Songs That Make You Cry

I've got daughters and I like country music, so here goes
-- "Ready, Set, Don't Go." Billy Ray Cyrus

-- "Tough Little Boys," Gary Allan

-- "My Little Girl," Tim McGraw

-- "Then They Do," Trace Adkins

-- "Butterfly Kisses," Bob Carlise

 

The one that comes closest is Louis Armstrong singing "They Say I Look Like God." It was originally written for laughs, but Armstrong cried when he read it and changed the direction of the song. You can hear him start to break down during the last line. The backstory.

Sufjan Stevens' "Casmir Pulaski Day" is up there, too.

 

I really think that if "What hurts the most" doesn't strike a chord in you, you have no heart. There can't be a person alive who hasn't been in that situation.

"Crazy baby" is an aquired taste, but it's still a damn good sond. Relish was on of the best albums of the 90s.

"Change" by Blind Melon reminds me of a friend of mine who died of a heroin overdose. We listened to it constantly after he died.


I know Dashboard Confessional is cliche, but "Stolen" gets me emotional everytime I hear it.

 

I'm sure most if not all of you have never heard this song, but if you hear it I guarantee you'll find it getting quite dusty in the room. It's called "In Paradise" by a band from the DC/Virginia area called "Eddie From Ohio."

{quote]
I woke up this morning
Went to pick up the mail
A routine that I always do
Probably find bills and catalogs
Full of junk I'd never use

As I reached in the box
I felt a sensation
I didn't know what it could be
Then I pulled out a postcard
And looked at the postmark
And it said "PO Cloud 23"
And I thank the heavens
For sending this letter to me.

"Dear Mommy and Daddy
I asked God if he'd let me write a letter to you
He said he felt bad about all the sad things
He was permitted to do.
So he took me to Peter
And asked him to help me
'Cause I was too young to write words
So I climbed on his lap
And leaned over to him
And this is what St. Peter heard.

Don't you worry, don't you cry
Don't waste the energy wondering why
The reasons are clear
It's much safer here
In Paradise

Each morning i wake up
And the sun it shines bright
Me and the other kids play
We eat lots of pretzels
And watch lots of Barney
And sing along songs all the day
And at night before bedtime
I go visit grandpa
he reads me a story or two
Then I grab up my blanket
and hail off to slumber
And dream about Daddy and you.

Don't you worry, don't you cry
Don't waste the energy wondering why
The reasons are clear
It's much safer here
In Paradise

I've gotta get going
St. Peter is calling
He's gotten a job for me
He says Katie you make sure
The stars are all lined up
And twinkling bright as can be
So take comfort together
That I'm doing fine
Just lay your tears down to rest
My spirit is there
And I'll always be with you
Remembering two years the best

Don't you worry, don't you cry
Don't waste the energy wondering why
The reasons are clear
It's much safer here
In Paradise
[/quote]

The 3-year-old daughter of friends of mine died and they borrowed the CD from me and played this song at her funeral. Talk about not a dry eye in the house.

 

Not cry, but they make me sad:

"Seasons in the Sun" - Terry Jacks
"The Living Years" - Mike + The Mechanics
"Goodbye Stranger" - Supertramp
"Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)" - Alan Parsons Project
"Two-Ten, Six-Eighteen" - Jimmy Rodgers

They all remind me of my dad, who died when I was 12. He was albino and legally blind.

 

There are a handful, but the one time I remember most was driving into North Bennington, just past Bennington College, and Fiona Apple's "Shadowboxer" came on the radio. Halfway through she starts belting her notes of bone-deep sorrow, and I flow a river. Reminded me of the girl I love(d) most. She's a keeper.

 

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

 

Jimmie Dale Gilmore just kills me with that song.

 

Wild Horses

 

Good pull on The Living Years. Forgot that one. I was 13 when my dad died. That song definitely chokes me up, though it's been years since I've heard it.

 

At 19, I fell in love with a blond, left-handed shortstop who had killer legs, blue-gray eyes and smile I'll never forget. She went off to play softball at a university far, far from me, but not before we spent an unforgetable summer together, making out in the back of my parents' Ford Explorer, watching reruns at the local drive-in movie theater. Before she departed in the fall, she made me a mix tape, and one of the songs on it was The Promise by Tracy Chapman. Listen to this, she said. I'll be back and we'll be together again. I wore that poor tape out, dreaming of her.

She came home that Christmas, eager to be reunited after many months of late-night, long-distance phone calls, but after a few weeks together, it was obvious something, at least for her, had changed. We fizzled out in painful (especially for me) fashion.

Every few years, I'll hear snippets of The Promise in a bar or on the radio and it will take me back to that summer and the mixture of nostalgia, joy and disappointment will produce a few tears. I'm happily married now, but the line "...togther again; it would feel so good be, in your arms; where all my journeys end" still feels like a hard right to the solar plexus. Few things hurt quite as much as the first time you really fall in love and really get your heart broken.

But other than that, it's "Gracie" by Ben Folds, which may be the prettiest song ever written by a father about his daughter. If you've got a little girl you love (or even if you don't) you should definitely check it out.

 

Never heard a song that made me cry, but when you want to talk sad ones (in addition to some of the others mentioned here, particularly "Sunday Morning Coming Down"), I look no further than Sinatra's version of "Send In the Clowns".