The most depressing songs ever

'Mad World' by Tears for Fears

"Pissing in a River," Patti Smith

"Why'd Ya Do It?," Marianne Faithfull

"Tomorrow Wendy," Andy Prieboy (a song no one else seems to remember)

Her demos sure do sound different from what ended up on her albums...

[quote]"Tomorrow Wendy," Andy Prieboy (a song no one else seems to remember)

Wasn't that originally by Concrete Blonde?

And this too...

Annie Lennox - The Gift (even though I think its about the birth of her daughter?)

Brighter Discontent - The Submarines

Ever Changing Times - Siedah Garrett or Michael McDonald & Aretha Franklin's version

Secret Garden - Bruce Springsteen

Taylor Dayne - Love Will Lead You Back

This entire CD... "Searching for the End" by Hednoize.... but the third track is pretty damn depressing: "Devil's Train"

At Seventeen.

[quote]Wasn't that originally by Concrete Blonde?

Andy wrote and recorded it, then Johnette from Concrete Blonde asked him to sing it with her on Concrete Blonde's album.

Both versions are beyond depressing.

"Brick" by Ben Folds Five is pretty depressing.

Strange Fruit

Shannon by Henry Gross.

Johnny Cash's cover of 'Hurt'

This heroin chic styled video and song strongly affected me.

Taxi by Harry Chapin used to depress me.

It could just be me but Losing You by Solange makes me tear up all the time.

It Might Be You from Tootsie

Horrible songs from my childhood that depressed me so that I had to insist that my parents turn the radio off whenever they came on:

Magic (or something like that) by Barry Manilow Time in a Bottle by somebody that horror by Gordon Lightfoot (something about reading minds)

The vibes from those songs did not jive with mine!!

The Smiths basically crafted their careers around depression. They had way too many to list.

"How Soon Is Now" by The Smiths

"Every Day Is Like Sunday" by Morressey

"Disintegration" by The Cure

R18, "Wishing You Were Here" by Chicago scared me as a kid. The chorus was just so eerie and to me it sounded like wailing, lonely ghosts. I like to listen to it stoned now (usually amid overheated "epiphanies" of how it applies to my life), but as a kid it creeped me out as did all of the ones that you mentioned.

I love "Cool Night" by Paul Davis, but it's basically some guy making a pathetic and clumsy attempt to hook up with an ex that he can't get over. He just goes in circles and circles. He's probably already got her in the trunk of his car.

Keep On Lifting a reunites Eurythmics song

Stole by Kelly Rowland. Shame that a song like that had to made but it's the world we live in now.

Anything by Coldplay makes me want to slash my wrist, also Radiohead, their songs are also make me want to jump off a building. I stay far away from these 2 bands. They are utter shit.

I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt

Jesus, yeah, R25.

That "Your Husband, My Wife" song by Skeeter Davis and Bobby Bare. Although I snicker throughout it.

Good bye to Love-The Carpenters

The Promise-Tracy Chapman

"What it's like" by Everlast

Anything off Marianne Faithfull's Strange Weather album, especially "Love life and Money"

"Darling Lorraine" by Paul Simon

"Goodbye to Love", the Carpenters

"Goodbye to Love" by the Carpenters

"Christmas Time is Here" by Vince Guaraldi

"It Must Be Him" by Vicki Carr

"Crying" by Roy Orbison

Honey-Bobby Goldsboro

Vicki Carr goes a little hysterical in that song.

Fade into You-Mazzy Star

Hello-Neil Diamond

Ne Me Quite Paz (If you go away) - sung by many artists but killer depression when sung in French

Nights in White Satin by Moody Blues and Tuesday Afternoon by same band- reminder of first teenage love

Abraham,Martin and John-Dion

Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin

"Ne me Quitte Pas" is correct spelling

Radiohead... most things. Hard to pick one. Fade out, No surprises, Creep

The Living - by Natalie Merchant...supposed to be about someone dying from cancer but the lyrics are basically about suicide.

Puff the Magic Dragon

Any song by John Denver - (end of an Era)

Simon and Garfunkel 's "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

Paul Williams was a brilliant composer/lyricist (any of his songs)

At Seventeen by Janis Ian. Although her mention of ravaged faces caused our sales to shoot way up.

Show: "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton

Place: "Walk Away, Renee" by The Left Banke

Win: " A River For Him" by Emmylou Harris

[quote] Annie Lennox - The Gift (even though I think its about the birth of her daughter?)

Not sure was it around that time but I remember reading that Annie had a child die inside her during a pregnancy and she had to give birth to it. It was said that she asked to hold the dead baby in her arms for a night after the labour.

The whole 'Pornography' album from The Cure. The first words "It doesn't matter if we all die" set the tone perfectly.

Jumper by Third Eye Blind

Happy X-Mass (War is Over) by John Lennon

Walk Away Renee by the Left Banke

Radiohead's OK Computer is one of those albums that crash me. I very rarely dare to listen to it.

Unbreak my heart...Toni Braxton

Solitaire - The Carpenters

Three months after my partner died this song came on the car radio. I had to pull off the road and park.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark- Death Cab for Cutie

Um.....

"Alone Again Naturally" - Gilbert O Sullivan "All By Myself" - Eric Carmen "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" - See Above "If" - Bread "Seasons in the Sun"- Terry Jacks

If you've ever had your heart shattered into a million pieces, but can't stop wanting that person who done you wrong:

"I'm a Fool to Want You" -- Frank Sinatra's torch song to Ava.

Hope there's someone by Antony and the Johnsons, I win.

Time Alan Parsons Project

Danny Boy - traditional Irish

"How About Me?"

"The Asphalt World"--Suede

Take A Bow by Riahnna

Ode to Billie Joe

R49 I'm crying for you too. My condolences.

Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets by Dionne Warwick.

Bananarama "Once In A Lifetime", "Through A Child's Eyes" & "Wish You Were Here", Simply Red "Holding Back The Years", Eddie Money "I Wanna Go Back", Foreigner "That Was Yesterday", Thompson Twins "Long Goodbye" & "Perfect Day", House Of Schock "Love In Return", Jane Wiedlin "The End Of Love" & "One Hundred Years Of Solitude", Go Go's "World's Away" , "It's Everything But Partytime", "Forget That Day" & Daisy Chain", Belinda Carlisle "Too Much Water", "Avec Le Temps", "Love Never Dies", "Shades Of Michaelangelo", "Half The World", " Loneliness Game", "Since You've Gone", "Where Love Hides", "My Heart Goes Out To You" & "Remember September" (which always makes me think of the 9/11 attacks).

Nico's You Forgot to Answer from The End 1974

Evanescence "My Immortal ", "Spiralling" by Erasure, also have to agree with Carpenters "Goodbye to Love".

"Some Mother's Son" by the Kinks. Guaranteed to draw tears.

"Two Grey Rooms" by Joni Mitchell from her album Night Ride Home. It's about a lonely gay man living in his city apartment and watches life go by out his window as the years go by. Very sad.

Craig Armstrong: Let's go out tonight

It's beautiful but don't listen if you're suicidal.

Speaking of Sinatra, 'In The Wee Small Hours' and 'One For My Baby'.

In the '70s, Barry Manilow's "Weekend in New England' and 'Trying to Get The Feeling' were so cheesy, but they always made me sad.

The Carpenters 'Merry Christmas Darling'.

To this day, Peter Allen's 'I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love' and 'Once Before I Go' still fill me with incredible sadness. I sat there watching THE BOY FROM OZ with tears streaming down my face. I couldn't help but think of the first time I saw Peter Allen, back in 1977, with my first boyfriend. We were so young and idealistic. BF and Peter both died of AIDS, and I'm old and bitter

The 70s was a great era for gloomy records.

Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

I'm So Afraid - Fleetwood Mac

R18 - Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is damned depressing, but it's not about reading minds.

Oldies "One Tin Soldier" and "In the Year 2525" are downers.

PEOPLE, WHAT ABOUT THIS ONE??!!

and this!!!

R70, it went: if you could read my mind . . . That's about as far as I ever get. I actually love to sit and wallow in depressing songs when I'm in the mood, but the three I listed . . . my nervous system can't take it!!

R8 Yes, that one is heartbreaking. I also agree with "Mad World". Terry Jack's "Seasons in The Sun". "Nights in White Satin" is a stunning but heartbreaking song. "Sweet Song" Blur.

Over The Rainbow aint a bucket of laughs

beautiful but deepressing

"Donut Hole" by Tori Amos. Actually, anything bu Tori Amos, lol.

the song and the girl

The Summer Knows by Barbra Joan.

Brandy by the O'Jays.

Pretty, though.

Elsie, by the Divinyls. How about these lyrics for bleak: "She just sleeps all day, in her squalid little slum. And takes little white pills to make her body feel all numb. And it's dark and dirty. And there's nothing left to eat. And in her heart, there's a feeling of defeat. Smells of bus and fornication, and a bottle of cheap scent. Should she stick around, if this is all that life meant?"

I don't know if it's the most depressing song ever, but certainly the most depressing video ever: most of the kids shown in the video were found dead or went missing indefinitely.

Soul Asylum : Runaway train

Maybe more wistful than depressing but it has a touching sadness to it:

R82 I've always loved that song. There's just something to it that hits me, every time. I saw Dave Pirner on the street in NYC as a little kid and he was, at that time, one of the most striking guys I've ever seen.

Dolly Parton - Me And Little Andy (this one destroyed me as a kid)

Swans - God Damn The Sun, or pretty much anything else from their discography

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

The Cure - Funeral Party

Tori Amos - Marianne

Neil Young - Needle and the Damage Done

Anything by the Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon

I agree with R72's entry but boy does she ham it up in that clip with the sad clown an' all...beyond awful!

The recorded version's sad enough without all that nonsense.

R75 makes a great point!

Heartbrteaking:

Sad, wistful...but not depressing.

Sorry for your loss, R49.

During the holidays, it's 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' by Judy Garland and the one by The Carpenters. It reminds me of my nephew that died over a year ago.

Moby's 'Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad' is another that depresses me.

Nothing Man by Pearl Jam

Release by Pearl Jam

Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead

I can't make you love me by Bonnie Rait

Great finding R90! I knew (and loved) the song (like pretty much anything Moby), but had never seen the video.

Everyone Hurts-REM I can't make you love me-Miss Bonnie Raitt

Angel in Blue by J Geils Band. It was on the first cassette I ever bought & the song is quite sad. I still listen to it on occasion.

R43, that was her stillborn son, Daniel. That happened in '88. The Gift is from her Diva album ('92) and she had recently had her first daughter the year before, so I think it was about her.

Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch

How Can I Help You To Say Goodbye - Laura Branigan

"The Living Years" by Mike & The Mechanics.

"The Last Song" by Elton John.

Dust in the Wind....Kansas

Wildfire by Michael Martin Murphey. For Christ's sakes, it's about a young girl dying in a blizzard while looking for her pony. WTF?

father fucker by peaches

"The Drugs Don't Work" - The Verve, especially the live acoustic version

The Wedding March.

They played it the day the love of my life got married to a woman. And I was there.

R103 He didn't deserve you.

Mary

The Last Time I Saw Richard - about joni's ex

R86, you're right. I realized that after I posted it. How about this

Another vote for "Ode to Billy Joe" - not so much that Billy Joe jumped off the bridge but this girl's family is just absolutely clueless about how stunned and grief stricken she is - the tragedy just unfolds in real time...then she gets to the part about her brother moving away, her dad dying, and her mother is just depressed...

So at the end of the song, looking back on the day she heard about Billy Joe jumping off the bridge was like looking back on the good times! JHC, Bobbie Gentry could sell that song...

[quote] Wildfire by Michael Martin Murphey. For Christ's sakes, it's about a young girl dying in a blizzard while looking for her pony. WTF?

That song just got even more depressing for some of us.

Joni Mitchell- I Wish I Had a River. Nice choice r1.

She was just a little girl, not more than six or seven

But that night as they slept the angels took them both to heaven

God knew little Andy would be lonesome with her gone

Now Sandy and her puppy dog won't ever be alone

Ain't ya got no gingerbread?

Ain't ya got no candy?

Ain't ya got an extra bed for me and little Andy?

"A Cottage for Sale" -- music: Willard Robison / lyric: Larry Conley

Mommy's in heaven angels took her away

Left Jim and I all alone

We've no one to love us daddy is dead

And our darling mother is gone

Mommy got sick angels took her away

To dwell in those matins so bright

She said she would come for her children someday

And I guess she's coming tonight

The sexton came early to ring the church bell

And found them beneath the snow white

The angels made room for the orphans to dwell

Up in heaven with their mommy that night

you never see things from your dad's point of view until it's too late.

[quote][R86], you're right. I realized that after I posted it. How about this

Not as bad as the other but she doesn't sing it well live. The recorded version was so well produced.

Have you heard the original before?

I always hated those songs about death.

Jane Says by Jane's Addiction.

This came out just after the end of a disasterous love affair that I had with a married man. It almost killed me and taught me a valuable lesson.

Has anyone mentioned "In the Year 2525?" That one.

I also agree with The Carpenters' "Goodbye to Love."

all of janet jackson's catalog is sad and very depressing and tired.

India Arie "Ready For Love", Billy Idol "Sweet Sixteen", The Smiths "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", Missing Persons "Waiting For A Million Years", Debbie Harry "Now I Know You Know", Madonna "Live To Tell", Boy George "To Be Reborn", Culture Club "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?", "Victims" "That's The Way" & "Heaven's Children", Tracy Chapman "Fast Car", Phil Collins "Against All Odds", Bruce Springsteen "I'm On Fire", Pat Benatar "Run Between The Raindrops" & "Suffer The Little Children", Bonnie Tyler "Total Eclipse of The Heart", Spandau Ballet "True", Willie Nelson "Always On My Mind", Elton John "Blue Eyes", Motels "Only The Lonely", ABBA "Disillusion", "I'm Just A Girl", "She's My Kind Of Girl", "Hasta Manana", "The Winner Takes It All", "Our Last Summer" & "Slipping Through My Fingers".

Eric Clapton 'Tears in Heaven'

Really? No mention of the BeeGees "How Do you Mend A Broken Heart?" yet?

MARY! moment: I went through a BAD break-up about 15 years ago. I was standing at the deli counter when this song began playing on the store radio. I started blubbering like a big, fat Nelly right there in Giant Eagle. The poor deli girl had to ask me if I were alright. I lied and told her that I always cry with joy when Virginia ham was on sale.

"Don't Cut Me Down" Olivia Newton-John

r122. that song is very shitty. i have always hated it with a passion.

"In Loving Memory" by Alter Bridge

"One" by U2.

The entire Beck album Sea Change guts me. Truly a wonderful album but I go to a dark place when I listen to it.

Ev'ry Night About This Time by The Ink Spots. Not really depressing but poignant. Such a sweet, ethereal voice, like a ghost trying to be heard across time. MARY, I know!

To R122-"SPLAT! "TOMATO SOUP TIME!"

I won't link to something which I figure could push vulnerable people over the edge, but D.O.A. by Bloodrock is the aural equivalent of a bloody 1950's traffic safety film.

HMMMM-Crash Test Dummies

"America" by Simon & Garfunkel

"Fire and Rain" James Taylor

"Landlocked Blues" Bright Eyes

Anything by Nirvana, Radiohead, and Elliott Smith

God, I love sad music!

If Mama Meets Jesus on Christmas Eve

I hate everything by Radiohead. If i had to listen to their music more than 30 seconds at at time, I'd be ready for a psychiatric hospital.

Another vote for R12's choice.

Wildfire - Michael Murphey

The Worst That Could Happen - Brooklyn Bridge

That Wildfire song was in heavy rotation when I was 8, at the exact same time that my horse was being sold because we had to move to another province. It tore a chunk out of my soul out every time I heard it. Plus, I live in Canada so I could even related to the blizzard!!

Kodaline 'All I Want'

I never heard this song, until TCM used it for their 2014 TCM Remembers. It's on the soundtrack of some cheesy Shailene Woodley chick flick.

All by Barry Manilow

When Can I Hold You Again

Weekend in New England

Trying to Get the Feeling

R126 "One" is in my top list of favorite songs. I think "One" and "With or Without You" are U2's best songs.

R122: I've always hated Eric Clapton for that song, that almost as bad "Change the World" song from that movie where Vinnie Barbarino could do magic, and his racism, which makes his appropriation of reggae and rasta culture in "I Shot the Sheriff" an insult, not a tribute.

I was nine years old when "Tears in Heaven" came out, and our music teacher actually made us sing it in class. Seriously? You're teaching a bunch of nine-year-olds to sing a song about a dead kid who died because of his father's negligence? I despised it from that moment on. I realized just how unserious Clapton was about it a year later when NBC did an outrageously bad parody of it right after the last episode of [italic]Cheers[/italic].

[quote]When Can I Hold You Again

[quote]Weekend in New England

Those are the same song, R140.

that barry manilla shit is awful

Then you must be deaf, R144.

i do not like barry manilla at all.

Amusingly dismal.

Vera by Pink Floyd, and Changes by Ozzy.

What is depressing is that a would-be heartbreaking song like "Tears in Heaven" is also in such bad taste and so banal, without any artistic merit whatsoever.

The River (Bruce Springsteen); Eleanor Rigby (Beatles); Somewhere (Within Temptation); Memories (Cats); Memories (Within Temptation); most of October Project's first album.

Also - She's Leaving Home (The Beatles)

More Rickie Lee Jones.

The song takes an unexpected, tragic turn from the quiet joy it opens with.

Kids by MGMT.

Lonely Boy by Andrew Gold. Love the song, though.

This song makes me cry "So Many Stars" from Carly Simon's 2000 album - THE BEDROOM TAPES.

Smalltown Boy by the Communards.

"Don't Change Your Plans" by Ben Folds Five. Depressing but beautiful.

Sorry, R143. But I did warn you that I wasn't a Fanilow!

Ingrid Michaelson= "Can't Help Falling In Love", Whitney Houston= "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "Miracle", "Run To You" & "I Will Always Love You", Concrete Blonde= "Joey", Rudden+Bridge= "Joyride", Roxette= "Fading Like A Flower", "It Must Have Been Love", "Things Will Never Be The Same" & "You Don't Understand Me", Diana Ross/Supremes= "Someday We'll Be Together", "My World Is Empty Without You", "When You Tell Me That You Love Me", "Theme From Mahogany" & "The Best Years Of My Life", Bangles= "Following", "More Than Meets The Eye" & "Eternal Flame", Heart= "I Want You So Bad", "Alone", "I Love You" & "I Want Your World To Turn", Madonna= "Take A Bow", "Something To Remember", "Oh Father", "You'll See", "The Power of Goodbye", "The Look Of Love", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" & "Justify My Love".

justify my love is depressing, r159?

Yes R160, When I first heard the song back in 1990, I took it as an anthem for both gay marriage & gay adoption (especially with the depressing little kid background sounds which I thought was wanting to be adopted & to have both parents to be legally married). I know it was supposed to be a sexy song, but that interpretation of the song never took hold for me. For about 25 years, it was always depressing for me to listen to especially with all of the state bans on gay marriage passing about a decade ago. Hopefully now it will instead become a sexy song for all like it was originally intended.

I fucking hate Pink Floyd. Roger Waters is a racist asshole.

I don't like Pink Floyd, either, but it has nothing to do with Roger Waters racism. They just suck.

[quote]I was nine years old when "Tears in Heaven" came out, and our music teacher actually made us sing it in class. Seriously? You're teaching a bunch of nine-year-olds to sing a song about a dead kid who died because of his father's negligence?

The song sucks and I'm no fan of Eric, but how is he to blame if the kid was with his mother and a housekeeper?

R152 when I posted Afternoons in 1963 I MEANT to post Skeletons. You're right!

Just When I Needed You Most-Randy Vanwarmer Sad Eyes- Robert John The Living Years-Mike and the Mechanics Help Me Make It Through The Night-Sammi Smith

Is That All There Is? by Peggy Lee

Too depressed to read through all your choices :D Anything by Morrissey?

"Long Long Time" by Linda Ronstadt

EVERYTHING by Morrissey

"Tony" by Patty Griffin

Much of Big Star's "Sister Lovers" album, especially "Big Black Car" and "Nighttime"

One minute men are depressing.....

Bravo, R155, Carly Simon's "So Many Stars" - so achingly honest and confessional - Carly at her best.

And it took me years of listening to "The Bedroom Tapes" to begin to appreciate the beauty of it.

"Last Chance Texaco" Ricki Lee Jones

"Twenty Years" Placebo

"Joey" Concrete Blonde

"Half Moon Run" Full Circle

"if Only Tonight We Could Sleep"The Cure

"Explode and Make Up" Sugar

"Fly" Veruca Salt

"The National" Buzz Blood Ohio

"Every Time We Say Goodbye I Die a Little" Annie Lennox

More beautiful than depressing. Simmone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt's "Night"

Anything by Nana Mouskouri or Sade. Do either of them know what an up temp song sounds like?

Enya's Theme to 9/11, "Only Time." There used to be a 10-hour version on youtube. I couldn't find it today.

"Lungs" by Townes Van Zandt, but dammit I love it. Also The Handsome Family. In fact the whole soundtrack of True Detective Season 1.

[quote]The song sucks and I'm no fan of Eric, but how is he to blame if the kid was with his mother and a housekeeper?

He wasn't there and he trusted Conor with them. They're all to blame.

Duffy = "Please Stay", "Stepping Stone" & "Breaking My Own Heart", Phil Collins = "Another Day In Paradise", Wilson Phillips = "Release Me", Simply Red = "If You Don't Know Me By Now", Mariah Carey = "I Don't Wanna Cry", "Vanishing", "All I Ever Wanted" & "Alone In Love", Celine Dion = "My Heart Will Go On", Chicago = "Look Away", George Michael/Wham = "A Different Corner", "Mother's Pride", "Careless Whisper", "Cowboys & Angels" & "Praying For Time", Tears For Fears = "I Believe", Cyndi Lauper = "True Colors, "Sally's Pigeons", "Time After Time" & "What's Goin' On", Poison = "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", Richard Marx = "Right Here Waiting", Leslie Gore = "The Old Crowd" & "You Don't Own Me", Simon & Garfunkel = "The Sound Of Silence" & "Scarborough Fair", Debbie Gibson = "Foolish Beat" & The Byrds = "Turn,Turn,Turn".

R181, you forgot Duffy's best song, Warwick Avenue (it destroys anything Adele has done).

Sorry R182, I've never heard it. I will have to look up here soon. Thanks!

Actually, R182, no it doesn't. It is impossible for a song to "destroy" another song. It doesn't even make sense.

But thanks for your contribution to the "What word or phrase makes you instantly dislike someone?" thread.

Wow R184, You seem to be in a bad mood. Did the Pope get under your skIn? He should be gone soon. In defense of R182, I think the word "destroy' is appropriate when comparing them to the likes of "...Baby One More Time" or "Who Let The Dogs Out".

Those songs were born destroyed, R185.

R185, thank you. And the Duffy song is great, makes me wish she hit it big and Adele didn't. It's unfortunate she only made one hit album.

Duffy is crying in the video for Warwick Avenue, but I don't hear the song as particularly sad.

Her interpretation suggests hurt but more determination and acceptance than sadness.

Peggy Lee's version of The Days of Wine and Roses.

Almost spooky in her melancholy grasp at an unattainable moment in the past.

The movie makes me want to cry. Peggy Lee's rendition of the theme song matches it perfectly.

Won't You Tell Me Your Dreams.

Lee Hazlewood barely functioning in daily life and non-functioning in the night after the disintegration of a relationship.

Dance with my father. I really hate manipulative songs like that.

R188, maybe you're right...but it beats Adele.

"Butterfly kisses." This one depresses me due to the fact that it is pure dreck. Does that count?

Down from Dover by Dolly Parton.

She has recorded it several times, but this is my favorite version.

She lays her vulnerability and desperate hope completely bare, and the end result still devastates me. It's the opposite of the sexed up cynicism that prevails in most music today.

Dolly Parton really is one of the great American songwriters.

$1000 Wedding by Gram Parsons.

It's up to you to figure out the narrative, but it's sad as fuck no matter how you make it out.

"Black Star" by Gillian Welch (Radiohead)

'I'm Dreaming of Home' from the movie Joyeux Noel.

"I hear the mountain birds The sound of rivers singing A song I've often heard It flows through me now So clear and so loud I stand where I am And forever I'm dreaming of home I feel so alone, I'm dreaming of home

It's carried in the air The breeze of early morning I see the land so fair My heart opens wide There's sadness inside I stand where I am And forever I'm dreaming of home I feel so alone, I'm dreaming of home

This is no foreign sky I see no foreign light But far away am I From some peaceful land I'm longing to stand A hand in my hand ...forever I'm dreaming of home I feel so alone, I'm dreaming of home"

Season's in the Sun -Terry Jacks One Less Bell to Answer- The 5th Dimensions When I was Seventeen- some chick

I mean : At Seventeen by Janis Ian. Also Where Have All a the Flowers Gone

This one makes me cry.

Point Blank - Bruce Springsteen

Warren

You queens should be ashamed of yourselves for neglecting miss Nina Simone's wild is the wind. You don't even know depressing.

"Never Pay Retail" by The Rabinowitz Brothers

r203 - from the same LP: Nina Simone's Lilac Wine, a companion piece to r189.

You can never return to the past, but drunkenness brings a frustrating facsimile of it.

I think she wants to die at the end of this.

great melody but gloomy

Lorrie Morgan = "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, Jackie Evancho = "Silent Night", Bill Withers = "Ain't No Sunshine", The Pony-Tails = "Born Too Late", The Paris Sisters = "I Love How You Love Me", Ricky Nelson = "Lonesome Town", Richard Harris = "My Boy" & "MacArthur Park", Candi Staton = "You Don't Love Me No More", The Critters = "Mr. Dieingly Sad", Olivia Newton-John = "Sam", Peter & Gordon = "I Go To Pieces", Angus & Julia Stone = "You're The One That I Want", The Chordettes = "Carolina Moon", America = "Tin Man", Yoko Ono = "Winter Friend" &"Death Of Samantha", The Seekers = "I'll Never Find Another You", Janis Ian = "She Must Be Beautiful", Ronny & The Daytonas = "Sandy", Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose = "Don't Ever Be Lonely", Dee Dee Sharp = "I'm Not In Love", Bette Midler = "Superstar", Johnny Mathis = "Time After Time", Lou Rawls = "I Wish You Belong To Me", Dionne Warwick = "The April Fools" & "Going Out Of My Head", Bobby Goldsboro = "See The Funny Little Clown", Linda Ronstadt = "Blue Bayou" & "Someday My Prince Will Come".

Expose = "Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue", "December" , "I'll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me" & "When I Looked At Him", Burns Sisters Band = "Listen To The Beat of A Heart", Petula Clark = "Kiss Me Goodbye", Nancy Sinatra = "End Of The World" & "The End".

Meatloaf's "2 outta 3 ain't bad-" I want you,I need you but there ain't no way I'm never gonna love you,Now don't be sad cause 2 outta 3 ain't bad" Gladys Knight and the Pips-"Neither one of us wants to be the 1st to say Goodbye"

Can someone start a thread devoted to "The most uplifting songs ever"? That could be interesting.

Little Susie by Michael Jackson. Not only depressing but sick and horrifying. I cannot get over sociopath would release something like this after the first round of child molestation charges.

BTW this song is musical equivalent of The Lovely Bones for those who were wondering. Throw in Polly Klass too.

Taxi by Harry Chapin

I'm so sorry, r49. Condolencies.

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" by Carly Simon.

Little Drummer Boy & Do You Hear What I Hear?

Porky Pig = "That's All Folks".

I thought of this one while watching coverage of the Oregon shooting. Ol' Leonard captures the bankrupt culture, the failure, the nihilism, the craziness of America in the 21st. century unlike anyone else. Sounds like a slow motion dream...or a nightmare. Intentional, I'd guess, and not because he's 81 and still giving amazing performances.

There's a book about "the 52 most depressing songs you're ever heard." Here are some of them:

"Tell Laura I Love Her" by Ray Petersno

"Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning

"Last Kiss" by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers

"Goodbye to Love" by the Carpenters

"At Seventeen" by Janis Ian

"Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg

"The Rose" by Bette Midler

"Don't Cry Out Loud" by Melissa Manchester

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division

"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition

"The End", by the Doors

"Sylvia's Mother" by Doctor Hook and the Medicine Show

"Alone Again, Naturally" by Gilbert O'Sullivan

"Seasons In The Sun" by Terry Jacks

"Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro

"Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails

"Ode to Billy Joe" by Bobby Gentry

Nina Simone did make a tear run down my cheek, [R203]. Lovely and sumptuous, I guess many of us can appreciate the beauty in a sad song and its need to be expressed. I thought of Cohen too, [R217],but hesitated to mention him. I didn't want anyone to actually open a vein. Still depressing, but more tolerable is Morphines "Empty Box". Their sax player Dana Colley could play two sax's at one time, hmm.

Honey by Bobby Goldsboro

Agree with R150 that "Eleanor Rigby" is one of the saddest songs ever written. Also, a lot of musicals have some very sad songs that are even sadder because of the context.

Profoundly depressing dance remix #1:

Profoundly depressing dance remix #2:

you talked of depressing songs from musicals---here's one with a new twist

"Terry" by Twinkle

"Taxi" by Harry Chapin. A great tearjerker of a song.

Medicine Bottle by the Red House Painters

Not a country listener but when I came back from Europe few days after 9/11 the news were playing voice mails of victims from the Twin Towers and passengers from the 2 planes leaving messages of " I love you" to their loved ones and this song was playing in the background.

Lonestar "I'm Already There"

Luther Vandross: "Dance With My Father"

Beautiftul song but can't finish the song without bawling my eyes out. "Miss you, daddy!"

Air Supply "Here I Am"

Adele: "Someone Like You"

James Blunt: "You're Beautiful" Ugh. When you see that beauty across the aisle or room or street. Only to realized you can never have her or him. "I saw your face in a crowded place and I don't know what to do. Cause I'll never be with you." UGH! That kills me!

And Cher's "I Hope You Find It" I really think this song was about Chastity's transition. There were whispers Cher was having a hard time with it and at the end when her daughter was going to do the transition Cher came to terms with it. Whether or not the song was about it, the lyrics and the melancholy of the music make it so.

I listened to this song a lot when my friend died. It may have made me feel even more depressed

Anybody?

Goodbye to Love by The Carpenters.

All By Myself By Eric Carmen. He seemed like such a closeted queen that it seemed like a theme for old washed up queens.

Auld Lang Syne

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) - Don McLean

"Is That All There Is?" by Peggy Lee. Terrific song from the late 60's, but depressing.

One TIn Soldier

I WIsh Someone Would Care

Followed by the even more depressing "I'd Rather Go Blind"

Awww, r230 that is a good one :(

Peggy Lee

"Is That All There Is?"

Another vote for Kenny Rodgers

"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town"

Some of you are triggered by so MANY songs

you should consider medication

It must have been love. By Roxette

A long, long time ago...

I can still remember how that music used to make me smile..

I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride,

but something touched me deep inside...

"I know it's over" by The Smiths

I agree with the vast majority of the songs in this thread. Wow! Nicely done.

In keeping with the idea that a song need not have sad lyrics in order to be profoundly depressing, might I add:

“Wind of Change” by Scorpions.

Ugh! Just that whistle at the beginning is enough to make me feel like there’s no hope left in the world. I always got so bummed when the video came on MTV when the song was current.

Alone Again, Naturally

The Funeral--Band of Horses

"You're the One:" by Kate Bush.

Forgot to link the Kate Bush song.

Just when I was gettin' over you...

When I hear your footsteps echoing in the hall,

Another vote for Carly Simon's

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"

It still resonates after all these years

I always have felt the songs on Pet Sounds are desperate cries for help. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" foreshadows something that likely won't be. "God Only Knows" is about futility.

"Alone Again" by Gilbert O'Sullivan

When I was a kid, I thought this was a Beatles song.

Luka by Suzanne Vega.

Gloomy Sunday, a/k/a The Hungarian Suicide Song. By anybody.

Springsteen's "The Streets Of Philadelphia".

Joni Mitchell's 2000 recording of "Both Sides Now" is wistful, but the undercurrent is terribly depressing. Since I saw it featured in "Love, Actually" (I know it isn't a DL fave, but I love it), I've included it in my Christmas playlist. The holidays are always bittersweet for me. Always. Even when I had no reason to feel that way, I did.

It's the End of the World (as we know it and I feel fine)

"Nobody" by Randy Crawford

Speaking of Carly Simon, this song was buried on her 1979 flop album "Spy". It was about life with an emotionally distant musician (I wonder who it could be).

"We're So Close"

Mon amie la rose

[quote]Speaking of Carly Simon, this song was buried on her 1979 flop album "Spy". It was about life with an emotionally distant musician (I wonder who it could be).

I have a guess R265

His first name rhymes with Maimes and last name rhymes with Failor

R257 yes! I always thought it was just my depressing ass that heard those songs that way. ‘God Only Knows’ sounds to me like a codependent lament. ‘I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times’ is a total resignation to alienation.

R253 I adore Kate and think she’s a genius, but it’s difficult not to want to weep listening to a lot of her songs. For me, ‘Cloudbusting’ is a gut-wrenching several minutes of emotional agony, and the video makes it even worse. I have a distant relationship with a father I don’t understand, so it cuts a bit too deep. If it comes on the radio or someone’s playlist, I usually try to excuse myself from the room so I don’t end up in a foetal ball. ‘Don’t Give Up’, the duet with Peter Gabriel, is another tearjerker. Oh, and she also wrote that suicidally bleak concept album about the design and testing of a sonic weapon...

Anything written by songwriter, poet, and guitarist Matthew Good.

As a solo artist, his stock in trade is lyrical drifts of downbeat, chilly, bittersweet melancholy, with a voice that trembles hopelessly calling into the void. He also has a vast catalogue of driving, urgent rock songs that beg the listener to keep living, but these aren’t as beautiful as his depressing cuts.

Good has battled the stigma of profound depression and mental illness all his life, as well as creative & professional setback upon setback, and his songs eloquently tell that tale. His ‘Best Of’ album is called IN A COMA, and some of his other EP/album titles include HAD IT COMING, HOSPITAL MUSIC (which he wrote while sectioned), LIGHTS OF ENDANGERED SPECIES and MOVING WALLS...says it all.

The songs of his that send me into a downward spiral of sadness are: the resigned ‘Bullets In A Briefcase’ (my favourite song by him, and perhaps my favourite alternative song ever written); the forbidding ‘Weapon’ (perhaps his most famous solo release); the rueful ‘Avalanche’; the wistful ‘Bright End of Nowhere’; the moody ‘Blue Skies Over Bad Lands’; the nihilistic ‘Born To Kill’; the elegeiac ‘Extraordinary Fades’; the agonised ‘While We Were Hunting Rabbits’; the haunted ‘This Is Night’, and; the mournful ‘Cold Water’.

The latter is the literal sound of a man giving up on love and on life in the same bathetic lonely moment...

[quote] In the room that we let/I found your hairbrush broke on the ground.../And so in motion, like a stone in potion/I just laid down..../This cold water is weighing us down....

I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred

[quote]—He Has Aged Badly

No, he hasn’t. James Taylor looks like a vaguely handsome man of his age. He hasn’t gotten plastic surgery, and his face still isn’t sliding off his head. He has aged better than, say, Paul McCartney. I don’t know how many 72-year-old men you know, but James Taylor looks far better than most.

I mean, have you seen Stephen Stills or David Crosby lately? Joe Walsh? Elton John?

I’m not even a fan of James Taylor, I just can’t stand ridiculous, anonymous people talking out of their asses online.

[quote]I’m not even a fan of James Taylor, I just can’t stand ridiculous, anonymous people talking out of their asses online.

Mary!

FYI, the "James Taylor is beautiful" troll has been triggered

[quote]I just can’t stand ridiculous, anonymous people talking out of their asses online.

Which would explain why you spend your time on DL?

The entire OK Computer album by Radiohead

Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Comfortably Numb -Pink Floyd

Most of MGMT’s catalog, ESPECIALLY Kids

The Christmas Shoes (you said regardless of quality 😂)

"Victims" Culture Club. I have a very sad association with this song.

"Victims" Culture Club. I have a very sad association with this song.

'The Dance" Garth Brooks/"Still" Commodores/"Who Knows Where the Time Goes" Judy Collins/"At Seventeen" Janis Ian/"Touch Me in the Morning" Diana Ross/"And I A Telling You" Dreamgirls