Saddest line in rock?

HURT is a very sad song

I hurt myself today

To see if I still feel

I focus on the pain

The only thing that’s real

The needle tears a hole

The old familiar sting

Try to kill it all away

But I remember everything

What have I become?

My sweetest friend

Everyone I know

Goes away in the end

You could have it all

My empire of dirt

I will let you down

I will make you hurt

I wear my crown of s**t

On my liar’s chair

Full of broken thoughts

I cannot repair

Beneath the stain of time

The feeling disappears

You are someone else

I am still right here

What have I become?

My sweetest friend

Everyone I know

Goes away in the end

You could have it all

My empire of dirt

I will let you down

I will make you hurt

If I could start again

A million miles away

I would keep myself

I would find a way

In terms of song, I'd have to my vote in for "Hurt." Might be a bit more than a single line, but how about these gems:

I wear my crown of s**t

On my liar’s chair

Full of broken thoughts

I cannot repair

Beneath the stain of time

The feeling disappears

You are someone else

I am still right here

What have I become?

My sweetest friend

Everyone I know

Goes away in the end

You could have it all

My empire of dirt

I will let you down

I will make you hurt

If I could start again

A million miles away

I would keep myself

I would find a way

Cash's cover is very moving. Even more so when combined with the video...

Quoting from memory, may have some words and line breaks wrong:

Every time it rains,

Every time I hear raindrops fall,

I may say that I don't mind it at all

But I do.

Every time it rains,

Every time I try to tell myself

That in time I'll find somebody else

It won't be you.

-- Randy Newman

Down In A Hole Lyrics(Alice In Chains, MTV Unplugged)

Bury Me Softly In This Womb

I Give This Part Of Me For You

Sand Rains Down And Here I Sit

Holding Rare Flowers

In A Tomb.....In Bloom

Down In A Hole And I Don't Know

If I Can Be Saved

See My Heart I Decorate It

Like A Grave

You Don't Understand Who They

Thought I Was Supposed To Be

Look At Me Now A Man

Who Won't Let Himself Be

Down In A Hole, Losin' My Soul

Down In A Hole, Losin' Control

I'd Like To Fly

But My Wings Have Been So Denied

Down In A Hole And They've Put All

The Stones In Their Place

I've Eaten The Sun So My Tongue

Has Been Burned Of The Taste

I Have Been Guilty

Of Kicking Myself In The Teeth

I Will Speak No More

Of My Feelings Beneath

Oh I Want To Be Inside Of You

Down In A Hole, Losin' My Soul

Down In A Hole, Feelin' So Small

Down In A Hole, Losin' My Soul

Down In A Hole, Out Of Control

I'd Like To Fly

But My Wings Have Been So Denied

Alice In Chains...the whole Unplugged album is pretty sad/dark...this song and Nutshell stand out to me...

Cry Me A River wrote:

Down In A Hole Lyrics(Alice In Chains, MTV Unplugged)

Yea Alice in Chains has a a lot of deep stuff, I think Rooster is pretty sad too

dead dogs and jilted lovers wrote:

max fischer wrote:

Man, the whole Nebraska album is pretty sad. Reason to Believe is the only song that isn't dark.

Reason to Believe is the darkest song on the album.

Depends how you interpret it. But the darkest? Darker than "Nebraska?" "Atlantic City?" "Highway Patrolman?" "State Trooper?"

How about "When You're Alone" from Tunnel of Love?

"It ain't hard feelings or nothing

That ain't what's got me singin' this song

It's just, no one knows, honey, where love goes

But when it goes, it's gone, gone,

When you're alone, you're alone

When you're alone, you're alone

When you're alone, you're alone

When you're alone, you ain't nothing but alone."

I'm casting another vote for Jackson Browne - there are several on "Late for the Sky," but how about:

Just do the steps that you’ve been shown

By everyone you’ve ever known

Until the dance becomes your very own

No matter how close to yours

Another’s steps have grown

In the end there is one dance you’ll do alone

Keep a fire for the human race

Let your prayers go drifting into space

You never know what will be coming down

Perhaps a better world is drawing near

And just as easily it could all disappear

Along with whatever meaning you might have found

Don’t let the uncertainty turn you around

(the world keeps turning around and around)

Go on and make a joyful sound

Into a dancer you have grown

From a seed somebody else has thrown

Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own

And somewhere between the time you arrive

And the time you go

May lie a reason you were alive

But you’ll never know

its just the pavement left, and broken dreams.

hunter/garcia

wharf rat too

"half of my life

spent doin time

for some other f***er's crime"

"sing me back home,

a song i used to hear

make my old memories come alive

sing me away

and turn back the years

sing me back home

before i die."

I suggest people listen to "Randall Knife" by Guy Clark. Anyone who ever lost their dad will agree its about the hardest song for a man not to cry through, or just imagine your own pop, dead or alive. The lyrics don't give it justice really, its amazingly sad though...

He let me take it camping once

On a Boy Scout jamboree

And I broke a half an inch off

Trying to stick it in a tree

I hid it from him for a while

But the knife and he were one

He put it in his bottom drawer

Without a hard word one

There it slept and there it stayed

For twenty some odd years

Sort of like Excalibur

Except waiting for a tear

My father died when I was forty

And I couldn't find a way to cry

Not because I didn't love him

Not because he didn't try

I'd cried for every lesser thing

Whiskey, pain and beauty

But he deserved a better tear

And I was not quite ready

(Middle Portion of it)

The saddest song is an eponym from Lou Reed's Berlin. If that's not enough for you "The Bed" might push you over the edge.

Sad Song

Staring at my picture book

She looks like Mary, Queen of Scots

She seemed very regal to me

Just goes to show how wrong you can be

I'm gonna stop wastin' my time

Somebody else would have broken both of her arms

Sad song, Sad song, Sad song, Sad song

My castle, kids and home

I thought she was Mary, Queen of Scots

I tried so very hard

Shows just how wrong you can be

I'm gonna stop wasting time

Somebody else would have broken both of her arms

Sad song, Sad song, Sad song, Sad song

The Bed

This is the place where she lay her head

When she went to bed at night

And this is the place our children were conceived

Candles lit the room brightly at night

And this is the place where she cut her wrists

That odd and fateful night

And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling

And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling

This is the place where we used to live

I paid for it with love and blood

And these are the boxes that she kept on the shelf

Filled with her poetry and stuff

And this is the room where she took the razor

And cut her wrists that strange and fateful night

And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling

And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling

I never would have started if I'd known

That it's end this way

But funny thing, I'm not at all sad

That it stopped this way

This is the place where she lay her head

When she went to bed at night

And this is the place our children were conceived

Candles lit the room brightly at night

And this is the place where she cut her wrists

That odd and fateful night

And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling

And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling

How about some Lou Reed?

Dirty Blvd.

Pedro lives out of the Wilshire Hotel

he looks out a window without glass

The walls are made of cardboard, newspapers on his feet

his father beats him 'cause he's too tired to beg

He's got 9 brothers and sisters

they're brought up on their knees

it's hard to run when a coat hanger beats you on the thighs

Pedro dreams of being older and killing the old man

but that's a slim chance he's going to the boulevard

He's going to end up, on the dirty boulevard

he's going out, to the dirty boulevard

He's going down, to the dirty boulevard

Waltzing Matilda from The Pogues:

When I was a young man I carried my pack

And I lived the free life of a rover

From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback

I waltzed my Matilda all over

Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son

It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done

So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun

And they sent me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As we sailed away from the quay

And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers

We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day

How the blood stained the sand and the water

And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay

We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter

Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well

He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells

And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell

Nearly blew us right back to Australia

But the band played Waltzing Matilda

As we stopped to bury our slain

We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs

Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive

In a mad world of blood, death and fire

And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive

But around me the corpses piled higher

Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit

And when I woke up in my hospital bed

And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead

Never knew there were worse things than dying

For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda

All around the green bush far and near

For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs

No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed

And they shipped us back home to Australia

The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane

Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla

And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay

I looked at the place where my legs used to be

And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me

To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As they carried us down the gangway

But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared

Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch

And I watch the parade pass before me

And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march

Reliving old dreams of past glory

And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore

The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war

And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"

And I ask myself the same question

And the band plays Waltzing Matilda

And the old men answer to the call

But year after year their numbers get fewer

Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda

Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me

And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong

Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?

"Is That All There Is?"

And when I was twelve years old

My daddy took me to the circus

The greatest show on earth

And there were clowns

And elephants

Dancing bears,

And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads

And as I sat there watching

I had the feeling that something was missing

I don't know what

But when it was all over

I said to myself

" Is that all there is to the circus ? "

Is that all there is?

If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing

Let's break out the booze and have a ball

If that's all there is

And then I fell in love

With the most wonderful boy in the world

We'd take long walks down by the river

Or just sit for hours gazing into each other's eyes

We were so very much in love

And then one day

He went away

And i thought i'd die

But I didn't

And when I didn't

I said to myself

" Is that all there is to love ? "

Is that all there is?

If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep

I know what you must be saying to yourselves

If that's the way she feels about it

Then why doesn't she just end it all

Oh no. not me. i'm not ready for the final disappointment

'Cause I know just as well as i'm standing here talking to you

That when that final moment comes

And i'm breathing my last breath

I know what I'll be saying to myself

" Is that all there is ? "

Is that all there is?

If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing

Let's break out the booze and have a ball

If that's all there is

legally blond wrote:

There’s one more kid that will never go to school

Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.

Least you could do is give Shakey the credit.

Tracy Lawrence--If I don't make it back

We went out for beers and a couple of laughs

Knowin' full well that every bad joke that Jimmy told

Might be his last

So we laughed like the world wasn't at war

Said things to him we'd never said before

And he teared up as he held up his glass

He said, boys, if I don't make it back

Have a beer for me, don't waste no tears on me

On Friday night sit on the visitors side

And cheer for the home team

Drive my Camaro, 90 miles an hour down Red Rock Road

With 'Born to Run' blastin' on the radio

And find someone good enough for Amy

Who will love her like I would have

If I don't make it back

We said, hey, man that ain't gonna happen

Don't even think like that

If we know you, you'll pull through without a scratch

He pulled me aside in the parkin' lot

Said, Amy and me we're gonna tie the knot

You're my best man, just wanted you to know that

Just in case I don't make it back

Have a beer for me, don't waste no tears on me

On Friday night sit on the visitors side

And cheer for the home team

Drive my Camaro, 90 miles an hour down Red Rock Road

With 'Born to Run' blastin' on the radio

And find someone good enough for Amy

Who will love her like I would have

If I don't make it back

If the good Lord calls me home

I'd like to think my friends

Will think about me when I'm gone

Well, Miller Lite ain't my brand

But I drink one every now and then, in his honour

And we ain't missed a home game yet

Had that Camero at 110 on Red Rock Road

When the speakers blowed

And I introduced Amy to a friend of mine from Monroe

He's a good ol' boy

But you know, she just ain't ready

Lonestar where are you out tonight?

This feeling I'm trying to fight

It's dark and I think that I would give anything

For you to shine down on me

How far you are I just don't know

The distance I'm willing to go

I pick up a stone that I cast to the sky

Hoping for some kind of sign

i'm not really even a big fan of queen, but i think this line is pretty sad...

"i sometimes wish i'd never been born at all"

Wow, half the songs listed are ones I would name as my favorites...Wish You Were Here, Ain't No Sunshine, etc. etc. I guess I'm pretty morbid. Anyway.. here are more:

Fire and Rain by James Taylor (I think anyone else who's had a friend commit suicide can relate)

Grey Street by Dave Matthews Band

I Know It's Over by the Smiths

can't remember the title, but the I am a rock song by Simon and Garfunkel has some good lines

Angel by the Eurythmics

Snowblind Friend by Steppenwolf

And my favorite line: "I think I've reached the point where giving up and going on are both the same dead end to me." by the Cure

dance your cares away

worries for another day

and let the music play...

down in FRAGGLE ROCK!

How about some Ocean Blue:

Song: Drifting, Falling

You may find you're all alone

Friends have all grown up and gone- away

Drifting falling on your own again

The walls of cold and grey surround

They surround

Drifting falling

watching all your dreams roll by

Somewhere out there

She sees you and she sighs

M M M My My My