History TearJerker / PINKFLOYD

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'''Music/ASaucerfulOfSecrets'''

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'''Music/{{Ummagumma}}'''

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'''Music/{{Meddle}}'''

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'''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'''

* "Home, home again. I like to be here when I can..." arguably a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming too, but can strike a chord for people who have been away from home for a long time...

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'''Music/WishYouWereHere'''

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'''Music/{{Animals}}'''

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'''Music/TheWall'''

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'''Music/TheFinalCut'''

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'''Music/AMomentaryLapseOfReason'''

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'''Music/TheDivisionBell'''

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'''Music/TheEndlessRiver'''

* As the Floyd's final album, there's an undercurrent of finality and melancholy running through it. Nick Mason even[[http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-pink-floyd-release-date-new-album-the-endless-river-20140922-story.html described it]] as a tribute to the late Richard Wright.

* The last few lines of "Jugband Blues". The last time Music/SydBarrett on a Pink Floyd album. He sounds so hopeless and defeated that you just feel bad for him.

* "On The Turning Away". Sure, it's possibly their least popular album. Sure, it sounds like it could be a show tune. ''Doesn't freakin' matter.''

* "Sorrow", enough said.

* The entire damn album -- with the possible exception of "Have a Cigar" (which is still critical, but even kinda comedic) -- but particularly "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
** Especially Part IX, with its slow, somber synths, and the oh-so heartbreaking key change at the very end.
** It's the live version from ''Pulse'' that does it. Specifically, the solo from Part V, where the saxophone is much more pronounced, but also combined with several more instruments and sounds. And when you actually watch the video from the ''Pulse'' DVD, there's that little film that is seen on the screen at the concert the footage was taken from, which makes it many times more tear-jerking than the original version.
* All of it can be traced to the band's own melancholy after Music/SydBarrett left. Barrett actually visited the studio as they were recording the song, apparently in really bad shape and offering to help in any way he could.
** Storm Thorgesorn wrote in Mind Over Matter - The Images Of Pink Floyd: "[...] We haven't seen him for six or seven years. I don't know to this day what made him turn up just then, looking terrible, his head shaven, eyes sunken, complexion jaundiced, his body fat, asking awkwardly if he could be of any help. But he was out of it. Roger cried, David cried. [...]"
* The Live 8 performance of this song may be the most tear-jerking thing this band has ever done. The smiles Nick and David share, David and Roger trading the lead vocal (Roger's voice cracking with emotion) and then harmonizing over the final refrain... it's like the last 25 years didn't happen and they were just a band who loved to make music together again. Add in the fact that Roger dedicated the song to Syd right before starting and that the whole thing was done for charity... you might need a tissue...
* On that note, the show in London in May 2011 on the current The Wall tour, when Roger was joined onstage by Nick Mason and David Gilmour, to perform ''Outside the Wall''. Waters adressed the audience and told them that back then, they didn't get along and Waters was a miserable old sod, "but all that's changed!" And just to see them all happy together and hugging each other like close brothers is just heartbreakingly beautiful.
** "Welcome to the Machine" is an overlooked one. It's all about how the music industry has rebellious musicians trying to go on their own, only for the "machine" that is the music industry to have been built around these rebellious musicians, making them the biggest cog in this machine. The moroseness of the song helps too.

* As the band's final album, this album has a subtext of melancholy and finality under the whole thing.
** "Autumn '68", of all songs, is the song that's going to do it for most. Both because it's built around a recording of Rick Wright playing the Royal Albert Hall pipe organ in 1968 (the title even being a reference to Wright's "Summer '68" from ''Atom Heart Mother''), and because it's so chillingly nostalgic that it will bring one to tears in seconds.
** "Anisina", translating to "in memory of", as a piano-led tribute to the late Richard Wright...

* As the band's final album, this albumhas a subtext of melancholy and finality under the whole thing.

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'''Music/Animals'''

* The entire album is this to an extreme, but a few tracks stand out in particular. Namely:

* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3PIG6XXIdw The Gunner's Dream]]".
** And "Southampton Dock" as well.* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wzwF3upH-A The Final Cut]]". Its lyrics speak of the narrator alienating his wife into taking the kids and leaving, and attempting suicide.
** The fact that the narrator fails at the suicide manages to subvert HappilyFailedSuicide and just makes the song even more hopeless and bleak.

'''Music/Ummagumma'''

'''Music/Meddle'''

* "Sorrow", enough said.
* "Goodbye Cruel World".
* "Wish You Were Here" is a big one...
** The entire damn album -- with the possible exceptions of "Welcome to the Machine" (which is merely at the band's typical level of moroseness) and "Have a Cigar" (which is still critical, but even kinda comedic) -- but particularly "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
*** Especially Part IX, with its slow, somber synths, and the oh-so heartbreaking key change at the very end.
*** It's the live version from ''Pulse'' that does it. Specifically, the solo from Part V, where the saxophone is much more pronounced, but also combined with several more instruments and sounds. And when you actually watch the video from the ''Pulse'' DVD, there's that little film that is seen on the screen at the concert the footage was taken from, which makes it many times more tear-jerking than the original version.
** All of it can be traced to the band's own melancholy after Music/SydBarrett left. Barrett actually visited the studio as they were recording the song, apparently in really bad shape and offering to help in any way he could.
*** Storm Thorgesorn wrote in Mind Over Matter - The Images Of Pink Floyd: "[...] We haven't seen him for six or seven years. I don't know to this day what made him turn up just then, looking terrible, his head shaven, eyes sunken, complexion jaundiced, his body fat, asking awkwardly if he could be of any help. But he was out of it. Roger cried, David cried. [...]"
** The Live 8 performance of this song may be the most tear-jerking thing this band has ever done. The smiles Nick and David share, David and Roger trading the lead vocal (Roger's voice cracking with emotion) and then harmonizing over the final refrain... it's like the last 25 years didn't happen and they were just a band who loved to make music together again. Add in the fact that Roger dedicated the song to Syd right before starting and that the whole thing was done for charity... you might need a tissue...
** On that note, the show in London in May 2011 on the current The Wall tour, when Roger was joined onstage by Nick Mason and David Gilmour, to perform ''Outside the Wall''. Waters adressed the audience and told them that back then, they didn't get along and Waters was a miserable old sod, "but all that's changed!" And just to see them all happy together and hugging each other like close brothers is just heartbreakingly beautiful.
* And on that note, "When the Tigers Broke Free" from ''Music/TheWall'' (the movie, it is; the album version is on ''The Final Cut'') is a pretty big downer as well. It's [[BasedOnATrueStory based on]] how Roger Waters' father actually died in WWII.
** In the film it's split into two sections, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9b9UhFe6Eg The Rare 7" Single Version]] places both sections end to end, which increases the impact somewhat, as does pairing it with "Bring The Boys Back Home."
* "Bring The Boys Back Home" is tear jerker enough, but go to a concert on Roger Waters' The Wall tour and try not crying.
* "The Thin Ice" from ''The Wall''. Especially the guitar solo near the end of the song.
* Ever heard Dar Williams's version of "Comfortably Numb"? Although, the regular version is already quite tear triggering - especially at the "the child has grown, the dream is gone" part and the solo immediately after it...
** Oh God, the original version of "Comfortably Numb." The lyrics and the music during the verses and chorus all evoke an apathetic, defeated feeling - heck, even his voice sounds numb. ''But they're contrasted by those passionate, heartbreaking solos...''
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXqubvXfd-o live version from 1980]] somehow sounds even more somber, especially when David Gilmour is singing.
* [[Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them"]], especially revisiting them after Richard Wright's death.
** Waters has stated that he knew ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'' would strike a chord with people when he took home a copy of the album after recordings were finished and played it for his wife Judy, who was so overwhelmed by the album she ended up crying. It is that kind of album...
* "Nobody Home". Oh, God. And as if the song itself wasn't bad enough, there's WordOfGod that "elastic bands keeping my shoes on" is a direct reference to Syd.
** "I've got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains" refers to the late keyboardist Richard Wright, who ([[FromACertainPointOfView by different accounts]]) may or may not have been going through cocaine addiction when ''Music/TheWall'' was recorded.
* Speaking of Syd, especially sad are the songs he wrote about his realization that he's losing his mind and there's nothing he or anyone else can do about it -- namely the Pink Floyd songs "Jugband Blues" and "Vegetable Man" and the solo song "Dark Globe".
** Oh, "Dark Globe"... that song that can actually makes some people cringe when the listen to it, and not in a bad way. It's actually probably a good thing more than anything, because it shows Syd's skill in just pouring his own emotion into the song. His voice sounds like he's trying not to undergo a breakdown, and the fact that there's no instrumentation apart from the acoustic guitar might make one think of him as so very alone in his madness. And when he wails "Wouldn't you miss me at all?" -- it seems like he's literally asking his friends in Pink Floyd and everyone else he knows whether he'll be missed at all. Most songs aren't as literal and personal as this.
*** Also note the similarities between "Dark Globe" and Pink Floyd's acoustic work from their prime years, particularly "Mother", "Wish You Were Here", and "Pigs on the Wing".
* "Outside the Wall", particularly the version from the movie ''The Wall'', and the accompanying visuals.
** To make this song even more of a tear jerker than it already is, David Gilmour and Nick Mason joined Roger Waters at the end of one of his Wall tour gigs to perform [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZqS7LAyup4 an incredibly touching rendition]] of the song, making it [[FridgeBrilliance the first time Pink Floyd had played together since their Live 8 reunion]].
* "High Hopes" from ''The Division Bell'' is about longing for lost youth and innocence after growing old and cynical; was doubly moving by the fact that for 20 years it seemed to be the last song ever to be produced by the band (though it does end with the hopeful words "Forever and Ever").
** Speaking of which, the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqvcmud3LFQ video]] is amazingly nostalgic. The references to Syd (such as the oversized bust of his face being carried into the horizon) get people every single time.
** "Marooned", from the same album, may have no lyrics, but the slow, high-pitched electric guitar riffs can be a tearjerker for some people.
*** On the ''Echoes'' Greatest Hits compilation, there's a ''really beautiful'' piece of editing that connects the fading "We fall..." from "Hey You" to the beginning of (part of) "Marooned," which then fades into the opening notes of "Great Gig in the Sky."
** "Cluster One". It begins with a [[LastNoteNightmare First Note Nightmare]]... only to fade into one of the most dreamy and euphoric pieces of music one could ever hear.
* "On The Turning Away" from ''Momentary Lapse of Reason''. Sure, it's possibly their least popular album. Sure, it sounds like it could be a show tune. ''Doesn't freakin' matter.''
** "Yet Another Movie". A line in the final verse best sums up the mood of this song: "A pointless life has run its course..."
* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3PIG6XXIdw The Gunner's Dream]]" from ''The Final Cut''.
** And "Southampton Dock" as well.
* "Goodbye Blue Sky" can give one goosebumps. Just... gorgeous.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6rPacjAC8s Someone on YouTube created a video]] featuring the song set to scenes from the equally tear-jerking ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies''. It's quite an effective juxtaposition, especially as the anime scenes match up very well with the official music video, as pointed out in the comments section.
* "If" from ''Atom Heart Mother''.
* "A Great Day For Freedom" can really strike at some people's heartstrings.
** On that same album, "Wearing the Inside Out". The combination of the saxophone and Richard Wright's vocals add a richness to the song that can become a little heavy at times.
* The last three minutes of 'A Saucerful Of Secrets'.

** On the subject of ''Ummagumma'', there's "Careful with That Axe, Eugene". Yes, it is downright scary, but the song ends as quietly as it begun, which could either be Eugene or the witnesses having a mental breakdown realizing what he's done...or ''everyone'' on the scene is dead by the end of the song.
* If you thought "Dogs" was depressing enough, wait 'till you hear its prototype, "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqULy8xQjZU You've Got to Be Crazy]]".
* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wzwF3upH-A The Final Cut]]". Its lyrics speak of the narrator alienating his wife into taking the kids and leaving, and attempting suicide.
** The fact that the narrator fails at the suicide manages to subvert HappilyFailedSuicide and just makes the song even more hopeless and bleak.

* Alf Razzell's recounting of being forced to leave a mortally wounded soldier to die alone in "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard" on Waters's solo album, ''Amused to Death''.
* "Hey You" from The Wall. During the course of this song, Pink realizes that he's made a big mistake going behind his personal wall, yet because "the wall is too high as you can see," he can't break free. He is destined to decay into the neo-Nazi he becomes later, and knowing this is what makes it positively heartbreaking.
* "Don't Leave Me Now" is a combination of NightmareFuel and this. While it's hard to feel too sorry for Pink here, the song itself is just so overwhelmingly pathetic.
* ''Endless River'', as the band's final album, has a subtext of melancholy and finality under the whole thing.
** "Autumn '68", of all songs, is the song that's going to do it for most. Both because it's built around a recording of Rick Wright playing the Royal Albert Hall pipe organ in 1968 (the title even being a reference to Wright's "Summer '68" from ''Atom Heart Mother''), and because it's so chillingly nostalgic that it will bring one to tears in seconds.
** "Anisina", translating to "in memory of", as a piano-led tribute to the late Richard Wright...

* "Welcome to the Machine" is an overlooked one. It's all about how the music industry has rebellious musicians trying to go on their own, only for the "machine" that is the music industry to have been built around these rebellious musicians, making them the biggest cog in this machine. The moroseness of the song helps too.

*** It's the live version from ''Pulse'' that does it. Specifically, the solo from Part V, where the saxophone is much more pronounced, but also combined with several more instruments and sounds, made it difficult for [[Tropers/TimeLordVictorious This Troper]] to not burst into tears upon hearing it for the first time. And when you actually watch the video from the ''Pulse'' DVD, there's that little film that is seen on the screen at the concert the footage was taken from, which makes it many times more tear-jerking than the original version.

* "High Hopes" from ''The Division Bell'' is about longing for lost youth and innocence after growing old and cynical; doubly moving by the fact that it is the last song ever to be produced by the band (though it does end with the hopeful words "Forever and Ever").

** When this troper heard the song for the first time, he broke down in ManlyTears

** "Autumn '68", of all songs, is the song that's going to do it for most. Both because it's built around a recording of Rick Wright playing the Royal Albert Hall pipe organ in 1968, and because it's so chillingly nostalgic that it will bring one to tears in seconds.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6rPacjAC8s Someone on YouTube created a video]] featuring the song set to scenes from the equally tear-jerking ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies''. It's a very effective juxtaposition, especially as the anime scenes match up very well with the official music video, as pointed out in the comments section.

** Speaking of which, the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqvcmud3LFQ video]] is amazingly nostalgic. The references to Syd (such as the oversized bust of his face being carried into the horizon) get me every single time.

*** It's the live version from ''Pulse'' that does it. Specifically, the solo from Part V, where the saxophone is much more pronounced, but also combined with several more instruments and sounds, made it difficult for [[Troper/TimeLordVictorious This Troper]] to not burst into tears upon hearing it for the first time. And when you actually watch the video from the ''Pulse'' DVD, there's that little film that is seen on the screen at the concert the footage was taken from, which makes it many times more tear-jerking than the original version.

*** It's the live version from ''Pulse'' that does it. Specifically, the solo from Part V, where the saxophone is much more pronounced, but also combined with several more instruments and sounds, made it difficult for [[Troper/TimeLordVictorious ThisTroper]] to not burst into tears upon hearing it for the first time. And when you actually watch the video from the ''Pulse'' DVD, there's that little film that is seen on the screen at the concert the footage was taken from, which makes it many times more tear-jerking than the original version.