Tom tagged me with this evil bit of humiliation. Name five songs that make you cry and explain why.
The humiliation part is that I am a total sap. A sappy sap. And the songs that make me cry are sappy songs. I am not one to have guilty pleasures, I will gladly tell you my favorite schmaltzy movie or corny TV show, but the songs? The songs are a genuine red-faced guiltfest.
And here they are.
1. Danny’s Song—Kenny Loggins: The sappiest song ever written. Just…oh the tears of sentimental joy as I anticipate the happiness of happy happy childbearing happiness. I can’t believe I’m shameless enough to post this.
2. Sabbath Prayer—Fiddler on the Roof: Actually, a lot of Fiddler on the Roof gets me right here. The musical is very much about my heritage, and I connect to it pretty deeply. Obviously, given my sappiness, you’re thinking about Sunrise, Sunset, but that doesn’t come first or even second to mind. I will cry at the Overture, at the opening notes of Tradition, and especially at Do You Love Me?
But Sabbath Prayer, with its haunting melody and its heartfelt mix of hope, longing, community, faith, and fear…just floors me.
May the Lord protect and defend you,
May He always shield you from shame,
May you come to be, in years full well a shining name.
May you be like Ruth and like Esther,
May you be deserving of praise,
Strengthen them O Lord, and keep them from the stranger’s way.
May God bless you and grant you long life (may the Lord fulfill our Sabbath
prayer for you),
May God make you good mothers and wives (may He send you husbands who will
care for you).
May the Lord protect and defend you,
May the Lord preserve you from pain,
Favor them O Lord with happiness and peace,
O hear our Sabbath prayer,
Amen.
3. This Nearly Was Mine—South Pacific: You’re sensing a Broadway theme, aren’t you? Telling a story is an important part of what creates sentiment for me. This song is personal for me; it is one of the songs that really floored me after John died, and I saw it as our song; as what nearly was mine…what was mine while he lived.
Now, now I’m alone,
Still dreaming of paradise
Still saying that paradise
Once nearly was mine.
::sob::
4. My Hometown—Bruce Springsteen: It’s when he puts his boy up behind the wheel; oh GOD does that get me.
5. Back on the Chain Gang—The Pretenders: This is probably the least guilty of the pleasures on this list; this is a great song, and doesn’t reveal my corny love of show tunes. The mix of bitterness and defiance is powerful, but at the end she slips out the the sorrowful “those were the happiest days of my life;” letting us in on the secret, that it’s not all revenge against the Powers That Be.
#1 – Puff, the Magic Dragon has made me cry since I was a child – when that little bastard Jackie Paper doesn’t show up and Puff sadly slinks into his cave with his tail bent in sorrow I just sob….
#2 – The Mary Ellen Carter by Stan Rogers – a seafairing song about raising the sunken ship that saved them from the storm… a rousing number of redemption, whose final verse goes;
For we couldn’t leave her there,
you see, to crumble into scale.
She’d save our lives so many times,
living through the gale,
And the laughing, drunken rats
who left her to a sorry grave,
They won’t be laughing in another day.
And you, to whom adversity
has dealt that final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you
everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength
of and heart and brain
And, like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!
I’m tearing up just reading them now….
Quite frankly I can’t think of any other songs that make me cry at this point…. but if I do I’ll post ’em here!
Ah, shipwreck songs…The Wreck of the Carlos Rey (Los Lobos) does it for me.
This is so hard I’m going to have to get back to you. The problem is, a song doesn’t have to be sad or even sappy to get me. It can just be personally nostalgic… for example, Run, Freedom, Run from Urinetown made me cry one time, and that song is upbeat and hilarious.
But Deb… not They Were You? It will certainly be on my list.
PS
I say pigeon from hell becomes a separate blog about some of the dumbest lyrics ever.
EVER.
“Pigeon from hell” and “Your eyes are blue/like the heavens above”…she does have that knack for dumbest lyrics in the greatest songs, doesn’t she?
They Were You definitely makes me cry. It just wasn’t one of the first five I thought of. They Were You is just…the paradise part of my relationship with John.
On further thought, I have to admit that some of the songs from Fiddler do make me tear up…I saw it on stage when I was maybe 7, so it’s one of those things you hear in childhood that are beyond critical judgment.
Oh Tom, critical judgment is just right out when it comes to this discussion. This is all gutteral, and we are naming names here and now (well, everyone but me) sans guilt or a valid explanation.
Deborah, my answers are now up.
Thanks, Maurinsky; beautiful choices.
In no particular order:
Follow You, Follow Me — Genesis
Sabbath Prayer — Fiddler (hard to argue with that)
Puff the Magic Dragon — (see, there really are hundreds, but I’m very impressionable. But this song does slay me!)
They Were You — the Fantasticks
A Little Fall of Rain — Les Miserables