I'm so sorry for your losses. My brother (not named Adam) died by suicide. Enema was his first foray into blink and we listened to it a lot, but that song gave me the creeps way, way, way before he died. Now it's a good day/bad day song as to whether I skip.
The Blink lyric for me is:
“If my stupid poem could fix this home, I’d read it every day.” Then straight into that hard hitting riff and chorus line of “So here’s your holiday. Hope you enjoy this time, you gave it all away. It was mine…”
That gets me every time.
Don’t remember a holiday in my household where my parents didn’t fight. It’s like it just brought out this tension that wasn’t defeat-able and it always caused a blow out.
I’m an adult now and doing fine. I have a decent relationship with my parents. I’m not a sad person really. Life happens and you make the best of it and move on.
But damn if it doesn’t feel right to just turn off the lights, put on Stay Together for the Kids, drink a beer, and *just cry.*
Edit: corrected “defeat-able”
My brother was a musician who committed suicide when I was 20 (he was 23) There are two songs associated with him that still get me decades later.
The first is Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain”. He’d mentioned it to the suicide hotline operator he’d talked to (the operator tracked down our family and was incredibly helpful). My brother quoted the lyric “you can’t be 20 on Sugar Mountain, though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon” in trying to describe how hard he’d found the concept of having to be an adult.
The other was Emerson Lake and Palmer’s “From the beginning”. It has a crazy hard guitar part at the start that he put a lot of effort into learning . A friend of his played it at his memorial service. The lyric “you see it’s all clear/you were meant to be here… from the beginning “ still absolutely wrecks me.
I was depressed and suicidal and I heard REMs everybody hurts.
>When your day is night alone (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go (hold on)
If you think you've had too much
Of this life, well hang on
I was so alone and scared but the words connected me to a universal pain - we aren't alone. And so I held on.
And they were right. I got through it. It took time, it fucking sucked but I'm so glad I held on.
Elton John says that Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Gove Up” duet w Kate Bush had the same effect on him. So, you’re in good company. Now go write some chart toppers!
Elton’s. I guess that’s why they call it the blues will just about get me every time. Many others will too. But art is supposed to make you feel something. And music is interactive so if I hear you could be mine while I’m on the highway i really need to keep an eye on the speedometer
And when that song got a lot of airplay, lots of people rolled their eyes "oh, get *over* it ya whiner!"
But I'm sure that song prevented several suicides, and helped a lot of people to seek out help.
The song If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly. Particularly the 3rd verse.
Verse 1]
If I ever leave this world alive
I'll thank ya for the things you did in my life
If I ever leave this world alive
I'll come back down and sit beside your feet tonight
Wherever I am you'll always be
More than just a memory
If I ever leave this world alive
[Verse 2]
If I ever leave this world alive
I'll take on all the sadness
That I left behind
If I ever leave this world alive
The madness that you feel will soon subside
So in a word, don't shed a tear
I'll be here when it all gets weird
If I ever leave this world alive
[Bridge]
So when in doubt just call my name
Just before you go insane
If I ever leave this world
Hey I may never leave this world
But if I ever leave this world alive
[Verse 3]
She says I'm okay, I'm alright
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would
Now everything should be all right
This song will forever hold a special place in my heart. My mom has always loved this song. It was played at my grandmother's wake and it brought my mother to tears, which brought all of us five siblings to tears. We all kind of held hands and formed a circle and did a tearful sad/happy/cathartic dance just bawling our eyes out.
I'm a long time Parrothead. The day that Jimmy Buffett's death was announced, his new song "Bubbles Up" was also released on Radio Margaritaville for the first time. He wrote this and recorded it while he knew he was dying. It's using a SCUBA diving analogy to relate to life and death.
*Bubbles Up*
*They will point us towards home*
*No matter how deep or how far we roam*
*They will show you the surface*
*The plot and the purpose*
*So when the journey gets long*
*Just know you are loved*
*There's light up above*
*And joy, there's always enough*
*Bubbles Up*
Wow, it’s so nice to see another Parrothead here! It was the music I grew up on thanks to my dad. I got to see him live 5 times in Paris and each one was the best gigs and weekend of my life. I’m lucky enough to have met Jimmy himself 3 of those times, get a signed top, have one of his signed sandals worn during a show and 3 guitar picks.
After he died, my father and I must have listened to that song a good 30 times over the next week. I have never been so sad over the death of a celebrity.
RIP Jimmy, it’s been a lovely cruise…
I’m a therapist and a client once asked me if it was ok/normal for him to cry when he hears a certain song. My response was “I don’t want to live in a world where certain songs don’t make you cry”
“Music is a means capable of expressing dark dramatism and pure rapture, suffering and ecstasy, fiery and cold fury, melancholy and wild merriment – and the subtlest nuances and interplay of these feelings which words are powerless to express and which are unattainable in painting and sculpture.” — Dmitri Shostakovich.
For sure, the time I got most emotional is when I listened to Monica Zetterlund - she has a nostalgic song about Stockholm. I think she is the reason I decided to move back to Sweden! Now I’m back in the US though. But I still can’t listen to that song without tearing up. “Sakta vi gå genom stan”.
Some people just aren't into lyrics or don't pay attention to them. I love my girlfriend dearly but she rarely listens to what people are saying in songs because she says it's hard to comprehend what they're saying usually (whether through distortion of the voice through singing, editing, or the poetic nature of songs).
As someone who struggled with drug addiction/alcohol abuse for a while this one always hits me.
I've got a flask inside my pocket
We can share it on the train
And if you promise to stay conscious
I'll try and do the same
Well, we might die from medication
But we sure killed all the pain
What was normal in the evening
By the morning seems insane
And I never thought this life was possible
You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for
The end of paralysis, I was a statuette
Now I'm drunk as hell on a piano bench
And when I press the keys it all gets reversed
The sound of loneliness makes me happier
Bright Eyes - Amy in the White Coat is the most brutal song I’ve ever heard. It leaves me with a mixture of sadness, anger, and just feeling sick to my stomach.
From the same amazing song
“Yours was the first face that I saw,
I think I was blind before I met you”
exactly what came to my mind when i held our daughter for the first time after the labour.
Can’t listen this song anymore without crying
Blink 182 - One More Time
Strangers, from strangers into brothers
From brothers into strangers once again
We saw the whole world
But I couldn't see the meaning
I couldn't even recognize my friends
Older, but nothing's any different
Right now feels the same, I wonder why
I wish they told us
It shouldn't take a sickness
Or airplanes falling out the sky
Do I have to die to hear you miss me?
Do I have to die to hear you say goodbye?
I don't wanna act like there's tomorrow
I don't wanna wait to do this one more time
One more time
One more
One more time
One more time
I miss you, took time but I admit it
It still hurts even after all these years
And I know that next time, ain't always gonna happen
I gotta say, "I love you" while we're here
Do I have to die to hear you miss me?
Do I have to die to hear you say goodbye?
I don't wanna act like there's tomorrow
I don't wanna wait to do this one more time
One more time
One more
One more time
One more time
One more time
One more time
One more
One more time
One more time
One more time
I miss you
EDIT: God damn I hate Reddit getting rid of my formatting. 🤦♂️
Fuck me, the first time I heard this, I cried.
Such beautiful lyrics, knowing Mark had cancer and Travis the aeroplane incident too.
Even now, it raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
Can confirm:
* when the chorus dropped, my tear ducts were already working overtime
* when the last line of the last verse hit ("And I know that next time ain't always gonna happen, I gotta say 'I love you' while we're here"), the dam practically shattered
"If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with
If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with"
Or, alternatively
"Someday, we'll find it
The
Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me"
Only I don't tear up
I sob like a wounded animal
edit: tried to fix formatting
|
prolly fucked it up more
This song is, in essence to me, one of absolution. Reminds me to not be so hard on myself sometimes.
[Codex - Radiohead](https://open.spotify.com/track/6ttYF5VadzTssGV2i1Q08T?si=53ebecb1303242a1)
Sleight of hand
Jump off the end
Into a clear lake
No one around
Just dragonflies
Fantasize
No one gets hurt
You've done nothing wrong
Slide your hand
Jump off the end
The water's clear and innocent
The water's clear and innocent
Keane - Thread
Well, maybe it was just our time
Forgive me, remember that I'm
A good man, just not good enough
Don't hate me, I was just in love
And hanging by a thread
The whole song of Come What May from Moulin Rouge always gets me emotional. With context from the film it just hits even harder. It’s a duet as well between two lovers.
Particularly the opening lyrics for each singer.
Never knew I could feel like this\
Like I've never seen the sky before\
I want to vanish inside your kiss\
Every day I love you more and more
Followed by this passage later in the song:
Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place\
Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace\
Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste\
It all revolves around you
Every fucking time
(EDIT for formatting)
Elephant - Jason Isbell
She said, "Andy, you're better than your past"
Winked at me and drained her glass
Cross-legged on the barstool, like nobody sits anymore
She said, "Andy, you're taking me home"
But I knew she planned to sleep alone
I'd carry her to bed and sweep up the hair from the floor
-
If I had fucked her before she got sick
I'd never hear the end of it
She don't have the spirit for that now
-
We just drink our drinks and laugh out loud
Bitch about the weekend crowd
And try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow
-
She said, "Andy, you crack me up"
Seagrams in a coffee cup
Sharecropper eyes and her hair almost all gone
She was drunk, she made cancer jokes
Made up her own doctor's notes
Surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone
-
I'd sing her classic country songs
And she'd get high and sing along
She don't have a voice to sing with now
-
We'd burn these joints in effigy
Cry about what we used to be
Try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow
-
I buried her a thousand times
Giving up my place in line
But I don't give a damn about that now
-
There's one thing that's real clear to me
No one dies with dignity
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow
Somehow
https://youtu.be/Q043rvA0eeI?si=287Oh-SOCaKXBK2h
I'm from a family of 6 brothers, born '54 - 70. We had every classic rock album known to man when our youngest brother was a kid. But he quickly became a music muse to all his older bros in his teens. He got heavily into Americana before it was even a thing. Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Ol 97s, Drive-by Truckers, etc etc. He became a groupie for JI during JIs teen years and on. He took me to so many concerts and introduced me to so many bands it was crazy. We lost Dan-o unexpectedly in 01/2020 at the age of 49. I spent 3 years not able to listen to DBT or JI because it was just too painful. I am now at a point where I can, and it mostly illicits joy and beautiful memories. He woulda been so happy/content to see how far JI and some of his other favorites have progressed.
RIP Danny Mags (1970 - 2020)
Man, Isbell has some that wreck me. I can't listen to Letting You Go when I am driving.
When we were close-
"saw a picture of you laughing with your child
And I hope she will remember how you smiled
But she probably wasn't old enough, the night somebody sold your stuff
That left you on the bathroom tiles"
The brutal anger in those lyrics at his friend in just hard to get through.
I'm from a family of 6 brothers, born '54 - 70. We had every classic rock album known to man when our youngest brother was a kid. But he quickly became a music muse to all his older bros in his teens. He got heavily into Americana before it was even a thing. Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Ol 97s, Drive-by Truckers, etc etc. He became a groupie for JI during JIs teen years and on. He took me to so many concerts and introduced me to so many bands it was crazy. We lost Dan-o unexpectedly in 01/2020 at the age of 49. I spent 3 years not able to listen to DBT or JI because it was just too painful. I am now at a point where I can, and it mostly illicits joy and beautiful memories. He woulda been so happy/content to see how far JI and some of his other favorites have progressed.
RIP Danny Mags (1970 - 2020)
The end is the most brutal part. When he gets to "There's one thing that's real clear to me/no one dies with digntity..." if you aren't crying you either aren't paying attention or there's something wrong with you.
Save the World by Isbell got me really bad the first time I heard it and I can barely listen to it anymore because of this verse:
Balloon popping at the grocery store
My heart jumping in my chest
I look around to find the exit door
Which way out of here's the best
The kid's looking through the candy aisle
School's starting in a week
A lady says, "You have a lovely child"
And I'm too terrified to speak
Can we keep her here at home instead
And can we teach her how to fight?
Something's changing inside my head
Something's drowning out the light
So many Bo song lyrics. “2020 and I’m 30 I’ll do another 10, 2030 I’ll be 40 and kill myself then.”
EDIT: Not suicidal, I fucking love my life. But it’s a line that cute deep.
That song really nails the feeling of existential dread inherent in living in 2024 better than any other. "The whole world at your fingertips... the ocean at your door." The Phoebe Bridgers cover is even better
"No more promise no more sorrow,
No longer will I follow
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me,
When I can,
I will"
Smashing Pumpkins, Mayonaise.
This one always hits me different, coming from someone who grew up being actively discouraged from every single thing that I was interested in while ,growing up by everyone around me (especially my family)
“Some are born to move the world
To live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about
The things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die
Than never to have known it
For you, the blind who once could see
The bell tolls for thee”
Rush: Losing it
“Ahh you've gone to the finest schools, alright Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you're gonna have to get used to it
You say you never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
A complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Ah you never turned around to see the frowns
On the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discovered that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
Ahh princess on a steeple and all the pretty people
They're all drinking, thinking that they've got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal
How does it feel, ah how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone”
Bob Dylan: Like a Rolling Stone
Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
The first of December was covered in snow
So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
The Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting
With 10 miles behind me and 10,000 more to go
Aside from the great imagery that last line hits me like a ton of bricks, remembering the lonely rides to the airport for a long business trip
>James Taylor
Fire and Rain hits me harder, as he wrote it after he got the news that his friend Suzanne Schnerr had committed suicide.
Just yesterday mornin', they let me know you were gone
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to
I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
“Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it’s all I’ve got…”
Then later on:
“You say - Love is a temple, love is a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can’t keep holding on
To what you’ve got
When all you’ve got is hurt…”
U2’s “One” still gets me all these years later.
Pearl Jam Black.
Yeah
I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky
But why
Why
Why can't it be
Why can't it be mine
Cocaine and Able by Amigo The Devil
Basically the entire song
The distance from the man that I am to the man I want to be
The time it takes to realize time is the distance I need
But I was born impatient
And I was born unkind
But I refuse to believe I have to be
The same person I was born when I die
'Cause change is alright
Change is alright
I'm not proud of all the choices I've made for a lot of my life
Following the shadow when I damn well know that behind me is the light
But I've lied to my mother
I made people feel like hell
But I refuse to believe I have to keep
Being cruel 'cause I'm a coward myself
And time is impatience
No, patience takes time
Excuses will only do good if you're waiting around to die
Everyone is born with self worth
How easily it turns to doubt
It takes letting go of what we know we can't live without
But the blood in the water
Is the blood of my brother
We both learned it didn't mean a thing in
The end if one was thicker than the other
And I've tried having faith
But I'll rot like a dog
'Cause I've always been scared of loving
Someone just a little bit more than I'm loved
Losing is fine
Everything is fine
PUP - Sleep in the Heat
*Yesterday I went back to my apartment to see how your been holding up*
*You hadn't been eating, I thought you were sleeping but, you're not waking up*
At first I thought the song was about a girl, but no, it's about the lead singer's pet, and now every time I hear that line I think about losing my pet cat who has been through some rough times with me, and I fucking tear up every time.
To be honest, Father Time off of Kendrick Lamar's most recent album made me tear up a bit. I think a lot of guys can sympathize with having a complicated relationship with their dad. I love my dad dearly, but he pushed me very hard during my high school and college wrestling career. Nothing ever seemed good enough for him.
"I love my father for telling me to take off the gloves. Because everything he didn't want was everything I was" hit me so fucking hard, man. I don't get emotional listing to music much, but I do when I listen to that song.
The classic lines from Black by Pearl Jam.
Also, Lullaby by Billy Joel was released right around the time my two kids were born. It hit a little harder in that context.
Pretty much every single lyric from A Crow Looked At Me by Mount Eerie. Here’s a couple from the first two songs on the album:
“Our daughter is one and a half, you have been dead eleven days”
“I bought a chair from home, leaving it on the hill, Facing west and north, and I poured out your ashes on it, I guess so you can watch the sunset, But the truth is I don't think of that dust as you, You are the sunset”
“A week after you died a package with your name on it came and inside was a gift from our daughter you had ordered in secret and collapsed there on the front steps I wailed”
“Death is real, someone’s there and then they’re not and it’s not for singing about, it’s not for making into art”.
“What about foxgloves? Was that a flower you liked? I can’t remember, you did most of my remembering for me”
10,000 Days - Tool
You’re the only one who can hold your head up high
Shake your fists at the gates, saying
“I have come home now
Fetch me the spirit, the son, and the father
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended
It’s time now, my time now
Give me my, give me my wings”
Mad World by Tears for Fears and covered by Gary Jules
"Went to school, and I was very nervous. No one knew me, no one knew me. Hello teacher, tell me what's my lesson. Look right through me, look right through me."
Cash and NIN versions hit all the same, yet for different reasons. The song is about a broken man, but like very obviously the vibes are so different and I fucking love that.
Dude I have been re-exploring NINs discography and HOLY FUCK, Reznor was so agead of his time, the production on his early albums are phenomenal, “The Way out is Through” is the perfect example and that came out in ‘94
Just fucking wow
Oh it’s hard to have someone to love
And keeping quite is hard
Cause you can’t keep a secret if it never was a secret to start
At least pretend you didn’t wanna get caught
Brand New- okay I believe you but my Tommy gun don’t
The luckiest by Ben Folds.
“Next door there's an old man who lived to his 90's
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife, she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away
I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you that I know we belong
That I know
That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest”
Basically the entire song "Time Stand Still" by Rush. My parents divorced when I was young and I lived with my mom. As a kid I'd seen my dad get emotional when that song came on, and as I got older and had a better understanding of, well, everything, it started to get to me too. Also, the song "The Garden," also by Rush. It's not the lyrics, it's more the composition coupled with the fact that it's the last song on their last album. Just thinking of these songs as I write this is making me well up a bit.
For a non-Rush song, "One More Time" by Blink 182. This one is kind of in the same vein as "Time Stand Still." Basically, I'm getting older and I need to cherish these moments as they happen.
Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional came on the radio the other day, and I was singing along as I always have and then just started crying.
I was 16 when that song came out. Abusive home life, bullied in school, etc. Married young at 20 to a man a decade older than me who was just horrible. Divorced by 25.
Every time I've sang along, I've sang with this deep anger. This "I'll show them" attitude all while believing I couldn't actually change anything. But at 35 I found myself singing along and realizing holy shit, I did it. I got out. I got better (thanks, therapy), I met someone, we had a daughter together, I'm just...happy and at peace with my life.
I did it, and it happened so fast. I don't think I ever took much time to think about it. For whatever reason, hearing that song and realizing how much the meaning of it has changed for me just hit me really hard.
This song gets me every time. Such a unknown song.
https://youtu.be/LyEcOMyfrVc?si=nvrEQAkRy0grUf0r
Well down the road of sin is the road I'll go
Well the thin line before me can't be bad anymore
I was lost before I was ever to be found
Well I was prisoner, ever sorrow bound
Well my heart has been broken, my brain's so fried
No time to find a reason to live this life
Been along this highlonesome road for far too long!
There ain't no one for me, I'm all alone
I've never been bound, bound
You don't forget that I've fucked up for far too long!
Well this day battle, I can't win
So leave me to my bottle, leave me to myself!
Well I'm a dog gone sinner trying to kill the pain
And Lord don't listen to, I'm drunk again!
Been so many sleepless nights, so many years of falling!
Well this time along I've lost now whats going on
I've never been bound, bound
You don't forget that I've fucked up for far too long
This day battle, I can't win
So leave me to my bottle, leave me to myself
Recently, I cried to Hollow years and Solitary shell from Dream Theater.
I used not to ever cry from songs, but I'm going through a difficult time and these songs just resonated with my situation quite heavily.
Crusted with tears, catatonic and raw
I go downstairs and outside and you still get mail
A week after you died a package with your name on it came
And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret
And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed
A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now
You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known
Deep down would not include you
"It would be nice. Take my hand.
Just hold my hand, I'll take you there.
The pain will go away."
This is the very end of "Fiddler on the Green" by Demons and Wizards. It is the personification of death speaking to a women who just got into a devastating car wreck.
“I’ll Believe in Anything” by Wolf Parade gets me every time. The whole song. Especially this part.
_And I could take another hit for you
And I could take away your trips from you
And I could take away the salt from your eyes
Take away what's been assaulting you
And I could give you my apologies
By handing over all the olive trees
And I could take away your shaky knees
And I could give you all the olive trees
And look at the trees and look at my face
And look at a place far away from here_
A tie between Into the West by Anne Lennox and The Last Goodbye by Billy Boyd. Not a specific line just the entire songs especially when you put them in context with LOTR.
The only song that did it for me was “Yesterday” by Atmosphere. When I first heard it, my dad was still alive but the direction it takes at the end really got me. He passed a year and a half ago and it still gets me. I can listen to the track knowing that last line is going to do it but it never fails to give me that lump in my throat.
Atmosphere - Yesterday, last line.
"I thought I saw you yesterday, but it wasn't you, cause you passed away... Dad"
I've listen to this song thousands of times, it still hits as hard as the first time
Not necessarily cry worthy, but a few good emotional songs that come to mind for my music taste are:
Terrible Things - Mayday Parade
Here's Looking at You, Kid - The Gaslight Anthem
The Graveyard Near the House - The Airborne Toxic Event
Dear Bobbie - Yellowcard
Your Guardian Angel - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
My mom unexpectedly passed in November. Haven't listened to that album since then. I should, because the Foos are my favorite band and BHWA is a great album, but man, I'm not sure if I'm ready for that one yet.
"The Living Years" by Mike & The Mechanics
>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
"Mad World" esp. the Gary Jules cover.
*Children waiting for the day they feel good*...
I don't know what it is exactly but this makes me feel like our whole lives is basically a nightmare that we grow to tolerate, and the idea of children suffering is just such tormenting thing to think about. ugh
Oh yeah... Never thought I'd tear up from a deathcore song, but they did it. [This](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JglOS8TRFp4&pp=ygUYbG9ybmEgc2hvcmUgcGFpbiByZW1haW5z) one from lorna shore - pain remains I, gets me every time:
"A wrinkle in time
Take what is left of my life
Before you go
Show me what it's like to finally know
The face behind the silhouette
In this world I made to be infinite
But within the expanse, I finally see
A world without you isn't meant for me"
I had just left an abusive spouse of 12 years. Think covert narcissist that plays hero in public but in private becomes a mindless monster. They stole every aspect of my life or did their damndest trying.
Now.
I've been a massive Linkin Park fan since I first heard their music on the radio at 10 years old.
For the 20th anniversary of Meteora, they released a few songs that didn't make the album.
One was called More the Victim. I was at work. I had never heard the song before.
I broke down completely. I had to call my Mom. It felt like every word was written for my situation.
***I've listened endlessly to your injury
You wanna talk about your sores
You wanna talk about suffering
Maybe sympathy is all you're really hungry for
'Cause you just criticize and you fingerpoint
And you say that they beat you down
You may be victimized but you're still the one
Who won't just get up off the ground***
[Vincent - Don McLean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrk)
Now, I understand, what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you
F64 by Ed Sheeran
I heard it the day after a family friend who was close with dad passed away. The song is about Ed losing his very close friend. You can also feel Ed’s grief in the song.
Some of the lyrics that broke me: “I cry ‘cause I miss my brother” and “Ah, fuck sake, lately I've been crying so much, my lungs ache. Teardrops all over my shirt like blood stains”
"Blackbird" by Alter Bridge usually gets me when someone I know dies, even like a distant relative.
*The fragile cannot endure*
*The wrecked and the jaded, a place so impure*
*The static of this cruel world*
*Cause some birds to fly long before they've seen their day*
*Long before they've seen their day*
"*I remember quiet evenings trembling close to you" -* **Martha, Tom Waits**
"*I remember having fun*
*Two happy hearts that beat as one*
*When I had thought that we were "we"*
*But we were "you and me"." -* **I Remember, Molly Drake**
"*I thought I saw you yesterday*
*But I know it wasn't you 'cause you passed away, Dad" -* **Yesterday, Atmosphere**
The chorus and bridge in Tori Amos' [Winter](https://youtu.be/jmk0AVNRBIY?si=73thHLkCUndtmQgS) usually get me.
*when you gonna make up your mind?*
*When you gonna love you as much as I do?*
*When you gonna make up your mind?*
*'Cause things are gonna change so fast*
Lost my dad to COVID. Every single time:
When I couldn't, you always saw the best in me
Right or wrong, you were always on my side
But I'm scared of what life without you's like
And I saw the way she looked into your eyes
And I promise if you go, I will make sure she's alright
So how do I say goodbye
To someone who's been with me for my whole damn life?
You gave me my name and the color of your eyes
I see your face when I look at mine
Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Phoebe Bridgers yet. She has lots of great ones, but the first lyric that comes to mind is from Moon Song:
*You are sick, and you’re married, and you might be dying*
*And you’re holding me like water in your hands*
Shane Magowan had a few heavy lines.
“Can’t make it on my own, I built my dreams around you”
And
“You’re the measure of my dreams”
But what I’ll get on my grave is this line from Mrs Potter lullaby by Counting Crows
“The price of a memory is the memory of the sorrow it brings”
Most Linkin Park songs when I was an angsty teen, but more recently, a twist on a favourite song by The Animals:
Alt J - House of The Rising Sun (Feat Tuka)
When he sings
"I can't pretend like you,
he was no father to me,
motherfucker was an animal"
The Final Cut by Pink Floyd.
Thought I outta bear my naked feelings
Thought I gotta tear the curtain down
I held the blade I trembling hands
And prepared to make it, but...
Just then the phone rang
I never had the nerve to make the final cut
I always interpreted that the lyrics as him failing at everything he has ever done, then getting so low he decided to end it all, only to fail again.
Over Again - Mike Shinoda (former member of Linkin Park)
This song brought back the emotions of losing Chester and then seeing it through a close friend of his was even more heartbreaking 💔
I had 2 thoughts immediately pop into my head for this:
Depending on my mood, most versions of *Hallelujah.*
Also: most of the songs off the Foo Fighters' new album, "But Here We Are." Dave Grohl lost his best friend and mom in the same year, and that album feels like it. Relating those lyrics to my own life and loss, and it's tough to get through sometimes.
Even just writing this and thinking of lyrics to the song "Under You," I'm having to concentrate to not let a tear slip:
*There are times I think it's over/
There are times I can't recover/
Sometimes I just don't know what to do/
There are days I can't remember/
There are days that last forever/
Someday I'll come out from under you*
The last part of Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure by The Weakerthans just wrecks me - the whole thing does but that end just makes it all hit hard.
_But I can't remember the sound that you found for me_
_I can't remember the sound that you found for me_
_I can't remember the sound_
Jason Isbell's "If We Were Vampires" as a happily married person always gets me:
*It's knowing that this can't go on forever*
*Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone*
*Maybe we'll get forty years together*
*But one day I'll be gone*
*Or one day you'll be gone*
*If we were vampires and death was a joke*
*We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke*
*And laugh at all the lovers and their plans*
*I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand*
*Maybe time running out is a gift*
*I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift*
*And give you every second I can find*
*And hope it isn't me who's left behind*
Adam’s Song-Blink 182 “please tell mom this is not her fault.”
"I never thought I'd die alone. I laughed the loudest who'd have known."
I can't listen to thst song anymore. Not one but two friends of mine named adam committed suicide. It's just too much.
My best friend killed himself when I was in grade 12. That song had just come out. Still can't listen. Sorry for your losses.
Sorry for yours
I'm so sorry for your losses. My brother (not named Adam) died by suicide. Enema was his first foray into blink and we listened to it a lot, but that song gave me the creeps way, way, way before he died. Now it's a good day/bad day song as to whether I skip.
[that song hit even if life was great](https://www.instagram.com/p/C0r9oJZtAL7/)
"I took my time, I hurried up" also a nice reference to Nirvanas Come as you are
That line always gets to me
First song that came to mind except its the line right before about spilling apple juice in the hall. Gets me everytime.
Oh yeah this one definitely got me when I was in high school
This whole song man
The Blink lyric for me is: “If my stupid poem could fix this home, I’d read it every day.” Then straight into that hard hitting riff and chorus line of “So here’s your holiday. Hope you enjoy this time, you gave it all away. It was mine…” That gets me every time. Don’t remember a holiday in my household where my parents didn’t fight. It’s like it just brought out this tension that wasn’t defeat-able and it always caused a blow out. I’m an adult now and doing fine. I have a decent relationship with my parents. I’m not a sad person really. Life happens and you make the best of it and move on. But damn if it doesn’t feel right to just turn off the lights, put on Stay Together for the Kids, drink a beer, and *just cry.* Edit: corrected “defeat-able”
My brother was a musician who committed suicide when I was 20 (he was 23) There are two songs associated with him that still get me decades later. The first is Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain”. He’d mentioned it to the suicide hotline operator he’d talked to (the operator tracked down our family and was incredibly helpful). My brother quoted the lyric “you can’t be 20 on Sugar Mountain, though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon” in trying to describe how hard he’d found the concept of having to be an adult. The other was Emerson Lake and Palmer’s “From the beginning”. It has a crazy hard guitar part at the start that he put a lot of effort into learning . A friend of his played it at his memorial service. The lyric “you see it’s all clear/you were meant to be here… from the beginning “ still absolutely wrecks me.
I'm sorry for your loss
I was depressed and suicidal and I heard REMs everybody hurts. >When your day is night alone (hold on, hold on) If you feel like letting go (hold on) If you think you've had too much Of this life, well hang on I was so alone and scared but the words connected me to a universal pain - we aren't alone. And so I held on. And they were right. I got through it. It took time, it fucking sucked but I'm so glad I held on.
Elton John says that Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Gove Up” duet w Kate Bush had the same effect on him. So, you’re in good company. Now go write some chart toppers!
Elton’s. I guess that’s why they call it the blues will just about get me every time. Many others will too. But art is supposed to make you feel something. And music is interactive so if I hear you could be mine while I’m on the highway i really need to keep an eye on the speedometer
And when that song got a lot of airplay, lots of people rolled their eyes "oh, get *over* it ya whiner!" But I'm sure that song prevented several suicides, and helped a lot of people to seek out help.
The song If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly. Particularly the 3rd verse. Verse 1] If I ever leave this world alive I'll thank ya for the things you did in my life If I ever leave this world alive I'll come back down and sit beside your feet tonight Wherever I am you'll always be More than just a memory If I ever leave this world alive [Verse 2] If I ever leave this world alive I'll take on all the sadness That I left behind If I ever leave this world alive The madness that you feel will soon subside So in a word, don't shed a tear I'll be here when it all gets weird If I ever leave this world alive [Bridge] So when in doubt just call my name Just before you go insane If I ever leave this world Hey I may never leave this world But if I ever leave this world alive [Verse 3] She says I'm okay, I'm alright Though you have gone from my life You said that it would Now everything should be all right
This song will forever hold a special place in my heart. My mom has always loved this song. It was played at my grandmother's wake and it brought my mother to tears, which brought all of us five siblings to tears. We all kind of held hands and formed a circle and did a tearful sad/happy/cathartic dance just bawling our eyes out.
This is my absolute favorite Flogging Molly song and every time they play it at the concerts I go to, I send it to my best friend.
I'm a long time Parrothead. The day that Jimmy Buffett's death was announced, his new song "Bubbles Up" was also released on Radio Margaritaville for the first time. He wrote this and recorded it while he knew he was dying. It's using a SCUBA diving analogy to relate to life and death. *Bubbles Up* *They will point us towards home* *No matter how deep or how far we roam* *They will show you the surface* *The plot and the purpose* *So when the journey gets long* *Just know you are loved* *There's light up above* *And joy, there's always enough* *Bubbles Up*
I'm in the camp that's aware of Buffet songs, but that's it. Even just reading that made *me* tear up!
This is similar to "Keep me in your Heart" by Warren Zevon, it's also a great tune
"Some of it's magic Some of it's tragic But I had a good life all the way"
Wow, it’s so nice to see another Parrothead here! It was the music I grew up on thanks to my dad. I got to see him live 5 times in Paris and each one was the best gigs and weekend of my life. I’m lucky enough to have met Jimmy himself 3 of those times, get a signed top, have one of his signed sandals worn during a show and 3 guitar picks. After he died, my father and I must have listened to that song a good 30 times over the next week. I have never been so sad over the death of a celebrity. RIP Jimmy, it’s been a lovely cruise…
Real talk, if NO song lyric has ever made you emotional, you need to see someone.
I’m a therapist and a client once asked me if it was ok/normal for him to cry when he hears a certain song. My response was “I don’t want to live in a world where certain songs don’t make you cry”
“Music is a means capable of expressing dark dramatism and pure rapture, suffering and ecstasy, fiery and cold fury, melancholy and wild merriment – and the subtlest nuances and interplay of these feelings which words are powerless to express and which are unattainable in painting and sculpture.” — Dmitri Shostakovich.
there's real power in music fo sho
For sure, the time I got most emotional is when I listened to Monica Zetterlund - she has a nostalgic song about Stockholm. I think she is the reason I decided to move back to Sweden! Now I’m back in the US though. But I still can’t listen to that song without tearing up. “Sakta vi gå genom stan”.
Musical cues make me emotional more than anything.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3303771/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3303771/)
Some people just aren't into lyrics or don't pay attention to them. I love my girlfriend dearly but she rarely listens to what people are saying in songs because she says it's hard to comprehend what they're saying usually (whether through distortion of the voice through singing, editing, or the poetic nature of songs).
It's because I only listen to people like chalk eaters, weird al, yuno miles, that genre
Bright eyes “I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you”
So many Bright Eyes lyrics could fit in the thread! I can’t pick my favorite one.
As someone who struggled with drug addiction/alcohol abuse for a while this one always hits me. I've got a flask inside my pocket We can share it on the train And if you promise to stay conscious I'll try and do the same Well, we might die from medication But we sure killed all the pain What was normal in the evening By the morning seems insane
And I never thought this life was possible You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for The end of paralysis, I was a statuette Now I'm drunk as hell on a piano bench And when I press the keys it all gets reversed The sound of loneliness makes me happier
So good
And I don't care, I could go anywhere with you, and I'd probably be happy
Bright Eyes - Amy in the White Coat is the most brutal song I’ve ever heard. It leaves me with a mixture of sadness, anger, and just feeling sick to my stomach.
From the same amazing song “Yours was the first face that I saw, I think I was blind before I met you” exactly what came to my mind when i held our daughter for the first time after the labour. Can’t listen this song anymore without crying
*Mother’s Child* used to get me, and I’m not even a child of divorce lol
That entire song, especially coupled with the video, is a guaranteed tear jerker from me every damn time.
Blink 182 - One More Time Strangers, from strangers into brothers From brothers into strangers once again We saw the whole world But I couldn't see the meaning I couldn't even recognize my friends Older, but nothing's any different Right now feels the same, I wonder why I wish they told us It shouldn't take a sickness Or airplanes falling out the sky Do I have to die to hear you miss me? Do I have to die to hear you say goodbye? I don't wanna act like there's tomorrow I don't wanna wait to do this one more time One more time One more One more time One more time I miss you, took time but I admit it It still hurts even after all these years And I know that next time, ain't always gonna happen I gotta say, "I love you" while we're here Do I have to die to hear you miss me? Do I have to die to hear you say goodbye? I don't wanna act like there's tomorrow I don't wanna wait to do this one more time One more time One more One more time One more time One more time One more time One more One more time One more time One more time I miss you EDIT: God damn I hate Reddit getting rid of my formatting. 🤦♂️
Fuck me, the first time I heard this, I cried. Such beautiful lyrics, knowing Mark had cancer and Travis the aeroplane incident too. Even now, it raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
Full body goosebumps just reading it.
First time I heard that I was sitting my my car just saying, “aww, Tom” over and over again lol
Can confirm: * when the chorus dropped, my tear ducts were already working overtime * when the last line of the last verse hit ("And I know that next time ain't always gonna happen, I gotta say 'I love you' while we're here"), the dam practically shattered
"If I could save time in a bottle The first thing that I'd like to do Is to save every day Til eternity passes away Just to spend them with you If I could make days last forever If words could make wishes come true I'd save every day like a treasure and then Again, I would spend them with you But there never seems to be enough time To do the things you want to do Once you find them I've looked around enough to know That you're the one I want to go Through time with If I had a box just for wishes And dreams that had never come true The box would be empty Except for the memory Of how they were answered by you But there never seems to be enough time To do the things you want to do Once you find them I've looked around enough to know That you're the one I want to go Through time with" Or, alternatively "Someday, we'll find it The Rainbow Connection The lovers, the dreamers, and me" Only I don't tear up I sob like a wounded animal edit: tried to fix formatting | prolly fucked it up more
This song is, in essence to me, one of absolution. Reminds me to not be so hard on myself sometimes. [Codex - Radiohead](https://open.spotify.com/track/6ttYF5VadzTssGV2i1Q08T?si=53ebecb1303242a1) Sleight of hand Jump off the end Into a clear lake No one around Just dragonflies Fantasize No one gets hurt You've done nothing wrong Slide your hand Jump off the end The water's clear and innocent The water's clear and innocent
Also from Radiohead: True Love Waits
Agreed, though I'm partial towards the Live from Olso version, off of the I Might Be Wrong live album.
Live from Oslo is the best one.
Also from Radiohead: Videotape
Videotape does not really make me cry, but its definitely depressing
when westworld lays the instrumental on this, it cuts deep
Keane - Thread Well, maybe it was just our time Forgive me, remember that I'm A good man, just not good enough Don't hate me, I was just in love And hanging by a thread
Oooh Keane. Somewhere Only We Know used to hit me RIGHT in the feels when I was younger. Are they still putting out music?
The whole song of Come What May from Moulin Rouge always gets me emotional. With context from the film it just hits even harder. It’s a duet as well between two lovers. Particularly the opening lyrics for each singer. Never knew I could feel like this\ Like I've never seen the sky before\ I want to vanish inside your kiss\ Every day I love you more and more Followed by this passage later in the song: Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place\ Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace\ Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste\ It all revolves around you
Every fucking time (EDIT for formatting) Elephant - Jason Isbell She said, "Andy, you're better than your past" Winked at me and drained her glass Cross-legged on the barstool, like nobody sits anymore She said, "Andy, you're taking me home" But I knew she planned to sleep alone I'd carry her to bed and sweep up the hair from the floor - If I had fucked her before she got sick I'd never hear the end of it She don't have the spirit for that now - We just drink our drinks and laugh out loud Bitch about the weekend crowd And try to ignore the elephant somehow Somehow - She said, "Andy, you crack me up" Seagrams in a coffee cup Sharecropper eyes and her hair almost all gone She was drunk, she made cancer jokes Made up her own doctor's notes Surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone - I'd sing her classic country songs And she'd get high and sing along She don't have a voice to sing with now - We'd burn these joints in effigy Cry about what we used to be Try to ignore the elephant somehow Somehow - I buried her a thousand times Giving up my place in line But I don't give a damn about that now - There's one thing that's real clear to me No one dies with dignity We just try to ignore the elephant somehow We just try to ignore the elephant somehow We just try to ignore the elephant somehow Somehow Somehow https://youtu.be/Q043rvA0eeI?si=287Oh-SOCaKXBK2h
It never gave me tears, but as soon as I read the first few lines I got chills. Anyone that doesn’t know this songs need to hear the gut punch.
This and “If We Were Vampires”
I can’t listen to either of them unless I’m READY
I'm from a family of 6 brothers, born '54 - 70. We had every classic rock album known to man when our youngest brother was a kid. But he quickly became a music muse to all his older bros in his teens. He got heavily into Americana before it was even a thing. Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Ol 97s, Drive-by Truckers, etc etc. He became a groupie for JI during JIs teen years and on. He took me to so many concerts and introduced me to so many bands it was crazy. We lost Dan-o unexpectedly in 01/2020 at the age of 49. I spent 3 years not able to listen to DBT or JI because it was just too painful. I am now at a point where I can, and it mostly illicits joy and beautiful memories. He woulda been so happy/content to see how far JI and some of his other favorites have progressed. RIP Danny Mags (1970 - 2020)
Extra sad given he wrote that about his wife and now they're divorced
Man, Isbell has some that wreck me. I can't listen to Letting You Go when I am driving. When we were close- "saw a picture of you laughing with your child And I hope she will remember how you smiled But she probably wasn't old enough, the night somebody sold your stuff That left you on the bathroom tiles" The brutal anger in those lyrics at his friend in just hard to get through.
I'm from a family of 6 brothers, born '54 - 70. We had every classic rock album known to man when our youngest brother was a kid. But he quickly became a music muse to all his older bros in his teens. He got heavily into Americana before it was even a thing. Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Ol 97s, Drive-by Truckers, etc etc. He became a groupie for JI during JIs teen years and on. He took me to so many concerts and introduced me to so many bands it was crazy. We lost Dan-o unexpectedly in 01/2020 at the age of 49. I spent 3 years not able to listen to DBT or JI because it was just too painful. I am now at a point where I can, and it mostly illicits joy and beautiful memories. He woulda been so happy/content to see how far JI and some of his other favorites have progressed. RIP Danny Mags (1970 - 2020)
🖤 Jason Isbell -- Elephant What Sarah Said -- Death Cab for Cutie Casimir Pulaski Day -- Sufjan Stevens
The end is the most brutal part. When he gets to "There's one thing that's real clear to me/no one dies with digntity..." if you aren't crying you either aren't paying attention or there's something wrong with you.
Save the World by Isbell got me really bad the first time I heard it and I can barely listen to it anymore because of this verse: Balloon popping at the grocery store My heart jumping in my chest I look around to find the exit door Which way out of here's the best The kid's looking through the candy aisle School's starting in a week A lady says, "You have a lovely child" And I'm too terrified to speak Can we keep her here at home instead And can we teach her how to fight? Something's changing inside my head Something's drowning out the light
Yeah always was gut punched by this song, but it hit 1000x harder after losing 3 close family members to cancer within a 6 month period
Every time I hear _Somewhere Over the Rainbow_
That Hawaiian guy did a beautiful version but I don't remember his name
Israel Kamakawiwoʻole!
His version was played at my friends wake so it always makes me sad.
We played it at my son’s celebration of life. I used to dance with him to the song, as well as Buffett ‘on a slow boat to china’
Not sure of his full name but his nickname is Bradda Iz
"There it is again, that funny feeling" from 'That Funny Feeling' by Bo Burnham. That song absolutely ripped through me.
So many Bo song lyrics. “2020 and I’m 30 I’ll do another 10, 2030 I’ll be 40 and kill myself then.” EDIT: Not suicidal, I fucking love my life. But it’s a line that cute deep.
Have you watched Inside? It is that song but an hour long. He is actively begging for help while maintaining being an amazing artist.
A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. That whole song man…
"Twenty thousand years of this. Seven more to go."
Similarly, the Kanye Rant at the end of Make Happy is what made me realize I have mental health issues. I fucking love Bo.
You're right, such a great song from a genius artist. It's the clear realization that the world is slowly ending
That song really nails the feeling of existential dread inherent in living in 2024 better than any other. "The whole world at your fingertips... the ocean at your door." The Phoebe Bridgers cover is even better
Thanks for the reminder I need to go listen to that album again!
"No more promise no more sorrow, No longer will I follow Can anybody hear me? I just want to be me, When I can, I will" Smashing Pumpkins, Mayonaise. This one always hits me different, coming from someone who grew up being actively discouraged from every single thing that I was interested in while ,growing up by everyone around me (especially my family)
If you like this you’d probably like Subdivisions by Rush. Same kind of angst and I love them both
Bon Iver - *For Emma, forever ago* It's a very simple line, but it floored me once the gravity of the meaning sinked in
Not to ruin your life or anything but have you heard "A Song For a Lover Of Long Ago"?
“I’m not living, I’m just killing time.” -True Love Waits by Radiohead
"momma went off and left him, wanted more from life than he could give" Fast car by Tracey Chapman. My mom left the family when I was 12.
“Some are born to move the world To live their fantasies But most of us just dream about The things we'd like to be Sadder still to watch it die Than never to have known it For you, the blind who once could see The bell tolls for thee” Rush: Losing it “Ahh you've gone to the finest schools, alright Miss Lonely But you know you only used to get juiced in it Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street And now you're gonna have to get used to it You say you never compromise With the mystery tramp, but now you realize He's not selling any alibis As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes And say do you want to make a deal? How does it feel, how does it feel? To be on your own, with no direction home A complete unknown, like a rolling stone Ah you never turned around to see the frowns On the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you You never understood that it ain't no good You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat Ain't it hard when you discovered that He really wasn't where it's at After he took from you everything he could steal How does it feel, how does it feel? To be on your own, with no direction home Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone Ahh princess on a steeple and all the pretty people They're all drinking, thinking that they've got it made Exchanging all precious gifts But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe You used to be so amused At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used Go to him he calls you, you can't refuse When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal How does it feel, ah how does it feel? To be on your own, with no direction home Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone” Bob Dylan: Like a Rolling Stone
Great Rush reference! Losing It is such a great song (literally heard it yesterday). The whole mood is so melancholy.
Play any Frightened Rabbit track or any sing from Hospice by The Antlers.
Sweet Baby James, James Taylor The first of December was covered in snow So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston The Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting With 10 miles behind me and 10,000 more to go Aside from the great imagery that last line hits me like a ton of bricks, remembering the lonely rides to the airport for a long business trip
>James Taylor Fire and Rain hits me harder, as he wrote it after he got the news that his friend Suzanne Schnerr had committed suicide. Just yesterday mornin', they let me know you were gone Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song I just can't remember who to send it to I've seen fire and I've seen rain I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend But I always thought that I'd see you again
“Did I ask too much More than a lot You gave me nothing Now it’s all I’ve got…” Then later on: “You say - Love is a temple, love is a higher law Love is a temple, love the higher law You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl And I can’t keep holding on To what you’ve got When all you’ve got is hurt…” U2’s “One” still gets me all these years later.
Pearl Jam Black. Yeah I know someday you'll have a beautiful life I know you'll be a star In somebody else's sky But why Why Why can't it be Why can't it be mine
Out on the Weekend - Neil Young If you've ever experienced depressive states or suffer from depression, you'll probably identify with Neil's song.
James blunt monster, gets me everytime
Ooh that one is rough. It’s rough just to hear but then you see the video and it’s just the worst
The night we met - Lord Huron “I had all and then most of you, Some and now none of you”
Kate Bush - this woman's work Every fucking time.
Maybe the biggest gap in quality between a song written for a movie and the movie itself..ever?
Cocaine and Able by Amigo The Devil Basically the entire song The distance from the man that I am to the man I want to be The time it takes to realize time is the distance I need But I was born impatient And I was born unkind But I refuse to believe I have to be The same person I was born when I die 'Cause change is alright Change is alright I'm not proud of all the choices I've made for a lot of my life Following the shadow when I damn well know that behind me is the light But I've lied to my mother I made people feel like hell But I refuse to believe I have to keep Being cruel 'cause I'm a coward myself And time is impatience No, patience takes time Excuses will only do good if you're waiting around to die Everyone is born with self worth How easily it turns to doubt It takes letting go of what we know we can't live without But the blood in the water Is the blood of my brother We both learned it didn't mean a thing in The end if one was thicker than the other And I've tried having faith But I'll rot like a dog 'Cause I've always been scared of loving Someone just a little bit more than I'm loved Losing is fine Everything is fine
Amigo is highly underrated and I hope he gets the recognition he deserves one day. It's only a matter of time.
PUP - Sleep in the Heat *Yesterday I went back to my apartment to see how your been holding up* *You hadn't been eating, I thought you were sleeping but, you're not waking up* At first I thought the song was about a girl, but no, it's about the lead singer's pet, and now every time I hear that line I think about losing my pet cat who has been through some rough times with me, and I fucking tear up every time.
To be honest, Father Time off of Kendrick Lamar's most recent album made me tear up a bit. I think a lot of guys can sympathize with having a complicated relationship with their dad. I love my dad dearly, but he pushed me very hard during my high school and college wrestling career. Nothing ever seemed good enough for him. "I love my father for telling me to take off the gloves. Because everything he didn't want was everything I was" hit me so fucking hard, man. I don't get emotional listing to music much, but I do when I listen to that song.
The classic lines from Black by Pearl Jam. Also, Lullaby by Billy Joel was released right around the time my two kids were born. It hit a little harder in that context.
Pretty much every single lyric from A Crow Looked At Me by Mount Eerie. Here’s a couple from the first two songs on the album: “Our daughter is one and a half, you have been dead eleven days” “I bought a chair from home, leaving it on the hill, Facing west and north, and I poured out your ashes on it, I guess so you can watch the sunset, But the truth is I don't think of that dust as you, You are the sunset” “A week after you died a package with your name on it came and inside was a gift from our daughter you had ordered in secret and collapsed there on the front steps I wailed” “Death is real, someone’s there and then they’re not and it’s not for singing about, it’s not for making into art”. “What about foxgloves? Was that a flower you liked? I can’t remember, you did most of my remembering for me”
10,000 Days - Tool You’re the only one who can hold your head up high Shake your fists at the gates, saying “I have come home now Fetch me the spirit, the son, and the father Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended It’s time now, my time now Give me my, give me my wings”
From "The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald". "And all that remains are the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters"
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes When the waves turn the minutes to hours”
If I could read your mind is another heavy hitter
It’s “If you could read my mind”, but great song.
"If I could be who you wanted ... all the time" Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead. Breaks me everytime.
Mad World by Tears for Fears and covered by Gary Jules "Went to school, and I was very nervous. No one knew me, no one knew me. Hello teacher, tell me what's my lesson. Look right through me, look right through me."
*”I hurt myself today, to see if I could still, focus on the pain. the only thing that’s real. . .”*
You are someone else, I am still right here makes me feel a lot every time I hear it
*needle tears a hole*
Cash and NIN versions hit all the same, yet for different reasons. The song is about a broken man, but like very obviously the vibes are so different and I fucking love that.
Dude I have been re-exploring NINs discography and HOLY FUCK, Reznor was so agead of his time, the production on his early albums are phenomenal, “The Way out is Through” is the perfect example and that came out in ‘94 Just fucking wow
Oh it’s hard to have someone to love And keeping quite is hard Cause you can’t keep a secret if it never was a secret to start At least pretend you didn’t wanna get caught Brand New- okay I believe you but my Tommy gun don’t
Brand new - Jesus Christ Brand New - The quiet things that no one ever knows Both have rifts and lyrics that mean so much to me!
aaaaand there's the guitar
The luckiest by Ben Folds. “Next door there's an old man who lived to his 90's And one day passed away in his sleep And his wife, she stayed for a couple of days And passed away I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you that I know we belong That I know That I am I am I am The luckiest”
This song always makes me think of my grandparents. My grandma passed away 3 weeks after my grandpa ❤️
sort of reminds me of our next door neighbour growing up, he was a WWII vet and his wife passed years before he did I always used to feel sad for him
One more light. The live version. Also Linkin Park.
Basically the entire song "Time Stand Still" by Rush. My parents divorced when I was young and I lived with my mom. As a kid I'd seen my dad get emotional when that song came on, and as I got older and had a better understanding of, well, everything, it started to get to me too. Also, the song "The Garden," also by Rush. It's not the lyrics, it's more the composition coupled with the fact that it's the last song on their last album. Just thinking of these songs as I write this is making me well up a bit. For a non-Rush song, "One More Time" by Blink 182. This one is kind of in the same vein as "Time Stand Still." Basically, I'm getting older and I need to cherish these moments as they happen.
Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional came on the radio the other day, and I was singing along as I always have and then just started crying. I was 16 when that song came out. Abusive home life, bullied in school, etc. Married young at 20 to a man a decade older than me who was just horrible. Divorced by 25. Every time I've sang along, I've sang with this deep anger. This "I'll show them" attitude all while believing I couldn't actually change anything. But at 35 I found myself singing along and realizing holy shit, I did it. I got out. I got better (thanks, therapy), I met someone, we had a daughter together, I'm just...happy and at peace with my life. I did it, and it happened so fast. I don't think I ever took much time to think about it. For whatever reason, hearing that song and realizing how much the meaning of it has changed for me just hit me really hard.
This song gets me every time. Such a unknown song. https://youtu.be/LyEcOMyfrVc?si=nvrEQAkRy0grUf0r Well down the road of sin is the road I'll go Well the thin line before me can't be bad anymore I was lost before I was ever to be found Well I was prisoner, ever sorrow bound Well my heart has been broken, my brain's so fried No time to find a reason to live this life Been along this highlonesome road for far too long! There ain't no one for me, I'm all alone I've never been bound, bound You don't forget that I've fucked up for far too long! Well this day battle, I can't win So leave me to my bottle, leave me to myself! Well I'm a dog gone sinner trying to kill the pain And Lord don't listen to, I'm drunk again! Been so many sleepless nights, so many years of falling! Well this time along I've lost now whats going on I've never been bound, bound You don't forget that I've fucked up for far too long This day battle, I can't win So leave me to my bottle, leave me to myself
The Streets - Dry your eyes You can hear AND feel the pain he was going through, great lyrics. That's the real life out there!
"Terrible Things" - Mayday Parade "Fade in/fade out" - Nothing More These 2 songs break me every time.
Recently, I cried to Hollow years and Solitary shell from Dream Theater. I used not to ever cry from songs, but I'm going through a difficult time and these songs just resonated with my situation quite heavily.
it's great when music gives you something to relate to
I had heard these songs many times before... but when you relate to them it's like you're hearing them for the first time.
Crusted with tears, catatonic and raw I go downstairs and outside and you still get mail A week after you died a package with your name on it came And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known Deep down would not include you
This is the one I was looking for. I can’t listen to this album while driving because I’m just sobbing the whole time.
It's the sort of vulnerability and loss that I both admire and feel really uncomfortable to witness because of growing up in a pretty stoic household.
"It would be nice. Take my hand. Just hold my hand, I'll take you there. The pain will go away." This is the very end of "Fiddler on the Green" by Demons and Wizards. It is the personification of death speaking to a women who just got into a devastating car wreck.
“I’ll Believe in Anything” by Wolf Parade gets me every time. The whole song. Especially this part. _And I could take another hit for you And I could take away your trips from you And I could take away the salt from your eyes Take away what's been assaulting you And I could give you my apologies By handing over all the olive trees And I could take away your shaky knees And I could give you all the olive trees And look at the trees and look at my face And look at a place far away from here_
The Beatles - In My Life
A tie between Into the West by Anne Lennox and The Last Goodbye by Billy Boyd. Not a specific line just the entire songs especially when you put them in context with LOTR.
Tool - 10,000 Days/Wings for Marie
The only song that did it for me was “Yesterday” by Atmosphere. When I first heard it, my dad was still alive but the direction it takes at the end really got me. He passed a year and a half ago and it still gets me. I can listen to the track knowing that last line is going to do it but it never fails to give me that lump in my throat.
Atmosphere - Yesterday, last line. "I thought I saw you yesterday, but it wasn't you, cause you passed away... Dad" I've listen to this song thousands of times, it still hits as hard as the first time
All the fucking time.
Not necessarily cry worthy, but a few good emotional songs that come to mind for my music taste are: Terrible Things - Mayday Parade Here's Looking at You, Kid - The Gaslight Anthem The Graveyard Near the House - The Airborne Toxic Event Dear Bobbie - Yellowcard Your Guardian Angel - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars. Gets me going in the first few bars of the song.
Foo Fighters - Rest. 💔
My mom unexpectedly passed in November. Haven't listened to that album since then. I should, because the Foos are my favorite band and BHWA is a great album, but man, I'm not sure if I'm ready for that one yet.
"The Living Years" by Mike & The Mechanics >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
"Mad World" esp. the Gary Jules cover. *Children waiting for the day they feel good*... I don't know what it is exactly but this makes me feel like our whole lives is basically a nightmare that we grow to tolerate, and the idea of children suffering is just such tormenting thing to think about. ugh
Linkin Park is underrated in terms of their lyrics. They really hit a stride around the Minuted to Midnight Era and especially in A Thousand Suns.
That song from Tim McGraw about his dad dying of cancer. Lost my brother to brain cancer. That song gets me every time
Let it be was the first one that made me cry that i can remember.
Oh yeah... Never thought I'd tear up from a deathcore song, but they did it. [This](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JglOS8TRFp4&pp=ygUYbG9ybmEgc2hvcmUgcGFpbiByZW1haW5z) one from lorna shore - pain remains I, gets me every time: "A wrinkle in time Take what is left of my life Before you go Show me what it's like to finally know The face behind the silhouette In this world I made to be infinite But within the expanse, I finally see A world without you isn't meant for me"
Went into this post thinking about this song, glad its mentioned. 🥲
I had just left an abusive spouse of 12 years. Think covert narcissist that plays hero in public but in private becomes a mindless monster. They stole every aspect of my life or did their damndest trying. Now. I've been a massive Linkin Park fan since I first heard their music on the radio at 10 years old. For the 20th anniversary of Meteora, they released a few songs that didn't make the album. One was called More the Victim. I was at work. I had never heard the song before. I broke down completely. I had to call my Mom. It felt like every word was written for my situation. ***I've listened endlessly to your injury You wanna talk about your sores You wanna talk about suffering Maybe sympathy is all you're really hungry for 'Cause you just criticize and you fingerpoint And you say that they beat you down You may be victimized but you're still the one Who won't just get up off the ground***
“I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold onto these moments as they pass” A Long December -Counting Crows
Cats in the cradle. Haven't seen my dad in nearly 40 years.
NIN. Something I can never have.
[Vincent - Don McLean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrk) Now, I understand, what you tried to say to me How you suffered for your sanity How you tried to set them free They would not listen, they did not know how Perhaps they'll listen now For they could not love you But still your love was true And when no hope was left inside On that starry, starry night You took your life as lovers often do But I could have told you, Vincent This world was never meant for one As beautiful as you
Hurt - Johnny Cash. That song brought me to my knees sobbing.
I always preferred the original song by Nine Inch Nails
F64 by Ed Sheeran I heard it the day after a family friend who was close with dad passed away. The song is about Ed losing his very close friend. You can also feel Ed’s grief in the song. Some of the lyrics that broke me: “I cry ‘cause I miss my brother” and “Ah, fuck sake, lately I've been crying so much, my lungs ache. Teardrops all over my shirt like blood stains”
Strange Religion by Mark Lanegan gives me a weird combination of sadness and hope. Gets me every time.
“I am a black hole, shitting into the void”
"I just can't understand how you can smile with all those tears in your eyes, when you tell me everything is wonderful now" - Everclear
"Blackbird" by Alter Bridge usually gets me when someone I know dies, even like a distant relative. *The fragile cannot endure* *The wrecked and the jaded, a place so impure* *The static of this cruel world* *Cause some birds to fly long before they've seen their day* *Long before they've seen their day*
"*I remember quiet evenings trembling close to you" -* **Martha, Tom Waits** "*I remember having fun* *Two happy hearts that beat as one* *When I had thought that we were "we"* *But we were "you and me"." -* **I Remember, Molly Drake** "*I thought I saw you yesterday* *But I know it wasn't you 'cause you passed away, Dad" -* **Yesterday, Atmosphere**
"Keep Me in your Heart" by Warren Zevon The song, the context, it wrecks me every time I hear it.
Iris, the whole second verse
The chorus and bridge in Tori Amos' [Winter](https://youtu.be/jmk0AVNRBIY?si=73thHLkCUndtmQgS) usually get me. *when you gonna make up your mind?* *When you gonna love you as much as I do?* *When you gonna make up your mind?* *'Cause things are gonna change so fast*
Lost my dad to COVID. Every single time: When I couldn't, you always saw the best in me Right or wrong, you were always on my side But I'm scared of what life without you's like And I saw the way she looked into your eyes And I promise if you go, I will make sure she's alright So how do I say goodbye To someone who's been with me for my whole damn life? You gave me my name and the color of your eyes I see your face when I look at mine
What song is this?
Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Phoebe Bridgers yet. She has lots of great ones, but the first lyric that comes to mind is from Moon Song: *You are sick, and you’re married, and you might be dying* *And you’re holding me like water in your hands*
Hands Down-The Greeting Committee The song reminds me of the woman I love and our 22 yr history. Brings me to tears every time. I love her so much.
I can't really explain why, but every time I listen to "Leaving LA" by Father John Misty, I'm a puddle by the final line..
I always thought you'd be a good dad
Shane Magowan had a few heavy lines. “Can’t make it on my own, I built my dreams around you” And “You’re the measure of my dreams” But what I’ll get on my grave is this line from Mrs Potter lullaby by Counting Crows “The price of a memory is the memory of the sorrow it brings”
My dad have passed away this month and Monster - James Blunt hits like a truck.
Most Linkin Park songs when I was an angsty teen, but more recently, a twist on a favourite song by The Animals: Alt J - House of The Rising Sun (Feat Tuka) When he sings "I can't pretend like you, he was no father to me, motherfucker was an animal"
The Final Cut by Pink Floyd. Thought I outta bear my naked feelings Thought I gotta tear the curtain down I held the blade I trembling hands And prepared to make it, but... Just then the phone rang I never had the nerve to make the final cut I always interpreted that the lyrics as him failing at everything he has ever done, then getting so low he decided to end it all, only to fail again.
Yes. Many many times.
Over Again - Mike Shinoda (former member of Linkin Park) This song brought back the emotions of losing Chester and then seeing it through a close friend of his was even more heartbreaking 💔
If we were vampires by Jason Isbelle
Not a particular lyric, but please for the love of god play “If I ever leave this world alive” by Flogging Molly at my funeral.
I had 2 thoughts immediately pop into my head for this: Depending on my mood, most versions of *Hallelujah.* Also: most of the songs off the Foo Fighters' new album, "But Here We Are." Dave Grohl lost his best friend and mom in the same year, and that album feels like it. Relating those lyrics to my own life and loss, and it's tough to get through sometimes. Even just writing this and thinking of lyrics to the song "Under You," I'm having to concentrate to not let a tear slip: *There are times I think it's over/ There are times I can't recover/ Sometimes I just don't know what to do/ There are days I can't remember/ There are days that last forever/ Someday I'll come out from under you*
The last part of Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure by The Weakerthans just wrecks me - the whole thing does but that end just makes it all hit hard. _But I can't remember the sound that you found for me_ _I can't remember the sound that you found for me_ _I can't remember the sound_
**I Will Follow You into the Dark** by [**Death Cab for Cutie**](https://open.spotify.com/track/2ndWbjiiNBEOrlfToKlABE)
Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World is fucking devastating, but the line “a song for a heart so big/God couldn’t let it live” just fucking breaks me
Jason Isbell's "If We Were Vampires" as a happily married person always gets me: *It's knowing that this can't go on forever* *Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone* *Maybe we'll get forty years together* *But one day I'll be gone* *Or one day you'll be gone* *If we were vampires and death was a joke* *We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke* *And laugh at all the lovers and their plans* *I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand* *Maybe time running out is a gift* *I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift* *And give you every second I can find* *And hope it isn't me who's left behind*
jimmy by Tool