The Most Depressing Songs Of All Time

I was lucky enough to have a great experience yesterday performing with my son at Unity Village Chapel in Lees Summit, MO. We did an instrumental version of the song “America, The Beautiful”. The quiet reflective way that it was performed received for us a standing ovation. My son’s last note not only pierced the air but pierced the hearts of every soul in the place. For me it was the added joy of seeing my son being praised and well received after his hours and hours of hard work and practice.

But music has dark side. And for a few weeks now I have thought about some songs that bring out the sadness in us. Why, you asked? Well it all started with me being perplexed by what I call one of the most interesting #1 songs of all time. It has one of the most beautiful melodies that I could hum all day, but yet its message wants to make you run to the kitchen and grab the butcher knife and just end it all. It is none other than Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again Naturally.”

From a musical standpoint, the melody is as interesting to me as anything Jimmy Webb ever wrote (whom I love by the way). Jimmy wrote a lot of the Glen Campbell hits; “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”, “Wichita Linemen” and others and some of his songs could be on the short list of most depressing songs, but they fall miserably behind Gilbert. 

Alone Again Naturally starts out with the idea that I might as well just go kill myself. I just got stood up at my wedding. So I’m going to go to a nearby tower and throw myself off!  You know life sucks and now looking back at it, it has ALWAYS sucked! And I’m alone again! NATURALLY!

The chorus reads:

“It seems to me that there are more hearts

 broken in the world that can’t be mended

left unattended

What do we do? What do we do?"

Well you don’t kill yourself cowboy! Get some counseling, seek some therapy, or talk to a priest. If all else fails, go out and just get shitfaced drunk. The Tower, NOT such a good idea.

But alas, Gilbert is not as “ALONE” as he may think. There are a few other songs making my short list of “Woe is me” songs!

#2 - “The Diary” by Bread – It is another beautiful melody whose subject realizes that his love is in love with someone else. Of course she was probably super pissed at him that he infringed upon her privacy and read about her inner most thoughts. Maybe his insecurity was a way of pushing her toward a REAL man that didn’t have such deep insecurity issues. Message to subject: Grow some balls, stop being an insecure wimp and STOP reading other people’s private stuff!

#3- “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro. Now this song came out in 1968. I was 4 at the time. I remember literally crying when I heard this song. Any song that makes a 4 year old cry has got to make some kind of list. It does make #1 on my most sappy love songs of all time.

#4 - “Angie” – by the Rolling Stones – Gotta throw a rock ballad on this top 5 list. Two lovers who have exhausted all they had on each other only to see all their “dreams go up in smoke”. But darn it, we tried girl and I’m done now. I can’t give you another ounce of my life.

#5 - “The Last Time I Saw Her Face” – by Gordon Lightfoot. – Although this song makes my top 5, it has my full respect as a songwriter. This song possesses some of the most beautiful lyrics ever written. It is composed in such a way that you feel you are there on the scene, taking notes on what is going on. It also pulls off something that I love as a songwriter, that being the verses do not rhyme. The melody is equally as beautiful and although I love Gordon’s version of the song, it is Glen Cambell’s version of the song that is just so unbelievable. 

I consider this song Gordon’s greatest work, and THAT is saying something from the guy who gave us “If You Could Read My Mind”, “Rainy Day People” and “The Wreck Of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. Lyrically it is one of the finest songs ever written. The words are so beautiful they are worth sharing in entirety:

"The last time I saw her face,
her eyes were bathed in starlight and her hair hung long
The last time she spoke to me,
her lips were like the scented flowers inside a rain-drenched forest
But that was so long ago that I can scarcely feel the way I felt before
And if time could heal the wounds, I would tear the threads away that I might bleed some more

The last time I walked with her
Her laughter was the steeple bells That ring to greet the morning sun
A voice that called to everyone To love the ground she walked upon
Those were good days

The last time I held her hand,
her touch was autumn, spring and summer, and winter too
The last time I let go of her,
she walked a way into the night I lost her in the misty streets,
a thousand months, a thousand miles
When other lips will kiss her eyes
A million miles beyond the moon, that's where she is

The last time she kissed my cheek
Her lips were like the wilted leaves Upon the autumn covered hills
Resting on the frozen ground The seeds of love lie cold and still
Beneath a battered marking stone It lies forgotten "

In closing, Let it be known that I love all these songs and have listened to them thousands of times and I thank the hands that wrote them.

What are some songs that you find depressing?

Write about it in the comments section below.