The saddest songs in the world

[eborr]

I challenge anyone to list to this and not shed a tear - and the amazing thing it happened just a hundred years ago in these sainted Isles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tRmW0ONVds

[RoseMorninStar]

Wow. I wasn't planning on a cry-fest tonight, but sometimes it can be cathartic. A few of the songs I found more melancholic (like Radiohead), some were thoughtful. Some tragic. Some sentimental. Some have to be taken in context.

There are so many songs that make me cry, for different reasons. This is a very obvious one I heard many years ago. It's not my usual genre, but it always makes me weep.

[yovargas]

A new contender - this old folk song about the hardships of a war vet returning home is devastating:

[RoseMorninStar]

Where is the broken heart emoji when you need it?

[Alatar]

John Prine is a genius, hard to believe he's so little known, over here at least. He's like another Tom Waits.

[yovargas]

I'd certainly never heard of him before.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm surprised you never heard of him, yov.

Here's another one that I came across yesterday that surprised me, from the Dropkick Murphy's, with whom I've always associated a rowdier sound. I found it extremely moving.

[yovargas]

God damnit.

[Alatar]

Thats a standard here. Made famous by The Furey Brothers and Davey Arthur

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks, Al.

[Alatar]

It occurs to me that maybe some of our other standards aren't as well known elsewhere as they are here. This is a song by Phil Coulter about his childhood in Derry before the troubles, sung by Luke Kelly of the Dubliners.