Saturday, November 27, 2004

One glaring omission from the previously posted list of Saddest Songs could be “Alifib” by Robert Wyatt. The first song on the second side of his classic “Rock Bottom” feels like a voyeuristic look at a mythical sea creature, struggling for its last breath of air, or in this case love, drowning in a phosphorescent sea, its gills slashed from a fisherman’s hook, lungs contorting for breaths that wont come. Wyatt coos and awes lyrics that combine fever dreams and “domestic bliss” in a series of touching non-sequiturs that leave you confused and shaken at the same time. Such is love and its many apparitions.

For those who like their sadness sans irony, I give you…

10 More of the Saddest Songs in the World...I'm talkin' real sad here, like fold up your tent and go home sad. Any one of these would make a a fine suicide note.

1. Nick Drake “Which Will”
2. Big Star “Holocaust”
3. Steve Von Till “We All Fall”
4. Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris “Love Hurts”
5. Alexander “Skip” Spence “Diana”
6. Peter Jefferies “On an Unknown Beach”
7. John Prine “Sam Stone”
8. Jandek “First You Think Your Fortune’s Lovely”
9. Kan Mikami “Never Before”
10.The Carter Family “No Depression in Heaven”


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