FROM THE ARCHIVES: I wrote this in March of 2009. As human beings, with consciousnesses like ours, I recommend keeping a pocketful of favorite “sad” songs…just in case.

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If someone else is suffering enough to write it down
When every single word makes sense
Then it’s easier to have those songs around
The kick inside is in the line that finally gets to you
and it feels so good to hurt so bad
And suffer just enough to sing the blues

-Elton John

Elton is right, as usual.  Sad songs do say so much.  I’m a sad song advocate.  I have no explanation or neat story to explain why I like them, except I’ve always found them oddly comforting.  The very best sad songs draw out the deepest emotions that make me feel real and fully alive. That feeling of being real and fully alive doesn’t happen as  much as I wish.

Sad is a broad word, though.  To narrow it a bit, I should say that I do not consider sad a synonym of depressing.  I do not like depressing songs.  Depressing songs (of the Jeff Buckley, Kurt Cobain, The Smiths variety) seem pessimistic and have less value to me. I don’t need a song to say, “Life is terrible.  It has always been terrible.  Suffer and then die.”  

Instead, I like sad songs.  Sad songs are optimistic, because they are about loss.  And to lose something you must have had something; the potential of having something is optimistic.  A sad song embraces the pain of not having something you once did. To have loved and lost…

All of that as preamble so I can count down my 10 favorite sad songs.  It’s entirely subjective and the ranking is a complex product of feelings entirely personal.  But I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and your own sad songs.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS: 

Yesterday, The Beatles

Calling All Angels, Jane Sibbery

Hear You Me, Jimmy Eat World

Dance with My Father, Luther Vandross

Missin’ You, Sister Hazel

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TEN: My Dear Old Friend, Mary Chapin Carpenter

NINE: Hide and Seek, Imogen Heap

EIGHT: Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler

SEVEN: Losing You, Randy Newman

SIX: Man of the Hour, Pearl Jam

FIVE: Walk Away, Ben Harper

And once again that rising sun is droppin’ on down
And once again, you my friend, are nowhere to be found.

FOUR: Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees
Time can break your heart, have you begging please…begging please

THREE: And So It Goes, Billy Joel

And this is why my eyes are closed
It’s just as well for all I’ve seen
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you’re the only one who knows

TWO: My Sundown, Jimmy Eat World

Good goodbye lovely time
Good goodbye tinsel shine
Good goodbye
I’ll be fine

ONE: I Shall Not Walk Alone, Blind Boys of Alabama

Beauty that we left behind
How shall we tomorrow find
Set aside our weight in sin
So that we shall live again