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Music to cry to

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Apparently having a good cry to music makes you feel better. I think I agree.

What brings a tear to your eye? I don’t mean because it is so bad!

For me, it’s Morrissey’s ‘I Know Very Well How I got My Name’ but I have no idea why – it’s just that ‘You think you were my first love…’ line.

Also, ‘Goodnight, Travel Well’ by The Killers, as it reminds me of my mother passing away.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/13/music-cry-tracks-tears-songs-weeping

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  1. There are two that never fail:

    The Show Must Go On – Queen
    The entirety of the Carousel Original Soundtrack

    The following almost always work:

    Mount The Air – The Unthanks
    Sibelius’ 5th Symphony
    Coat of Many Colours – Dolly Parton
    Most Puccini Arias
    So You’ll Aim Towards the Sky – Grandaddy

    There are many more.

    Once Mrs H and I found ourselves blubbing simultaneously to Two Little Boys when it came on the radio. Sadly we haven’t done that for a while.

      • Including, of course, the BIG DADDY of all super emotional country weepies, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones.

        Exposure to even 10 seconds of that song is usually enough to reduce a grown adult to a blubbering wreck.

    • Carousel is one of mine too. I remember getting quite upset about the storyline of the movie when first watching it as a boy – a first realisation of mortality.

      Another would be the Stephen Bishop song The Same Old Tears on a New Background sung by Art Garfunkel. A break-up memory from my teens.

  3. How long have you got?

    The first one that comes to mind is this beauty, that I was raving about, to @SteveT, on the ‘Who Do You Collect’ thread. From the voice of Alison Krauss and the pen of Michael McDonald.
    “It’s finally come.
    Is that ‘sorry’ on your breath?
    Where were you when I was sittin’ back here
    Missin’ you to death?
    It don’t matter now.”

    It never fails to floor me.

  4. These three get me every time and it could be the association of another year gone, more people that have passed, the melancholic nature of two of the songs, who knows…but without fail they get me.

    Counting Crows – Long December

    Smith & Burrows – When the Thames Froze There is a point in early/mid December when the OH asks for my Spotify Xmas playlist to be put on, usually whilst preparing a Sunday lunch and so cider/wine has been taken. We both end up in floods when this comes on

    U2 – Walk On On the morning of my step Mother’s funeral this came on the radio when I was in the shower and I heard the lyrics

    “You’re packing a suitcase for a place
    None of us has been
    A place that has to be believed
    To be seen”

    And I went big time,I still do….. She was the biggest influence in my life.

  6. Loudon Wainwright chronicled a very sad period in my life with ‘Your mother and I’ and ‘Five years old’
    Joni’s Shades of scarlet conquering was the song that got to me when I first got my heart broken by a girl.
    Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics also got me before my Dad died last year but I know if I heard it now I would completely lose it.
    However Richard Thompson did it best with Linda – A heart needs a home. Say no more.

    • Your very mention of A Heart Needs A Home has me welling up.

      This performance – I was watching when it aired in ’75 – was my first conscious exposure to Mr Thompson’s œuvre. I’ve never looked looked back, and have just had a good blart while listening again:

  10. ‘Little Green’, Joni Mitchell.

    ‘Child with a child pretending
    Weary of lies you’re sending home
    So you sign all the papers in the family name
    You’re sad and you’re sorry but you’re not ashamed, little green
    Have a happy ending.’

  11. Billy Don’t Be A Hero (“I heard she threw the letter away.”)
    Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs (“The fever came and the good Lord mopped his brow.”)
    Two Little Boys (“Did you think I would leave you dying when there’s room on my horse for two?”)
    Tie A Yellow Ribbon (“Now the whole damned bus is cheering and I can’t believe I see a hundred yellow ribbons ’round the ole oak tree.”)
    Ça Plane Pour Moi (“Poupée de cellophane, cheveux chinois, un sparadrap, une gueule de bois.”)

  12. John Cameron’s music for Kes. Every. Single. Time. (That was nearly auto corrected to John Cameron’s music for Keswick, which probably isn’t so emotional)

  14. I just don’t know what to do with myself – Dusty Springfield – Heartbreaking & wonderful in equal measure.

    Its only make believe – I don’t think I have ever heard a version of this that I didn’t love, but the Glen Campbell version always has me in floods.

    As an aside, I love the version on the splendid new (?) John Cooper Clarke/ Hugh Cornwell album.

    Unchained Melody – Righteous Brothers – an easy (& cheesy) choice but I unashamedly love it.

    My late wife Karen loved The power of love by Jennifer Rush & that reduces me to tears as well.

    Now please excuse me, I appear to have something in my eye…

  15. The Cinema Paradiso soundtrack .
    Tomorrow belongs to me – Cabaret.
    Sunrise, Sunset – Fiddler on the roof.
    Soho Square – Kirsty Macoll
    Sous le ciel de Paris – Edith Piaf.

  18. I often well up at the sheer wonderfulness of a song even though that song or its lyrics has no particular resonance with anything personal in my life. My wife often responds to me saying “hey listen to this its really good” with “you’re not going to cry are you?” Recent blubbers include “Everyones a VIP to someone” by the go-team and “Easter Theatre” by XTC. Which gives me an excuse to post this – as I do every year. Happy if slightly weepy Easter everyone.

  19. Oh loads but “Walk like a man” by the Boss always sets me off. Anything about Dads and sons, basically. “My boy” by Elvis….pure shlock….waaaaaah 😢

  20. Obvs

    A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
    Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys
    One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
    And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar

    His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
    Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane
    Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,
    So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave

  21. Roddy Frame’s Surf album is the best depiction of heartbreak I’ve ever heard. Different tracks at different times ring so true – beautiful lyrics. “Take her face out of the start of the day for me, I’m half-crazed wondering if I should follow or let it go”. We’ve all lived through that in our younger days…

    In another way entirely, since my father died 11 years ahoy, Cloudbusting by Kate Bush sets the waterworks going anytime I hear it…so many trigger words in the lyrics. It’s quite inconvenient if I’m driving at the time.

  23. Woodpile by Frightened Rabbit. It strikes too close to home.
    Vincent Black Lightning because I’m a sentimental slob.
    Magic Kid by Hayes Carll because I love and miss my kid.

    And occasionally L’enfant from L’opera sauvage.

  24. “Alone Again (Naturally)” gets me every time. No explanation needed it’s just those bloody brutally sad lyrics.

    “Nothing Rhymed” specifically the Justin Currie version does it too

    “Holding Back The Years” was the first song I heard on the radio the day my dad died

    There are others…….

  27. This – but only the Vince Mendoza-orchestrated version.

    This – particularly where it breaks down at the four minute mark.

    And as others have said “Alone Again Naturally” – the line “I remember I cried when my father died…” Oof!

  28. Christmas carols, especially singing along to them. I started joining in to “O Come All Ye Faithful” (or it could have been Hark the Herald) in the Kings Cambridge Carol broadcast near the end, and found myself unable to continue for the tears,

    Sibelius’ Finlandia Hymn, particularly when set to the words of Be Still My Soul. Beth Nielsen Chapman’s version.

    Lastly ‘Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp’ by O.C Smith when it gets to the lines
    ‘Last summer Momma passed away
    And left the ones who loved her
    Each and every one is
    More than grateful for their birth
    And each Sunday she receives
    A big bouquet of fourteen roses
    With a card that reads
    The Greatest Mom on Earth’

    But here’s Beth:

      • I went to Twang Jr’s school carol concert – all in their uniforms, singing like angels – when the descant came in on “Oh come all ye faithful”, tears rolled down my cheeks. I sang that descant in the choir when I was his age (12) – I think that’s what set me off.

  29. I can’t listen to Automatic For The People because it soundtracked my journey back and to to the hospital in the build up to my dad’s death.

    I have always thought Sandy Denny’s Where Does The Time would be a tear jerker at a funeral but have never experienced it. Yet.

    However, number one on the tear list is Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come.

    https://youtu.be/7oDLVc2zmnk

  30. I cry every day, more than once: when I read, when I watch TV/films/YouTube clips, when I listen to songs, and sometimes just by thinking something random that triggers an emotional response…I’m a mess – I’ve always been very emotional but it’s definitely gotten worse with age.
    I’d say music is actually the least tear-inducing of the three, but that’s only because I usually do something else while I listen – read for exemple – and then that distracts me from the emotions of the song (if I read something sad at the time that will of course make me cry twice as hard…) But it’s tough when I go to gigs…very embarrassing to stand there with tears streaming down my face to a not particularly sad song that for some odd reason just triggers that response in me (and nobody else). These days I solve it by always carrying a camera, and as soon as I feel the eyes going, I start taking photos, because that distracts me from the emotions and save me from making a fool of myself (it also gives me lots of great photos of favourite artists, most of the time).
    Too many songs to mention, except “Amazing Grace” which reminds me of my friend’s funeral, when the sight of her little son in his dad’s arms, walking into the church hall behind a bagpiper playing AG, had us all in floods.

  31. For me it’s ‘Purple Rain’; it always was, way before last year, and particularly in his live performances. Also cried at the encore of Sometimes It Snows In April’ the last time I saw him in 2014…that song carries an overwhelming weight of emotion for me now.
    And speaking of Kate Bush, witnessing her sublime performance of ‘The Morning Fog’ on the day of my beloved auntie’s funeral left me in floods.

  32. What a great array of songs,am I allowed to mention I hope you dance by Lee Ann Womack?Would someone mind putting up a link for the beautiful Street Lights by Josh Rouse,from his excellent Best Of from a few years back….great artist with brilliant back catalogue….

  34. What about the amazing version of Stairway to Heaven performed by Heart with Jason Bonham,including a gospel choir coming in half way through,to reduce Robert Plant to a tear or two and Jimmy Page being suitably impressed.? Can someone post this clip please…?

    • More Bragg. The Man in the Iron Mask for me. The irony is that the girl who introduced me to this track did exactly what happens in the song.
      “Shakes fist”
      “Curse you Sarah!”

      It’s only been 31 years, not that I’m counting.

    • More Bragg..when I saw him play the Roundhouse in the mid 1990s he started his show by playing the first side of his debut album Life’s a Riot etc….it was a real buzz as it was a novelty for an artist to play whole albums…anyone else recall that gig? I hope my memory hasn’t failed me!

  36. Meant to second Tank Park Salute..what a great cd…and did I miss something or is Bowie s Lazarus missing..too painful to watch the video,song is amazing enough…

    • It’s Blackstar rather than Lazarus for me, that moment where it morphs from the ominous opening into that glorious, swooning counterpoint is like sunlight breaking through stormclouds…just devastastingly fragile and beautiful.

    • Love Don’t Try This… for some reason that line about Robin Hood and his merry men in Moving the Goalposts really gets to me. Loss of childhood innocence? Don’t know, don’t want to know.

      I’ve got the 1994 Cooking Vinyl reissue, pressed on two fat 45rpm discs… very ahead of the curve for a roots label!

      While we’re on Mr Barg there are actually a couple of ones on William Bloke that do “this” to me because of where me noggin was located at the time, 14th of February being the main one.

  37. That’s maybe why I couldn’t stop playing it ,the only track in years that had that effect on me,last one probably the live version of Charlie Brown by Coldplay…struck a chord somewhere,are we allowed to like Coldplay here?…!

  39. I’m not prone to tears, and generally not a massive fan of albums based on sparse acoustic guitars, but the whole of the new album (“A Crow Looked At Me”) by Phil Elverum (recording as Mount Eerie) is so crushingly sad that I can barely listen to it.

    The whole thing is basically him documenting the trauma of losing his wife to a cancer diagnosed when their daughter was just four months old. It’s a raw and uncompromising howl of desperation and loss, largely recorded in the same room where she died.

    He sings of the feeling watching her pass away, torments himself for not remembering if she liked foxgloves or Canada geese, and collapses when a backpack she’d ordered for their daughter to take to school arrives, all the while knowing she’d not be around to see that even though she “clawed at the cliff you were sliding down, being swallowed into a silence”.

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