I think we all have our favourite sad songs – songs that we turn to when we’re miserable and songs that make us even more miserable – but we can’t stop ourselves. It might be a chance playing on the radio, a snippet overheard as a car drives by, a random selection on the iPod. It might be a deliberate playing – curled up with a mug of hot chocolate or a glass of wine, the door still shaking after the row and the lover walking out – we have to put on music that suits our mood – misery needs feeding and a sad song is the best food for sadness.

Mind you, a song doesn’t have to be about lost love, it can be about anything going wrong. From Eric Clapton’s tears for his dead son to a lament for a lost cause, it’s sad if it makes us sad, it’s good if it makes us cry. Memories get stirred up, sometimes old hurts are brought back to be picked at until the blood runs. We’re daft to do it but the soul needs misery as well as joy.

I picked my ten favourite sad songs for a blog a while ago. I chose Janis Ian’s At Seventeen, I chose That’s No Way To Say Goodbye by Leonard Cohen. There’s Harry Chapin on a father’s neglect of his son and the loss of any relationship, there’s Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand with a majestic You Don’t Bring Me Flowers Anymore. They’re all about loss and they’re all about self blame – we failed to control a bad situation or we just let it happen. Perhaps that’s why we like sad songs: they let us pretend we were steamrollered by life when really it was our own fault for not spotting the signs and acting.

Or perhaps we just like a good wallow: it reminds us that our lives aren’t too bad after all, that we can turn off the music and let the sadness end. For a time anyway. For a while we had a partner in our misery, someone who’d suffered like us, now we’re moving on. Until the next time.

Time to rack up Leonard Cohen and Dory Previn, time to put Tracy Chapman on endless repeat, or to play “our song” until the neighbours complain. Break out the booze or the ice cream, slob out on the couch – misery wears a ratty dressing gown and slippers – leave me alone, I have my sad songs.

Is it just the music that made these concerts so memorable, or is there something else that enhanced the whole experience and turned it into an evening to be remembered forever.

Read the full story: What Makes a Rock Concert Memorable

I went to look at the collection of DVD’s, and my eyes immediately fell on my copy of The Kids Are Alright, a rockumentary on the legendary band The Who.

For any of you who love The Who, especially their older classic songs, this 2-DVD boxed set has some rare footage of interviews and performances, with plenty of guitar and drum smashing at the end, and it’s a great addition to any fan’s DVD collection. It is also the definitive collection of The Who with their original drummer Keith Moon, the likes of whom the world will probably never see again.

I thought about writing this while watching Baba O’Riley, the same version as the clip above, and arguably one of the most famous songs by The Who, especially having been used as the theme music for CSI New York.

Well I have my copy of this Boxed set and I am loving it. How about you?