Death is sad.
When it is a topic in a song you often have the ingredients for a tearjerker.
I have a list compiled from readers and a separate list called Editor’s Choice, which follows the first list.
This idea originated from a review I did recently for My Vinyl Countdown of the song ‘Honey’ by Bobby Goldsboro. I called it sappy but effective and manipulative. My mother loves it. I don’t so much. One of my grown daughters, Claire, called and said the saddest song in the world that I didn’t include was ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ by Peter Paul and Mary.
My wife Catherine was disappointed I didn’t mention Tonio K’s “You are there’ a song that both comforted her and made her cry after her mother’s death so many years ago. Still does. Me too.
Well it might have been a vision
or it might have been a dream
like a photograph of eden
it was like no place I’d ever seen
or it might have been a dream
like a photograph of eden
it was like no place I’d ever seen
And you were there waiting for me
you shined the light when I couldn’t see
I stood at the gate like a stranger
and you were there waiting for me
That’s how these lists are though — debatable and up for challenges. But I will guarantee that if you stay long enough and listen to enough, you will need some tissue.
While I took readers suggestions, I am the final judge. My qualifications? I cry looking at my dog, and I have a disease, Lewy body dementia, which will likely cut my life short.
I can’t write about this without mentioning that a friend and colleague of mine lost a son this week and although I had not met the son, my heart and many hearts are broken. We can and we can’t begin to understand the depth of grief of losing someone you loved and cared for. I say can and can’t because many have been touched by tragic deaths and everybody deals with it in their own way. As human beings we know so little about life and death. Except that it hurts. And it’s a pain that lives inside. And it’s a pain that makes one look hard for joy, something for balance.
It’s a pain that makes us ask “Why.”
Van Morrison, one of my favorite artists and spiritual advisers, sang: ‘It ain’t why why why. It just is.’
Sometimes I think of that and it makes me want to smack Van Morrison right in the nose.
Meanwhile for my daughters and wife:
https://youtu.be/z15pxWUXvLY
https://youtu.be/JI3tVMKmMM8
I’d never heard of Tonio K’s “You Were There” until today. Yes, it can make one cry, but cry tears of hope, tears of joy, and tears of love.
yes..my wife would totally agree — and me too.