BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Songs that make you cry

**Posted by Ivy** December 7, 2014 3:34 pm

Everyone has songs that make them cry or teary-eyed because of the lyrics or the melody.

For example, for me it is "Nightswimmg" by REM, that melody gets me every time for some reason.

Or the song "Philadelphia" by Neil Young, he wrote it for the film "Philadelphia". OMG
The song is played when Andy (Tom Hanks) has died and all of his family and friends meet and watch old home videos of him as a child.

**Posted by tonnaree** December 7, 2014 4:01 pm

There's not enough room on the internet for all the songs that make me cry.

**Posted by Harriet** December 7, 2014 4:13 pm

Laurie Anderson - Strange Angels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYQ-Al7ijk4

**Posted by MartaSt** December 7, 2014 6:33 pm

Always makes me sad

Evanescence - My immortal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anLPw0Efmo

**Posted by SusiGo** December 7, 2014 6:53 pm

Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aRKZFR5imM&spfreload=10

**Posted by maryagrawatson** December 7, 2014 6:56 pm

Just about anything by Canadian singer Sarah MacLachlan. Arms of the Angel especially. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SiylvmFI_8 Also, Possession. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itydwcyywBc

If you're not depressed, just about anything by MacLachlan is guaranteed to make you suicidal. She has such a beautiful voice, but her songs tend to be so dark and depressing!

Mary

**Posted by tonnaree** December 7, 2014 10:34 pm

maryagrawatson wrote:
Just about anything by Canadian singer Sarah MacLachlan. Arms of the Angel especially. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SiylvmFI_8 Also, Possession. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itydwcyywBc

If you're not depressed, just about anything by MacLachlan is guaranteed to make you suicidal. She has such a beautiful voice, but her songs tend to be so dark and depressing!

Mary

Oh I love Sarah, but yes, she will cut you deep. I sang "I Will Remember You" at my mom's graveside service and haven't been able to listen to it again since.

A new one that rips me to pieces is "Afire with Love" by Ed Sheeren from his latest CD. It's so beautiful but it hurts so much.

**Posted by nakahara** December 7, 2014 11:01 pm

Almost every song of the French singer Mylene Farmer is able to cast you into a clinical depression. But this song takes the cake both for the melancholy and for the beauty. She describes a suicide of a loved one in it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCu3H-hymk8

Si J'avais Au Moins Revu Ton Visage (If I only saw your face again)

Qui n’a connu / He who never knew
Douleur immense / immense pain
N’aura qu’un aperçu / would never have more but a draft
Du temps / of time -
L’aiguille lente / that needle that stabs slowly…
Qu’il neige ou vente / No matter if it snows or rains,
L’omniprésente / that which is omnipresent
Souligne ton absence / only underlines your absence
Partout / everywhere.

Qui n’a connu / He who never knew
L’instable règne / unstable reign,
Qui n’a perdu / he who never went through a loss -
Ne sait la peine / he doesn´t know sorrow
Plus de réserve, du tout / without reserves, at all,
Ni dieu, ni haine, s’en fout / nor God, nor hatred, it doesn´t matter…
Plus de superbe, j’ai tout / I more and more gain everything
D’une peine… / just from the sorrows…
Un enténèbrement / from falling into darkness.

Si j’avais au moins revu ton visage / If I only saw your face again,
Entrevu au loin le moindre nuage / could glimpse the beginning of clouds far away…
Mais c’est à ceux qui se lèvent / But this belong only to those who raise themselves
Qu’on somme « d’espoir » / when one summons hope
Dont on dit qu’ils saignent / which is mentioned when one bleeds…
Sans un au revoir, de croire / To believe, without saying „goodbye“.

Et moi pourquoi j’existe quand l’autre dit je meurs / And me, why do I exist when the others say I´m dying?
Pourquoi plus rien n’agite ton cœur … / Why nothing more troubles your heart…?

Tous mes démons / All of my demons
Les plus hostiles / most hostile
Brisent les voix / break off the voice,
Les plus fragiles / the most fragile
De tous mes anges / of my angels
Les plus dévoués / are the most devout….
Et moi l’étrange paumée / And I, the strange wreck,
Fiancée à l’enténèbrement… / I´m betrothed to the darkness.

Si j’avais au moins revu ton visage / If I only saw your face again,
Entrevu au loin le moindre nuage / could glimpse the beginning of clouds far away…
Mais c’est à ceux qui se lèvent / But this belong only to those who raise themselves
Qu’on somme « d’espoir » / when one summons hope
Dont on dit qu’ils saignent / which is mentioned when one bleeds…
Sans un au revoir, de croire / To believe, without saying „goodbye“.

Et moi pourquoi j’existe quand l’autre dit je meurs / And me, why do I exist when the others say I´m dying?
Pourquoi plus rien n’agite ton cœur … / Why nothing more troubles your heart…?

Last edited by nakahara (December 7, 2014 11:10 pm)

**Posted by maryagrawatson** December 7, 2014 11:13 pm

tonnaree wrote:
Oh I love Sarah, but yes, she will cut you deep. I sang "I Will Remember You" at my mom's graveside service and haven't been able to listen to it again since.

That was the last song my ex-fiancé and I danced to after we agreed to go our separate ways some months after his brother's suicide. I haven't sat through it since that night. You're not the only person I know for whom that song marks a profound emotional moment. I'm sorry for your loss.

Mary

**Posted by This Is The Phantom Lady** December 8, 2014 1:17 am

Lots and lots of songs can make me cry... even songs that seem unlikely

My guy has a habit of finding songs that seem to be exactly about me, and they always make me weep... it's so strange.

I remember a few songs that has made me cry like a baby the first time I heard them and they still make me sob.

'Father In You' by Mary J. Blige... (I never knew my father and at the time I heard it I was having a really hard time with it)

'F*cking Perfect' by P!nk (practically the video is my life's story)
(I won't post the video as it may be triggering...)

'Beam Me Up' by P!nk (I heard it when dealing with a lot of deaths)

Pink has always had an ability to tell my story... it's so strange...

Don't Jump' by Tokio Hotel (from my depressed Emo teen days...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTwYdiuQa34

Last edited by This Is The Phantom Lady (December 8, 2014 1:18 am)

**Posted by Russell** December 8, 2014 8:14 am

Oh, no kidding on the McLachlan and R.E.M. swirling you up! Ditto on Sarah's "Angel" and R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts". So many songs that very deeply nudge or can feel the weight of beautiful melancholy with (especially various instrumental/classical pieces), ooh.. and can't forget Whitney's "I Will Always Love You" for feels like that, but not too many I've actually teared up for, and very much correspond to mood or a moment of the time.

I'd like to throw in "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls, "Crash and Burn" and "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden, "I'll Be Okay" by Amanda Marshall, and "Don't Cry" by Seal (yes, the irony ;D)

**Posted by SolarSystem** December 8, 2014 8:17 am

Ivy, "Nightswimming" is wonderful...!

And like most of you have already said, there are far too many songs out there that can make me cry in an instant.
A pretty obvious choice probably is Coldplay's "Fix you".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbJuEFs7-kU

And lots of songs by "Elbow", like for example these two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdqToKw2ueE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipaDJq7XCSM

**Posted by Ivy** December 8, 2014 9:08 am

MartaSt wrote:
Always makes me sad

Evanescence - My immortal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anLPw0Efmo

oh yes, especially the unplugged version

SolarSystem wrote:
A pretty obvious choice probably is Coldplay's "Fix you".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbJuEFs7-kU

Absolutely, I love the live version when all the fans sing the last line "Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones and i will try to fix you"

This Is The Phantom Lady wrote:
'F*cking Perfect' by P!nk (practically the video is my life's story)
Pink has always had an ability to tell my story... it's so strange...

P!NK is a great songwriter and a very honest one, I like "F***ing Perfect a lot, too.

**Posted by tonnaree** December 8, 2014 4:31 pm

I have to agree with Russsel on "Iris." That song connects me to a deeply emotional period in mh life and it always gets me. Saw GooGoo Dolls live last year and I ended up on the grass at the venue just sobbing. Good think it was dark.

**Posted by gently69** December 8, 2014 5:27 pm

It's certainly stupid but because it's the time now.
"Do they know it's Christmas?" the original version, I have to swallow when it comes to this line."And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life". Always.

**Posted by Ivy** December 8, 2014 5:42 pm

I love "Do they know it's christmas" too, gently (the original version) Also a great line is "Well, tonight, thank God it's them instead of you" or "There's a world outside your window, and it's a world of dread and fear "

**Posted by besleybean** December 8, 2014 5:42 pm

Snow Patrol...Run.
Mainly because it was what was played on Radio 1 after it was announced John Peel had died

**Posted by This Is The Phantom Lady** December 8, 2014 7:09 pm

I have to agree about 'Iris'

And 'Wild World' by Cat Stevens

Last edited by This Is The Phantom Lady (December 8, 2014 7:11 pm)

**Posted by Russell** December 8, 2014 7:55 pm

tonnaree - Yes. Admit at first felt awkward, but with some amusement, to reflect that I see these 'sad' songs listed that fit the bill in a classically 'soft/sad tune' kind of way… and racking my brain for ones that teared me up, they're all more… not 'bouncy', but strongly rhythmic or 'loud'? Heh. It's the melancholy and depth of emotion the song speaks about, plus the pulse of it, that gets me more… 'Iris' really hits that, doesn't it?
Although the same can be said for some deeply beautiful instrumental… I remember thinking it was sweet my pianist friend said Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 always makes her cry. It really is beautiful, if you haven't heard it. Which also reminds me of the feels I always get with a similar swell of notes in 'Le Halelela', a song inspired by the Lion King (and a version of it is in the musical) --

**Posted by tonnaree** December 8, 2014 7:58 pm

Russell wrote:
tonnaree - Yes. Admit at first felt awkward, but with some amusement, to reflect that I see these 'sad' songs listed that fit the bill in a classically 'soft/sad tune' kind of way… and racking my brain for ones that teared me up, they're all more… not 'bouncy', but strongly rhythmic or 'loud'? Heh. It's the melancholy and depth of emotion the song speaks about, plus the pulse of it, that gets me more… 'Iris' really hits that, doesn't it?
Although the same can be said for some deeply beautiful instrumental… I remember thinking it was sweet my pianist friend said Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 always makes her cry. It really is beautiful, if you haven't heard it. Which also reminds me of the feels I always get with a similar swell of notes in 'Le Halelela', a song inspired by the Lion King (and a version of it is in the musical) --

All true Russell. It's not necessarily the lyrics that make you cry. There is a very happy song from my childhood that makes me cry now because it reminds me of things that are lost and can never be found again.

If Adagio for Strings doesn't make you cry you are not human.