Songs That Make You Cry

it's only sad if you're in the midst of cutting your wrists, isn't it?

 

God Bless The U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood

I heard this song today on a country station as I was driving. The station was playing three requested songs in a row that people wanted to hear to remember 9/11. The first song was Toby Keith's "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue" the second was some Merle Haggard song, and God Bless the USA was third. I am normally indifferent about God Bless the USA. I like patriotic songs, but this one has always seemed a little corny to me, especially after my school played this song on the PA system after the national moment of silence a few days after 9/11. Today though, damn. I knew I'd hear it, and I started blaring it and sung along, then had to fight back tears so I could see the highway.

 

just scanned all these pages, but does nobody have The Pretender in here? a truly tragic tune

 

One other song that makes me sad that I forgot to mention. I think it's been covered by a few guys, namely Elvis.

I think it's called "That Lonesome Valley". It goes something like this:

You gotta walk
that lonesome valley
you gotta walk it by yourself
no, nobody else
is gonna walk it for you
you gotta walk it by yourself

I mention this because today would have been my dad's 75th birthday. He died 30 years ago.

 

My dad was diagnosed with cancer last year and five weeks later was dead. Playing the role of oldest son I realized at one point, about a month after we buried him, that I had never cried about it. Then one day I'm driving around town and Tim McGraw's "Live Like Your Were Dying" came on and about two months worth of crying took place in about 30 minutes.

 

Damn, Les.

I didn't cry when my father died, but I was only 12. Didn't cry at the funeral, either.

Then one day, probably 22-23 years later, my wife, mother, sister and I spent the day with my uncle, who was my father-figure and dad's brother. On the way home, driving down Interstate 215, I just started bawling and couldn't stop.

Had the whole car in tears.

It was one of only two times my mother said she loved me.

 

I'll second that.

The song was written by Mike Reid, the former Penn State and Cincinnati Bengals lineman who played piano for symphonies in the NFL offseason and is now a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. I remember watching a "This Week in Pro Football" feature on him, narrated by John Facenda, during Reid's days with the Bengals. Facenda said something like, "Reid's compositions describe a sensitivity one does not usually associate with an offensive lineman." It sounded like poetry to me as Reid's music played in the background.

The week I found out Reid wrote "I Can't Make You Love Me," a few days later the precursor to ESPN Classic ran that episode of "This Week in Pro Football." The coincidence was strange and oddly comforting at the same time, as it happened during my separation that eventually became divorce.

 

A whole bunch of songs

Don't let the teardrops rust you shining heart -- Holly Cole Trio
The Girl From Yesterday and Wasted Time -- The Eagles
Heart of Gold -- Neil Young
Lonesome Sundown -- Tom Petty
Vincent -- Don McLean
Eternal Flame -- The Bangles

 

Two more to add, both coincidentally by Neil Young:

"Philadelphia" - heartbreaking song in the context of the movie
"Long May You Run" - I remember listening to this when my beloved Border Collie was in his last days with lymphoma. Still chokes me up.

 

Haven't read the whole thread, but the break in the middle of "Let Down" by Radiohead gets to me. And "Between the Bars" by Elliott Smith...but there are personal reasons about that (fucked up thing with a woman right around the first Christmas I wasn't with my family. I self-medicated with Jim Beam and cigarettes.)

 

He'll never be rid of me!

As for my songs:
"Wind Beneath My Wings" - Bette Midler
"God Must've Spent A Little More Time On You" - N*Sync
"I'll Never Break Your Heart" - Backstreet Boys
"Hero" - Mariah Carey






















But really:
"Turnadot" from Nessun Dorma, sung by LP
"Appalachian Spring" by Copland
Ticheli's version of Shenendoah

 

It does here: