This British alternative rock band has some pretty depressing songs.
- Probably the biggest Smiths tear jerker ("I Know Its Over" aside) is the surprisingly uplifting and bittersweet "Reel Around The Fountain".
- "Paint a Vulgar Picture" is another example of bitter-sweetness leading to a Tear Jerker. The gorgeous melody and sad lyrics come together to make one of the most heartbreaking tracks in their catalog, especially since it was inspired by Morrissey meeting Marc Bolan shortly before his death.
- "Unhappy Birthday", though in typical Moz fashion it mixes the legitimately sad parts with deliberately melodramatic darkly absurdist humor."And you say no
You don't have to feel this way
And I sing no
I'm gonna kill my...dog
May the line sag
May the line sag heavy and deep tonight..." - However, "I Know It's Over" and "Asleep" are Grade-A tearjerkers, especially this famous verse of "I Know It's Over:"And you even spoke to me, and said :"If you're so funnyThen why are you on your own tonight?And if you're so cleverThen why are you on your own tonight?If you're so very entertainingThen why are you on your own tonight?If you're so very good-lookingWhy do you sleep alone tonight?I know...'Cause tonight is just like any other night"
- Asleep has
I'm tired and I want to go to bed, don't feel bad for me - Others can include "Still Ill" and "Reel Around the Fountain"
- One might love to go... "Back to the Old House".
- The acoustic version on Hatful of Hollow is particularly heartbreaking.
- "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" takes the cake as well. It's about a man whose friend/unrequited crush is his only reprieve from a horribly abusive home life ("I never never want to go home / Because I haven't got one anymore"), and they would literally rather die in a horrible car accident with the one they love than go on with their life.And if a ten-tonne truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine - And then there are "Please Please Please, Let Me Get What I Want", "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me", and "Suffer Little Children".
- As well as "Hand In Glove", "Well I Wonder", and "Half A Person".
- Hand in glove gets extra points if you know it's at least partially inspired by Morrissey and Marr's early friendship. It was also the last song they played live, on The Queen Is Dead tour.
"But I know my luck too wellYes, I know my luck too wellAnd I'll probably never see you againProbably never see you again..."- "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" gets extra points for its melancholic, minimalist opening, which seems to go on forever until it starts into life...
- As well as "Hand In Glove", "Well I Wonder", and "Half A Person".
- "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore". The final lines are particularly heartbreaking, which are layered over each other and repeated in increasing horror over the final section of the song: "I've seen this happen in other people's lives/and now it's happening in mine/it's happening in mine!"
- Not to mention "Park the car at the side of the road/You should know/Time's tide will smother you/And I will too."
- "I Won't Share You" also counts.
- "Never Had No One Ever", a song about sense of utter loneliness and alienation.Morrissey: It was the frustration that I felt at the age of 20 when I still didn’t feel easy walking around the streets on which I’d been born, where all my family had lived – they’re originally from Ireland but had been here since the Fifties. It was a constant confusion to me why I never really felt, 'This is my patch. This is my home. I know these people. I can do what I like, because this is mine.‘ It never was. I could never walk easily.
- "These Things Take Time", a lesser-known early Smiths song about a dying relationship, really packs it in."But you know where you came from, you know where you're going, you know where you belong \\You said I was ill and you were not wrong..""Oh, the alcoholic afternoons
when we sat in your room
they meant more to me than any
than any living thing on earth." - The band's break up in general. Heavy Creative Differences and eventually a small case of Poor Communication Kills caused the group to fold and since, they've all been bitter towards each other, especially Morrissey and Johnny Marr. This makes it worse when you look at old pictures/videos and see how happy they were, to see it gone is heartbreaking..
- And then it reaches better levels when you learn that the band has not, will not, and following the passing of Andy Rourke, can not reunite, ever.
- Marr and Moz did reunite while remastering the band's catalog of music and the two had some good chats and even thoughts on the Smiths reuniting in 2008. While it didn't happen and Morrissey ceased communication from Marr afterwards, Johnny admitted the two were at least on mutual respect... but even that gave way to the two of them taking a series of swipes at each other on Twitter and in publications in the following years, with both seemingly incapable of burying the hatchet.
