Songs that make you cry
 

I don't just mean sad songs.

There are some songs that, whenever I hear them, bring a tear to my eye. I don't know why, they're not linked to any particular emotional event in my life. There's just something about them that triggers an emotional reaction.

Examples I can think of at the moment are:

Pale Blue Eyes - VU
Protection - Massive Attack
Where Do we Go Now But Nowhere - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Little Miss Divinity - FSOL

Does anyone else have this reaction?

No, but Massive Attack make me randomly fall to sleep.

loudness and grim reaper the first time i ever saw their music videos. i laughed so hard i cried and almost peed myself at the same time.

Ooo, like when I first saw the Windowlicker video.

Frittering - Mercury Rev

I'm sure there's a few more, because I'm emo like that, but I can't think of any right now.

Yo La Tengo - Tears are in Your Eyes

Xiu Xiu - Hives Hives
Chan Marshall - Faces
EITS - First Breath After Coma
Elliott Smith - tons of them

Low - Slide
Ida - Shoe-In
Dead Can Dance - The Host of Seraphim
Cat Power - Names
A Silver Mt. Zion - Mountains Made of Steam
Bat For Lashes - Sad Eyes

Beatles - Julia

Yo La Tengo - Stockholm Syndrome
Red House Painters - Katy Song

I don't actually cry, but they make me so damn sad I just don't listen to them anymore.

Katy song is quite a cool tune. It doesn't make me cry because I never cry. I have a heart made of stone.

I am still working on turning my heart to stone. Not quite there yet. It is black as night, though.

I also forgot one song that actually did make me cry when I first realized what the lyrics were saying:

George Jones - He Stopped Loving Her Today

I probably heard my pop play that song a billion times before I realized the poor bastard died.

big star - holocaust.

Come to think of it, I pretty much like the majority of the songs on the album that one comes from. Gosh, I haven't listened to it since the early 90's, when it first came out. Red house Painters always make me think of the newly-reformed American Music Club, another band that I used to listen to a lot.

cardigans - when you're gone

American Music Club is one of my all time favorite bands. I think sometimes I got musically stuck in the mid to late 90's. I like lots of new stuff, but the things that are dear to me are mostly 10+ years old.

good call.

I think that I'm more partial to DCD's Severance, but that may fall under the "songs that give you goosebumps" thread.

all of the songs on A Silver Mt Zion's Horses in the Sky album are so hauntingly beautiful that they have the potential for optic lubrication.

I'm going to listen to it right now, and cry, you bastard.

I ought to give those records a good dusting and a fresh listen again. American Music Club could (can?) write some pretty dark songs disguised as poor lost little lambs trying to find mummy in the bush.

beach boys-god only knows (contender for the most beutiful song, pop or otherwise, of all time)
smiths-last night i dreamt somebody loved me
the bad seeds-the weeping song

Well put, and very true. A lyrically stunning band, in my opinion. I even liked the solo Mark Eitzel stuff, but not quite as impressive as the band.

Thanks. If Torn Curtain is reading this, give them a go. They sound like your kind of band.

Legendary Pink Dots - Laguna Beach
Felt - The Stagnant Pool

I have gotten choked up at live performances by Legendary Pink Dots, Spiritualized, Tom Rapp and Martyn Bates.

Martyn Bates, there's another name I have never seen mentioned on here before.

I don't know how much crossover traffic this place gets from the Eyeless In Gaza bbs.

That's the real shit right there.

In a very similar vein - Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss - Whiskey Lullaby; Dolly Parton - Down from Dover; Laura Cantrell - Bees; Carter Family - Chewing Gum; Helen Love - Does your heart go boom?; Britney Spears - Lucky; Kenny Rogers - Lucille; Willie Nelson - Can I sleep in your arms tonight lady?; Diamanda Galas - Si la Madre [sp?].

Ok, they're not all country, but they do all make me weep like a child. I cry a lot, it's great fun.

hank's "i'm so lonesome i could cry", anyone?

(and by "anyone" i mean Glice).

Hank Williams goes without saying, I would've thought.

Although it's Wayfaring Stranger/ I just told mama goodbye/ Wanderin' man... actually, all of them. Hank is about as heart-rending as it gets. He's done one song - one song, in total, in all of his recordings, that I cannot abide (hey good lookin').

Luke the Drifter! My life.

I swear I was listening to ''Litanies Of Satan'' by Diamanda the other day while I was reading a Jade Goody interview, and I suddenly started seeing things on the walls. Ok, I was also a little stoned, I admit. Bates' ''The Look Of Love'' is a little gem for those with their heart torn.

The Smiths - I KNOW IT'S OVER
that song reallly gets to me man. it is just such a tale of despair, of wanting to quit on life, or life quitting on you. I sing it and I start to weep sometimes.

Codeine - 3 ANGELS
Once when I was driving home from work when I lived ion Austin, I was listening to this album and this song specifically and I started just out and out crying. no sobbing, no labored breathing, just buckets pouring out of my eyes. it really freaked me out.

Thanks for the recommendation, they're precisely one of bands/musicians I wanted to check out.

The more I think about it, the more there are. I could probably name a hundred songs.....

I seriously got choked up the first time I saw Low - at a tiny bar in Norman, OK for three dollars. I had never heard them or even heard of them before. They were touring on I Could Live In Hope and I thought they might kill me. I was one of twelve there. This is one of the best shows I have ever been to for that reason. Still one of the top ten shows I have seen.

the fall- bill is dead.

Doom Town-The Wipers

james blunt- anything...
i cry for the sake of human kind

daniel johnston-funeral

"got me a coffin, shinging and black, im goin to a funeral and im never coming back", on the record he literally starts crying while singing this. hes one of the best singer songwriters of all time, in my opinion he ranks with tom waits, patti smith, and leanord cohen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WfqYWIawus

stella blue (after all the cards are down, and theres nothing left to see, a broken angel sings a song, through an old guitar..)

[quote=Rob Instigator]The Smiths - I KNOW IT'S OVER
that song reallly gets to me man. it is just such a tale of despair, of wanting to quit on life, or life quitting on you. I sing it and I start to weep sometimes.

Yes!!!
also
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds-Gates to the Garden
Bowie-Word on a Wing
The Cure-The Last Day of Summer/There Is No If..../The Loudest Sound
(Three songs In a row on Bloodflowers)

My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes

Where Did You Sleep Last Night, doesn't matter which version.
Not really because of the lyrics or anything, just because it reminds me of someone who sings it all the time.