OPINION

By Kalungi Kabuye

I recently came across a post where the streaming service Spotify rated one of the saddest songs ever written, the 1972 song The first time I Ever Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack. So, I listened to it, a few times. It didn’t strike me as very sad, though. Great singing, of course, and brilliant imagery. But it sounds more like a crush and a one-night stand; we can get over those, can’t we?

But it got me thinking, what exactly are sad songs? So, I did what everyone else does these days (including the unlamented Dr Kasenene) – I Googled. I found almost every major music magazine or outlet had a list of the top sad songs. That sounded weird to me, the top saddest songs? I thought being sad was not a good thing, yet here are people celebrating sad songs. Whatever is the world coming to? However, some of the more reliable lists had an explanation, if you are feeling sad about something, a sad song is going to lift you. Sounds confusing, right? Some really weird psychology right there. Maybe the adage that misery loves company has some truth to it after all.

But then I thought about the blues, which had its beginnings among the Africans taken as slaves to America. To try and raise their spirits, they sang, evoking the pain and loss they were going through. Of course, it has since evolved and is now more of a celebration of life than anything.

In the 1980s Uganda was in a sad place, and I realise now I listened to a lot of sad songs. From Dian Ross’ Now You’re Gone (probably pining for the good times that were gone), to many songs by Simon & Garfunkel, and a whole lot of Anne Murray, whose voice sounded sad even as she celebrated a good feeling. That also led me to wonder how come those sad song lists had few country songs, because country music is sad. We have Dolly Parton singing about holes in her shoes and kids laughing about her coat of many colours and begging her beautiful friend Joleen not to take her man just because she could.

To Kenny Rogers singing about a Lucille who had enough of working fields and wanted a better life; to Don Williams’ Maggie who worked in a café all her life and just dreamt about everything else… that whole darn genre is just plain sad.

But my melancholy self naturally gravitates towards that type of music, so, in no particular order, here are my top 10 sad songs: Someone is Always Saying Goodbye – Anne Murray I think this Canadian singer has the most melancholic voice ever, and here she captures very well that feeling of losing, whether it is someone or something. We all hate goodbyes.

You Can’t Make Old Friends – Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers

After a lifetime collaboration that produced some great songs, this was the last they did before Rogers’ death in March 2020. It is a celebration of their friendship, but you can almost feel them say goodbye to each other. And of course, it makes you think about the friends you could have made, but didn’t, and now it is too late.

Saving All My Love For You – Whitney Houston

Many sad songs are about unrequited love, but Whitney’s sad life and death make this one even more poignant. If she had saved her love for someone else, and not that crazy guy she married, would she have found happiness? Sad.

Everybody hurts sometimes – R.E.M

A classic ‘misery loves company’ song; everyone hurts, and everyone gets sad. It’s not just you, so get over it.

Have You Seen Her – Chi Lites ‘For all the friends I have, I’m still a lonely man’; melancholics will relate to that.

Scarborough Fair – Simon and Garfunkel

This duo features on almost all sad song lists, but usually for another song. I picked this one because of the outstanding melodies that invoke the feelings of the lonely guy missing out on a good time with his beloved.

My Love Is Your Love – Whitney Houston

What is sadder than loyalty that is not returned in equal measure? ‘If the Lord asked what I did with my life, I’d say I spent it with you’. But, where are you?

Nothing Compares To You – Sinead O’Connor Another sad life, but she gave special meaning to this song written by Prince. An unforgettable elegy to a departed one.

Neither One Of Us – Gladys Knight Undoubtedly my best singer of all time, she gives voice to the ones that hang on to something when we know it has run its course. No happy ending in sight, but because we hate to say goodbye, we hang on.

A Change Is Gonna Come — by Sam Cooke This has been covered by many singers, including Tina Turner; but the original by Sam Cooke still stands out among them. Written amidst the racism of 1960s America, it dreams of a future when life will be good, but is not sure if it will happen. To make it even sadder, Cooke never lived to see the changes he dreamed of happen, as he was shot and killed by a white man barely two years later. The killer was never charged with the murder.

@KalungiKabuye