[[Music/HarryChapin This folk-rock artist]] [[TearJerker is pretty much the master of tear-triggering songs]].
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* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH46SmVv8SU Cats in the Cradle]]" is definitely a tearjerker. The chorus was probably the most tearjerking part. The song is sung from the father's perspective, telling about his son and the fact that they never got to spend time together because of his work. Every time the son asks his father to play, the father answers with little more that vague promises that they will someday have a good time together.
-->'''And the cat's in the cradle, and the silver spoon\\
Little Boy Blue and the Man in the Moon\\
[[WhenYouComingHomeDad When you comin' home, dad?]]\\
I don't know when, but we'll get together then,\\
You know we'll have a good time then...'''
** Despite all this, the son looks up to his father, telling that someday he'll be just like him. Sadly, the father never did get to spend some time with his son. Time passes until the day his son graduated from college, and the father wants his son to sit down for a nice talk. This time, his son was too busy with his friends to do so and instead asks to borrow his car keys. This is also when the chorus made a notable change; instead of "When you comin' home, dad?" like the previous two times it's "When you comin' home, son?" showing the reversal of the situation. Fast forward to present day, when the son has a family and house of his own. The father called his son, asking him to visit. The son replied he can't because of his work and new family. The father then realizes that his son really did grow up to be like him. If you listen to it for a few times and keep the meaning of the song in mind, you'll probably cry.
** To make things worse, the last verse happens after the dad has been retired for a long time, which increases the feeling one might get from the final chorus that father and son will ''never'' get that time together...
** FridgeLogic takes the song from a complete downer to bittersweet when you realize one of the son's reasons for brushing off his father was that his kids have the flu. He placed his priorities exactly where they belonged, with his sick children who needed their dad, and grew up to be a better dad than his own neglectful father. It's triumphant and heartwarming in that sense, and tearjerking in that the narrator ''still'' doesn't realize this.
* "Mr. Tanner" is about a man who gives up everything to sing, which is what makes him feel whole, only to get poor reviews and his dreams crushed.
* "The Shortest Story" Is about the 20 day long life of a starving child, barely two minutes into the song the narrator simply states that there is nothing now to do but die which ends the story.
* "Taxi".
* "W.O.L.D."
* "Shooting Star".
* "Old College Avenue," about a short-lived love affair that was years ago, but the singer still hasn't fully recovered from the loss.
* "Last Stand":
-->'''Well, so it was late last night\\
She left on the final flight\\
You watched as the last light\\
Went out there in your soul'''

-->'''Take a look around the top\\
For now you face the final drop\\
You'll go down fast and you won't stop\\
You found a very deep hole'''

-->'''Say you're off on the last ride\\
Remembering how she last cried\\
And you know that love at long last died\\
In silence, not in pain'''

-->'''You lost your last, your last race\\
Stumbled in last place\\
Too late to find the one last face\\
Waiting in the rain'''
* "A Better Place To Be". Not really tearjerker material until the final reprise of the chorus sinks in. That total loneliness, given a moment of silence, will make you sob.
* "Sniper". Scary, yes. Haunting, yes. Heart rending, very.
* "Flowers are Red". In the end, the little boy gets out of the AssimilationAcademy and has a new teacher who encourages her students to be creative. But all his pictures are of flowers in neat rows of green and red, and when the teacher asks him why, he just repeats the chorus.
* "Tangled Up Puppet". Written for his daughter, it tells of the sadness a father feels as his sweet little girl grows up into an independent woman who no longer adores her daddy. Particularly sad when you hear the last verse:
-->'''I have watched you take shape from a jumble of parts\\
And find the grace and form of a fine work of art\\
Hey, you, my brand new woman, newly come into your own\\
Don't you know that you don't need to grow up all alone'''
** And you realize because of his early death, his daughter DID grow up without her father.

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