30-Day Song Challenge – Day 4

Day 4 – A Song That Makes You Sad

Where would I even begin?

Musically, there are songs that have weird chord transitions that inexplicably make me cry (Saint-Saens “Carnival of the Animals – Finale“), songs that make me cry because of their associations (Judy Garland’s “Zing!  Went the Strings of My Heart“), and songs that are so beautiful that I turn into that kid from American Beauty with his plastic bag video (Anberlin’s “*fin” and Johnny Cash’s “Hurt“), wondering how in the hell such beautiful music can exist in the same world as the things that have inspired some of it (and yes, I like Cash’s version better than NIN.  get over it).

The winner, however, for sheer tear-jerking familiarity factor, is “Mad World”, as sung by Gary Jules:

My life in song, ladies and gentlemen.

I know Tears for Fears did it first, and some might argue they did it better – I wouldn’t argue with that when it comes to musical complexity. However, Gary’s version captures the absolute hopelessness of the song’s lyrics.

I’d go into more detail, but I get the feeling some of you already know what I’m talking about.