Queen/Tear Jerker
< Queen
No one can ever accuse this classic rock band of not being able to perform sad songs:
- "The Show Must Go On". All the more heartrending is the fact that this is the closing track of Innuendo. What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?
- From the other wiki: "Demo versions featured May singing, having to sing some parts in falsetto because they were too high. When Brian May presented the final demo to Mercury, he had doubts that Mercury would be physically capable of singing the song's highly demanding vocal line, due to the extent of his illness at the time. To May's surprise, when the time came to record the vocals, Mercury consumed a measure of vodka and said "I'll fuckin' do it, darling!" then proceeded to nail the vocal line in one take without problems."
- Even the version used in Moulin Rouge is tear-jerking. The combination of the old seamstresses doing their coloratura, the stark lighting and funereal imagery on Satine, Nicole Kidman's very effective emotional performance, and how the song segues into a very melancholy version of "Nature Boy" at the end (itself already something of a Tear Jerker) can really get to one.
- The Show Must Go On will make you cry in three ways: The sad lyrics, the Reality Subtext with Freddie dying of AIDS while singing it, and the sheer, overwhelming awesomeness.
- Want a Queen tearjerker? Listen to Made in Heaven, Queen's last album, released 4 years after Mercury's death. Mercury recorded the lead vocals for many of the tracks during his final days. Numbers such as "Made in Heaven" and "Winter's Tale" (the last song Mercury wrote -- reportedly, two weeks before he died) can be hard to listen through.
- By the same token, for Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor to pull themselves together emotionally and creatively to finish the record from what was left over (and it didn't appear that Freddie's death was easy to cope with for any of them) and produce such a quality effort was a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the surviving members of Queen, too.
- "Who Wants To Live Forever?" That song--the lyrics are a perfect tearjerker, considering it comes on when Connor McLeod's wife grows old and dies, since McLeod, being Immortal, never will. Sheer emotion in the last line always gets the waterworks started.
- As well as "Who Wants to Live Forever," a funeral dirge that gives way to a powerful middle eight that ends abruptly, replaced by an otherwordly outro.
- "These Are The Days of Our Lives" and it's video runs a close second. Especially the ending with Freddie Mercury visibly thin and weak speaking the final line 'I still love you'.
- And then after the last album, after his death, the Made In Heaven album was released... and it's Freddie, come back from heaven to tell you "It's a beautiful day."
- And perhaps the only worthwhile effort after Freddie's death, "No One But You (Only the Good Die Young)"
- And, of course, can't forget "Bohemian Rhapsody."
- Although the depression is just for parts of that song (after "I see a little silhouetto of a man...", it's pretty happy).
- Ends depressing again.
- One of the interpretations of the song is that it's about a young man convicted of murder, probably wrongly accused, and it ends with the man accepting his fate as he heads to the gallows. The upbeat part? He's fighting it out in court. And he lost in the end.
- And if he wasn't wrongly accused (as seems evident from the lyrics) then it's possibly the only song that makes you feel genuine, tear-jerking sympathy with a murderer. "Life's just begun... and now I've gone and thrown it all away..."
- Although the depression is just for parts of that song (after "I see a little silhouetto of a man...", it's pretty happy).
- The final verse of "Under Pressure".
- "Dear Friends" from Sheer Heart Attack. A Brian May-penned lullaby that lasts for just over a minute, but it's enough to get you to break down. Once again, Freddie's passing makes the song even sadder.
- "'39". Though it's a bit more "aww" tears than sad tears.
- This video for the song gives it a new meaning. The pictures of Brian in 2008 singing "Don't you hear my call, though I'm many years away, don't you hear me calling you?" alternated with Queen performing in 1977 can really give certain people sad tears.
- There are also "All Dead, All Dead" and "Jealousy".
- "Mother Love", especially when you find out that it was the last song Freddie recorded, and that the reason Brian May sings the last verse is because Freddie didn't finish it in time...
- "Love Of My Life". It's even better live, when sometimes Freddie didn't even had to sing it all because the whole audience was singing it for him.
- "Sail Away Sweet Sister" My God.
- No "Bijou"? That heatbreaking guitar, it sounds like it's crying. And the lyrics...
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You and me we are destined you'll agree |
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- "Save Me".
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Each night I cry |
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- "Too Much Love Will Kill You". Brian's solo version in particular, it's heartbreaking to hear him belt out "And it seems like there's no way out of this for me..."
- I would also advise you to steer clear of Nevermore if you've just gone through a breakup.
- Jealousy is certainly a Tear Jerker. Also a Mood Whiplash as it is placed in between "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Bicycle Race" on the Jazz album.
- "I Want It All" when told what it's about.
- Freddie's status as a Determinator is well-deserved, and it's incredibly sad (and awesome) to think about how hard he pushed himself, even in his final days as he was dying. The man is a legend, and for damn good reason.