Totally haunting song from Danny Cavanagh and Anneke van Giersbergen.
Written by Liverpool band Anathema, I think about the passing of their dad (there were three brothers in the band). Anneke has the most amazing voice.
^^^
Northern Sky somewhere up page is one of my favourite songs, but on this thread Nick Drake feels a bit like cheating. But all time biggest selling rapper also sounds sad most of the time, for some reason…
Zappa’s “Watermelon in Easterhay” does it for me. Someone played it for me back in 1982 when I’d just lost someone very close to me, and it’s haunting, beautiful, and carries such a sense of loss and longing for what might have been. Best heard on a decent stereo, or at least some good headphones.
I won’t post the link because the spoken intro is sweary, but it’s easy enough to find.
Oooh, I’m going to have to take some time listening to all of this. Can’t right now – spinning through while the wife watches Bake Off.
These are a few I’d like to add. All of them have moved me very much. As others have said, all of Nick Drake’s could go on here. Pretty sure he never did an equivalent of Bowie’s Laughing Gnome? Leonard Cohen, I’ve never really got. Maybe later..
Some great tracks suggested here (Sad to hear about John Prine RIP). I have a Spotify playlist titled Beautiful melancholy, here are some of my current favourites
Michigan – The Milk Carton Kids
Lua – Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst is a master of Melancholy IMHO)
Some great music in this list…. Melancholia for me is summed up in this cover version, Phil Collin’s Against the Odds covered by the Postal Service. So beautiful and so sad.
Townes Van Zandt has been mentioned, here is a song that marked his death. Makes me cry every time, place names are all wrong but it all sums up my brother who died almost 10 years ago.
Ah yes. I came home and played that the day he died. Here’s a version from 1988 without a sweary intro, though it is best heard in context as part of Joe’s Garage.
