archetypal fool

I had never heard this piece before, until I had to play it at a concert (with orchestra, of course). I was blown away by how haunting it was. I looked at the audience, and, I'm not kidding, I could see three people crying, all in the first or second row.

But anyways, I'd have to say that the most heart-wrenching songs I've ever heard are from a couple of Puccini operas. Nothing I've ever heard has had the impact these songs have had on me (and I have a HUGE music collection).

"E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca, "Un bel di" and "Tu? tu? Piccolo iddio" from Madama Butterfly are the most dramatic and depressing songs I've ever heard. They're serious business, especially if you have a good recording and are familiar with the back-stories.

Fuck, now I'm depressed. Thanks a lot.

__________________
I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. ~H.A. Overstreet

Estevez

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I've had this song stuck in my head for a week now, but I didn't know who performed it. It's too depressing to be played on a constant loop in my brain. Now I can listen to it and exorcise the demons, if you will.

Pogue Mahone

In no real order

Mad Season - River of Deceit
Third Eye Blind - Slow Motion, Motorcycle Driveby, I Want You, The Background
Porcupine Tree - Lazarus, Collapse the Light Into Earth
The Posies - Coming Right Along
Screaming Trees - Sworn And Broken
Cash - Hurt
Pearl Jam - Strangest Tribe
Opeth - In My Time Of Need
Blackfield - Summer, Once
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
Zakk Wylde - Way Beyond Empty

__________________
I still wave at the dots on the shore
And I still beat my head against the door
I still rage and wage my little war
I'm a shade and easy to ignore

Plan9

I Am Crushed by the Vandals.

Hands down.

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

factiongroove

needle in the hay- elliott smith

Jetée

The Lonely Shepherd by Zamfir has nothing but heart-wrenching acoustics and melodies.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

dirtyrascal7

Heart-wrenching yes, but I find that song rather inspirational and soothing... definitely not what I'd call depressing.

Anyway, Dashboard Confessional and Howie Day definitely have some good and depressing songs... and I agree with those who mentioned Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.

__________________
"Tie yourself to your limitless potential, rather than your limiting past."

"Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him."

hagatha

Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" by NIN ---grabs you in the gut.

__________________
Thats the last time I trust the strangest people I ever met....H. Simpson

Jetée

I suppose you are quite right, but it is another thing altogether to hear those first few melodies at the beginning...
chilling, yet in a way that is good and uplifting...

perhaps comparable to eating a candy cane than drinking some water right after. It is an experience!

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Redjake

Haven't read the rest of the replies, but Glycerine by Bush really puts me in a sad mood.

__________________
Off the record, on the q.t., and very hush-hush.

punkedjask8er

Dave Matthews Band - Grace is Gone
Dave Matthews Band - Let You Down
Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah

__________________
Team Blackstar Racing

holeyfred

Funeral/Bastard - Devin Townsend.
Room 429 - Strapping Young Lad.

Plus, I'm not sure if these are too obvious or what, but I haven't seen anyone mention:

Fade to Black - Metallica
Dust in the wind - Kansas
Abraham, Martin & John - Dion

Strange Famous

Buck 65 - The Floor

?

It's kind of depressing to learn that "it's better to be happy if possible" was a lie from the start.

__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

filtherton

my humps - the fact that that piece of garbage became so popular is pretty depressing.

Strange Famous

Thats strange, Ive always thought that that was quite a positive song.

__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

uncle phil

wow...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=2

__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
-----------------------------------------
never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

Mesmero85

Most melancholic songs for me:

Mazzy Star - Into Dust
J. J. Johansson - Suffering
Death In June - Falling Apart
Kansas - Dust in the Wind
Jeff Buckley - Lilac Wine
Scott Matthew - Language
The Beatles - Yesterday
The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby
Marianne Faithfull - So Sad
Gary Jules - Mad World
Beck - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
Nouvelle Vague - In a Manner of Speaking
Bright Eyes - The Awful Sweetness of Escaping Sweat (depressing AND creepy)

and possibly others I can't recall right now

mixedmedia

Tracy Chapman's Fast Car always makes me tear up.

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

noodle

the news - jack johnson

__________________

spectre

Black Label Society has a few that are really good, especially "My Lost Heaven." Great, sad song.

__________________
"Fuck these chains
No goddamn slave
I will be different" ~ Machine Head

Baraka_Guru

Leonard Cohen's "The Future"

Seriously.


...and to think I heard it on the CBC today. At lunchtime. Really....

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

icevrething

Most Depressing Music I have ever encountered: "Track 7"- Sigur Ros,"Farewell Fire" - Boards of Canada, "Stone in Focus"- Aphex Twin, "Just For Now"-Imogen Heap, "12 Stations From Gemini"- Mark Mercury, Mazzy Star of course is beautiful, David Darling, "Closing" - Philip Glass, "Rusted" - Psyclon Nine, "Bubble and Spike" - Telefon Tel Aviv. Thats it for now

thespian86

Yeah

Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" is extremely sad but in a beautiful way. If that makes sense.

I think most of Ryan Adam's work, especially the album "Love is Hell" could be considered depressing. "Does Anybody Want To Take Me Home", "Blue Manhatten" and "I see Monsters" are pretty fucking sad.

__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.

Reese

I love that song...

__________________
“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

Cyrusxx

The Unloco Album, Becoming I is by far the most depressing cd i've ever heard, every single song on there is sad... there are 3 songs in particular that are extremely depressing are...

Failure

Watching me slip

texas

i listened to all genres of music and unloco is the worst for me... great songs, but REALLY depressing.

spectre

Bother by Stone Sour

__________________
"Fuck these chains
No goddamn slave
I will be different" ~ Machine Head

Jack The Lad

Child Psychology by Black Box Recorder:

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Now that I'm older, I prefer the slower songs that I hear to be tongue-in-cheek, or uplifting, rather than melancholic.

I got rid of my Joy Division boxset years ago - life's too short for depressing music! Each to their own, of course, but if you are what you eat, then what does listening to miserable songs do to a person's mood?

It's a shame that any kind of optimism seems to be frowned upon these days, but give me the Ramones, instead of Leonard Cohen, any day of the week!

__________________
"If I was any more laidback, I'd be horizontal."

sadboy

I recommend Njosnavelin (nothing Song) by sigur ros prolly my top fav outta most of the songs recommended for sad as hell, be careful super sad.

Opus55

Try this one on for size; think Africa and get a box of Kleenex handy:

Harry Chapin - The Shortest Story

I am born today, the sun burns its promise in my eyes;
Mama strikes me and I draw a breath and cry.
Above me a cloud softly tumbles through the sky;
I am glad to be alive.

It is my seventh day, I taste the hunger and I cry;
my brother and sister cling to Mama's side.
She squeezes her breast, but it has nothing to provide;
someone weeps, I fall asleep.

It is twenty days today, Mama does not hold me anymore;
I open my mouth but I am too weak to cry.
Above me a bird slowly crawls across the sky;
why is there nothing now to do but die?

intellijence

A Life of Arctic Sounds by Modest Mouse....something about driving for hundreds of miles by yourself is just a depressing thing to do/think about, really.

and...
Six Days At the Bottom of the Ocean by Explosions in the Sky...it'll be more depressing while listening to the CD in its entirety, but just the song itself is quite a downer.

__________________
ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

Scrub0

Finger Eleven - Thousand Mile Wish
Fuel - Most of All
Alice in Chains - Down in a Hole, and Them Bones
Third Eye Blind - How's It Going To Be
Pearl Jam - Black
Skid Row - 18 and Life

ogra

A Pair of Brown Eyes by The Pogues
All Her Favourite Fruit by Camper Van Beethoven

Jocke

gothicgirl123

Leonard cohen-closing time
Leonard cohen-dance me to the end of love
actually...any Leonard Cohen song
Bruce Springsteen-Streets of philadelphia
Bruce Springsteen-Badlands
Bruce Springsteen-Dancing in the Dark
Bruce Springsteen- The River..
The Bangles-Manic Monday .
The Stranglers-96 tears
Queen-show must go on
Justin Hayward-Forever Autumn
Poison-every rose has its thorn

Ustwo

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__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

Zodijackyl

Bad Religion - Broken

A very upbeat song, but extremely sad.

Sticky

Are these depressing songs or songs that make you "feel"

Alot of the songs listed are not songs that make me depressed. They are songs that mak me feel. Strong feelings course through my body when listening to these songs.

I guess I don't really have any songs that depress me.
Maybe I will start a thread for songs that move you, songs that make you feel.

As far as this thread goes, I am VERY VERY surprised that no one (I just read through the whole thread) listed I don't Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats

Story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer

And if you want depressing, watch this video.

I posted this on another thread.

__________________
Sticky The Stickman

ring

Mr. Bo-Jangles.

ozahs

If I ask you - Marshall Tucker Band
Human - The Pretenders
Torch Song - Todd Rundgren
I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt
Brilliant Disguise - Springsteen
Your Latest Trick - Dire Straits
I Can't Tell You Why - Eagles
Cry to Me - Heart
The Great Gig In The Sky - Pink Floyd
With Or Without You - U2
Don't Speak - No Doubt
Cool Change - Little River Band
Ticking - Elton John
Foreigner Suite - Cat Stevens

Sampling from my "Torch Songs" Ipod playlist.

__________________
"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive"

Elegia

'Bibo No Aozora' from the soundtrack of Babel.