A rock music standard is the “sad song”. Most commonly these revolve around “love”, but not always! Sometimes they can just be talking about a sad situation. This episode, we look at a grab bag of sad songs and artists who cover “sad” from a range of viewpoints. Keep your tissues close by!!

In “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” we celebrate Australians Johnny Young and Glenn A Baker and jump to the left for the wonderful Tim Curry.

In “Rock News”, Jeff discovers a documentary about the early photo shoot for a very young Kate Bush that shows a little more than acceptable for those times but would not be an issue these days.

Sad Song Playlist

It’s a wild ride!

References: Johnny Young, Glenn A. Baker, Tim Curry, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pennywise the Clown, Stephen King’s “It”, Kate Bush, Gered Mankowitz, 1001 Albums You Must Hear before You Die, Robert Dimery, Elastica, Lou Reed, Berlin, Puff the Magic Dragon, Peter, Paul & Mary, Peter Yarrow, Love Hurts, Nazareth, Yesterday, The Beatles , Paul McCartney, Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, Without You, Nilsson, Peter Ham, Tom Evans, Badfinger, Leader of the Pack, The Shangri-Las, Hurt, Johnny Cash, Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails, Mark Romanek, 2003 MTV Music Video Awards, Justin Timberlake, All I Want is You, U2, Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton, Seasons in the Sun, Jacques Brel, Terry Jacks, Creep, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, The Needle and the Damage Done, Neil Young, Danny Whitten, REM, Michael Stipe, Half a World Away, Everybody Hurts, Nightswimming, Elliott Smith, Waltz #2, The Smiths, Morrissey, “I Know it’s Over”, “How Soon is Now”

Johnny Cash - “Hurt”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI

Kate Bush Album Recreation

Tags: The best Rock music podcast, the saddest songs ever, opinionated bastards

Send us a message, so we know what you're thinking!

Over the last 6 years, we’ve often cited Roxy Music amongst our favourite bands, albums or songs. We’ve talked about their albums - covers, lyrics, and so on – and included them amongst “Deep Cuts” that you need to know about. Although Bowie was the first artist we obsessed over in our early teens, Roxy Music was the most important. This episode, we’d like to talk about how, in many ways, Roxy Music was a perfect answer to the world in the 70’s and a major influence on so much that came later.

In “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, we celebrate Dolly Parton, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and philanthropist, who died 25 August 2026. Not rock, you say? Well, she played Glastonbury in 2014, and told Elvis he couldn’t cover her song, “I Will Always Love You”. Not bad by any standards!

Our “Album You Must Hear Before You Die” is “One World” by John Martyn, a fascinating mix of folk, blues, rock and jazz produced by Chris Blackwell. Definitely one of the most interesting albums you’ll ever hear. We liked it.

Another great episode!

Playlist – all the music & artists we talked about in this episode

References: John Martyn, One World, Chris Blackwell, Island Records, Echoplex, Nick Drake, Paul Kossoff, Dolly Parton, “Jolene”, “I Will Always Love You”, Glastonbury, Elvis Presley, “Here You Come Again”, “After The Goldrush”, Bryan Ferry, Graham Simpson, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera, Paul Thompson, Brian Eno, Eddie Jobson, Curved Air, The Angels, Angel City, “On Some Faraway Beach”, David Sheppard, Clarence Clemons, Concrete Blonde, “Bloodletting”, “Caroline”, “Joey”, “Tomorrow, Wendy”, Bob Dylan, “A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall”, “Oblique Strategies”, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, Rainbow Theatre, Bowie, “Virginia Plain”, The BoB Medley, “Roxy Music”, “For Your Pleasure”, “In Every Dream Home a Heartache", John Lydon, “The Bogus Man”, “Street Life”, Colombia, “Stranded”, “Amazona”, “Over You”, Flesh and Blood, Hipgnosis, “More than This”, Yanick Etienne, “Avalon”, Toyah Wilcox, Robert Fripp, “Remake/Remodel”, “Julia”, Pavlov's Dog

Sunday Roast

Sunday Roast – Fripp/Wilcox - “Nevermind”

Dolly, Linda & Emmylou - After the Goldrush

Send us a message, so we know what you're thinking!

We’ve talked about how people don’t listen to the lyrics before using a song – for advertising, a political rally, or a special event. That's how we end up with Volvo using a song about drug abuse and transvestism to promote their cars, or couples using a song about obsession and stalking as they recite their wedding vows, or Iggy Pop’s ode to his heroin addiction to promote a luxury ocean cruise, to name but a few! We look at these and other examples of “Didn't you listen to the lyrics first?!”

Our Album you Must Listen to Before You Die is Cafe Bleu, by Style Council, in Paul Weller’s first outing after leaving The Jam. What a wonderful album!!

There’s lots more, including Pavlov’s Dog, The Smiths, Bon Jovi, Paul Simon, and heaps more!!

Enjoy!

References: Pavlov’s Dog, Abbie Steiling, “Berlin”, Pampered Menial, Globite, The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead, Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet, Paul Simon, Graceland, Google Gemini, Café Bleu, The Style Council, Paul Weller, Robert Dimery, “A Town Called Malice”, Tracey Thorn, Everything but the Girl, “You’re the Best Thing”, The Jam, “Walk on the Wild Side”, "Lust for Life", Iggy Pop, Ray Manzarek, Johnny Yen, “Trainspotting”, The Supremes, “You Can’t Hurry Love”, Phil Collins, "Help!", The Beatles, Ford Lincoln-Mercury, "Revolution", The Beatles, Nike, John Lennon, "Perfect Day", Lou Reed, AT&T, BBC, heroin, "London Calling", The Clash, 2012 London Olympic Games, Political Campaigns & Rallies, ”Born in the U.S.A.", Bruce Springsteen, Ronald Reagan, "Fortunate Son", Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Rockin' in the Free World", Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y, "Pink Houses", John Mellencamp, The American Dream, "Every Breath You Take", The Police, Trudy Styler, obsession, Sting, Stewart Copepland, "One", U2, Bono, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong, Amanda, "Brown Sugar", The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers, "Imagine", John Lennon, Steely Dan, “Only a Fool Would Say That”, Macarena, Los Del Río, YMCA, Village People

Playlist – Misused Songs

Send us a message, so we know what you're thinking!