Songs that make you Cry

[Alatar]

I love songs that can evoke an emotional reaction. This can, of course be songs from shows or movies, but that seems like a cheat somehow. The song should be able to bring you to tears without any associated storyline or images. But now I'm adding my own prejudices...

Tell me about the songs that make you cry, and (if you want) why!

[cemthinae]

Interesting threads these days...

I cried during one of the songs in the LOTR musical. It was a duet that Frodo & Sam sing. The actor who played Sam has really moved me.

Normally songs with "sad" lyrics such as Broken Vow by Josh Groban make me cry, but lately I've found songs that people would consider inspirational are making me cry too.

I think it's probably just because of where I am at in life right now.

[eborr]

It's never thewords that really hit the emotional zone, it's always the music, and in some often I cannot put a finger on why it is.

I can give you pretty exact reference points but the "songs" themselves are so obscure it would probalby not mean much to anyone else.

[Lidless]

Drive by The Cars - Live Aid 1985. The video for it was prepared by some Canadian reporters and showed it to Geldof whilst David Bowie was in the office. "I have to announce that," Bowie said, crying. They showed it to The Cars and they too cried, saying they had never realized how powerful the lyrics were.

[Holbytla]

Anything by Journey or REO Speedwagon.
It is just so torturous to me.

I can't say any song makes me cry, but there are some that I find really poignant at times.

An American Tune by Paul Simon.
And I always found it hard to stand at attention and listen to Taps.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

Silly, don't you know that...

Big boys don't cry

[Alatar]

I find that songs about losing a child always get to me worst. Many of them are anti-war, like this one from George Michael.

"Mothers Pride"

Oh she knows
She takes his hand
And prays the child will understand
At the door they watch the men go by
In the clothes that daddy wore

Mother’s pride
Baby boy
His fathers eyes
He’s a soldier waiting for war
Time will come
He’ll hold a gun
His father’s son

And as he grows
He hears the band
Takes the step from boy to man
And at the shore she waves her son goodbye
Like the man she did before

Mother’s pride
Just a boy
His country’s eyes
He’s a soldier waving at the shore
And in her heart the time has come
To lose a son

And all the husbands, all the sons, all the lovers gone
They make no difference
No difference in the end
Still hear the woman say your father died a hero
In the name of God and man

Mother’s pride
Crazy boy
His lifeless eyes
He’s a soldier now forevermore
He’ll hold a gun ’till kingdom come

[JewelSong]

OH, man...TONS of songs make me cry. They don't even have to be sad...they just have to hit that emotional zone, as Al said. It's often a combination of the words and the music...

Lots of folkie-type songs make me weep:
"The Dutchman" by Michael Smith
"Jimmy Newman" by Tom Paxton

Also songs from musicals:
"If I Loved You" from Carousel
"Somewhere" from West Side Story

And some classical stuff...almost anything by Puccini

I cried during Sam and Frodo's duet in the LOTR Musical, too...

ETA: Hobytla, did you know that "American Tune" is the same tune as Bach's "Oh Sacred Head Now Wounded?" Simon did it deliberately. Good old Bach...

[Holbytla]

I didn't know that, but now that you mention it, it does have a Bach-ish melody to it. The title is apt as well.

[axordil]

I've been tearing up to Saint-Saens Symphony #3 lately. Beethoven's 7th and 9th have the same effect on me. Some Paul Simon can, if it hits me at the right moment. "Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears."

I went through a phase where bits of the soundtrakcs to The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast got me misty.

[Maria]

About every third song on a country music radio station gets me sobbing. My husband likes country, and I try to listen to it with him, but on average, every third song or so just causes agonizing racking sobs. I ask my family how they can stand it, and it turns out they weren't really listening to the story of the song. I can't shut the story out, and the sad ones really, really get to me. It's like the music shunts the story right past my normal defenses or something....

We listen to talk radio mostly when driving now. That or an audio book. Vocal music is just too traumatic and or repetitive for me.

[Sunsilver]

Johnny Cash singing 'Hurt' on the DVD.

'Do You Believe in Magic', the Lovin' Spoonful - happy, nostalgic tears.

Some sacred songs/worship songs move me to tears -depends on the mood I'm in. "Ode to Joy" can do it, (the hymn version) and the Ninth Symphony in general is very moving emotionally.

And, understandably, the two songs we picked as opening and closing numbers for our wedding dance: "Be My Life's Companion (and you'll never grow old)" and "Moon River", both done by Lou Armstrong.

Sometimes "As Tears Go By" by the Stones has done it, too, also "Into the West" from ROTK. A few of Kris Kristofferson's songs will do it, if they catch me in the right mood, notably "Help Me Make it Through the Night," and "Lovin' Her Was Easier."

And then, there's the King singing the classic weepy, "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

[Lidless]

Country & Western was invented for people who could not afford antidepressants.

[Alys]

It's a bit of a cliche but this one always tears me up. I was a gonner as soon as I read the lyrics through (do read them). I feel his loss and I fear its impact. Not that it's at all likely, but the better the thing you have the more horrifying it is to contemplate it's loss.

James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover Lyrics

Did I disappoint you or let you down?
Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown?
'Cause I saw the end before we'd begun,
Yes I saw you were blinded and I knew I had won.
So I took what's mine by eternal right.
Took your soul out into the night.
It may be over but it won't stop there,
I am here for you if you'd only care.

You touched my heart you touched my soul.
You changed my life and all my goals.
And love is blind and that I knew when,
My heart was blinded by you.
I've kissed your lips and held your head.
Shared your dreams and shared your bed.
I know you well, I know your smell.
I've been addicted to you.

Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.

I am a dreamer but when I wake,
You can't break my spirit - it's my dreams you take.
And as you move on, remember me,
Remember us and all we used to be
I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile.
I've watched you sleeping for a while.
I'd be the father of your child.
I'd spend a lifetime with you.
I know your fears and you know mine.
We've had our doubts but now we're fine,
And I love you, I swear that's true.
I cannot live without you.

Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.

And I still hold your hand in mine.
In mine when I'm asleep.
And I will bear my soul in time,
When I'm kneeling at your feet.

Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.
I'm so hollow, baby, I'm so hollow.
I'm so, I'm so, I'm so hollow.

[truehobbit]

Hmmh, yes, lots of songs make me cry. Classical as well as pop-songs. Partly, it's when they are about things that are sad for me, and partly it's enough for them to just be emotional even in a good way.

Um, anyone remember "Butterfly kisses", for example?


Alys, I know what you mean! It looks like a moving song - I'd have to hear the tune, though, to know if I'd find it moving.
I've occasionally heard of a song, got interested, looked up the text, and finally heard the music, only to find the style of the song or the tune was just off-putting, no matter what the text was.


Jewel, "Oh Sacred Head now wounded" has famous settings by Bach, and is much used in several oratorios, but the tune itself is from around 1600 (according to my songbook), while the text is by Paul Gerhardt, written around 1650, only it doesn't say if he wrote it for that tune, or if the two were only combined later, but I think it's possible the song was already sung when Bach was born.

Whether something makes me cry also depends on my mood at the time, though - a song might make me bawl today that is just sweet tomorrow.

Some classical culprits:
Bach's "Bist du bei mir"
"Son tutta duolo" by A. Scarlatti, "Intorno all idol' mio" by Cesti, "Il mio ben quando verra" by Paisiello, "Sposa son disprezzata" by Vivaldi, all from the Arie Antiche collection.
Mendelssohn's "On Wings of Song"/"Durch den Wald" (Spring song)/"Auf dem Teich".
Schubert's "Fremd bin ich eingezogen", "Ich such im Schnee" and most of all "Ich träumte von bunten Blumen", all from "The Winter's journey".

[Pearly Di]

Country & Western was invented for people who could not afford antidepressants.

I don't think any pop music makes me cry, or rock, or jazz, or blues ...

What does make me cry is John Tavener's extraordinary 'Song for Athene', which was sung at Princess Diana's funeral. Sends shivers up my spine, it does. And no, it doesn't make me cry because of the association with the Diana cult (sorry if I sound caustic, I was actually there in London on the day of the funeral 6 September 1997 - and what a glorious September day it was too, so sunny - because it was such a historic occasion, and it WAS very moving and powerful, but I have mixed feelings about the public reaction to her death, nine years on). I cry because the music itself is so amazing. I love the way Tavener uses all those dissonant, earth-shattering chords and I like the Russian Orthodox tradition that inspires him. It's singing from a quite different Christian tradition than that in the West, it's spiritual music from the heart, the guts.

[Sassafras]

First on my list is always the final chorale from St. Mathew's Passion: Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder



Surely the most glorious piece of music ever written!

... Ah, but then there is also the Agnus Dei from the B minor Mass, and the Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requim.

As for popular music ... much as I am moved by some music and lyrics, the feelings just aren't the same ... my soul (for want of a better word) is not stirred to the same depths. For me, classical music is a full-body/mind experience.

[eborr]

ok some detail

strawbs Lay Down - the bit in the thirs chorus where the mellotron switches from strings to choral.

in Freebird the acoustic Piano bridge before the song switches from the slide driven ballad to a much harder sound

Night watch King Crimson - the guitar break following the last verse

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

Bach's "Bist du bei mir"...

One time my mother told me she wanted me to sing "Bist du bei mir" at her funeral. I told her I would be in no emotional state to be singing at her funeral.

It's funny but sometimes organists will play it at a wedding while people are being seated and what have you. It's obvious they don't know the words.

Bist du bei mir, geh' ich mit Freuden
zum Sterben und zu meiner Ruh'.
Ach, wie vergnügt wär' so mein Ende,
es drückten deine schönen Hände
mir die getreuen Augen zu!

Translation:
If you are with me, then I will gladly go
to my death and to my rest.
Ah, how satisfying will my end be,
for your dear, fair hands will shut
my faithful eyes!

...Schubert's "Fremd bin ich eingezogen", "Ich such im Schnee" and most of all "Ich träumte von bunten Blumen", all from "The Winter's journey".

Schubert's Die Winterreise (The Winter's Journey), set to the poems of Wilhelm Müller, is so depressing it makes me laugh! Not that I don't love the music and the poetry, because I do, but I find the depressing images a little bit over the top.

The first Lied in the song cycle, "Gute Nacht" ("Good Night"), starts out with the protagonist’s girlfriend (fiancée?) dumping him—
(translation)

A stranger I came,
A stranger I go again.
May favored me
With many a bunch of flowers,
The girl spoke of love,
Her mother even of marriage
Now the world is so gloomy,
The path shrouded in snow…

--and it only gets worse after that!

The final Lied, “Der Leiermann” (“The Hurdy-gurdy Man”), is the most depressing of all:

(translation)

…No one wants to hear him, no one looks at him,
And the dogs grown around the old man.
And he lets it pass, lets everything be,
Winds, and his hurdy-gurdy never stays still.

Strange old man, should I come with you?
Will you grind your hurdy-gurdy to my songs?

(It reminds me a bit of the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man” or “The Fool on the Hill”.)

Die Winterreise has some very beautiful music, but I don't recommend listening to it if you're even slightly down.

[Lidless]

The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd