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When you talk about country music and sad songs, you have to talk about Patsy Cline. She owns this field, and that's really saying something. Country music is full of singers with sad songs about cheaters and broken hearts, but she still rules... Furthermore, she's been dead for over 40 years! When you listen to Patsy, it's like she's right there telling you she understands every syllable, and if you're hurting, you've got a friend who knows exactly what you're going through.

Heartaches, heartaches / my loving you meant only heartaches
Your kiss was such a sacred thing to me / I can't believe it's just a burning memory

Patsy never went in for the songs with cure names like "All My Exes Live in Texas" or Sleeping Single in a Double Bed". She just told it straight:

I've got your picture, she's got you."

She didn't bother with details about what happened to the truck or how the other woman did what she did. Sometimes she mentioned a town, or tells a story about someone else but it's like she's talking about a friend with a sad story you just might want to know. It was south of the border. .In a lonely shack by a railroad track. Three cigarettes in an ashtray. That big, warm voice with so much understanding in it. And if you know anything about Patsy Cline's short life, you know it was a lot like her records. More often than not, she was unhappily in love.

I go out walking after midnight, searching for you.

When she sang about knowing better and being in love anyway, she sounded completely, utterly, like a woman who'd been there and done that so many times she'd bought all the T-shirts from everywhere you could go and make a fool of yourself over a cad.

Crazy, crazy for feelin' so lonely, I'm crazy, crazy for feelin' so blue
I knew you'd love me as long as you wanted
And then someday, you'd leave me for somebody new.

She might change the tempo, but it just means a different take on her outlook. A lady's gotta get through the day, even when crying in a smoky bar 24/7 is all you can imagine.

I know that you've been fooling round on me right from the start
So I'll give back your ring and I'll take back my heart!

The resolve crumbles fast, though. Our girl's a fool for love, even when she knows he's a louse:

And when you're tired of foolin round with 2 or 3
Just come on home and fool around with me!

As Jerome Kern said, she can't help lovin' that man.

I know it's foolish takin' all this misery / but when it's you a fool I'll always be.

Poor Patsy. But lucky you. She's there when your friends, your mom, Dr. Phil, and even you know you need to get over the jerk-and it still hurts. Oh boy, she knows.

Crazy, for thinking that my love could hold you
I'm crazy for tryin and crazy for cryin and I'm crazy for lovin you.

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