touching.

Thanks. Now I'm off to find the full thing!

[NewGuise]

Sad, wistful, video-worthy songs? Far, far too many to count. But my own top contender would probably be Jane Siberry's "Love is Everything" - for a live version see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLbarC63q74...

[thescot]

Anyone have any songs which make you sad or a little tearful or you can imagine as a video or short film ?

One that has had me a little like this over the years is an old Jethro Tull song:-

Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die


. . .

I saw Tull in 1972 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at LSU. Thick as a Brick was pretty new, and it was a really good concert.

At least, in memory it was. That was a long time ago.

Sad songs are atracive, and remind me of the words of Gilbert Parker: "There is no refuge from memory and regreat in this life. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt, even with repentence."

But sad songs I love are too many to count. A few of the best the come to mind are:

1. "Fire and Rain" James Taylor ("I always thought I'd see you again.") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T35WXFOmwI

2. "I'm Movin' On" Rascall Flatts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1bxlDAjGCo

3. "Big Yellow Taxi" Joni Mitchell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgMEPk6fvpg (You really don't know what you've got 'til it's gone!)

4. "For the Good Times" Kristofferson but sung by Ray Price ("There's no need to watch the bridges that we're burning.") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ZKIX0ICZo

5. "Misery and Gin" Merle Haggard ("looking at the world through the bottom of a glass . . .sittin' with all my friends and talkin' to myself") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNTWW1y1x0M

6. "He Stopped Lovin' Her Today" George Jones ("He stopped loving her today; they placed a wreath upon his door.") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqY5exITMJo

7. "Send in the Clowns" Sondheim via Judy Collins ("don't you love farce? My fault I fear. I thought that you'd want what I want; sorry, my dear") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbRnMqRHveU

8. "Glen Coe"

9. "At Seventeen" Janis Ian ("I learned the truth at 17, that love was meant for beauty queens.") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qyIx0z_6o

10. "Whiskey Lullaby" Brad Paisley and Alison Kraus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z89hQwdxqHY

11. "Daylight Again/Find the Cost of Freedom" Crosby Stills and Nash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8z0kpgnHG8

12. "I keep Forgetting" Michael MacDonald http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvEps...rom=PL&index=7

13. "Loch Lomond" ("You tak the high road, an' I'll tak the low road..where mye and my true love will never meet again") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uZ-p-tN8Gs

14. "But Not for Me" Gershwin/Ella Fitzgerald "They're writing song of love, but not for me.") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYIp1hVISkk

And the one I'm not even worthy to sing; it's a WW II song of loss and longing and heart ache when better men than we often find today--better than me, like my father and many of your fathers and grandfathers--saved us so we could self-destruct:

15. "I'll Be Seeing You" Billy Holiday version ("I'll find you in the morning sun and when the night is through, I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you.") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=566WSwwoWBY

Well, that's enough for a start. Think I'll go get a beer and cry into it.

[Lallans]

1): The Londonderry Air (esp. if you know the history of the song).

2) Will Ye Go Lassie, Go?

3): The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (if you know the history of the real Confederate soldiers). Please don't flame me over some of the actual civil war issues that were way above them, those guys were superlative citizen-soldiers and often of my folk.

[Bugbear]

Back when I worked for a country western bar band, we played Merle Haggard's "Silver Wings" on the Saturday evening of the Columbia shuttle disaster; it just happened to be in the line up. It kind of gave us all the chills.

[thescot]

Back when I worked for a country western bar band, we played Merle Haggard's "Silver Wings" on the Saturday evening of the Columbia shuttle disaster; it just happened to be in the line up. It kind of gave us all the chills.

Yeah, sad songs--really good sad songs--are what finally made me learn to like and appreciate country music.

Your comment about "Silver Wings" reminded me of "Early Morning Rain" by Gordon Lightfoot. "So I'd best be on my way in the early morning rain."

And then there's "Louise" by Paul Siebel, but I like Leo Kotke's version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ1ynrFzbyY. What a sad song! "Yes and everybody knew at times she cried, But women like Louise they get by"

[Bugbear]

You've also got Jazz, and there's almost too many to pick one. Duke Ellington, et al, has several.

As far as classical, I prefer Chopin for sad and emotional music.