Sad Songs Say So Much

Dear people in my computer,

I’ve been feeling a little sad lately. A little heartache combined with life’s disparaging obstacles, have me feeling a little blue. Naturally I indulge in some sad music. What are your favourite sad songs?

Below are my top five sad songs:

1. Jeff Buckley’s Lover You Should Have Come Over is saturated with longing. The lyrics are haunted with regret and inner struggles: “sometimes a man gets carried away / When he feels he should be having his fun / Much to blind to see the damage he’s done / Sometimes a man must awake / To find he has no one.” If the words don’t get to you, Buckley’s desperate delivery will.

2. Nobody captures the lows of vagabonds like Tom Waits, which brings me to Tom Traubert's Blues. “A battered old suitcase / To a hotel someplace / And a wound that will never heal ”. Tom Traubert’s Blues is always the song I end up listening to when I’m traveling alone and start to feel the isolation. Themes of feeling alone or like you don’t belong.

3. Then there is the king of the sad bastard song, Ryan Adams. He has so many sad tunes that I love. Come Pick Me Up perfectly articulates confusion in a relationship.

4. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' People Ain't No Good really sums up how it feels to completely lose faith in people.

5. I also really like to listent to the Beatles’ Across the Universe when I’m sad. While the song is not particularly heart breaking, the writer, John Lennon, is obviously sorting through a lot of complicated emotions. Rufus Wainwright’s  and Fiona Apple’s versions are both so different, but so beautiful.

Wow. That's a lot of sadness. But, things usually turn around. Here are some wonderful words of wisdom I was once told: "Everything's always okay in the end. If it's not okay. It's not the end." So in anticipation of that moment...

Art work by Tummy Mountain.