QueenZone discussion #1337113
Saddest Queen song(s)?
| tomchristie22 28.01.2013 04:58 |
Queen having tear-jerker songs in their catalogue is inevitable, considering they continued to put stuff out soon before and after Freddie's passing. There's probably been a thread (or threads) similar to this before, but not in my time here as far as I can remember, so I figured I'd put it out there. Mother Love is probably the most obvious candidate for me, it's a very melancholic song to begin with, with very moving (and excellent) guitar and vocal parts, added to the fact that it was recorded hastily in the last months of Freddie's life. Close behind that would be Nevermore and All Dead, which I find quite depressing, especially Nevermore, which unlike some of their songs, doesn't come to any sort of 'happy ending', and doesn't have a remotely triumphant or dramatic feel to it, unlike Somebody To Love for example. Anyway, I'm interested to see what you guys think. What Queen songs are the saddest for you? |
| matt z 28.01.2013 06:25 |
Queen +5ive.... Queen + robbie williams School's out, surf's up! *NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (Mocking the "yeah") But of course.... THOSE DON'T COUNT beautiful as it is... Bijou, mother love, who wants to live forever, save me, let me live And for obvious reasons STAYING POWER... just awful wanna be funk bunk trash If it wasn't for the arif mardin brass itd be soooo much worse |
| Belladonic haze 28.01.2013 06:31 |
"It's late" still makes me sad after all these years *sob* |
| Heavenite 28.01.2013 06:53 |
For me its got to be Save Me and Mother Love. Save Me because its the classic song about a broken heart > "I hang my head and I advertise, a soul for sale or rent. I have no heart, I'm cold inside, I'm no real intent." And Mother Love because its about relief from pain (physical and/or emotion and finding comfort away from it all. |
| tcc 28.01.2013 07:08 |
For me, the saddest Queen song is White Queen. |
| cmsdrums 28.01.2013 07:16 |
Heavenite wrote: "I hang my head and I advertise, a soul for sale or rent. I have no heart, I'm cold inside, I'm no real intent." .Possibly my favourite Queen lyric - fantastic line (isn't the final part "I have no real intent" though??) |
| waunakonor 28.01.2013 08:05 |
All Dead, All Dead; Some Day One Day; Sail Away Sweet Sister (to the Sister I Never Had); Mother Love; Bijou; '39; and White Man.
matt z wrote: let me liveLet Me Live? That doesn't really strike me as sad. |
| thomasquinn 32989 28.01.2013 08:09 |
waunakonor wrote: All Dead, All Dead; Some Day One Day; Sail Away Sweet Sister (to the Sister I Never Had); Mother Love; Bijou; '39; and White Man.How in the world is Bijou sad?matt z wrote: let me liveLet Me Live? That doesn't really strike me as sad. |
| waunakonor 28.01.2013 08:15 |
Musically, it's very powerful and moving, at least for me. The guitar parts sound sorrowful. |
| Q NUT 28.01.2013 10:07 |
Love Of My Life |
| DLCVinnuendo 28.01.2013 10:14 |
don't try so hard and bijou are great songs to be sad |
| rubens 28.01.2013 13:39 |
White Queen..."so sad it ends, as it began" |
| Zodiacal_light 28.01.2013 13:51 |
Freddie's finest 1 minute---'Nevermore' |
| Bo Alex 28.01.2013 14:49 |
White Queen, You Take My Breath Away, My Melancholy Blues, Love Of My Life, In Only Seven Days, The Show Must Go On, Days of Our Lives, Mother Love, Who Wants to Live Forever. |
| Heavenite 28.01.2013 17:21 |
cmsdrums wrote:Hi CMS DrumsHeavenite wrote: "I hang my head and I advertise, a soul for sale or rent. I have no heart, I'm cold inside, I'm no real intent." .Possibly my favourite Queen lyric - fantastic line (isn't the final part "I have no real intent" though??) Whoops! Yes, of course it is. I must be more careful when keying. And it is a fantastic line, along with "Each night I cry and still believe the lie, I love you til I die". I can definitely relate to those feelings and definitely what a broken heart will do. At least for a while. I would say that it is one of the saddest songs lyrically, whereas some others here have suggested songs that are more musically beautiful and might bring up sadness in people for that reason. Although I think it was the context at the time with what was going on with Freddie that also made me feel the sadness in the song My Bijou much more, > "To live the rest of our lives like true lovers, the rest of our days like true lovers, forever, my bijou".It was evident that "the rest our lives" wasn't going to be very long and that made the sentiment in the song upsetting. . |
| pianoshizzle 28.01.2013 18:11 |
'You Take My Breath Away' I find is really sad, firstly because the main theme of the song is 'minor'. Secondly though on a deeper lyrical level, I feel that it is about a person's emotional attatcment to someone they deeply love, but is now gone far away ("I will find you anywhere you go...right until the end of the earth"). It could maybe be about how the singer is having a secret relationship with someone who is already committed elsewhere? But it is definitley a true love song and how the singer is bessotted with his lover in everyway possible. Even if this is the wrong interpretation, I've always found it one Freddie's most moving songs (more powerful than LOML?) Anybody think this? |
| Heavenite 28.01.2013 18:57 |
Hi pianoshizzle Yes its definitely about extreme attachment to a lover. But don't forget the lines before the one you quote which say "So please don't go, don't leave me here all by myself, I get ever so lonely from time to time. I will find you anywhere you go". So more about the attachment thing than a lover that has actually gone at this point I think. |
| tomchristie22 28.01.2013 19:27 |
You Take My Breath Away, beautiful as it is, strikes me as kind of creepy and stalker-like, lyrically. Doesn't ruin my enjoyment of it or anything but it's still there. I definitely agree that Bijou is sad sounding. |
| Heavenite 28.01.2013 21:02 |
True Tom. Its all about extreme attachment to a lover, which can lead to stalking and is definitely unhealthy. But it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the song. In fact. I can relate to it because I have felt quite a bit the same way in the past. allbeit not quite to the same extent. And that's part of its power I think. It's my favourite song on ADATR, along with Tie Your Mother Down. |
| YAFF 28.01.2013 23:33 |
pianoshizzle wrote: 'You Take My Breath Away' I find is really sad, firstly because the main theme of the song is 'minor'. Secondly though on a deeper lyrical level, I feel that it is about a person's emotional attatcment to someone they deeply love, but is now gone far away ("I will find you anywhere you go...right until the end of the earth"). It could maybe be about how the singer is having a secret relationship with someone who is already committed elsewhere? But it is definitley a true love song and how the singer is bessotted with his lover in everyway possible. Even if this is the wrong interpretation, I've always found it one Freddie's most moving songs (more powerful than LOML?) Anybody think this?Could be but it's Freddie's voice that gets me choked up. Achingly beautiful. |
| brENsKi 29.01.2013 05:10 |
NEVERMORE which is also my favourite queen track far and away queen's saddest song. melody - so sorrowful - a perfect lament - TICK lyrics - good god!!! TICK vocally - wow! Freddie sings it like everything is over! TICK brevity - sometimes short and to the point is much sadder. TICK that last vocal bar - expressive, with a hint of pity - TICK, |
| splicksplack 29.01.2013 10:57 |
Bowie once said that there aren't any Queen songs that make you cry and I think I understand what he means. While there are some 'sad' themes both lyrically and musically, I don't find anything really "touching" that would cause a lip quiver. Save Me is probably closest (but then loses it when it gets all bombastic). i think it's down to the arrangements and FM's delivery. There's not a lot of sensitivity and as lovely a LOML is the florid arrangement (harps etc) detract from what is being said. It's almost as though they have hidden any vulnerabilty behind grand musical gestures. |
| splicksplack 29.01.2013 11:00 |
I appreciate You Take My Breath Away on a purely technical level. Other than that I can not listen to it. |
| Donna13 29.01.2013 11:41 |
The saddest songs for me are Delilah, It's a Beautiful Day, and Is This The World We Created. Love Of My Life sung alone by Brian makes me cry. Anything that reminds me of Freddie's amazing spirit, even while knowing his time here on Earth was going to be ending early - that makes me sad. People who use the word bombastic when describing Queen's music, seem to have read music reviews. Ha. Silly old music reviewers. But I think it also depends on our emotional state before we turn on the music. Maybe sometimes we just are too happy to feel sad. |
| GratefulFan 29.01.2013 11:58 |
splicksplack wrote: Bowie once said that there aren't any Queen songs that make you cry and I think I understand what he means. While there are some 'sad' themes both lyrically and musically, I don't find anything really "touching" that would cause a lip quiver. Save Me is probably closest (but then loses it when it gets all bombastic). i think it's down to the arrangements and FM's delivery. There's not a lot of sensitivity and as lovely a LOML is the florid arrangement (harps etc) detract from what is being said. It's almost as though they have hidden any vulnerabilty behind grand musical gestures.These are interesting observations. I haven't rifled the entire catalogue in my head but the only somewhat immediate and instinctive response I had was "All Dead, All Dead" which is down to the feel of the song and Brian's delivery. It's not so much sad as compellingly and convincingly emotional. Save Me is in the mix somewhere too, with caveats. Brian is probably the most sensitive of the four in that uncomplicated way that would innately translate to music . But you're right - despite lyrical content and emotional themes in Queen music that invite connection at that level it's not always easily there. Fred seemed emotionally guarded in many ways and it's interesting to contemplate that that might have been reflected in his music and performance as well, the one area we perhaps assume those defenses must fall away. There has always been something standing between me and LOML that I've never been quite able to articulate. The right boxes are ticked - the story behind the song, the acoustic treatment, the simple, vulnerable words. But I have never fallen into the song, for lack of a better phrase. I always feel like an observer. |
| GratefulFan 29.01.2013 12:17 |
Donna13 wrote: Love Of My Life sung alone by Brian makes me cry.It's interesting because I think most if not all of the songs sung by both of them are better communicated by Brian. Perhaps that's down to the man with the better instrument being more conscious of the technical aspects of delivery and Brian aware of his limitations just losing himself in a song with the relative freedom of fewer expectations. Or perhaps as I rambled in my previous post it's down to the differences between the two men emotionally. |
| Holly2003 29.01.2013 13:27 |
Very thoughtful comments from splicksplack and GF on this thread. Surprised no one's mentioned 'Is This the World We Created?' Not, in my view, their saddest song, but the intent to make a sad song is there (or maybe it's to provoke anger?) For me, their saddest song is 'I Can't Live WIth You', for personal reasons that I'm not going to disclose to a bunch of oiks on Queenzone ;) It has the same sentiments as Claptons 'Old Love' and if you can't work it out from that then you never will ... |
| Graeme Arnott 29.01.2013 14:27 |
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| Graeme Arnott 29.01.2013 14:28 |
Final track on Made in Heaven |
| thomasquinn 32989 29.01.2013 14:30 |
waunakonor wrote: Musically, it's very powerful and moving, at least for me. The guitar parts sound sorrowful.I agree on the moving and powerful part, but I've never heard sadness in it. It's probably the least sad song on Innuendo in my mind, now that I think about it. |
| jpgthfc 29.01.2013 14:50 |
It tends to be the earlier material for me. Nevermore, love of my life, '39, long away, some day one day. Later stuff probably mother love, too much love will kill you, these are the days of our lives (always gets to me) and maybe even is this the world we created! |
| MartynTS 29.01.2013 15:40 |
The Night Comes Down always makes me kind of emotional, I don't know if i would really call it sad though...it's also in my top 3 Queen songs... I felt obligated to mention it. I guess I would go with Nevermore, such an amazing song, and so sad. I wish it was longer! But i suppose it's perfect as it is... Other songs: Save Me, Who Wants To Live Forever, The Show Must Go On, It's Late (kind of an aggressive sad), White Queen, Some Day One Day... Going Back always makes me really sad, even though it's not really a Queen song... just the context of it i guess. Mother Love is also sad in the context. |
| waunakonor 29.01.2013 15:53 |
I agree with Holly that there are some good thoughts here, but I STRONGLY disagree with splicksplack. YTMBA absolutely mesmerized me the first time I heard it, and I still get a bit breathtaken at its beauty. Definitely could cause a lip quiver or two in me if I'm caught in a certain mood. |
| Heavenite 29.01.2013 16:41 |
Someone mentioned These Are The Days Of Our Lives. And that last "I still love you" into the camera cut me up more than any other moment in the Queen catalogue. Although that's a lot to do with the visuals as well I guess. |
| Donna13 29.01.2013 18:10 |
I don't know why Brian's singing of Love of My Life gets to me, but it is not because the song itself is very sad to me (the record version doesn't make me cry), but I think it is that the song was very personally meaningful to Freddie. And it is a way that Brian is communicating that because this song was important to Freddie, it is also important to Brian. And that touches me deeply. So I guess I am crying because I am touched by Brian's gesture, rather than because of the music. It is probably a combination: being stirred by the personal sentiments coming from Freddie (in the past), and mix that with, or add to that, Brian, and the audience, and the music and beautiful performance. And the sadness that Freddie is not here "by your side to remind you" but the song is here and the song is Freddie reminding whoever he wrote the song for (Brian assumes it is Mary). |
| tomchristie22 29.01.2013 23:09 |
splicksplack wrote: I appreciate You Take My Breath Away on a purely technical level. Other than that I can not listen to it.I can sort of see where you're coming from. Try the amended live versions, the Hyde Park recording that was officially released recently is excellent, and what I feel is a more concise rearrangement of the original song. And Freddie's voice is absolutely beautiful. |
| tomchristie22 29.01.2013 23:18 |
On the topic of Brian singing songs alone, I was recently watching audience recordings of the Hammersmith shows, and him singing Somebody To Love while the whole audience sings back the choir part was very bittersweet to me. I agree with the sentiments expressed by most people here. It's Late gets me, it's a very sort of bitter and desperate sadness that it's conveying. Who Wants To Live Forever can get to me as well, or at least the first half of it, after which it sounds more triumphant. White Queen is pretty melancholy as well. Splicksplack and Grateful Fan both make excellent points. Tracks like '39, while inherently sad, they're in a more melodramatic, disconnected way. Brian's solo version of Too Much Love Will Kill you, on the other hand, while perhaps overly sad and self pitying, is very depressing to me, with a distinct air of brokenness and defeat. |
| Donna13 30.01.2013 10:08 |
Quoting ... |
| Donna13 30.01.2013 10:10 |
... does not work. Interesting points above about different emotional styles of Freddie and Brian. Brian likes to talk about how Freddie "had the audience in the palm of his hand" but maybe it is Brian that connects more intimately with the audience, especially now that he has their full attention. Freddie was also protective of others, by nature, so maybe he never wanted to pull anyone's emotions too low, including the audience. |
| Belladonic haze 30.01.2013 15:18 |
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| Belladonic haze 30.01.2013 15:18 |
tomchristie22 wrote: Brian's solo version of Too Much Love Will Kill you, on the other hand, while perhaps overly sad and self pitying, is very depressing to me, with a distinct air of brokenness and defeat. THIS. |
| Missreclusive 30.01.2013 22:39 |
Teo Torriatte Nevermore Mother Love Love of my Life These Are The Days of Our Lives Teo Torriatte gets to me, but then as someone mentioned, it depends on my mood and whats going on. Quite a few of Queens songs have brought me to tears, that voice of Freddies is very moving. I never saw him live, but feel loss. I find it fascinating how a person can literally love a person they've never met ..love them through their art and expression of it. Brians LOML gets to me too. But then honestly, watching some of the Freddie interviews move me too....lol...I'm a sap. |
| Shonsu 02.06.2014 19:50 |
I must say I'm rather surprised that there are people who can't hear the sadness in "Bijou." That guitar just sends chills down my spine. I can't help but hear it as a song of sadness and hope. Also I now have David Bowie if he said something that foolish. |
| Shonsu 02.06.2014 19:57 |
Ugh... Hate not have |
| FreddieCat 05.06.2014 13:43 |
A Winters Tale. Written and sung by a dying man in appreciation of the beauty of his surrounding environment |
| richallojerseygmail.com 13.12.2014 14:09 |
For me, the saddest Queen songs are in order as follows: 1) These Are The Days Of Our Lives 2) The Show Must Go On 3) Who Wants To Live Forever 4) A Winter's Tale 5) Love Of My Life 6) Bijou 1) This is in my favourite three Queen songs, getting to me every time. It's Freddie's goodbye song following his almighty success and the lyrics are so meaningful and distressing. 2) Such a hard song to listen to because it's so emotional and painful (in terms of Freddie's suffering). The vocals are probably better than ever for, with so much passion, determination and frustration. 3) Very sad in terms of the fact that it was written before Freddie knew he was dying. Sends chills down my spine every time and the Wembley live performance gets me every time. 4) Such a poignant and beautiful song, which just proved how poetic and magnificent Freddie's writing was. Describes the elements of winter so magically. It was also written and recorded in one take two weeks before he died. 5) A really sad song in terms of Freddie's early days. Very emotional moments occurred during live performances (particularly for Brian). The guitar is so gentle during live versions, although the piano is meticulous in the original. 6) Such a haunting and stunning piece of guitar with wonderful, spine-chilling vocals from Freddie. |
| Viper 15.12.2014 06:58 |
Nevermore |
| br5946 16.12.2014 15:24 |
I'm surprised that Scandal hasn't come up yet. Lyrically it qualifies, and there's a bitterness in Freddie's delivery even if he does some gymnastics with the song's range. The vocoder bits after the solo seem void of emotion especially, which for me outlines the 'less-is-more' phrase perfectly. And as someone else has said, Brian's version of TMLWKY - the performance at the Freddie tribute always moves me. And even it's one of my all-time favourites by the band, I have to give It's A Hard Life a mention here. Brian said once "it's one of Freddie's loveliest songs", and I'm with him on that. Loveliest and saddest - the instrumental work only highlights that. |
| Fat Bottomed Queen 03.08.2015 12:10 |
The Show Must Go On makes me cry. Especially how it fades out at the end. Their most touching anthem IMO. such power, and the whole story behind it. Also, Just about the entirety of MIH, |
| Bike It 80 03.08.2015 17:16 |
For me it's These Are The Days of Our Lives. When I started listening to Queen, I was 12 and I wasn't too keen on the song. But the older I get, the better I appreciate the song, especially the lyrics. The guitar solo is probably Brian's most heartfelt solo. And like it has been said before by Heavenite, when I hear the final "I still love you", I can't help but think of Freddie in the video. Brings a tear to my eye everytime. |
| FMercuryFan88 03.08.2015 20:25 |
Love of My Life, Too Much Love Will Kill You, Who Wants to Live Forever, These Are the Days of Our Lives, Don't Try So Hard, The Show Must Go On. Not a Queen song but In My Defense is a beautifully sad song. |
| noorie 04.08.2015 04:36 |
Nevermore. A minute+ of sheer perfection that touches the heart without being maudlin. |
| Invisible Woman 21.06.2017 03:44 |
Bijou, To Much Love will kill you,Mother Love,Who Wants To Live Forever,Somebody to love,The Show Must Go One... |
| Krypto_98 21.06.2017 11:45 |
For me it's Mother Love. Brian's part at the end gets me every time |
| Oscar J 21.06.2017 15:26 |
Most of Hot Space and The Works is quite sad. |
| matt z 21.06.2017 20:23 |
Oscar J wrote: Most of Hot Space and The Works is quite sad.Couldn't have put it better |
| Kuijpy 22.06.2017 16:29 |
1. Dear Friends 2. White Queen 3. Nevermore 4. These are the days 5. Was it all worth it 6. Mother Love 7. Face it Alone |
| Seed_Of_Rhy 23.06.2017 06:07 |
Oscar J wrote: Most of Hot Space and The Works is quite sad. Have you mean Back Chat / KPTOW for instance? )) For me the saddest: 1. One Year of Love 2. These are the Days 3. Bijou 4. Mother Love 5. No-one But You 6. Say it's not True |