Saddest rock-n-roll song of all time

[Wyatt earp]

MTV played this constantly when it came out. I have a friend who cries whenever he hears Bob Seger’s “Main Street”.

Thanks

 

[Wyatt earp]

Gordon Lightfoot: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
and
Mark Dinning: Teen Angel.

 

[Dekster]

One of my favorite 80's songs albeit I learned about it originally through a punk cover

 

[ClaireH]

Gordon Lightfoot: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
and
Mark Dinning: Teen Angel.

Aww nooo..Why did she run back to the train after she and her b/f were saved? Noooo surely I have it wrong?

 

[ClaireH]

found another makes ya cry

Paired with that video it definitely made me cry. I’ve never really considered that song to be that sad until listening while watching the video depicting real life sex traffickers and child abusers. Because this video reveals the most twisted elements possible, it wins the informal sad song contest hands down.

 

[the other mike]

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Townes Van Zandt

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Drive by Truckers

 

[dblack]

Townes Van Zandt

Loves me some Townes. Saw him live a few months before he died. You could tell he was on his last leg, but the show was amazing.

 

[dblack]

Drive by Truckers

Oh hell yes. You're hitting all my favs!

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Warren Zevon

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

To rep the ladies...
Emmy Lou Harris

 

[ClaireH]

Well, seeing how the OP is allowing for songs outside rock and roll, this one was requested by my grandfather as his funeral. He loved the song and so do I. Most know that many artists have done this song with a faster tempo...this one grabs the heart a bit more..but well done by many artists.

 

[MadChemist]

 

[the other mike]

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Warren Zevon and Neil Young

 

[mamooth]

Oddly, I've seen people choose this as their wedding theme. In case anyone doesn't know, Eric Clapton is singing about the accidental death of his four-year-old son.

 

[Ringo]

I'm surprised. The third page and no one remembered the saddest songs of the greatest band... It is sad.

 

[Ringo]

Talking about a sad song outside of rock music, then one of the saddest songs that exist is probably the russian song "The enemies burned down his home"

"In the spring of 1946, at a festive government concert in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions in Kremlin, which broadcast the concert live to the entire Soviet Union, an amazing and hitherto unprecedented event happened.
In the midst of the concert, the first performance of Matvey Blanter's then unknown song "The enemies burned down his home" (then "The Song of the Soldier" based on the poem "Praskovya" by M. Isakovsky) was announced.
Famous performers Vladimir Bunchikov and Vladimir Nechaev came on stage and sang this song for the first time.
Аn eyewitness of the concert, recalls : "The reaction of the audience was strange. No applause, no whistling, no trampling, a pause, a silence, and a moan or howl - "mmmm" - of the huge hall, as if people were clenching their teeth to keep from crying. And when they announced the next actor, they could not do it - this crying, the roar of the audience. And after the third or fourth unsuccessful appearance of the announcer, who was rounded up from the stage and the audience demanded an encore for this song, it was already an uncontrollable crowd with the strongest feeling, I heard all this, I was also shaking. This has never happened before."
After that, for a long time, this song was banned from its public performance. This can be understood - every citizen of the country had too much grief and everyone wanted to heal the spiritual wounds of the people faster. Only 20 years later, this song was released on the record and became one of the most popular and memorable songs.
In the 60s, when my grandfather, a participant in the war from the first to the last day, who lost three brothers in it, was drinking and it was difficult to calm him down, my grandmother always tell to my little sister sing this song. From the first words, the grandfather usually began to cry and after that he could be sent to sleep.

I tried to translate this song into english, and rhyme it. Here is the performance of this song and below is my translation.


The nazis burnt his home to ashes,
His family they murdered there,
Where shall the soldier home from battle
Go now, to whom his sorrow bear?
The soldier went to the open wide field
Accommodate his grief and pain
And soldier found in the open wide field
Little grassy mound with no name

He stood with tears of sorrow welling
And scarcely able breath to draw
He said: "Praskovya dear, come welcome
Your hero-husband back from war.
Prepare a treat for your dear husband
Put on the table in the house
My day, my holiday of coming
to you, I celebrate, my spouse."

But in reply there came no answer,
No welcome for the soldier brave.
Only a breeze that way came glancing
And stirred the grass upon the grave...
He paused a while, his belt he strengthened,
And, from the kitbag at his side
A flask of bitter vodka taking,
He placed it on her grave and sighed.

"My dear Praskovya, don't be judgeful
For visit in this joyless state
I come back home to be triumphal
But have to mourn, not celebrate.
The couples will be soon united
But we will never meet again."
And soldier drank with soul benighted
The vodka mixed half with a pain

A soldier, veteran, was drinking
And speaking with heartache, he say:
"Four years about you I was thinking,
Defeat three countries on my way"
The soldier drank and wept for many
A broken dreams, while on his chest
There shone a newly-minted medal
For liberating Budapest...

 

[the other mike]

Rest in peace 'the professor'.