Thar Shaddin

One of my number one saddest songs is the newish Paul McCartney song Too Much Rain. It's all about trying to move on and the hope that things will be better, and having a stiff upper lip... and it was written shortly before the breakup of his second marriage.

Laugh when your eyes are burning
Smile when your heart is filled with pain
Sigh as you think about tomorrow
Make a vow that you're gonna be happy again

It's not right in one life
Too much rain

It's too much for anyone
Too hard for anyone
Who wants a happy and peaceful life?
You gotta learn to laugh

Another great one is the distant, enigmatic Midnight Caller by Badfinger, about a friend of the songwriter's who he found out had had money troubles and became a call girl rather than ask for help.

Beneath the Midnight Caller
She thinks of paper green
You never hear them calling her name
They just know where they've been

You never hear her holler
The tears no longer come
She reads her daily book of the past
That shows off everyone

She sees a daytime stroller
Back from the night before
And though she paints a smile on her face
He won't be back no more

Grey years that show in her hair
Can't be, but don't seem to care
She unlocks the door and there's no one there.

She's got no saint to follow
She's got no place to go
Too proud to ask an old friend for help
Too proud to let him know

Grey years that show in her hair
Can't be, but don't seem to care
She unlocks the door and there's no one there.
Nobody
Nobody
Nobody's gonna help you now.

One that I just realized I forgot and I can't believe I did:

VAST - Flames

This song seriously and utterly wrecks my shit. I could not tell you why. Everything about it is simple, from the melody to the lyrics, and I find it hauntingly beautiful and poignant.

Unfortunately this song is by a local band from Austin which no longer exists, to the point that google pulls up nothing, nothing at all.

But I still love the song. It's called "Stones", by The Lower Level.

He's telling her that there's no point in trying to sustain the relationship anymore because even though he craves her he's not in love with her, but she refuses to agree and they start fighting. So he has to start saying cruel things (throwing stones) to try and force her to let go of something that's not there.

The end of the song is what gets me. The rest of it is relatively rockin' so the words are sad but not depressing. Toward the end the rockin' stops and he's just singing the melody, telling her that he's sorry but he's not in love...even though he should be.

I can't imagine a more agonizing thing to be told by someone I loved. I'm sorry hun, I know I should be, but I'm just not in love with you...ugh. And yet I would rather hear this than go through the pain of trying to sustain something that isn't there. Catch-22.

Stones - The Lower Level

How fickle it breathes
Only one thing needed said to me.
And the fire seeps up.

And then on breath from my lips
the perfect burn drifts away
I wear this suit of armour 'cause I'm
Only made of clay. Made of clay...

And the stones don't pierce as deep as the bullets
Even though you're my heroin.
But better now than later
we're not able to pull it out, 'cause I can't let you in.
Your perception's clearly skeptical of a good ending
Might as well cut off the ventricles
in which our hearts are sending the blood.
Throughout the body of us
I'm so sorry, I'm not in love.

The explanation is there,
but the blame is not.
You're my messiah
from the holt/cold melting pot
That I had my head in;
This sin only begins a friendship
We never had in the first place.

And the stones don't pierce as deep as the bullets
Even though you're my heroin.
But better now than later
we're not able to pull it out, 'cause I can't let you in.
Your perception's clearly skeptical of a good ending
Might as well cut off the ventricles
in which our hearts are sending the blood.
Throughout the body of us
I'm so sorry, I'm not in love.

And I should be, yeah I should be
But I'm sorry I'm not in love.
Yeah I should be, yeah I should be
But I'm sorry I'm not in love.

Oh I'm sorry I...I'm sorry I'm not in love with you.
Oh I should be, I know,
I'm sorry I, I'm sorry I'm not in love with you.
Oh I should be.
And it breaks me to see you like that.
And I know the possible occurance
and you don't deserve it so I
had to grab the courage...
to throw stones.