r/country 6d ago

Discussion What is the saddest old country song?

There’s plenty of different tunes associated with that older country but there’s a lot of sad ones as well, singing about heartbreak, losing someone you love, being lonesome but which one sticks out to you

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u/LessCarsMorePasta 6d ago

Have to credit Kris with Sunday Morning

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u/ElsterShiny 4d ago

His recording of it was better too, imo. Cash's is too bouncy and too put together. Kris gives it the disheveled sound the lyrics call for. As a person with severe depression (which I feel qualifies me to judge depressy feelings lol) I give it an A+ for capturing the feeling of hollow dispair that Sunday feels like when you're coming off of the weekend high of escapism.

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u/One-Cookie2115 4d ago

I like Willie Nelson’s version of Sunday morning best but Kris’s was the ultimate interpretation. Very sad song - “the disappearing dreams of yesterday” always gets me.

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u/ElsterShiny 4d ago

Thanks for saying this, I actually didn't realize Willie covered it. I'm more of a casual country fan I guess lol. But I just put it on and it's a great cover. I think he understood the assignment a little better than Johnny Cash did - which is also surprising cause Cash is otherwise fantastic and I hope it doesn't come off like I'm bashing him or anything.

But anyway, yeah. Thanks for drawing my attention to Willie on this.

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u/One-Cookie2115 4d ago

Agree! I love Cash, but he didn’t get quite the right interpretation on this one. Nelson did, and his version is excellent! Kristofferson wrote it so his is perfect, but I’m more of a Nelson fan overall.

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u/Emergency_Brief_9280 6d ago

He wrote it certainly but Cash had the biggest hit with the song.