Songs That Are Sad, Part 1

The other night I was listening to sad songs.  I'm not too sad these days, but sometimes you just feel like being brought down a little, don't you?  And sad songs typically are so pretty, too. 

Anyway, I was listening to some of my favorite sad tunes, and I thought I'd share a few.  Let's start with some masters of the genre.

"Sad Songs and Waltzes," Willie Nelson.  I first heard this song in 1996 on Cake's Fashion Nugget album.  Their version is amazing, but here I thought I'd take it back to the man who first wrote and sang it.  I'm one of those people who hates country music and loves Willie and finds no contradiction in saying so.  Anything Willie wants to sing is fine with me (except maybe another duet with Julio Iglesias).  This song just breaks me up.

Sample sad lyric: "I'll tell all about how you cheated/I'd like for the whole world to hear/I'd like to get even with you 'cause you're leavin'/But sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year."



"Diary," Bread. Most of Bread's songs are sad.  David Gates is either a brilliant storyteller or the most unlucky at love dude in pop music history.  From what I've heard, this one is actually made up, which makes it not one bit less pathetically depressing. Guy reads in his wife's diary how madly in love she is...and then realizes she's not talking about him. Can't un-read that, can you?

Sample sad lyric: "Then she, confronted with her writing there, simply pretended not to care."



"Hurt," Johnny Cash.  A Nine Inch Nails song, of course. But there is simply nothing like the emotional weight and world-weariness that JC brought to it on his final release before his death.  I don't think there's ever been a song written that better expresses the fact that there can be power in pain, and I don't know that any major artist has ever done a better cover version of another artist's iconic song.  A truly haunting track.

Sample sad lyrics: "I hurt myself today/To see if I still feel/I focus on the pain/The only thing that's real."

More coming up - don't want to bum you out too much at one time. :)