Sad Songs For Sad Times

As I sit here in Olympia, Washington, watching the rain fall during what is now a thirty-hour rainstorm, my mind drifts to sad songs from the past. Welcome to the mind of an alcoholic! No, I’m not sad, but that’s where my mind naturally went as I watched the puddles forming into ponds in the backyard.

So why not write about those songs? Maybe you will enjoy these timeless classics; hopefully you will not slip into a depression from which you can’t return. So sit back, give it a read and pass the time with this rain-soaked writer.

This one is probably my favorite drinking song and believe me when I tell you I know a whole bunch of drinking songs. Travis Tritt delivers a perfect message to anyone suffering from the breakup with a lost love. Is there anyone out there who can’t relate to the feelings portrayed in this great tune? Sitting in a dark tavern soaking up the tragic beauty of old memories of loving and losing; it just doesn’t get any more miserable than that!

Sarah McLachlan delivers a song that will make me cry each and every time I hear it. This song was played at the funeral of my fiancé in 1997 and fifteen years later I can still feel the depths of depression when I hear this song. I think I’ll let you listen to it while I go have lunch.

In truth this is what music should be all about. This lady, with the voice of an angel, delivers a song so beautiful, so powerful, so perfectly presented that she grabs you in the guts and wrings out every ounce of emotion inside of you.

Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss deliver a haunting melody about alcoholic deaths. These two artists are perfect together in the tale of a tragic love affair that was destined for the ultimate failure. There is great sadness in this song and rightfully so considering the subject matter, but lesser performers could never have made it sound this good.

Many of you may not have heard this great song by the artist who gave us “American Pie” but in its own way it is every bit a classic. Was there a creative genius more tragic than Van Gogh? If there was I don’t want to meet them….or maybe I do! McLean did his best work in this rarely heard song.

The Beatles gave us this dire look at the feelings associated with futility in life. Eleanor was buried along with her name and nobody bothered to show up at her funeral. What a classic look at the lonely people around us. Hard to believe that the boys who gave us “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” could switch gears so smoothly and hand us such poetic beauty.

Oh my goodness! Eric Clapton loses his son tragically then writes a damn song about it. How’s that for setting the stage for instant tears? “Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven”? Yep, instant tears while listening to this one.

Gilbert O’Sullivan, he of the one hit and gone variety, pretty well summed up what it feels like to be a dweeb, a nerd and alone. Heck, he even looks like a dweeb and a nerd, so this song was perfect for him….and for me. There was a time when I knew every word of this song and sang it with such conviction, for I knew exactly what he was talking about.

Well I certainly do! Maybe I shouldn’t have written this while Bev was gone and I was feeling lonely. The nice thing about coming back from the brink of death, as I did, is that I can now listen to songs like these and NOT get depressed. I can just listen to them and enjoy the music; yes, I may still get emotional when I hear them but it is a good set of emotions rather than a dark set of emotion and that, my friends, is a huge victory for this man.

2012 Bill Holland (aka billybuc)