*No! I haven’t given the warning yet, Clicky…*
*It’s a bit late now. Poppy will be sobbing her heart out, Clicky…*
Dear Reader, if you’re not already crying, may I suggest you avail yourself of a handkerchief or some tissue…
*Thank you, Clicky…*
…to save the sleeve of whatever top you’re wearing because today we’ll be suggesting some songs that make us sad…
^Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Sebastian^
Or think…
*I dunno, Clicky… /furrows brow… I think the state of ‘science’ makes Leggy sad. Or angry. Possibly both…*
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Day 10: Songs that make you feel sad
Cade’s first song pick…
Sadness is a weird emotional state. It can house a host of emotions from a longing based in happiness and hope, to soul crushing despair based in hopelessness. This is just me, but I guess I see sadness and happiness both as types of blankets made with different needles and threads utilized differently to produce different weaves. A stupid analogy, I know. But at the same time, and depending on your geographic location, you likely have different linens on your bed in the summer than you do in the winter. Anyway, yeah, in my experience, sadness is like a lot of dissimilar things mixed together, whereas happiness is a little more singular-ish and straightforward.
I listened to this song a lot when I was a kid, but I always saw it more as a mystical kind of song. It wasn’t sad, it wasn’t happy, it was….it was…off the fucking charts weird as hell. Totally different from anything and everything you’d ever heard before, and seemed to cover the entire spectrum of any and every emotion a human is capable of feeling. Of course, then later came the movie “La Bamba”, they used this song in the movie, and the producer’s use of this song most decidedly gave the song a sad edge.
^Santo & Johnny – Sleep walk [Original instrumental]^
Roob’s first song pick…
All three of my sad song selections come from my childhood. ‘Honey’ is the first that I thought of. Today is the first time I’ve heard it all the way through since then. I’m not really a sad song person, but I remember hearing this on the radio and starting to cry…
^Bobby Goldsboro – Honey^
Cade’s second song pick…
There used to be a song that depressed me when I listened to it, but I dunno if there are (currently, at least) any songs that make me sad. Listening to “sad songs” is more about relating to whomever wrote that tear-jerking something. You can relate, or you can’t. The song triggers an empathetic response, or it doesn’t. Maybe if nothing else a sigh of relief in thinking “boy, I’m sure as shit glad that happened to you and not me.”
“Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” by The Cure has to be one of the best albums out there. If you listen to it from end to end, you’ll be emotionally exhausted by the time the last track finishes. I dunno if I’d classify any of The Cure’s music as “sad”, but they certainly make some music that someone who is sad can relate to. And like all great artists, they usually don’t heave their own personal sadness on top of you the listener. They add some hooks to produce an aspect change in the trajectory of the sadness.
^If Only Tonight We Could Sleep?^
Roob’s second song pick…
If it wasn’t Bobby Goldboro’s ‘Honey’ on the radio, making a small girl cry, it was Terry Jack’s ‘Seasons in the Sun’. Radio Breakfast Show DJs in the 70s were utter bastards…
^Terry Jacks – Seasons In The Sun^
Cade’s third song pick…
Ya know, I’m gonna get to my third choice in just a minute, but before I do, I just recalled bumping into a song not long ago that most decidedly reconnected me with the emotion known as sadness. This song is most decidedly a sad-sounding one. But like most sad songs, its one that is on the upswing. You’ve encountered the sadness, been able to express that sadness in song, the skies are clearing, better days are ahead. But the audio of this recording itself adds some sadness to the tune. The song is already soft, very light with almost all picking with no chords, the accompaniment is almost indiscernible, so the song itself is thin as hell. Add that the recording is ancient, the rip is from 45 rpm vinyl, take into consideration the source (Hawaii) and the time (statehood), and you’ve got a recipe for sad.
Final note is that I did some digging to see if I could find out when this song was actually recorded. The recording sounds more like something done in the 1920’s or 1930’s on 78 rpm vinyl…not something done in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s on 45. So, who the fuck is Tommy Solomon? I don’t think this is him, but that is certainly an interesting find considering the connection to Pacific Islanders. This does not appear to be the Tommy Solomon I’m looking for either, although that’s an interesting find considering that a version of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Third Stone From The Sun‘ by Stevie Ray Vaughan did appear on my radar only recently.
Alas, I cannot find anything on Tommy Solomon, but I did find that the second guitarist on Old Timer’s Hula appears to be someone named James “Jimmy” Moikeha. That’s gotten me no closer to the Tommy I’m looking for tho. Maybe the Tommy I’m looking for also had a ‘native’ name, and he only went by this anglicised handle just this one time.
/me shrugs
Le sigh…this is making me sad.
^Old Timer’s Hula^
Roob’s third song pick…
Back on Day 8 of this song challenge, ‘Drink & Drugs!‘, I mentioned playing records on a portable wind up record player in my bedroom when I couldn’t sleep as a child (I never slept; I drove my parents potty). There were two songs by Harry Nilsson in the little stack of 45s – ‘Coconut’ and this song. This is a sad song and I loved singing along to it…
*Painfully sad, Clicky…*
^Harry Nilsson – Without You^
The final word to Cade…
This song in no way makes me sad. In fact, prolly nothing sad about this song at all. I simply thought of it because of the title of the track…sadeness I don’t think anything by Enigma is really sad, but his/their music sure as shit dances around the naughty ends of the musical scales. Lots of implied darkness and sadness, without being either dark or sad. Weird, eh?
Anyway, I think there were originally three or more different parts to this song, like…Sadeness (I), Sadeness (II), Sadeness (III), etc.. Pretty sure the one below is Sadeness parts I & II back to back.
^Enigma – Sadeness (Full Version)^
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And that, Dear Reader, is Day 10 of the Song Challenge. Hopefully we haven’t made you too sad…
*Yeah, ‘Honey’ got me too, Clicky…*
Library of Libraries 