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Depressing sounding songs

"Without You," co-written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger, both of whom took their own lives over legal and financial issues ... primarily concerning "Without You."

Later very successfully covered, of course, by Harry Nilsson.

C.

P.S. I like "Honey," but I'm among the few. :)
 
cingram said:
"Without You," co-written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger, both of whom took their own lives over legal and financial issues ... primarily concerning "Without You."

Later very successfully covered, of course, by Harry Nilsson.
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Badfinger had a lot of bad luck. They got a raw deal from the Beatles Apple record label and other mismanagement.

John Lennon's song "Mother" is another bleak, but emotionally powerful track...
 
Lester_the_NightFly said:
Sorry, this has to be the saddest
Tim McGraw - Don't Take the Girl
Offical video
Damn, country music anyways... Shoot.
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Patty Loveless, "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye."
Luke Combs, "Even Though I'm Leaving"
Cal Smith, "Country Bumpkin"
All of them end the way "Don't Take the Girl" ends -- a loved one dies. There must be dozens more out there. Nashville songwriters have never been reluctant to recycle a theme.
 
seatownmedia said:
For those under 30 this is referencing Casey Kasem infamous out take on the syndicated American Top 40, as others have alluded to here. Just search Casey Kasem death dedication. Absolutely radio gold!
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I cleaned it up quite a bit for the post!

I never met anyone in radio who didn’t cuss like a sailor off air. The mental switch gets flipped when that On Air light comes on.
 
Well I worked in contemporary radio for 40 years. Never sweared. I think this was a consistent manager directive but many jocks tested the limits. And why not? I remember you could use non profane slang but remember getting some frisky comments out but nobody complained. Knowing how far you could go was essential. Not a difficult conceptual rule. I remember a major Seattle market PD told me to stop saying the word “sucks”. But it probably came from the older GM, not the PD. Language perceptions change over over decades
 
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CTListener said:
Cal Smith, "Country Bumpkin"
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Sure, the wife dies, but only after 45 years of "raptured wonder." And combined with the upbeat Nashville Sound of this record, I've mostly seen it as a celebration of a life well lived.

Another dip into the "couple shares a benediction on their deathbed" well: Merle Haggard's last charting single, "In My Next Life"
 
vchimpanzee said:
I didn't know anything else about him (Casey Kasem).
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And that lack of knowledge made this your default attitude about him?

Samuel L. Jackson can curse like that but not our beloved Casey.
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Newsflash: We're all human. I've never heard Samuel L. Jackson curse except when he's acting in a script written by someone else (but he probably does).

The fact that Casey Kasem didn't swear on American Top 40 tells you only that Watermark and Casey found it to be good business to adhere to the FCC rules and regs.

And now I really want to hear Samuel L. Jackson host AT MF 40.
 
"Tears In Heaven" by Eric Clapton on the death of his 4 year-old son.

"Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd about Syd Barrett's mental health issues.
 
"Who's That Man?" by Toby Keith didn't bother me when it was new. It's really depressing listening to it today.

As some others have mentioned, a fair number of upbeat songs are actually quite depressing. "Jack and Diane" by John Cougar Mellencamp is a huge one to me. The idea that the best years of your life would be the teen years drove a couple kids I knew to suicide when I was growing up, and there's that theme in an upbeat ballad.
 
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