MetaChat - Sad country music songs make me cry

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23 September 2005

Sad country music songs make me cry Does that make me gay, or a lush, or what? For example, He Stopped Loving Her Today can make me tear up so much I have to pull over to the side of the road until my eyes clear.

post by: mr_crash_davis at: 20:03 | 41 comments

Nearly anything by Patsy Cline gets me right *here*.

posted by LeeJay 23 September | 20:08

I think you're a gay lush, but that's just me. TV dramas make me cry. Also, the news. lately.

posted by puke & cry 23 September | 20:12

No, It makes you a redneck. Of course, that would mean I'm a redneck, too. Wanna go watch NASCAR?

posted by jonmc 23 September | 20:20

No...doesn't make you gay, but if you start weeping over Barry Manilow ballads, then that makes you, gay, gay, gay!!!

posted by ericb 23 September | 20:28

All kidding aside, there are very few songs that can make me openly weep, and most of 'em are country songs. Dolly Parton's "Coat Of Many Colors," and Billy Joe Shaver's "Live Forever," have weeping like a baby. Hell, even "Mr. Bojangles," get's me a little misty.

*blows nose*

posted by jonmc 23 September | 20:28

But crying when you hear the angelic voice of Miss Karen Carpenter -- everyone understands!

posted by ericb 23 September | 20:36

Beacuse it reminds you of going to the dentist!

posted by jonmc 23 September | 20:38

The antidote is a funny country song. My favorite?

She said: "I'm gonna' hire a wino to decorate our home,
"So you'll feel more at ease here, and you won't have to roam.
"We'll take out the dining room table, and put a bar along that wall.
"And a neon sign, to point the way, to our bathroom down the hall."

posted by jrossi4r 23 September | 21:24

My top 5ive weepy country songs of the moment:

George Jones - He Stopped Loving Her Today

Cal Smith - Country Bumpkin

John Anderson - 1959

Tim McGraw - Don't Take The Girl

Garth Brooks - If Tomorrow Never Comes

posted by mr_crash_davis 23 September | 21:27

I don't listen to country, so I have no examples of that.
But I can't hear Fairytale of New York without getting all weepy and maudlin.

posted by kellydamnit 23 September | 22:16

Top 5 Country Pathos songs au moment:

Porter Waggoner - The Carroll County Accident

Dolly Parton - Jolene

David Allen Coe - If That Ain't Country

George Jones - The Bible Against the Bottle (the Battle for Daddy's Soul)

Barbi Benton - Brass Buckles

posted by go dog go 23 September | 22:18

everything makes me cry, and i'm gay, so there you go! ; >

I actually got weepy at work tonight when my ipod played "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"

posted by amberglow 23 September | 22:20

My number one make me cry country song - Bringing Mary Home by The Country Gentleman, partly because it's sad, mostly because it reminds me of my dad.

Big Bad John gets me all teary too.

posted by LeeJay 23 September | 22:35

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

posted by box 23 September | 22:53

"Big Bad John gets me all teary too"

Oh, yeah, that's in the top 10, for sure.

"And like a big oak tree he just stood there alone"

*sniffle*

posted by mr_crash_davis 23 September | 22:56

Heh. Appropros of this thread, this evening (during the Red Sox game, no less) the wife and I made tomato soup with the way too many tomatoes we have on hand - she was in charge, and told me early on in the process that I was the "sous-chef" (say it out loud).

Of course, I took this opportunity to loadly sing/shout, at any appropriate moment, "My name is Sue! How do you do!"

Not that Johnny Cash always makes me cry, or gay, or anything else, but it did turn out to be damn good tomato soup, so there you go.

posted by yhbc 23 September | 23:11

Not that Johnny Cash always makes me cry

Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt (and especially the video) just tears me up.

posted by LeeJay 23 September | 23:28

All country music makes me cry, but mainly because it hurts my ears.

Once, Warlock by Skinny Puppy almost made me cry. I look back on those teenage years and think I was retarded.

When I found out that "Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos was about a real event that happened to Tori, that almost made me cry. But I was raised by a really macho dad, so I don't do that crying thing well or much.

The Cash cover of Hurt is kind of emotional.

posted by teece 23 September | 23:50

The Navy Hymn gets me (oh, hear us as we cry to thee, for those in peril on the sea)". So does "Auld Lang Syne" with all the verses. I know it's not country, but except for "Hurt" I don't really know any country stuff.

posted by puddinghead 24 September | 00:23

Oh, please. You may not know every song listed or alluded to so far (I don't), but how can you not know "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain"? Or "The Streets of Laredo"? (okay, that last one may be more obscure, but the first one was Willie Nelson, for cryin' out loud - and in the rain, no less)

posted by yhbc 24 September | 00:38

I'm sorry, Willie who?

I forgot- I've seen him twice. He hangs up all the bras that women throw him in his trailer. There looked like at least a couple hundred, dangling from the ceiling. I forgot he was country. I thought he transcended calssification, but on reflection I realize that I am wrong, wrong, oh, so wrong.

Streets Of Loredo is country? I thought it was cowboy, but maybe I just don't know the fine distinctions within the genre (cough cough).

posted by puddinghead 24 September | 00:47

Spellcheck, I know. Spellcheck from now on. I promise.

posted by puddinghead 24 September | 00:49

Okay, then.

And try to stay out of Willie Nelson's trailer from now on. Sheesh.

posted by yhbc 24 September | 00:56

It's not like I was in his trailer, just a bit of my lingerie.

posted by puddinghead 24 September | 01:00

I have no idea what either of those are, yhbc. I have heard almost no country music in my life. What little I have heard I didn't like. I'm sure I could find some I like, but I haven't really looked.

posted by teece 24 September | 01:01

Oh, but puddinghead, you were right - Willie does transcend calcification.

posted by go dog go 24 September | 01:55

Why, yes, that is true! How Freudian of me.

posted by puddinghead 24 September | 01:57

Fine. Garth Brooks, "The Dance" turns me into a blubbering idiot. Happy now?

posted by puddinghead 24 September | 02:09

this time around...the songs that are really sticking the dagger in and twisting are
'leaving on a jet plane' , 'landslide' and 'for no one'
plus the chorus of 'graceland' gets me...losing love is like a window to your heart...

Everyone can see i'm blown apart.

posted by Schyler523 24 September | 11:41

Related AskMe. Weirdly, I just posted a follow-up before seeing this thread.

I'm not terribly big on country (although in principle I can appreciate it, given my love for folk and blues etc.), mainly because my nieces have the dang country station on all the time, and worst of all, it's the kind of station that finds time to play Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" at least once a day. Every damn time I want to throw something at the radio and yell "Johnny Cash had more than one song, you fake rednecks!"

And a lot of country (videos, especially) lately seems to be really hung up on class envy. These really make me understand why so many folks vote for Shrub. It's like an unbridgeable chasm of us-vs.-them prejudice. Um, /derail.

Hmkay, so my one niece (whose father is unidentified) is big on "Daddy's Hands", and I kinda like Big & Rich's "Holy Water" a bit.

posted by stilicho 24 September | 16:14

It's Lucille for me. Every time. I know it's corny, but I feel so sorry for the husband. That big bear of a man, with his four hungry children and the crops in the field. /sobs

posted by seanyboy 24 September | 16:34

Oh, and the Pearl Jam version of Crazy Mary gets me almost every time too. Although I don't know if that's quite Country And Western.

Oh... And my definite favourite. "The L&N don't stop here any more." It's Barnsley in 1984 all over again when I hear that song.

posted by seanyboy 24 September | 16:36

"That which you fear the most will meet you half way"
No idea what that means, but it always hits something raw inside of me.

posted by seanyboy 24 September | 16:42

Oh, and the Pearl Jam version of Crazy Mary gets me almost every time too. Although I don't know if that's quite Country And Western.

It's not even close, seanyboy, although it's a quite good rock song. Listen to Bob Luman's "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers" to get an idea of real C&W. It's all about straightforward unflinching sentimentality.

posted by jonmc 24 September | 18:24

Where've You Been by Kathy Mattea. Oh man.
here is an mp3

And yes, Karen Carpenter's voice is like a knife in the gut if you are in the right/wrong mood. I don't think she could have sang a song without there being some touch of sadness to it.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 24 September | 22:01

Also, although I would have to be kinda down for it to actually make me tear up, I think "Fallin' out of Love" by Reba McEntire is a beautiful song.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 24 September | 22:17

Anymore by Travis Tritt used to mess me up too, I haven't listened to it in years because of that.

I really like 'Drift off to Dream' By Tritt as well, but it isn't sad.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 24 September | 22:33

well, did you guys have country in your house or parent's car when you were growing up? i'm with teece, i never even heard it, except for crossover 70s pop hits (like Rose Garden, etc), and only learned of the real emotional and realer and deep stuff very late--as an adult (like Patsy and Loretta's heartbreaking stuff, etc)

posted by amberglow 24 September | 23:08

And, lest we forget, Ruby did indeed take her love to town.

posted by go dog go 24 September | 23:37

Anything by Kenny Rogers - Lucille, Coward of the county, Reuben James etc etc...amd Dolly Parton (Sandy and little andy) brings out the boo hoos...!

posted by ramix 25 September | 04:52

"...did you guys have country in your house or parent's car when you were growing up?"

Oh, yeah. Dad was a big country fan. Mom, not so much. With mom it was more likely to be Lou Rawls, or Neil Diamond, or something along those lines. But dad was, and is, all about the old country.

posted by mr_crash_davis 25 September | 15:27

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