I'm kind of surprised no one's mentioned Star Dusting. I honestly can't even listen to that song most of the time because I find it so overpowering.

Deuteronomy 2:10 slays me every time. Live and on record.

Also,
Cotton
Ezekiel 7 and the permanent...
Maize stalk...
And im not sure why but Snow Owl

"But we crank up the heat/ And you giggle and moan/ Spend all night in the company of ghosts/ Always wake up alone" from Moon Over Goldsboro gets me every time.

I completely agree with what everyone else said. I'm kind of amazed that of all tMG songs, these are exactly the ones I think of also. For me in particular:
Snow Crush Killing Song (Haven't been able to listen to that one in many many months)
Woke Up New


I also really agree with the post that M.ninehouser posted years ago:

Quote
m.ninehouser
there is a line or two in 'broom people' that upsets me sickeningly.

Broom people is always a really hard song for me to listen to. It's not just the words. I has a lot to do with the music and the mood it sets.

Without a shadow of a doubt ... it has to be Moon Over Goldsboro ... 'until the vision was too vivid to bear'

Outer Scorpion Squadron
Dinu Lipatti's Bones
Poltergeist
Tyler Lambert's Grave
Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod
How To Embrace a Swamp Creature
Riches and Wonders

These songs all seem to destroy me emotionally.

"And I can't stand the way my body still remembers
how much we used to mean to one another way back when.
And I can't stand going back to seek the shelter of your arms.
And then I can't stand it again."

Cobscook Bay, Store, and Woke Up New all tend to get me. But I feel like they all have a touch of hope. Or at least a promise of something next.

Personally, the saddest song I can think of is Seed Song. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. The actual chord progression isn't sad at all but man, that song is bleak.

Right now, Cotton. "This song is for the people/who tell their families that they're sorry/for things they can't and won't feel sorry for." man oh man.

Actually just about every song on We Shall All Be Healed.

Actually, I sort of read almost every song as unbearably sad, so really it's just a matter of which song is playing in my head on a given day.

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a million faces at my feet & all I see are dark eyes

Far too broad of a question for me, I think. There are songs that are very sad in different ways. Plus, trying to consider the whole catalogue like this is just killing me. There are lots of good suggestions for candidates here. I'm going to answer a much more narrow question:

I think the song that struck me as being truly the saddest on the latest studio album, All Eternals Deck, is "Outer Scorpion Squadron". I will grant that its one of the songs I understand least on the album. I also think that it happens to end on a sorta resolved and strong note that while sad leaves place for comfort, but when I hear that comfort seems so terribly needed in the desperation, weakness, and vulnerability that this song leaves me with, it feels especially sad.

A few stand outs:

Attention All Pickpockets strikes me as sadder than much of We Shall All Be Healed, since it's less intense and since the narrator seems to have moved on. I think it works perfectly as an addendum to that record. "The cornet blows where the oleander grows." Endings and beginnings. Shit changes, the result being: "And us too, not the same people that our old friends knew." Even those who seem to have escaped relatively unscathed lost a whole lot. The line that kills me is "I hope they've got plenty of money where you're going." I read that as the narrator not wanting this person to suffer through withdrawal. His love for his old friend who he can't save is heartbreaking.

Bluejays and Cardinals sneaks the fuck up on you. After all this of subtle, mysterious addressing of death on The Coroner's Gambit, we have someone mourning a friend by way of halfheartedly celebrating their escape from their suffering. "This world couldn't hold you / You slipped free."

Most of the Life of the World to Come is incredibly sad to me, but Deuteronomy takes the cake. Hebrews and John at least leave some opportunity for redemption through resilience and love. Philippians and Matthew, as brutal as they are, have survivors mourning their loved ones. Deuteronomy is a real ending. "I'm all alone here as I try my tiny song / Claim my place beneath the sky, but I won't be here for long / I sang all night, the moon shone on my through the trees / No brothers left, and there'll be no more after me." Beautiful things are gone and are not coming back.

emotionbarf
Happy Holidays errbody



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2011 10:39AM by caradoc.

For Charles Bronson, because I had an uncle who was like that ("tough guy" who was worn down by illness and ageing more than he wanted to let on) he never had PTSD though.

Broom People and Mole always get me a bit misty eyed.

I don't get calling Cold Milk Bottle or Attention All Pickpockets "sad" though. The guy in Cold Milk Bottle sounds totally pissed off if anything.

I don't think this question can easily be answered. A lot of the songs seem like they're in a sad contest with the others.

Matthew 25:21 made me cry a couple times, though. So that one stands out for me I guess.

Quote
MisterNormal
I don't get calling Cold Milk Bottle or Attention All Pickpockets "sad" though. The guy in Cold Milk Bottle sounds totally pissed off if anything.

Anger and sorrow are best friends.

---

I make videos for the interwebs. Click to taste the insanity.
My band has a Facebook. This is the link.

As has been said, the majority of TLOTWTC is devastating. Matthew 25:21 and especially Isaiah 45:21 really get to me. Bluejays and Cardinals and Song for My Stepfather are up there, too. Love Love Love would make my list as well, especially in the context of that Moral Orel episode. I'm too lazy to look up the title, but it's the one with Ol' Gunny. Season 3.

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Mercy for the Diaz Brothers!

Oh yeah, and Lion's Teeth. Can't believe I overlooked that one. Most of The Sunset Tree, really. The last verse of Dance Music is as bleak as it gets.

Quote
JD - "Dance Music"
Okay, so I'm seventeen years old
and you're the last best thing I've got going
But then the special secret sickness
starts to eat through you
What am I supposed to do?
No way of knowing
so I follow you down your twisting alleyways
Find a few cul-de-sacs of my own
There's only one place this road ever ends up
and I don't want to die alone

---

Mercy for the Diaz Brothers!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2012 10:21PM by Alpha Puppington.

Gotta be Pale green things

Quote
Malexi
I don't think this question can easily be answered. A lot of the songs seem like they're in a sad contest with the others.

Matthew 25:21 made me cry a couple times, though. So that one stands out for me I guess.

that one is the one that makes me cry most consistently these days. i went to read the lyrics to make sure i was thinking the right song and it made me tear up just reading the last two lines. but really so many

Thanks to everyone's lists I now have some new favourite songs, so thanks for sharing.

These are mine:

The Mess Inside

You were cool (as “You Were Cool w/long intro” on youtube)

Matthew 25:21 (from The Life of the World to Come DVD on youtube)

The Last Day Of Jimi Hendrix’s Life

Maybe Sprout Wings (AOL on youtube)

I'm sure there are plenty of other, but for me, due to timing & circumstances some of you will be aware of, it'll always be Matthew 25:21 and 1 John 4:16 for me.

---

"You know it is, it really is."

haiku for no children
i think it's an answer to a question
are you adults
no, children


(yes, i am a haiku master now
see how very well
i do it)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2012 11:53AM by mike10k.

I'm going out on a limb here and saying "Golden Boy." After hearing john talk about the song and why he wrote it and how no one realizes it's about suicide it's really quite tragic on a level none of these other songs can reach. Especially since some one always screams "Golden Boy" at a concert, that has to be painful for john.
The Swedish American hall version is so powerful! I love it. Honestly it made me cry.

Do you remember where he said it was about suicide? I never really tried to figure out that song.

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I've got big plans. ◊ Talking Blanket ◊ Yay, Butts! LOL!

I find 'In Corolla' to be one of the saddest tMG songs to me. Maybe it's because I worked in a salt marsh for a couple of months and so the imagery becomes really vivid to me as he sings. The quietness of the song and the quietness of the suicide he describes really gets to me on a level I sometimes can't handle.

Quote
dollabill
Do you remember where he said it was about suicide? I never really tried to figure out that song.

[www.youtube.com]
Skip to 1 hr 4 min. He Starts his Goldenboy rant.

you must try to lead a good life
because the alternative is no golden boy peanuts for you down in hell
you'll get some generic brand that is lacking somehow
so go!

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clams on the half shell and roller skates; roller skates.