Songs That Make You Cry

"Shannon" by Henry Gross. A 70s tune about a guy who's dog gets swept out to sea chasing after a Frisbee. I kid you not.

The theme from Once Upon A Time in America.

 

ANOTHER DAY IS AT END
MAMA SAYS SHE'S TIRED AGAIN
NO ONE CAN EVEN BEGIN TO TELL HER

I HARDLY KNOW WHAT TO SAY
BUT MAYBE IT'S BETTER THAT WAY
IF PAPA WERE HERE I'M SURE HE'D TELL HER

SHANNON IS GONE I HOPE SHE'S DRIFTING OUT TO SEA
SHE ALWAYS LOVED TO SWIM AWAY
MAYBE SHE'LL FIND AN ISLAND WITH A SHADY TREE
JUST LIKE THE ONE IN OUR BACKYARD

MAMA TRIES HARD TO PRETEND THINGS WILL GET
BETTER AGAIN
SOMEHOW SHE'S KEEPING IT ALL INSIDE HER

BUT FINALLY THE TEARS FILL OUR EYES
AND I KNOW THAT SOMEWHERE TONIGHT
SHE KNOWS HOW MUCH WE REALLY MISS HER

SHANNON IS GONE I HOPE SHE'S DRIFTING OUT TO SEA
SHE ALWAYS LOVED TO SWIM AWAY
MAYBE SHE'LL FIND AN ISLAND WITH A SHADY TREE
JUST LIKE THE ONE IN OUR BACKYARD

JUST LIKE THE ONE IN OUR BACKYARD

(sorry about the caps)

i don't know if that actually screams milkbone.

 

From HenryGross.com: "He produced a single, "Shannon", a song written about the passing of Beach Boy Carl Wilson's Irish Setter of the same name."

 

i'm not calling bullshit, dan, i'm just sayin' it doesn't scream milkbone.

 

4 pages and no "Cats in the Cradle"?

Very rarely does a song gets to me -- usually a sappy song can do it if I'm in the right mood. For all of the Bruce that I listen to, the only one that is a little like that for me is "Wreck on the Highway"

 

Good call. This song didn't get to me until my dad died the same year my son was born ...

I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
Im sure I heard his echo
In my babys new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

 

Large amounts of alcohol + the slow songs on "The River" = :'(

Bob Cook, great call with "Do You Realize." Maybe not a tear-jerker, but moving nonetheless.

 

Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye). Gladys and the Pips.
Louisiana, 1927 - Either Randy Newman or Aaron Neville. (Or my daughter, when she was 11, singing it in front of a slideshow backdrop of Katrina photos, and singing it with pneumonia at the time.)
Grand Central Station -- Another one from Ms. Chapin Carpenter.

 

Grace-by Irish Tenor Anthony Kearns
My Grandfather's Eyes-by Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan
Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears-by Irish Ronan Tynan
Steal Away-by John McDermott

If you have never heard the original Three irish Tenors, they will truly cause the dust to rise in your room when you do. I've seen Kearns and Tynan (twice) in solo concert and they are unreal in person.

 

I like Ronan Tynan anywhere except Yankee Stadium.

 

It's the only Paula Cole song I know, but these verses from "I Don't Want to Wait" always get to me:

She had two babies
One was six months one was three
In the war of '44
Every telephone ring
Every heartbeat stinging
When she thought it was God calling her
Oh would her son grow to know his father....

He showed up all wet
On the rainy front step
Wearing shrapnel in his skin
And the war he saw
Lives inside him still
It's so hard to be gentle and warm
The years passed by and now
He has granddaughters

 

Part of an essay by Slaid Cleaves that applies to this thread.
the full essay can be found here:
http://slaidcleaves.com/stories/brokeThoughts.html