Most depressing song you know?

The Johnny Cash cover of "Highway Patrolman" by Bruce Springsteen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhvZQfCCvpY&feature=related

Or perhaps "Galipoli" by the Fureys and Davey Arthur:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAVkh2HOPqg

Hardly a definitive selection...

And "Kilkelly, Ireland" is definitely bringing me down now...

 

Depressing songs are the best songs!

From "Cryin" Sam Collins:
[video=youtube_share;QwzVGVELnEs]http://youtu.be/QwzVGVELnEs[/video]

Ida Cox:
[video=youtube_share;ppS7lYZdgnY]http://youtu.be/ppS7lYZdgnY[/video]

Or almost anything by Townes Van Zandt. "Marie" especially is awfully sad; I thought it was a joke at first, it's so heartbreaking.

 

Heard "Honey" on my way home tonight and immediately thought of this thread.

Also, this one's on my list of 'Songs to Commit Suicide To.'

[video=youtube;5gRplQQV3H4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gRplQQV3H4[/video]

 

yep that's the one.
Tom D.

 

Teddy Bear's Last Ride
But to be honest, I find this song a bit confusing because Red Sovine who recorded the original Teddy Bear also did a song called Little Joe where a grown up (and miraculously cured) Teddy Bear makes a cameo appearance.

[video=youtube;8_fOaAXvxTE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_fOaAXvxTE[/video]

 

Green, Green Grass of Home
Johnny Cash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3lSw91Idy0

 

I just thought of another one that gets to me. Somewhere that's Green, from Little Shop of Horrors, BUT specifically Sheridan Smith's performance during the London West End Revival of 2007 (I never like Ellen Green). The dream to which Audrey aspires in this number is, candidly, my idea of hell - cookie-cutter house in the suburbs, children, the works - BUT it was all in the performance. Whereas typically this song is read as "this will happen one day", Sheridan played it as an Audrey who was expressing a wish for everything she could ever want in full knowledge that it could never possibly come true. Utterly heartbreaking, and realistic too. Not depressing per se (the stuff that depresses me would be the usual pop fluff about all your dreams coming true if you want them enough), but a sad, sad song.

It's amazing how many people don't realise what that song is about. A lot of folks just don't listen to lyrics in general, I suppose. I remember one couple I knew seriously wanted "Build me up buttercup" played at their wedding. The mind boggles.

The combination of sweet pop melody and dripping lyrical venom is something I adore. Nobody does it better than Dylan. Catatonia nailed it too.

Ha!

I love Elvis, but I've always been really badly creeped out by this song. Not entirely sure why.

Interesting, I must do. I hadn't heard of that at all.

 

That's another one of the most depressing songs I've ever heard in my life.

 

Man, I love the Fureys and Davey Aurther. The Irish have the market cornered in sad ballads…do they ever. One of their other hits was “The Green Fields of France”, also about WW1.

[video=youtube;N2YvcB9lW18]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2YvcB9lW18&feature=fvwrel[/video]

The song was written by Eric Bogle, who also wrote “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”. Liam Clancy had the first big hit with it, but I prefer Ronnie Drew of the Dubliner’s version.

[video=youtube;R2wK-5RxGG4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2wK-5RxGG4[/video]

When I think of the Irish/English ballads, I can go on and on. How about a man talking to his dead lover at her grave and wanting to join her? The Unquiet Grave.

[video=youtube;jyqBA_Qr3qs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqBA_Qr3qs[/video]

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem doing “The Butcher Boy”.

[video=youtube;9ts8dpoxxSg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ts8dpoxxSg[/video]

The definitive version of Gloomy Sunday is probably Billie Holiday’s, but I always enjoyed the Smithereens version, mostly because I could have never imagined the song working so well in a rock format.

[video=youtube;afCtqkutNfU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afCtqkutNfU[/video]

 

Here's Liam singing that song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVawULMoLMg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I'm not sure 'depressing' is the right word, but I do find this a very moving video....


Ow

 

[video=youtube_share;IZbN_nmxAGk]http://youtu.be/IZbN_nmxAGk[/video]

 

Oooh, Whiskey Lullaby. That's a killer.

Being a Country-Western fan, I've got a ton of 'em!

Nobody sings a sad song like the Possum.

[video=youtube;VExw77xJsBQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VExw77xJsBQ[/video]

 

For this forum Gloomy Sunday is a prime candidate as already stated, along with the Mel Torme vocal arrangement of Harlem Noctourne (one of my all time favourite selections, regardles of the focus). In more modern folk I would suggest Gordon Lightfoot's version of "Bitter Green". On the all time English folk list for gloomy twists The Ash Grove, and for songs spiraling downward from bad to worse perhaps Barbara Allen should be added to the list.

 

How come no one mentioned The Saddest Music In The World, a surreal movie set in Winnipeg, in the Depression, in winter. It doesn't get much more depressing than that.

The song is you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54I30zlfZmA&feature=related

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsc4Ysc0G1s&feature=fvwrel

It should be in both threads, Saddest Music and Saddest Movie.

 

[video=youtube;B5NFspQmHGA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5NFspQmHGA[/video]
Spun this vinyl today and boy is it a sad song.

 

I'll Never Smile Again - Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Frank Sinatra. It was always sad, but when I found out the story behind the song, I could no longer listen to it without choking up.

 

I tend to make a distinction between sad songs, like Strange Fruit, and songs about heartbreak, like I'll never Smile again, and just plain nauseating songs, like Stand By Your Man, and the king of the nauseators, Honey. But for pure I-Think-I'll-Just-Go-Shoot-Myself-for-No-Good-Reason depressed, it's Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are". Especially when it's wafting semi-audibly from a ceiling speaker in a drearily lit Manhattan drug store on a dark raw winter evening. It's just depresssssing.

 

Sit down some night with a stack of Vernon Dalhart records and you'll find plenty of tearjerkers:

"Please Mr. Conductor
Don't put me off of this train
The best friend I have in this world sir
Is waiting for me in pain
Expecting to die any moment sir
And may not live through the day
I wanna reach home and kiss mother goodbye
Before God takes her away"

 

Gene Watson -- Paper Rosie

[video=youtube;ozARp04MJ28]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozARp04MJ28[/video]

The sun goes down in Calvin County
Neon lights from an old beer sign
Shone through the window
Out on the sidewalk as I walked in to pass the time
I looked around, sat down at a table
Ordered beef on rye and a glass of wine
And through the door came a little old lady
She was selling paper roses and they only cost a dime

Paper Rosie
Paper Rosie
She sold you paper roses
But they only cost a dime

Silver hair that's lost its gold
Trembling hands as she passed a rose
Red crepe paper made nature's bouquet
Help a little old lady, buy a rose today
I took the rose from her trembling hand
With eyes of age she smiled and walked away
Like a breath of spring I could smell the rose
It came alive and her I heard her say

Buy my Roses
Pretty Roses
They're only made of paper
But they only cost a dime

I went to look for her outside
A spray of roses lay by her side
The sky lit up and a choir sang
A thousand voices as the church bells rang

They sang Rosie
Paper Rosie
She sold you paper roses
But they only cost a dime

 

Strange Fruit was the first song to pop into my mind.