QotD: Top 5 Break-Up Songs

What are your top five break-up songs?
Submitted by gt.

 

Normally, the term "break-up song" brings to mind mainstream pop with average lyrics. Instead, I'm going to list five (English-language) songs which brilliantly express love lost or unreciprocated. I've also underlined the lines that are my personal favourites. Enjoy.

 

 

James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover

No question - this song is completely synonymous with a break-up. This is my favourite James Blunt song - in fact, one of my favourite songs ever. The lyrics really hit home, and delivered in Blunt's unique voice, sound completely gut-wrenching. It's hard to listen to this song without feeling sad, but that's exactly why it's so good.

 

 

 

Did I disappoint you or let you down?

Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown?

'Cause I saw the end before we'd begun,

Yes I saw you were blinded and I knew I had won.

 

So I took what's mine by eternal right.

Took your soul out into the night.

It may be over but it won't stop there,

I am here for you if you'd only care.

 

You touched my heart you touched my soul.

You changed my life and all my goals.

And love is blind and that I knew when,

My heart was blinded by you.

 

I've kissed your lips and held your head.

Shared your dreams and shared your bed.

I know you well, I know your smell.

I've been addicted to you.

 

Goodbye my lover.

Goodbye my friend.

You have been the one.

You have been the one for me.

 

I am a dreamer but when I wake,

You can't break my spirit - it's my dreams you take.

And as you move on, remember me,

Remember us and all we used to be

I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile.

I've watched you sleeping for a while.

I'd be the father of your child.

I'd spend a lifetime with you.

I know your fears and you know mine.

We've had our doubts but now we're fine,

And I love you, I swear that's true.

I cannot live without you.

 

Goodbye my lover.

Goodbye my friend.

You have been the one.

You have been the one for me.

 

And I still hold your hand in mine.

In mine when I'm asleep.

And I will bear my soul in time,

When I'm kneeling at your feet.

 

Goodbye my lover.

Goodbye my friend.

You have been the one.

You have been the one for me.

 

I'm so hollow, baby, I'm so hollow.

I'm so, I'm so, I'm so hollow.

 

 

Elvis Costello - I Want You (as covered by Fiona Apple)

This is also about pining for lost love - with an edge. No other song I've heard describes such raw longing, love, rage and jealousy, especially when sung in Fiona's anguished voice. It's a musical out-of-body experience.

The lyrics speak for themselves.

 

 

Oh my baby baby

I love you more than I can tell

I dont think I can live without you

And I know that I never will

Oh my baby baby

I love you so it scares me to death

I cant say anymore than I love you

Everything else is a waste of breath

I want you

Youve had your fun you dont get well no more

I want you

Your fingernails go dragging down the wall

Be careful darling you might fall

I want you

I woke up and one of us was crying

I want you

You said "Young girl I do believe you're dying"

I want you

If you need a second opinion as you seem to do these days

I want you

You can look in my eyes and you can count the ways

 

I want you

Did you mean to tell me but seem to forget

I want you

Since when were you so generous and inarticulate

I want you

Its the stupid details that my heart is breaking for

Its the way your shoulders shake and what they're shaking for

I want you

Its knowing that she knows you now after only guessing

I want you

Its the thought of her undressing you or you undressing

 

I want you

She tossed some tattered compliment your way

I want you

And you were fool enough to love it when he said

I want you

I want you

The truth cant hurt you its just like the dark

It scares you witless

But in time you see things clear and stark

I want you

Go on and hurt me then well let it drop

I want you

I'm afraid I wont know where to stop

I want you

I'm not ashamed to say I cried for you

I want you

I want to know the things you did that we do too

I want you

I want to hear he pleases you more than I do

I want you

I might as well be useless for all it means to you

 

I want you

Did you call his name out as she held you down

I want you

Oh no my darling not with that clown

 

I want you

Youve had your fun you dont get well no more

I want you

No-one who wants you could want you more

I want you

Every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up

I want you

I want you

I'm going to say it once again til I instill it

I know Im going to feel this way until you kill it

I want you

I want you

 

 

Nine Inch Nails - Only

Trent Reznor is my absolute favourite when it comes to angst. The man nails it everytime with his voice and lyrics - and when he's not singing, his instrumental compositions do all the talking. I'm taking this opportunity to remind everyone - PLEASE try to attend their upcoming summer tour, especially if you live in any one of the cities on their schedule. It's not mere concert-going; it's a pilgrimage.

 

 

I'm becoming less defined

As days go by

Fading away

Well you might say

I'm losing focus

Kinda drifting into the abstract

In terms of how I see myself

Sometimes I think I can see right through myself

Sometimes I think I can see right through myself

I think sometimes I can see right through myself

 

Less concerned

About fitting into the world

Your world that is

Cuz it doesn't really matter

No it doesn't really matter

No it doesn't really matter any more

None of this really matters any more

 

Yes, I am alone

But then again I always was

As far back as I can tell

I think maybe it's because

Because you were never really real

To begin with

 

I just made you up to hurt myself

I just made you up to hurt myself

Yeah, and I just made you up to hurt myself

I just made you up to hurt myself

Yeah, and I just made you up to hurt myself

And it worked

Yes it did

 

There is no you

There is only me

There is no you

There is only me

There is no fucking you

There is only me

There is no fucking you

There is only me

Only

Only

Only

Only

 

Well the tiniest little dot caught my eye

And it turned out to be a scab

And I had this funny feeling

Like I just knew it's something bad

I just couldn't leave it alone

Pickin' at that scab

It was a doorway trying to seal itself shut

But I climbed through

 

Now I am somewhere I am not supposed to be

And I can see things I never really shoulda seen

And now I know why

And now I know why

Things aren't as pretty

On the inside

 

There is no you

There is only me

There is no you

There is only me

There is no fucking you

There is only me

There is no fucking you

There is only me

 

Only

Only

Only

Only

Only

Only

Only

Only 

 

 

Richard Thompson - Beeswing

This song is a reminisce about a former love. The lyrics are lovely, and the girl spoken of is very much like me in spirit.

 

 

I was nineteen when I came to town, they called it the Summer of Love

They were burning babies, burning flags. The hawks against the doves

I took a job in the steamie down on Cauldrum Street

And I fell in love with a laundry girl who was working next to me

 

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing

So fine a breath of wind might blow her away

She was a lost child, oh she was running wild

She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.

And you wouldn't want me any other way"

 

Brown hair zig-zag around her face and a look of half-surprise

Like a fox caught in the headlights, there was animal in her eyes

She said "Young man, oh can't you see I'm not the factory kind

If you don't take me out of here I'll surely lose my mind"

 

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing

So fine that I might crush her where she lay

She was a lost child, she was running wild

She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.

And you wouldn't want me any other way"

 

We busked around the market towns and picked fruit down in Kent

And we could tinker lamps and pots and knives wherever we went

And I said that we might settle down, get a few acres dug

Fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug

She said "Oh man, you foolish man, it surely sounds like hell.

You might be lord of half the world, you'll not own me as well"

 

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing

So fine a breath of wind might blow her away

She was a lost child, oh she was running wild

She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.

And you wouldn't want me any other way"

 

We was camping down the Gower one time, the work was pretty good

She thought we shouldn't wait for the frost and I thought maybe we should

We was drinking more in those days and tempers reached a pitch

And like a fool I let her run with the rambling itch

 

Oh the last I heard she's sleeping rough back on the Derby beat

White Horse in her hip pocket and a wolfhound at her feet

And they say she even married once, a man named Romany Brown

But even a gypsy caravan was too much settling down

And they say her flower is faded now, hard weather and hard booze

But maybe that's just the price you pay for the chains you refuse

 

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing

And I miss her more than ever words could say

If I could just taste all of her wildness now

If I could hold her in my arms today

Well I wouldn't want her any other way.

 

 

Dido - White Flag

For a change, the lyrics to this song work because they are simple and to the point, but without being juvenile.

 

I know you think that I shouldn't still love you

I'll tell you that.

But if I didn't say it, well I'd still have felt it

Where's the sense in that?

 

I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder

Or return to where we were

 

Well I will go down with this ship

And I won't put my hands up and surrender

There will be no white flag above my door

I'm in love and always will be

 

I know I left too much mess and

destruction to come back again

And I caused but nothing but trouble

I understand if you can't talk to me again

And if you live by the rules of "it's over"

then I'm sure that that makes sense

 

Well I will go down with this ship

And I won't put my hands up and surrender

There will be no white flag above my door

I'm in love and always will be

 

And when we meet

Which I'm sure we will

All that was then

Will be there still

I'll let it pass

And hold my tongue

And you will think

That I've moved on....

 

Well I will go down with this ship

And I won't put my hands up and surrender

There will be no white flag above my door

I'm in love and always will be

 

Well I will go down with this ship

And I won't put my hands up and surrender

There will be no white flag above my door

I'm in love and always will be

 

Well I will go down with this ship

And I won't put my hands up and surrender

There will be no white flag above my door

I'm in love and always will be

 

 

BONUS TRACK:

Richard Thompson - From Galway to Graceland

While not a "break-up song" in the actual sense, this is one of the finest songs I've heard of love unrequited. Thompson's soothing yet emotional voice only amplifies the beauty of this ballad. Someone on Youtube called him "one of the last great troubadours". Amen.

 

 

Oh she dressed in the dark and she whispered amen

She was pretty in pink like a young girl again

Twenty years married and she never thought twice

She sneaked out the door and walked into the night

 

And silver wings carried her over the sea

From the west coast of Ireland to West Tennessee

To be with her sweetheart, oh she left everything

From Galway to Graceland to be with the king

 

She was humming Suspicion, that's the song she liked best

She had Elvis I Love You tattooed on her breast

When they landed in Memphis, well her heart beat so fast

She'd dreamed for so long, now she'd see him at last

 

She was down by his graveside day after day

Come closing time they would pull her away

Ah to be with her sweetheart, oh she'd left everything

From Galway to Graceland to be with the king

 

Ah, they came in their thousands from the whole human race

To pay their respects at his last resting place

But blindly she knelt there and she told him her dreams

And she thought that he answered or that's how it seems

 

Then they dragged her away it was handcuffs this time

She said my good man are you out of your mind.

Don't you know that we're married? See, I'm wearing his ring.

From Galway to Graceland to be with the king.

I come From Galway to Graceland to be with the king.