Oddly, I nearly always well up during the chorus of "Manchild" by Neneh Cherry. I had it explained to me once, it's something slightly complicated to do with the harmonies. But it's also, she sings with empathy, not harshness. "Look at the state you're in" is not an angry thing to say.
She's singing from the position of a wise woman (and singing for all women, in a way, in that we all know men who are like this), trying to speak kindly to a young idiot man, whilst telling him some home truthes.
And the harmonies make me well up.
(There are mannnny other songs, of course).
I have an odd feeling I posted a note up after a Guardian Q&A with her, and someone answered me there. It would be funny if that turned out to be Rhodri.
Found it. Not as complex as I remembered the reply to be, but interesting:
"The chorus has a strong melody but it also gains strength from its more "natural" timing, while the verses act to knock you off balance (I think because they have alternate bars in a different time (e.g. 5/4 to 7/4) )."
So many! But these three stand out:
Red Dirt Girl by Emmylou Harris (sad story of broken dreams)
Sand and Water by Beth Nielsen Chapman (grief for her late husband)
And this one by Yebba, written for her late mother: https://youtu.be/A9-MMCLUHok?si=dsh8hb_I6tLtUeRV
Faure's requiem, esp Lux Aeterna
Do What You Gotta Do by Nina Simone, that 'I've loved you better than your own kin' line is just a wail of pain and it gets me every time.
Kae Tempest - People's Faces
Talk Talk - New Grass
Billy Bragg - Tank Park Salute
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Distant Sky
Armand Hammer - Doves
Lisa O'Neill - Old Note
PremRock - Receipts ft. billy woods prod. by Controller 7
I was an easy mark during lockdown. The Unthanks were in an episode of Worzel Gummidge with Mackenzie Crook. Vanessa Redgrave sang a sea shanty composed by them. I was a mess.
Skipinnish: Piper til the End. My beloved stepdad has played and taught pipes his whole life. Now he has dementia and is really struggling with it. Sets me off every time.
Practically all of Atomos by A Winged Victory for the Sullen, same with Mondkopf Last Days on Earth. Along the River, and in all honesty nearly everything else by Abul Mogard.
Eddie Reader - Footsteps Fall
Magnetic Fields - Busby Berkley Dreams
The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
Abba - Slipping Through My Fingers
Richard & Linda Thompson - The Dimming of the Day
'The Gash', Flaming Lips. Somehow manages to be bleak and utterly inspiring at the same time. Absolutely recommended; at the right moment it can be a real tonic
I think I ll give it a miss but thanks for the heads up. My son is fine btw and a strapping 6ft 3in crime scene investigator but the night when he was 18 month old is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone
There is an beautiful poem by Don Paterson, The Thread, about his son who almost died as he was born.
I once read it aloud to a class and had to leave the room because I started to cry.
And I've not been through what you have.
Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce. Meets the criteria without any background or context, but if you then discover his fate so soon afterwards, it is almost unbearable.
I think Hazel Wilde is my favourite songwriter, nobody combines vulnerability, hope, and defiance so well. Lanterns are such an important band in my life.
Kid you must have not heard the 'bogies' version. 'We had joy, we had fun, picking bogies in the sun, but the sun was too hot, so they all turned into snot'.
Moulettes used to play a live song, long ago, called Scour All This Land which ripped me in two every time. But I haven’t been able to find the cd I had it on for a long time so haven’t heard it in some years. Even the memory of it moves me. „And I’d be ecstatic, of only I deserved it“ kills me.
I’ll Be Seeing You, Billie Holiday
Long December, Counting Crows
Learn to Fly, Foo Fighters
Sand Castles, Beyoncé
Almost Lover, A Fine Frenzy
Used to be Mine, Sara Bareilles
Long and Winding Road, Beatles
Praying, Kesha
The Lucky One, Allison Krauss & Union Station
Not Ready to Make Nice, The Chicks
Well Spiritualized's "Broken Heart" already got mentioned, so I'll add The Irresistible Force mix of Coldcut's "Autumn Leaves" to the list of tracks to check out.
Days before their scheduled time in the studio, band member Dave was killed in a family annihilation. They wrote this song in studio to work in their grief. Not only is it touching, but it says more by being a departure of their usual style.
Did my wording make it sound like Dave was the annihilator? I hope not. He was a professional musician and good guy, likely living at home so he didn’t have to worry about home while on the road.
He’s just not the picture you think of when you think of this IPV. But adult children, if at home…
Bill is dead. The Fall
How does the story go? Sprints. Lost my best friend to cancer a couple of years ago, we saw them in Bedford and he was the only fucker in the place who wasn't doing fine.
Keep Me In Your Heart, Warren Zevon. It would be lovely without a backstory, but he wrote it while dying of cancer.
"Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath;
Keep me in your heart for a while.
If I leave you, it doesn't mean I love you any less.
Keep me in your heart for a while."
Although I always loved the song in a "don't know the words don't want to, it's Cocteaus" way, when I learned what the Roy Harper words were it became almost unbearable for a few years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiV3r_xYFMM
Somehow, I'd never heard it until about 5 years ago. My father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's & Parkinsons the year before. It came on the radio, and I blubbed so hard.
Now I do every time, especially as my dad passed last year.
Ah, yes, this one gets me every time. June Tabor's version in particular.
"Come down, your majesty..." I can't even think of that line without welling up.
I came to the museum and completely missed him. It was only after we left that my girlfriend said she’d seen a pigeon called the King of Rome with no idea who it was. I was gutted!
Oh, that’s frustrating.
The one thing I never fully understood was whether Charlie Hudson named it The King of Rome *after* it one the race, or whether he named it that beforehand, which seems a little too prescient.
The Day After Tomorrow by Tom Waits is super for that.
God Only Knows (Beach Boys) and I've Been Loving You (Otis Reading) both have a tender, honest beauty rather than sadness, but move me to tears just as much.
Christmas songs every time. There's so much unfulfilled promise in Christmas. Joni Mitchell - River and Judy Garland - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. (Judy makes it heartbreaking - other versions sing it 'straight'.)
Leonard Cohens Song of Bernadette sung by Jennifer Warnes and the Tori Amos version of Famous Blue Raincoat. Oddly the Cohen version always make me smile….
Yes! I managed to get through the whole lockdown without getting it, even having to go into work and mixing with so many people . My first non work outing and wallop.
Come Dancing by the Kinks. It’s about his sister who bought Davies his first guitar. Aged 31, died of a heart attack the day before his 13th birthday while dancing at the Lyceum. In the song, he gave her a happy ending, but she never got to grow old. A sweet, upbeat number that always makes me sob.
Ikanaide sung by Dimash Qudaibergen.
It’s about a Chinese actress who was forced to leave for Japan after WW2 due to her parents being Japanese and the heartbreak of being parted from everyone she knew.
Human Remains by Tom McRae
Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck) by David Ford
Dylan Thomas (1996-1998) by Antje Duvekot
Fall at Your Feet by Crowded House
Eskimo by Damien Rice
Closer Look by Julia Darling
Motherland by Natalie Merchant
The Trapeze Swinger by Iron and Wine
Hi both!
(eh Robin, lovely to see you in Abertoire last year)
"I wasn't expecting that" by Jamie Lawson (2011) gets me big time for the most devastating three last "unexpected" lines in lyrics ever.
[1/2]
Prior to that, there's a French song that I still use as a trigger for stage/screen tears that was quite a pop success in the 80s (1987) by a one-hit wonder called Phil Barney about death in childbirth (mother) as pop songs go!! 😑
100% this.
First heard this on the 1 year anniversary of 9/11. Mark Radcliffe on radio 1 played it after the first minute silence. I was gone. Totally broke me.
Everybody Hurts by REM. Listening at work when my then boss casually drops in that it was played at the funeral of his infant granddaughter. Never been able to listen to it since without being in bits.
Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBe1yJ8wvsg&list=RDbBe1yJ8wvsg&start_radio=1
https://youtu.be/_PDlGUdDF8Y?feature=shared
Fiona Apple - I Know
Sol Seppy - Music
Dirty Three - Sometimes I Forget You've Gone
Scattered Black and Whites , Elbow
The end song of Paths of Glory
And the harmonies make me well up.
(There are mannnny other songs, of course).
"The chorus has a strong melody but it also gains strength from its more "natural" timing, while the verses act to knock you off balance (I think because they have alternate bars in a different time (e.g. 5/4 to 7/4) )."
https://youtu.be/dmfpuA0AeZc?si=iQOopRoilCv--IzA
Somewhere Only We Know by Keane
Her Heart Isn't Beating For Me by Semi-Attractive Boy
My Life by Billy Joel
Red Dirt Girl by Emmylou Harris (sad story of broken dreams)
Sand and Water by Beth Nielsen Chapman (grief for her late husband)
And this one by Yebba, written for her late mother:
https://youtu.be/A9-MMCLUHok?si=dsh8hb_I6tLtUeRV
Here Today by Paul McCartney.
Tiny Love by KT Tunstall.
https://youtu.be/uxcWPDOSyE4?si=F-2ZHa5mpmHCNctR
Do What You Gotta Do by Nina Simone, that 'I've loved you better than your own kin' line is just a wail of pain and it gets me every time.
A close second would be this one
https://youtu.be/0jTuKHKIT4w?si=5O6R0RwhZjbA87P4
The Sound Total Recall
The Cure Apart
Irma Thomas Wish Someone Would Care
Still - Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott
My Act of Remembrance- Proclaimers
Coming Home - Show of Hands
Heartbreakingly beautiful
If you’ve ever been dumped (and we all have) this hits a nerve.
‘Please try to ignore,
All the blood on the floor,
It’s just this heart,
On my sleeve,
That’s bleeding’
‘So kiss him again,
Just to prove to me that you can,
And I’ll stand here,
And burn in my skin’
Talk Talk - New Grass
Billy Bragg - Tank Park Salute
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Distant Sky
Armand Hammer - Doves
Lisa O'Neill - Old Note
PremRock - Receipts ft. billy woods prod. by Controller 7
Utterly beautiful
https://youtu.be/mfMnNqn-hKg?si=xCJv63ad7z81s4T_
Rooting for you by London Grammar
Sunrise Through The Dusty Nebula by Hannah Peel
So Long Frank Lloyd Wright - Simon & Garfunkel
Being Boring - The Pet Shop Boys
#1:
Prettiest Eyes - The Beautiful South (played at my partner's funeral).
Magnetic Fields - Busby Berkley Dreams
The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
Abba - Slipping Through My Fingers
Richard & Linda Thompson - The Dimming of the Day
Every time
I don’t think I’ve ever got through this without welling up. https://youtu.be/qZrLdK2CYXk?si=m5wyg1QoeGvzoJ2P
I once read it aloud to a class and had to leave the room because I started to cry.
And I've not been through what you have.
Gets me every time ❤️
Anchored down in anchorage
I think Hazel Wilde is my favourite songwriter, nobody combines vulnerability, hope, and defiance so well. Lanterns are such an important band in my life.
https://youtu.be/JDCVujukLUw?si=0NqU6eLco20Uoea4
Goes so much harder than it has any right to do.
https://youtu.be/JYeeQn65qPw?feature=shared
Every time.
Have to listen on my own so I don’t show my gentle side.
Everything is Cool
https://youtu.be/fPPvgxANrkA?si=aP7QqllnCHMY99WY
(Had to go on the Googles to get the accents right. That stuff's important.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iplcc2GepEM
Long December, Counting Crows
Learn to Fly, Foo Fighters
Sand Castles, Beyoncé
Almost Lover, A Fine Frenzy
Used to be Mine, Sara Bareilles
Long and Winding Road, Beatles
Praying, Kesha
The Lucky One, Allison Krauss & Union Station
Not Ready to Make Nice, The Chicks
Few like her, very sadly missed.
When Saturday Came - Robb Johnson
Eli The Barrow Boy - The Decemberists
https://youtu.be/nW9Cu6GYqxo
https://youtu.be/E2mYNKqXI_A?si=fTt7aJHuWWzZmKv-
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jmk0AVNRBIY&si=aGMkQsud_arAMMLt
Days before their scheduled time in the studio, band member Dave was killed in a family annihilation. They wrote this song in studio to work in their grief. Not only is it touching, but it says more by being a departure of their usual style.
He’s just not the picture you think of when you think of this IPV. But adult children, if at home…
Guns n Roses - November Rain
Traffic - Mr Fantasy
https://youtu.be/d-vx7WQd-Lk?feature=shared
How does the story go? Sprints. Lost my best friend to cancer a couple of years ago, we saw them in Bedford and he was the only fucker in the place who wasn't doing fine.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=lIOFglBPf-Y&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY
Never fails to spark up the emotional turmoil.
“…at the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man…” 😭
https://youtu.be/5Pze_mdbOK8?si=lzk0zGGG9n5AcJjq
My goodness.
"Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath;
Keep me in your heart for a while.
If I leave you, it doesn't mean I love you any less.
Keep me in your heart for a while."
Somehow, I'd never heard it until about 5 years ago. My father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's & Parkinsons the year before. It came on the radio, and I blubbed so hard.
Now I do every time, especially as my dad passed last year.
When we could be diving for pearls
Beautiful.
Gilbert O'Sullivan.
Spiritualized - Broke Heart
Tim Minchin - White Wine in the Sun
Lorraine Ellison - Stay With Me Baby
Might be why the marriage failed....
True Love Will Find You In The End - Daniel
Johnson
Don’t Be Scared, I Love You - Bill Ryder-Jones
If It Be Your Will - Anohni
"Come down, your majesty..." I can't even think of that line without welling up.
The one thing I never fully understood was whether Charlie Hudson named it The King of Rome *after* it one the race, or whether he named it that beforehand, which seems a little too prescient.
George Michael: ‘Praying for time’
God Only Knows (Beach Boys) and I've Been Loving You (Otis Reading) both have a tender, honest beauty rather than sadness, but move me to tears just as much.
May It Be, Enya
Prettiest Eyes, The Beautiful South
Bird on a Wire, Leonard Cohen
Sunshine on Leith - Proclaimers
https://youtu.be/tR4ioLnFWq4?si=C6rBfkiKJAizhQPy
Shall play that today 💞
It’s about a Chinese actress who was forced to leave for Japan after WW2 due to her parents being Japanese and the heartbreak of being parted from everyone she knew.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThtMdkZ_MXo
Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck) by David Ford
Dylan Thomas (1996-1998) by Antje Duvekot
Fall at Your Feet by Crowded House
Eskimo by Damien Rice
Closer Look by Julia Darling
Motherland by Natalie Merchant
The Trapeze Swinger by Iron and Wine
I'm gonna see this live at a heavy metal festival later in the year. Loads of people in tears guaranteed. All this guys music is beautiful
Every. Single. Time. 🥺
I am always wrong
(eh Robin, lovely to see you in Abertoire last year)
"I wasn't expecting that" by Jamie Lawson (2011) gets me big time for the most devastating three last "unexpected" lines in lyrics ever.
[1/2]
https://youtu.be/sQRuNNfgjOM?si=TTfIB9yXF7A154tV
First heard this on the 1 year anniversary of 9/11. Mark Radcliffe on radio 1 played it after the first minute silence. I was gone. Totally broke me.
Couple of weeks later I heard it in a concert room on Christmas eve and i couldnt stop crying
Harry's House/Centerpiece
https://youtu.be/qk-T9rRBTEU?si=Up2NbgQV_ag6iD0A