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Lonely blue songs — 26 Comments

  1. ‘Chiseled In Stone’ is one of the best sad songs ever.

    ‘You don’t know about lonely til it’s chiseled in stone’

    There is a reason they called Vern Gosdin ‘The Voice’.

  2. Actually, the “Only The Lonely” version you posted was (re-)corded in the mid-1980s, when Roy Orbison was soaring again (at long last). The original versions were tied up in court(s), and Roy and his manager (wife Barbara Orbison) were anxious to capitalize on his new-old popularity.

    “Only The Lonely” was written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson*. Joe was a wannabee singer himself, a good looking chap with a good voice, but unfortunately for him, those are a dime-a-dozen in the music industry. On the original big hit studio recording, from the summer of 1960, that’s Joe doing the dum-dum-dum-dee-doo-wahs, while Roy does the vocals.

    The re-recording is a close copy, but for true-blue fans of The Big O, there’s *nothing* like the originals. Here’s Roy’s original “Only The Lonely”:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGTipzpBqc4

    * as were other early Orbison hits, like “Blue Angel”, “Running Scared”, and “Crying”.

  3. That’s it for me. I’m leaving home to stay down at the end of Lonely Street at Heartbreak Hotel.

    Ya make me so lonely.
    Ya make me so lonely.
    Ya make me so lonely baby I could die….

  4. American Gospel music includes some lonely blue songs– one of them is “Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley”: here it is, sung by a Roman Catholic choir in Ajax, Ontario.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbv-kYjak08&ab_channel=Sunday7pmChoir%7CCatholic%26ChristianChoralMusic

    This folk song doesn’t sugar-coat the feeling of spiritual loneliness that so many people are undergoing at present; it doesn’t have any kind of positive ending, Biblical or otherwise– but it’s fitting for the Saturday pause between Good Friday and Easter.

  5. Most I know, the ones I don’t I’ll give a listen to, thank goodness for streaming services.

    IMHO, no list of lonely songs is complete without…

    Lenny Welch’s heart wrenching, “Since I Fell for You”

    Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”

    Gilbert Sullivan’s poignant “Alone Again, Naturally”

    Roy Orbison’s “Crying”

    Linda Ronstadt’s ” Faithless Love”

    Bread’s “Everything I Own”

    Roy Clark’s “Yesterday When I Was Young”

    Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind”

    Frank Sinatra’s “Only the Lonely” – “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry” – “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” – “I Get Along Without You Very Well” – “When Your Lover Has Gone”

    In moderation, melancholy is good for the soul.

  6. That Mood Indigo is quite wild. I think she was trying to break some molds there and succeeded. It’s sort of a Boogie Woogie piece, but it’s got jazz improv passages. And it is so up tempo and up beat really. For a blues song?

  7. Thanks Neo and don frese for the Mood Indigo songs. Not having listened to the two versions back-to-back I didn’t notice any commonality between them at all. The tempos are radically different for starters.

    This was interesting.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_Indigo

    The Duke Ellington song was originally called “Dreamy Blues” and was re-titled when it became popular.

    A movie named Mood Indigo was made in 2013 which is a bit of an homage to Duke Ellington. They use several of his songs, and he is mentioned in the script, but they don’t use the title song in the soundtrack.

    If anyone is interested, there is a Rick Beato video called The Greatest Solo of All Time featuring the Oscar Peterson trio and the solo is something of a medley of classic blues styles.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj93v9j2A4A

  8. Griffin:

    My road to Hank Williams was via the Cowboy Junkies and their hyper-slow-and-mournful version of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”

    –Cowboy Junkies, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJt9KFyJnbk

    I confess I found Hank’s original a bit thin after cutting my teeth on the Junkies’ cover.

    They also did a great “Sweet Jane,” which — to speak of wonders — even Lou Reed had to compliment.

  9. huxley,

    Well, Hank’s version was recorded in 1949 and almost all the hillbilly/country recordings from that era sound thin or sparse or whatever one wants to call it.

    Most of these songs were recorded in one take and probably took like twenty minutes to record the version we have all heard which makes them even more amazing when you think about how multiple takes and multi track recording became the standard in the mid 1960s.

  10. I was going to suggest “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” but I see that Griffin and huxley beat me to it. Mr Whatsit tells me that Elvis Presley called it the saddest song ever written.

    And as for Elvis, shouldn’t this be near the top of the list?

    “Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare?
    Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?
    Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again?
    Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?”

  11. Neo thanks for the introduction to Vern Gosdin. I had never heard that song. Unfortunately very relevant to me.

    I certainly agree with those touting Hank Williams’ I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry. Got to be one of the saddest songs ever. I didn’t see anybody mention Kris Kristofferson’s Sunday Morning Coming Down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXSl-cuv_iE.

  12. Most of these songs were recorded in one take and probably took like twenty minutes to record the version we have all heard which makes them even more amazing when you think about how multiple takes and multi track recording became the standard in the mid 1960s.

    Griffin:

    Actually, the Cowboy Junkies’ “The Trinity Session” album (all but one song) was recorded in a church with one mic and in one session. Back to basics.

    According to the album sleeve notes: “the recording was not mixed, overdubbed or edited in any way.”

    A very spare, pure sound. Which I found quite attrractive, because, for my taste, even in 1988, music had gotten way too overproduced and mucked about.

    So I don’t mean the “thin” you seem to be talking about. The Junkies work slow, quiet and intimate. I can really sink into their music in a way I doubt I would with Hank Williams, even if he had had 1980s tech behind him.

    Maybe give their version of “Lonesome” a try.

  13. Good set of songs, plus lots of interesting comments & suggestions.
    This list of 20 songs includes some here, like my mother’s fav Roy Orbison, plus a few others.

    The dancing on upbeat Lonely Boy reminds me of … me. I love dancing, and could easily have been dancing quite like that guy. Plus he has that Peter Norton kinda once rolled up sleeves, which I like.

    Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” was a huge fav of my kids when they were early teens, and watching Naruto anime – a few different Naruto videos use this song. (This link has the less-known to me official vid)

    Didn’t know “Wilco” before, but his How to Fight Loneliness is cool.

    Knew about Weezer, but recall Neo noting she’s not so up on modern music, so I can recommend trying all of these songs. This one’s off their 9th album.

    My first HS girlfriend loved Neil Diamond, and Solitary Man had already been one of the ones I would sing.

    Was wondering if any others would think of the Doors “People Are Strange” – another song I’d sing in fog around LA a few decades ago.

    TOC:
    ‘Only The Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)’ By Roy Orbison
    ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go’ by Bob Dylan
    ‘So Lonely’ by The Police
    ‘Space Oddity’ by David Bowie
    ‘Lonely Boy’ by The Black Keys
    ‘Lonely’ by Tom Waits
    ‘Eleanor Rigby’ by The Beatles
    ‘Pictures of You’ by The Cure
    ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ by Hank Williams
    ‘Tired Of Being Alone’ by Al Green
    ‘Lonely Avenue’ by Ray Charles
    ‘The Loner’ by Neil Young
    ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ by Elvis Presley
    ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ by Green Day
    ‘How to Fight Loneliness’ by Wilco
    ‘Cactus’ by The Pixies
    ‘I Wish You Lonely’ by Morrissey
    ‘Lonely Girl’ by Weezer
    ‘Lonely People’ by America
    ‘Solitary Man’ by Neil Diamond

  14. Green Day wrote a song called “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”? Sacrilege!

    The original “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” was written in 1933. It’s a classic which has been covered by a ton of people.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_of_Broken_Dreams_(Al_Dubin_song)
    ____________________________

    I walk along the street of sorrow
    The boulevard of broken dreams
    Where gigolo and gigelette can take a kiss without regret
    So they forget their broken dreams

    You laugh tonight and cry tomorrow
    When you behold your shattered dreams
    And gigolo and gigelette
    Awake to find there eyes are wet
    With tears that tell their broken dreams

    Here is where you’ll always find me
    Always walking up and down
    But I left my soul behind me
    In an old cathedral town

    –Nat King Cole, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (Al Dubin, Harry Warren)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vh7Qreygpk

    ____________________________

    Nat King Cole was such a classy singer. Heavy smoker. Died of lung cancer in 1965.

  15. Neil Sedaka’s “Solitaire” doesn’t get enough respect. Much better than the Karen Carpenter cover.

    And while we’re on Nina Simone, “Ne me quitte pas.”

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