A song for Parsnip, episode 5 - Bring on the tears

I'm on my hols at the moment but thanks to bloggers scheduling options I have miraculously posted a new playlist!

I'm someone who finds music very emotional. Sometimes it makes me happy, sometimes it makes me sad, and I often choose the mood I want (I have all kinds of playlists that are mood-related!) but sometimes there are songs that will just make me cry no matter how joyful I feel at the moment I listen to them! You best believe that if I hear Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now (her 2000 version) I'm gonna cry even if I'm on a beach with handsome men massaging my feet and a pina colada half way to my mouth! Sometimes it's because of the music, or the way it's sung, but often it's because of the lyrics. So here are some of the songs that I can't listen to without bawling.... Trust that I'm a mess while writing this post!

Okay so I'll start with an obvious and slightly cheesy song. Jewel's You were meant for me is a simple song that isn't much to write home about in and of itself, but the words are such a good description of a mundane break-up that it's hard not to relate to it! Like she says " hearts get broken everyday". I think Amy Winehouse made a much more musically brilliant song in this same vein with Wake up Alone, but as I was young when I first heard Jewels song it has an odd little place in my tear ducts!

Led Zeppelin Since I've been loving you. I don't need to explain this to you. It's Led Zeppelin.

I can't express strongly enough how much I love this song. Hip Hop makes me feel many things, but it rarely makes me cry. For me The Beggar is all about Mos Def's delivery. It's the frustration of trying to make someone believe how much you love them. The lyrics are pretty straight-forward and repetitive, but that's what I find it so powerful. When he screams every nerve in my body just explodes! 

Oh Dusty! Everything about this song is designed to be a tear-jerker... and it works! If you have ever loved anyone who is likely to go traveling for long periods of time, this song may be even harder to listen to than if you're just going through a breakup! The real kicker comes right at the end....

"I'd have been the shadow of your shadow, if it might have kept me by your side"

Oh god... Bawling!

So this is a random one. It's cold. A song for people who have been cheated on and have gone beyond sadness and have moved on to numb fury. When the vicious guitar comes in I loose it. I've got your number is emotional, the singing is so soft but Guy Garvey delivers it like he's spitting venom. I adore this song and it is lyrically one of my all-time favourite songs....

"Don't put this not by your face on the pillow

Don't put this letter in the pocket near your heart

Keep it in the bottom drawer where you hide the sex tools

I pray you always need them

I know. What. You. Have. Done.

Throwing advice like grenades at the table

You're spinning your wisdom in stories that change

Your lies are florescent my baby-faced angel

Grow a fucking heart love.... 

I know. What. You. Have. Done. 

I've got your number"

Yep..... I've got your number indeed!

 Erykah Badu is capable of making me laugh, dance, sing and cry. Green Eyes is about her break up with Andre 3000 (from Outkast) and is like 3 songs in one. It's really something. Beautiful, quirky and sad....

"I'm insecure, but I can't help it
My mind says move on, my heart lags behind
But I don't love you anymore
I'm so insecure
Never knew that love did this"

Been there Erykah, been there!

A Perfectly sad but humorous song about regret. I love this whole album, but this song really gets to me.

Another song that is not at all soppy but still gets my emotions going is Running up that hill by Kate Bush. The song itself is rousing, and the drums make me want to pound my fists along with it. It's not really a love song, but it's about swapping places with someone so you can experience how the other feels. The thing is it has my all time favourite lyric in it, and every time I hear it I cry!

"You don't wanna hurt me, but see how deep the bullet lies"

Sometimes for me it's a simple as that! I could apply those words to so many things in life.

I had to put Lenny Kravitz in here somewhere. My love for Lenny was DEEP when I was a young teenager. Heaven Help is one of my favourite songs to sing. When I was a dramatic teen it spoke to me about being lonely, being ready to love and be loved already! As an adult I see it differently and I think it's about a man who is ready to stop fucking about and commit to someone. As much as I like the lyrics I think the music and the delivery are really what makes this emotional for me.

I remember starts very nicely, but it descends in to a bitter rant that becomes cacophonous. I love the fury. Love it.

Ain't no sunshine is such a friggin' classic.... Bill Withers original is amazing, but in terms of bringing out the misery of the song, young Michael Jackson just takes it to a new level. His voice was miraculous.

This one is so personal to me. I don't often hear hear pop songs that touch a nerve... and as for X-Factor singers, well.... let's just say I don't have good feelings towards that programme and what it has done to music! The only person who has surprised me is Will Young. I don't think he has a great voice, but I often think his lyrics feel so genuine that they really hit home with me (and he did such good videos once he had some freedom!). I won't go into details, but I've lived through what he sings about in this song and I can't hear it without breaking down! Actually, I think his song All Time Love is also a pretty heart breaking song as it goes, that one makes me cry too as a matter of fact!

Gonna get all modern now. I love moany female singers, so I love Banks. Drowning is a great song. Love the beat and the lyrics....

"Take it from the girl you claim to love; you're gonna get some bad Karma
I'm the one who had to learn to build a heart made of armour"

She been burnt!

I very specifically like the single version of Walking after you by the Foo Fighters rather than the album version. There is something so creepy about this song, but it's still really beautiful!

I like a couple of the tracks from Corinne Bailey Rae's first album, but the second one was really something special. It is also hard to listen to because she wrote it after her husband died from an overdose. Knowing this makes the lyrics all the more poignant. I'd do it all again bops along quite nicely, but underneath it all is a deep sense of sadness that kills me. 'The Sea' is a fantastic album, I recommend it to anyone who hasn't heard it before.

While I'm on the subject of songs about lost loved ones I have to mention Jesus to a Child. You know George Michael already slays me, but this song (which is just flat-out sad in sound and feel) was written about his boyfriend who died from evil AIDS. I don't know if I've ever heard another song with lyrics that convey the sadness and loss of a loved one the way this does. It's all about what he is singing. If I've made it to the bridge without bursting into tears then I've done pretty well....

"So the words you could not say, I'll sing them for you, and the love we would have made, I'll make it for two. For every single memory, has become a part of me..... you will always be. My love."

If those lyrics don't break your heart then you don't have one. Empathy people. His grief is palpable in this song and it's immeasurably beautiful because of it.

I'll finish with Bjork, because she just released an devastating album that is so heartbreaking I struggled to listen to it. In my love post I talked about Vespertine - an album about love and sex, well Vulnicura is the flipside to that album.... it is about the breakdown of her relationship with her long-term partner and father to her daughter. It is immensely sad. I just found myself weeping when I first heard my beloved Bjork sing "Did I love you too much?" in Black Lake. If you want to wallow in some seriously dark heartbreak then listen to this album - It's not on you tube so I can't put a video up. If you seek it out, you have been warned!