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You are here: Home / Music / Either I’m too sensitive or else I’m getting soft

Either I’m too sensitive or else I’m getting soft

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That earworm thread was one my all-time favorites, especially these two comments, so I thought I’d try another one like it on this crappy, rainy afternoon.

My favorite genre of music is songs that give you that kicked-in-the-gut, can’t-move, can’t-breathe, something-awful-is-happening kind of feeling: stuff like “Love In Vain”, “I’d Rather Go Blind”, “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground”, “I’ve Got It Bad”, “I Loves You Porgy” (“don’t let him touch me with his hot hands” gets me), and, even though I’m not such a high-brow guy, the ending part of “Madame Butterfly”. (My second favorite genre is the “I’ve been kicked in the gut and I can’t breathe, but fuck it, I’ll try to have fun anyway” type.) But there are some songs like this I literally cannot get all the way through, because there’s too much of a gut kick — “For The Good Times” (I can’t get past the “tomorrow and forever and ever and ever” part) and “Simple Twist Of Fate” (I can’t listen to “I still believe she was my twin”) are the two main examples.

What are your favorite kicked-in-the-gut songs and what songs are you unable to get through?

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  2. 2.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    what songs are you unable to get through?

    The full-length In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Oy.

  3. 3.

    piratedan

    well there’s a couple of qualifiers here… there are songs that are too beautiful in that they touch you in such a fashion that they almost encapsulate all the emotion and feeling that you have for another person. Then there are songs of remembrances, good or bad that also start my personal waterworks…

    songs of remembrance…..

    Be Still by Los Lobos because it reminds me of my father’s struggles with cancer

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxyuxpx2eXQ

    Wings of a Nightengale by The Everly Bothers for the same aforementioned reason

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYzrq-7b2y4

    songs of love

    The Air that I Breathe by The Hollies

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HydvceA1PAI

    songs that remind me vividly of the times when my heart was ripped out of my chest and pierced by the long stiletto heels of betrayal

    It’s All Over Now by the Rolling Stones

  4. 4.

    Ben Franklin

    ‘Circus’ by Eric Clapton. It was the last time he spent with his son, before the tragic accident.

    “Pilgrim’; a peak of darkness CD-The bridge to his new adventures.

  6. 6.

    MattF

    When Nelson’s ‘Red-Headed Stranger’ comes up in the rotation, I turn the volume down.

  8. 8.

    Raven

    Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Throw me a Rope

    I lost you awhile ago
    But still I don’t know why
    I can’t say your name
    Without a crow flying by
    Gotta watch my back now
    That you turned me around
    Got me walking backwards
    Into my hometown

  9. 9.

    Raven

    Iris DeMent

    My life, it don’t count for nothing.
    When I look at this world, I feel so small.
    My life, it’s only a season:
    A passing September that no one will recall.

  10. 10.

    piratedan

    I’d also have to say Faron Young’s version of Willie Nelson’s “Hello Walls” is especially haunting……

  13. 13.

    Raven

    John Prine

    So if you’re walking down the street sometime
    And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
    Please don’t just pass ’em by and stare
    As if you didn’t care, say, “Hello in there, hello.”

    I couldn’t listen to it for five years after my old man died.

  14. 14.

    BGinCHI

    Uncle Tupelo, “Black Eye.”

    Listen to the words and try not to cry. Man, that’s a brilliant song that still knocks the wind right out of me.

    OK, I think I’ve got something in my eye….

  16. 16.

    Raven

    Jerry Jeff

    One day I looked up and he’s pushin’ eighty
    He’s got brown tobacco stains all down his chin
    To me he was a hero of this country
    So why’s he all dressed up like them old men
    Drinkin’ beer and playin’ Moon and Forty-two
    Like desperados waitin’ for a train

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    and, because funerals are an increasingly frequent part of my life:
    Shadows are fallin’, and I’m runnin’ out of breath
    Keep me in your heart for a while
    If I leave you it doesn’t mean I love you any less
    Keep me in your heart for a while.

  19. 19.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    Feel free to mock me at your leisure, but that Tool knockoff band A Perfect Circle did a cover of ‘Imagine’ that’s just depressing as all hell. That’s a tough one to get through even though I don’t mind it.

    @Xecky Gilchrist: Dude, just lay back and enjoy the drums, maaaan…

  20. 20.

    burnspbesq

    My two favorite kicked-in-the-gut songs are “In the Shape of a Heart” (Jackson Browne) and “My Old Friend the Blues” (Steve Earle).

    In the “hard to get through” category, another shout-out to Los Lobos. “Is This All There Is” is such a great snapshot of the hard lives of American immigrants.

    @ Raven: “Desperadoes Waiting for a Train” is a great great song, but give the songwriting credit where it belongs, to Guy Clark.

  22. 22.

    Rosalita

    “I’m Not in Love” has just given a sad vibe ever since it first came out. Always have to turn the station. I just seems to channel loneliness.

    I’m not in love
    So don’t forget it
    It’s just a silly phase I’m going through
    And just because
    I call you up
    Don’t get me wrong, don’t think you’ve got it made
    I’m not in love, no no, it’s because..

  29. 29.

    forked tongue

    You haven’t been kicked in the gut until you’ve been kicked in the gut by “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones. I start to choke up just thinking about that one.

    Nursing the bleakest heartbreak of my life, I listened to it about a hundred times and then finally had to move on…somewhere. So then it was “Have You Seen Her?” by the Chi-Lites.

    Arrrrrgh, where’s the Jack Daniels???

  31. 31.

    Emma

    K.D. Lang’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Or Constant Craving.

    Runrig’s Nightfall on Marsco.

    Johnny Cash singing Hurt.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    what songs are you unable to get through?

    Feelings.

    Because it SUCKS!

  33. 33.

    forked tongue

    Unable to get through? I dunno, the only thing that comes to mind is the Jonestown Massacre tape, now there’s a real picker-upper.

  34. 34.

    Savage Henry

    Billy Bragg – “Little Time Bomb”

    In public he’s such a man
    Punching at the walls with his bare and bloody hands
    He’s screaming and shouting and acting crazy
    But at home he sits alone and he crys like a baby

    Actually “Workers Playtime” has a bunch of good ones

  35. 35.

    piratedan

    @Emma: good call on Ms. Lang, she does longing well, although I am more partial to Miss Chatelaine, still she has a silky voice that is pitch perfect to sadness….

  38. 38.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    @Emma: Yeah, wifey loves that KD Lang version of Hallelujah. It’s a good one…

    Just thought of another: The Last Song, by Elton John

  40. 40.

    SteveM

    What are your favorite kicked-in-the-gut songs and what songs are you unable to get through?

    Lorrain Ellison’s “Stay with Me” almost falls into both categories for me, because the vocal is so over the top and yet so obviously from the deepest reaches. It hurts to listen to it, in both senses of the phrase. Listen here (but ignore the picture).

  41. 41.

    Evergreen (formerly Betsy, forever ago)

    I find mine have evolved over time. When I was in college (c. 2000), Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” got me every. single. time. I still love it, but it doesn’t rip my guts out like it used to.

    Bruce Springsteen, “Reason to Believe.”

    Man standin’ over a dead dog
    by the highway in a ditch
    He’s lookin’ down kinda puzzled
    pokin’ that dog with a stick
    Got his car door flung open
    he’s standin’ out on Highway 31
    Like if he stood there long enough
    that dog’d get up and run

  42. 42.

    gogol's wife

    If you mean, “can’t get through without weeping,” then “La mamma morta” from Andrea Chenier, sung by Renata Scotto.

  43. 43.

    Spaghetti Lee

    I’m not sure if “can’t get through” is the right word. There’s certainly some songs that always make me choke up a little: “Only a Dream” by Mary Chapin Carpenter, “Father Son” by Peter Gabriel, “Dear Friend” and “A Gentleman’s Excuse Me” by Fish, and “Whistle Down The Wind” by Tom Waits.

  46. 46.

    Montysano

    Since I’m a music lover and a soft-hearted liberal, there’s a whole list, but Tom Waits’ “Time” comes to mind. The Avett Brothers’ “I And Love And You” might be another.

    Since this is a music thread: last Wednesday night, Mrs. Monty and I got invited to a private Black Keys show in Nashville, where they were wrapping up rehearsals for their tour. The BK had been at the top of my must-see-live list, and they didn’t disappoint. They’re the band Led Zeppelin wishes they had been. Dan Auerbach is a Rock Star also, too.

  48. 48.

    TaMara (BHF)

    About ten years ago as my divorce was finishing up and I met Bad Horse and was terrified of starting and possibly screwing up a relationship with a terrific guy, this song suddenly was back in rotation EVERYWHERE. It would gut me. I still can’t hear it and get through it:

    Landslide

  49. 49.

    red dog

    Cohen’s “Hallelujah” or Waylon doing “Don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys”

  50. 50.

    Evergreen (formerly Betsy, forever ago)

    Oh, but I know the one song that still always hits me like a gut punch. It’s why I almost never listen to it.

    Emmylou Harris, Red Dirt Girl

  53. 53.

    Donut

    @piratedan:

    Ah, David Hidalgo and Los Lobos are such an under-appreciated treasure. He’s a brilliant guitarist and one of our most poetic lyricists. I don’t know how to say it any more plainly and sincerely. He is one of the all time American greats, in my book.

    Los Lobos’ tune “Two Janes” is my pick for this topic. I cannot listen to it without crying. No shit. It hits that close to home.

  58. 58.

    Evergreen (formerly Betsy, forever ago)

    @Raven:
    Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Iris Dement, and John Prine. You, my friend, have excellent taste.

  60. 60.

    vawolf1974

    Here Today by Paul McCartney. He wrote it after John Lennon was murdered.

    Still can’t play/sing it without choking up a little.

  64. 64.

    Montysano

    On the latest Paul Simon album (which is excellent), there’s this lyric:

    If every human on the planet
    And all the buildings in it
    Should disappear
    Would a zebra grazing in the African Savanna
    Care enough to shed one zebra tear?

    Not only is it lovely lyric, but Simon delivers it with such wistfulness. Puts a lump in my throat every time.

  65. 65.

    Amir Khalid

    Springsteen’s Downbound Train, from Born In The USA:
    Last night I heard your voice
    You were crying, crying, you were so alone
    You said your love had never died
    You were waiting for me at home
    I put on my jacket and ran through the woods
    I ran till I thought my chest would explode
    There in a clearing beyond the highway
    In the moonlight our wedding house shone
    I rushed through the yard, i burst through the front door
    My head pounding hard, up the stairs I climbed
    The room was dark, our bed was empty
    Then I heard that long whistle whine
    And I dropped to my knees, hung my head and cried

    Just heartbreaking, I tell you. Just heartbreaking.

  68. 68.

    Montysano

    @MattF:

    Speaking of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jubilee always gets me.

    MCC’s “Halley Came To Jackson” too. In a just world, she would be a big star and Kenny Chesney would be flipping hamburgers.

  71. 71.

    becca

    @Raven: HUGE Walker fan here. Clark, Newbury, Nelson are additional reasons to forgive Texas for GWB.

    Jeff Buckley’s version of Cohen’s Hallelujah destroys me. Buckley dying tragically young probably has something to do with it.

  74. 74.

    Birthmarker

    Can’t get through–The hymn How Great Thou Art

    for obvious reasons. And I am not particularly religious.

  76. 76.

    vtr

    To 71: Speaking of forgiving Texas, Townes van Zandt’s “No Lonesome Tunes.” “and in the kitchen Momma sneezed, and Dad grinned big as you please.”

    Also, not a song per se, but the second movement of the Ravel piano concerto…

  77. 77.

    uila

    The Tom Waits ref made me think of this one:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMP9e3cqKns

    The whole thing is good, but the last stanza kills me.

    God’s green hair is where I slept last
    He balanced a diamond on a blade of grass
    I woke me up to a cardinal bird
    And when I want to talk he hangs on every word

  79. 79.

    PTirebiter

    Dylan’s Girl From The North Country and John Prine’s All The Best still conjure up the ghost of heartaches past.Tom Waits’ Downtown Train is another.

  81. 81.

    badpoetry

    Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song” is mostly an amusing, philosophical song, but right in the middle of it there is this bridge:

    I see you standing on the other side
    I don’t know how the river got so wide
    I loved you, baby
    Way back when…
    All the bridges are burning that we might have crossed
    But I feel so close to everything that we lost
    We’ll never,
    We’ll never have to lose it again…

    Gets me every time.

  82. 82.

    Evergreen (formerly Betsy, forever ago)

    @eemom:
    “Now the stars still fall on Alabama
    The night she finally laid that hammer down
    Without a sound
    In the red dirt ground.”

    God.

  83. 83.

    JerryN

    Some great ones already. I’d add John Prine’s Sam Stone, Tom Waits’ San Diego Serenade and about two thirds of Richard Thompson’s work (when your fan club puts out a compilation named Gloom and Doom From The Tomb, you’re probably not penning frothy pop ditties).

  84. 84.

    Nicole

    The chorus of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie gets me.

    And the Cat Stevens version of “Morning Has Broken.” My aunt, who died after fighting breast cancer for 25 years, chose it to play at her memorial. She got dealt such a rotten hand of cards, getting breast cancer in her 30s, but spent the next quarter century cherishing every single day. So typical of her to choose something so bright and optimistic to say goodbye to all of us who loved her. I still can’t listen to it without weeping.

  85. 85.

    Ruviana

    Last May a colleague of mine died unexpectedly. At his memorial service they played Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s medley of Over the Rainbow and It’s a Wonderful Life. which had also been played at his wedding about 7 years earlier. Broke my heart. I won’t ever be able to listen to it again.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9b3_1CcXtY

  86. 86.

    Evergreen (formerly Betsy, forever ago)

    Greg Brown, “Rexroth’s Daughter”

    Both for the song itself, and because it reminds me of my best friend from college, who I miss like crazy.

    “Even the very longest love don’t last very long.”

    “This life is like a thump-ripe melon
    So sweet, and such a mess”

    “I heard a man speak quietly
    I listened for awhile
    He spoke from his heart to my woe
    And then he bowed and smiled.
    What is real but compassion,
    As we move from birth to death?”

  87. 87.

    badpoetry

    And one more Cohen song… everyone knows his song “Hallelujah”, but the most gut punching verse is one that doesn’t make it into very many cover versions:

    I did my best, it wasn’t much
    I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
    I’ve told the truth,
    I didn’t come here to fool ya
    And even though it all went wrong
    I’ll stand right here before the Lord of Song
    With nothing on my tongue but “Hallelujah”

    There’s something about being grateful for having had something that you now have lost forever that always crushes me.

  88. 88.

    Raven

    Roseanne

    All those years to prove how much I care
    I didn’t know it, but you were always there
    Till September when you slipped away
    In the middle of my life on the longest day

    Now I hear you say
    I’ll be watching you from above
    Cause long after life, there is love
    Baby I’ll be watching you from above
    Long after life, there is love.

  89. 89.

    becca

    Too also…

    Burn Down the Mission by Elton John. Lyrics Taupin. Class warfare circa 1970.

    Burn down the mission
    If we’re gonna stay alive
    Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide
    Behind four walls a rich man sleeps
    It’s time to take the flame torch to their keep.

  91. 91.

    Raven

    Knopler and the Sweeheart did this song about the people that made call from the planes at 9/11

    Those famous last words are lying around in tatters
    Sounding absurd whatever i try
    But I Love you, and that’s all that really matters
    If this is goodbye if this is goodbye

    Bright shining sun, would light up the way before me
    You were the one, made me feel I could fly
    And I love you, whatever is waiting for me
    If this is goodbye if this is goodbye

    Who knows howlong we got, or what we’re made of
    Who knows if there’s a plan or not
    There is our love, I know there is our love

    Those famous last words could never tell the story
    Spending unheard and the dark of the sky
    But I love you, and this is our glory
    If this is goodbye, if this goodbye
    If this is goodbye, if this goodbye

  93. 93.

    Marcellus Shale, Public Dick

    something like this doug g-e?

    heather nova, island

    Yeah, there are parts of me he’ll never know
    My wild horses and my river beds
    And in my throat, voices he’ll never hear
    He pulls at me like a cherry tree
    And I can still move but I don’t speak about it
    Pretend I’m crazy, pretend I’m dead
    He’s too scared to hit me now
    He’ll bring flowers instead

    I need an island
    Somewhere to sink a stone
    I need an island
    Somewhere to bury you
    Somewhere to go

    And the dogwoods shimmer in the October sun
    “Oh sweet thing,” he sings to me,
    “You’re the only one.”

    I need an island
    Somewhere to sink a stone
    I need an island
    Somewhere to bury you
    Somewhere

    I need an island
    Somewhere to sink a stone
    I need an island
    Somewhere to bury you
    Somewhere to go

    And I don’t know why I can’t tell my sister
    He spat in my face again
    And I don’t want to die here
    You know that dream when your feet won’t move
    You want to come but your body won’t let you
    He steals it from me
    He steals it from me
    It shines like sweat
    Like jewels
    Like something that has died too soon
    He fucks with the beauty
    A kiss, a kick, a kiss, a kick
    A kiss kiss kick kick kick
    He steals it from me
    It’s out of my hands again

  97. 97.

    Steeplejack

    Fleetwood Mac’s “Gypsy” always hits me hard, because it is tied to the specific memory of hearing it in the car as I was taking a beloved cat to the vet to be put down.

    She is dancing away from me now
    . . .
    and a memory is all that is left for you now

  99. 99.

    Pope Ratzy

    John Hiatt – Wreck of the Barbie Ferrari
    John Hiatt – Seven Little Indians
    John Hiatt – Through Your Hands

    Oh, the hell with it, anything by John Hiatt

  100. 100.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    DougJ, you know how I love If you see her say hello (actually you’ve probably forgotten my 17 suggestions that you sing it a karaoke) so that’s for the thread title.

    James McMurtryRuby and Carlos. I’m in tears every.fucking.time I hear it. TVZ’s No Lonesome Tunes and Maria. Lyle Lovett’s Lights of LA County. Three more reasons to forgive Texas. Recovering the Sattelites, Counting Crows.

    @Raven: Dave and Gillian, Iris Dement, John Prine, and Roseanne Cash. Indeed you have excellent taste in music. I’m just guessing you like TVZ as well…

  101. 101.

    merrinc

    Two songs I will never delete from my iTunes library but cannot listen to again:

    No One Knows But You by Beth Nielsen Chapman. She wrote it for her husband after his death and the pain and loss she feels is evident in every single note. By the end of the second verse, I am having one of those crying so goddamn hard I can’t f’ing breathe episodes.

    The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics. I never listened to the lyrics until one morning when I was getting ready for work. I was 8+ months pregnant with my son at the time and hyper-emotional. These lyrics:

    I wasn’t there that morning
    When my father passed away
    I didn’t get to tell him
    All the things I had to say

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

    Made me break completely down. (Lost my dad when I was 16.) I was an hour late for work because I couldn’t pull myself together.

    Now I’m going to go have a good cry. Thanks, DougJ.

  103. 103.

    TaMara (BHF)

    DougJ-whatever you are today* – I was out riding in the spring cold thinking, next round, DougJ should ask about songs that remind us of summer. Because I can’t wait for summer.

    *no disrespect intended.

  104. 104.

    kvenlander

    Dylan’s I Threw it All Away just kills me. Because it’s true.

    From the other end of the spectrum, listening to
    I’m not Down by The Clash on repeat probably saved my life. Twice.

  106. 106.

    Steeplejack

    “In My Life” always makes me think of the stupid, senseless tragedy that was John Lennon’s death. I like José Feliciano’s version because it’s not John singing (so it’s less painful and feels like a tribute) and the lush strings are all right.

  109. 109.

    Captain Goto

    I can’t say there’s any that actually touch me, that at the same time are so painful I want to turn off the radio.
    One that did get to me was in rotation at our indie station, right when my first marriage was going to shit:

    I Know

    The only one that ever moved me to tears was “Corey’s Coming” by Harry Chapin, from back when my first love was ditching me.
    Sadly, it doesn’t hold up very well…

  111. 111.

    grape_crush

    Radiohead, Karma Police.

    Harry Chapin’s Cat’s in the Cradle for the lyrics, not the music.

    Cat Powers, The Greatest.

  113. 113.

    hilzoy

    A lot of Richard Thompson. E.g.:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2_JqAaZN3g

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o3h7eyVRp8

    There is only one (1) song I can’t get through, unless I’m in a very masochistic mood. — Once upon a time, I was completely, totally in love with this guy. It was as though every cell in my body was individually and separately in love with him, even my toenails and the ends of my hair. The last summer we were together, something went horribly wrong, and stayed horribly wrong all summer, for reasons I still do not understand (in fairness, I think it baffled him as much as it did me.) Since at that time we lived about ten thousand miles apart, when I left, that was it — no hope that I might, say, run into him at the grocery store in a few months when whatever it was had gotten better, or anything. I was leaving; it was over; I had no idea why; I was as unhappy and bewildered as I have ever been.

    So picture me, sitting on the plane that will take me home, feeling as though I had been torn into tiny pieces which I was barely holding together with little bits of rusty wire and string, and imagine that they begin to play side 2 of Joni Mitchell’s Blue over the airplane sound system. First, “This Flight Tonight” (chorus: “Turn this crazy bird around/I shouldn’t have got on this flight tonight”; I still can’t believe they played that on an airplane.) Then “River” (“Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on…”). And then this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YuaZcylk_o

    I still can’t listen to it.

  115. 115.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Raven: I haven’t looked at the docs, but I did read A Deeper Blue. The toll the booze took is horrifying, and it’s clear he was self medicating bipolar disorder, since he was diagnosed while in college. And got medical treatment for a while. It makes me so sad – such a talent, lost.

  117. 117.

    Spike

    @Raven: You and Mr. Prine win the thread. I’ll add another of his gems, “Souvenirs”:

    Broken hearts and dirty windows
    Make life difficult to see
    That’s why last night and this morning
    Always look the same to me

    I hate reading old love letters
    For they always bring me tears
    I can’t forgive the way they rob me
    Of my sweetheart souvenirs

  119. 119.

    Tommy

    Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is on my list, especially Jeff Buckley’s cover.

    Here’s one I don’t think anybody else has mentioned: “This Woman’s Work” by Kate Bush. I can’t get through it.

  121. 121.

    the antibob

    Patty Griffin writes one song after another that just knock you flat. It’s hard to even know where to start.
    Moses, Sweet Lorraine, Not Alone, Tony, Goodbye, Christina, Mary, Peter Pan, Long Road, Burgundy Shoes, Her cover of Stolen Car.
    Everything on Impossible Dream…

  124. 124.

    the antibob

    Also, the Cowboy Junkies:
    Mining for Gold. Misguided Angel.
    Sun Comes up, It’s Tuesday Morning, Witches. PowderFinger (cover).
    A Horse in the Country. The Last Spike. Cowboy Junkies Lament. To Live is to Fly (a Townes’ song). Good Friday… Their recent tribute to Vic Chesnutt (Demons) is hard to get through.

  125. 125.

    Jamie

    “Runs in the Family” by Amanda Palmer. No, she’s not the most technically brilliant musician in the world, but fuck, talk about raw lyrics.

  126. 126.

    the antibob

    Johnette Napolitano used to write some seriously dark songs:
    Joey, Caroline, I Don’t Need a Hero, Song For Kim, Scene of a Perfect Crime.
    Happy Birthday, Little Conversations…

    Carry Me Away:
    I think it’s 7:09 California time.
    Whoever said it was a small world was either a liar or a fool.
    Cause it’s not true.
    And any promise we make is as easy to break
    As the plastic people on the wedding cake.
    So says you. But you know- I Do.

  129. 129.

    Alison

    George Michael, “Waiting For That Day” got me pretty damn good after a bad break-up:

    Now every day I see you in some other face
    They crack a smile, talk a while
    Try to take your place
    My memory serves me far too well

    I just sit here on this mountain thinking to myself
    You’re a fool, boy
    Why don’t you go down
    Find somebody
    Find somebody else
    My memory serves me far too well

    It’s not as though we just broke up
    It’s not as though it was yesterday
    But something I just can’t explain
    Something in me needs this pain
    I know I’ll never see your face again

    […]

    And if these wounds
    They are self inflicted
    I don’t really know
    How my poor heart could have protected me
    But if I have to carry this pain
    If you will not share the blame
    I deserve to see your face again

  130. 130.

    MGLoraine

    Cat Stevens – Father and Son
    Simon and Garfunkel – The Boxer
    Linda Ronstadt – Keep Me From Blowing Away
    Bob Dylan – You’re A Big Girl Now
    Frank Sinatra – The Summer Wind

  132. 132.

    PPOG Penguin

    @Spaghetti Lee: Yeah, I can’t think of any songs I “can’t get through” at all, but Mary Chapin Carpenter does have a talent for choking me up. “Jubilee” always gets me: ultimately uplifting, but it always makes me think of friends I’ve left behind. “Stones in the Road” for its historical resonance through a child’s eyes (excepting the clunky final verse). And “Halley Came to Jackson,” for I don’t know why but it does.

  133. 133.

    Jamie

    Now you have me listening to Amanda Palmer.

    “Ampersand” and “My Alcoholic Friends”, too.

    But “First Orgasm” and “Coin Operated Boy” are awesome. (Those are Dresden Dolls songs, Amanda before they dissolved the band.)

  135. 135.

    aarrgghh

    “Dad” by NoMeansNo from their ’86 album “Sex Mad”. also found on ’04 compilation “The People’s Choice”.

    a kick in the gut, fist in the face and chair ‘cross the back, from dad to the whole family.

    and it’s still a great tune and available from the itunes store and amazon.

  136. 136.

    Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937

    Van Morrison TB Sheets

    Its what Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck reminded me of when they did that blues thing at the White House. It sick, twisted, and sad.

    “I can almost smell your TB sheets … on your sick bed”

  137. 137.

    maryQ

    Northbound 35 Jeffrey Foucault
    “It’s just flashes that we own, little snapshots made of breath and of bone, and out on the darkling plain alone, they light up the sky” and “What’s beautiful is broken and grace is just the measure of a fall”.

  138. 138.

    maryQ

    Oh, and Famous Blue Raincoat
    “Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes I thought it was there for good so I never tried”

  139. 139.

    john f

    U2’s Running to Stand Still from the Joshua Tree album still brings back memories of a grammar school friend’s older brother who died in a car wreck that year in 1987. We all were big U2 fans listenin to that album at the time.

    Also,the late Eva Cassidy’s rendition of Buffy Santa-Marie’s song Tall Trees in Georgia puts a lump in my throat.

  140. 140.

    the antibob

    Oops. Concrete Blonde’s Happy Birthday is a great song. But upbeat.
    I’ll have to sub-in Dave Alvin’s 4th of July.
    Which reminds me of another favorite holiday song:
    the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York – on the same album as “Thousands are Sailing” best Ghost Story/Song ever.
    Which brings to mind an old civil war song-
    Paddy’s Lament (Sinead O’Connor has a great version).
    And another civil war song: Richard Shindell’s Reunion Hill. Which leads to another great poignant song by Shindell
    -Fishing- about an aging border patrolman interviewing a detainee. Then there’s the devastating
    Cold Missouri Waters and the Ballad of Mary Magdeline on the Cry Cry Cry album…

    Also partial to another ghost story:Leslie Ann Levine- The Decemberists.
    Dire Straits: Ride Across the River. The Man’s Too Strong. Brother’s in Arms.
    Knopfler and Emmylou Harris: If This is Goodbye.
    Kathleen Edwards: Six O’Clock News, Alicia Ross. Golden State(with John Doe)

    Oh my God. TOM WAITS… Ruby’s Arms, Briar and the Rose, Soldier’s Things, Town with No Cheer,
    Anywhere I Lay My Head, Bottom of the World, Hold On, Come on Up to the House…. !!!!!! @#@##@*&^@#(%!!!!!!!

    Time to go to the quiet room for a while.

  142. 142.

    aarrgghh

    @commenting at ballon juice since 1937: seconded for “tb sheets”

    meanwhile, the lyrics to the abovementioned “dad” by nomeansno:

    I went home, I was feeling so alone.
    I was late, It was my mistake.
    I went to my room, and I sat there in the gloom.
    I know I’ve been bad, I know he’ll be mad.

    And I hear him coming, down the hall.
    And there’s nowhere to go, nowhere at all.
    I’ve been bad. It was my mistake!
    He opens the door, and his eyes are full of hate.

    DAD NO! DAD, LEAVE ME ALONE! DAD LET ME GO, PLEASE?!
    DAD NO! DAD, LEAVE ME ALONE! OH MY GOD! NO!! NO!!

    My mom comes running in, she cries “Oh, Please don’t hit him.”
    Dad gives her a kick, and he slaps her around a bit.
    He says; “SHUT UP, YA BITCH! SHUT UP YA BITCH!
    OR I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL KILL YOU! SHUT UP, OR I’LL KILL YOU!

    Dad keeps hitting mom’s face, and there’s blood all over the place.
    I said “Please Dad, please, it was my mistake!”
    I’m the one that’s bad! I’m the one that’s bad!
    No, don’t hit her Dad! Don’t hit her, Dad!

    DAD NO! DAD, LEAVE MOM ALONE! DAD LET HER GO, PLEASE?!
    DAD NO! DAD, LEAVE HER ALONE! OH MY GOD! NO!! NO!!

    He went into my sister’s room, and he locked the door.
    He said “I hate you, but I love you more.
    I heard her crying, as the lights went out.
    I heard her scream … I had to shout!

    DAD NO! DAD, LEAVE HER ALONE! DAD LET HER GO, PLEASE?! PLEASE!
    DAD NO! DAD, LEAVE HER ALONE! OH MY GOD! NO!! NO!!

    … I’m seriously considering leaving home.

  144. 144.

    MattF

    @the antibob: The Ballad of Mary Magdalene is a great and moving song. And the first verse is hilarious:

    My name is Mary Magdalene
    I come from Palestine
    Please excuse these rags I’m in
    I’ve fallen on hard times
    But long ago I had my work, when I was in my prime
    I gave it up and all for love
    It was his career or mine.

  145. 145.

    fbjakes

    @Phineus

    “I can’t male you love me” is simply the best!

    (putting on my Bonnie Raitt gimme cap and tee)

  147. 147.

    Karounie

    I know I chimed in before, but “The Ship Song” by Nick Cave is also a really spooky one. Can’t say I have trouble getting through it – more like when I hear it once I have to go for another ten times before doing anything else – in fact, I think I’ll go listen to it now.

  148. 148.

    Jay

    I’m just going to throw these into the category: “Songs That Suck So Hard They Make Me Want To Curl Into The Fetal Position And Weep”:

    -Manfred Mann’s version of “Blinded By The Light” (Springsteen’s rendition, on the other hand, is just above the sucktitude line because, well, he’s Springsteen)
    -Gloria Estefan’s version of “Everlasting Love” (really, the only one I know)
    -“Just Walk Away, Renee”
    -“Brandy”-Looking Glass
    -“The Pretender”-Jackson Browne

  149. 149.

    Alison

    @Karounie: Ooh, that’s definitely a good one. I’m also often affected by the opening track on Nocturama, “Wonderful Life”. Not just the lyrics, but Cave’s voice as well make it quite poignant, IMO.

  151. 151.

    Jay

    Also:

    -“Fat Boy”-Jewel
    -Honorable Mention: all of Jewel’s “poetry” (EDIT: I was just looking for an excuse to bash that ridiculous collection)

  152. 152.

    hintn

    Joni, Hissing of Summer Lawns, Sweet Bird, “Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching…”

  153. 153.

    zonker

    “You Were Never Mine” by Delbert McClinton, I still remember her and the end like it was yesterday. I was in a bar in Charleston WV night,the Red Carpet Lounge,when Emmy Lou Harris came on the jukebox and sang “Jerusalem Tomorrow”,absoultely stilled the whole bar.

  154. 154.

    Mark van Roojen

    I know this thread is tapering out, but I didn’t see either
    1,000 Dollar Wedding (“So why don’t someone here just spike his drink, why don’t you do him in, some old way? . . .”)or the version of Love Hurts on the same album by Gram Parsons.

    Not that there weren’t many other great suggestions. I confess to listening to Richard Thompson for about four months when I was as depressed as I ever got. And DougJ is right that No Expectations ought to be on the list.

  155. 155.

    the antibob

    Emmylou Harris on Quarter Moon and Luxury Liner:
    Tulsa Queen. One Paper Kid. and of course her version of Townes’ Poncho and Lefty. My old shepherd used to roll on her back and whine when Emmylou sang “She”. Never saw her respond to any other music. And my daughter fell asleep for her first two years to Wrecking Ball.
    “Yeah… she sure could sing.”

  156. 156.

    harokin

    @Tommy: Kate did a new version on her recent Director’s Cut album that is even harder to get through; there’s a part (you know it when you hear it) where SHE can’t get through it.

  159. 159.

    CaliforniaBoy

    The original version of I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton. No hate on the late, beautiful Whitney Houston, props for all her hits and heart, but Dolly will wreck you with her original version, and it always reminds me of the Memphis girl who got away and stayed the love of my life.

  160. 160.

    SpaceSquid

    I find it exceptionally difficult to listen to “Still Ill” by the Smiths. It can’t help but remind me of living with depression for almost two decades (I was prescribed my first anti-depression meds at thirteen), and “Am I still ill?” makes me burst into tears pretty much every time.

  161. 161.

    nicteis

    The McGarrigles: “Talk to Me of Mendocino”, and “I’ve Had Enough”.

    And Tom Waits, “Georgia Lee”:

    Close your eyes and count to ten
    I will go and hide but then
    Be sure to find me, I want you to find me
    And we’ll play all over
    We’ll play all over again…

    and then the eternal sepia tint of that last line, that
    always takes me by surprise and by the back of the throat:
    “…as the hills turn from green back to gold.”

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