I love a sad song, hence the list of five sad songs to make you cry (look to your right and you'll find them).
I can't even think about any of these songs without getting teary. They are just so beautiful, and each so different yet similar - exploring themes that touch all our lives.
The day you went away would have to be one of my favourite songs of all time. It's a simple song about the end of a relationship (or that's how I read it). Like Paul Kelly's poetic narrative To her door, it's so pared back and wrapped around the everyday, which helps explain why it hits a nerve.
"Hey, there's not a cloud in sight
it's as blue as your blue goodbye
and I thought that it would rain
the day you went away"
Of course, there are millions of brilliant sad songs. I'm sure everyone has a song that makes them cry because it holds some special significance and triggers a memory of an event that shaped their life.
I haven't put Darryl Braithwaite's The Horses on the list, but I adore it (it's not like me to be too mainstream!). It was a hit in Australia just after my first daughter was born in 1991. I was pretty emotional at the time and whenever it was on the radio I would think of my daughter and start bawling.
I still can't listen to it without breaking down.
Another tearjerker worthy of the list is Cold Chisel's Flame Trees, but not the original. Sarah Blasko does a gut-wrenching rendition, and there's a spine-tingling version on the soundtrack to the film Little Fish, performed by the Sacred Heart School Choir from Cabramatta.
Enjoy.
(Pic: Wendy Matthews)
