Peeling Onions (sad songs)

Songs that make me feel like I’ve been peeling onions. Yes, it must have been that, I say, as I gently wipe my eyes.

Honey (Bobby Goldsboro)

I vaguely recall this when it came out. I must have been young as it took a few listens to work out what actually happened to Honey. I misunderstood the line – in one verse – that “she went away.” Ah ha, she’s jumped in the car and gone off to see her parents.

Without spoilers, the next verse loops back and tells, in euphemisms, what really happened. By now the wordless choir is soaring to really pile the emotion on.

Just checked. I was young; only when 7 it came out in 1968 and hit #1 here. I actually now doubt that time-frame for me, so it must have been on later hearings.

How To Make Gravy (Paul Kelly)

Even though I knew – and loved – Paul’s songs when they first came out, somehow this one missed me. So I came to it quite late. A bloke is in jail, just before Christmas and is writing to Dan.

It’s actually more like onion gravy for me. Why? I’ve only got one thing to say to you, Kim: oh brother please don’t stab me in the back…

Check out the comments on OoToobe. Some people want this to be our national anthem.

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle)

As if this 1971 song wasn’t sad enough, the killer lines – when his ship pulled into Circular Quay – just rip me apart. It was looking back at WWI. But, given the time he wrote it, I’d assumed what it may have been also alluding to…and it seems I had guessed right. He has said “I wrote it as an oblique comment on the Vietnam War which was in full swing”.

I know there’s been covers. This is the original, by the bloke who wrote it and the one I grew up with. #seriouslyDontBother 🙂