While reading Alabaster Crippin’s post about You Are My Sunshine being the most depressing song ever it reminded me of this Grauniad article I read awhile ago (quite awhile ago as it turns out) in which Tom Reynolds, author of I Hate Myself and Want to Die, offers his top 25 miserable tracks.
It’s hard to tell at times if he is talking about songs that are depressing because they make you feel sad or because they are so bloody awful.
Do you agree with his list? Got any more you’d like to add?
casa azahar 
You ask me, some of these are only depressing because they are so damn awful.
All by myself? Screw that in the ear…it’s just painfully bad. Same goes for The Rose.
Currently, the one that’s been making me feel sad the most (as I said) is the Townes Van Zandt version of Dead Flowers from the Big Lebowski soundtrack.
Now that is a really sad song.
See also the Schneider TM cover of The Light by the Smiths (hard to find…ask me nicely and I’ll e-mail you an mp3) and a song by Squarepusher called My Sound. No lyrics…it just makes me so damn sad every time. Really beautiful bass guitar lamentations.
Having said that, I think plenty of people could disagree with me. That list over there though…most of the ones I’ve heard I disagree with, though points definitely go to Hurt and Strange Fruit.
That’s what I have to say.
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I find that Christmas carols are infinitely depressing. There’s that dismal thing about the Little Drummer Boy, another horror about David’s City, and any more of the sort. Ghastly dirges.
‘Jingle Bells’ is depressing too, but that’s because I usually hear it in shops when it’s 40C outside. ‘Dashing through the snow…’ Aargh.
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My, the author of that article thought s/he was so clever! 😛
That said, can I just take a moment here, and nominate Elvis’ “In the Ghetto”? If there was ever an overdone and ruthlessly maudlin song, that’s it…
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The version by Nick Cave is even worse…
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Try listening to Tim Rose’s “Come Away, Melinda”.
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Anything by Nick Cave is pretty suicide-inducing. But what about that maudlin and horrible “Daddy don’t you walk so fast” from like 1970? Oh god. My parents were separating and they played that endlessly at each other.
But these allege to be 10 songs for your final 10 seconds:
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Oh, and worst song of all time? “I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me”.
No. Question.
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I took two of my kidlets (well they were then) to Disneyland many years ago and they insisted we ride the *It’s a Small World After All* boat trip, which lasts somewhere between 20 minutes and 40 millenia. After smashing my thumb repeatedly with a convenient rock near the exit, pulling out handfuls of hair and buying a vise into which I placed my testicles I managed to remove the ear worm. THAT is the world’s worst song.
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Oh, and saddest? A tie between Randy Newman’s *One More Hour*, Tom Waits *Blue Valentine* and Harry Nilsson’s *Lifeline*,
Or maybe just Nilsson’s *Without You* is both the worst and the saddest. 😀
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Definitely. “Without You”.
“It’s a Small World After All” should be registered as a lethal weapon. I won’t even walk within earshot of that ride!
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I love Nilsson’s ‘Without You’, but the Celine Dion version makes me go gaaaaa!!!.
As far as the worst song, I have to agree with raincoaster about the ‘I’ve Been To Paradise’ anti-abortion piece of shit – truly vile stuff.
Oh, and zoomer, you should thank your lucky stars that you are happily about 5,000 miles away from me so I can’t murdalize you for that horrible fucking earworm, as I’m sure the urge is going to hit anytime now…
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Leonard Cohen yet (in terms of depressingly sad, not depressingly bad).
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A little bit after I posted above, I was bombarded with another contender — “The Way We Were”… I guess you could call it the liberal’s lament. 🙄
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Run, Noggin, run! I’ll keep her busy-
La, la, la, la, LA, la, la……
😛
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