Everyone's talking about songs that make them cry. And when I say everyone, I mean some people who write for the Guardian and a girl I follow on Twitter. Everyone.
Music doesn't make me cry. It doesn't have long enough. Like someone who needs a lot of foreplay, I just can't reach tearful climax in three minutes or less. On the few occasions I have cried listening to music, it wasn't the music on its own that did it. It was the soon to be ex boyfriend sitting next to me or the recent loss of a beloved friend or - well I don't know why I cried listening to Coldplay play Clocks at Glastonbury, but the weather was really bad and I'd been standing up all day.
There is just one song I shouldn't ever listen to in public and it's Ruby's Arms by Tom Waits. I find it heartbreaking. Just getting the video on YouTube, I had to switch it off after the first few bars. In fact I just tried reading the lyrics to see if I could quote some here, and I only got two thirds of the way through. It's devastating. Listen to it and you'll see what I mean.
The Guardian have their own Spotify playlist of sad songs and you can contribute to it here.
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Like you, music doesn't make me cry. It sometimes makes me nauseous, frustrated, annoyed, and cringe, but it doesn't make me cry.
This was also the theme on the breakfast programme on radio 3 this morning... according to the presenter - I forget her name - this was because of Nick Clegg.
...not the most inspired bit of programming, I thought, especially as most of the pieces are longer than 3 minutes & I dare say a lot of listeners are, like me, trying to avoid the depressing-start-to-the-day induced by R4's Today...
Anyway, what struck me was that almost all of the music people were nominating (& was being played) was very beautiful -
For some reason, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of Over the Rainbow puts me away every time. Very embarrassing if it comes on in a coffee shop. *Sniffle*
I have real problems getting through Noah and the Whale's The First Days of Spring - the first time I listened to it I was on a train just arriving into the Blue Mountains and the combination of song and view made me well up... I tried listening to the album after the cat was diagnosed with cancer, got about a minute in and had to turn it off... I don't think I've ever found another song that can make me cry from euphoria and sadness at the same time. It's so beautiful it's almost unbearable.
Oh I cry ALL the time at songs - and it's usually those ones and/or the ones that send shivers up my spine that end up on my soundtracks for my books. Hurt, by Johnny Cash & Amazing Grace by Neil Diamond both make me howl, as does Angels by Robbie Williams (I know, I know, corny, but true). On my current soundtrack, My Lady D'arbanville by Cat Stevens does the trick, & Windmills of My Mind by Noel Harrison & Little Lion Boy by Mumford & Sons. Oh, and First of May by the Beegees, cos it's so poignant about the passing of time.
I don't think I used to cry at songs. In fact, I didn't used to cry very much. Then I had children and now am a big blubber mountain(-:
Have you heard Jedward's Irish eurovision entry? That will have you crying within 30 seconds!
From my blog posting on 'Ruby's Arms':
Not too long ago, I was just driving my car, minding my own business, listening to a compilation I’d burned of his ‘pretty’ songs (I called it “Tom Waits for No Man”), and this song came on. And it brought me to tears.
http://www.jmeshel.com/179-tom-waits-rubys-arms/
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