These Are Your Favorite Sad Driving Songs

I’m no truck driver, but Eddie Rabbitt’s “Drivin’ My Life Away” always gets me.

Submitted by IDM3

Gordon Lightfoot is the king of sad driving songs. The one that is probably the best - Carefree Highway.

Incredibly sad - and just completely, utterly, evokes the image of driving, by yourself, in some beat up car down a deserted highway in the middle of the country. Rain beating down - going nowhere you want to go and away from anyone you care about. Depressing stuff.

Submitted by TheWalrus

This song always hits hard - but also speaks a little bit to the freedom/escape we can get when behind the wheel. Maybe that impression (however brief) that you are in control, that you can drive away from the troubles.

Submitted by dhj

“Cure for Pain” by Morphine. That song alone will do it, but if you really want to dig a hole and never come out, the whole album will be ensure you never again see the light of day.

Nothing says “bad day” like 90's alt rock where the typical electric guitar is replaced by a baritone saxophone and a two-string bass.

Submitted by Paradsecar

If I’m in a shitty mood, but I just can’t get that cry going to release it, I’ll hop in the truck and blast this. Always seems to do the trick.

Submitted by B1gMattAttack

My driving playlist is mostly somewhat sad electronic music. It’s always great when this classic comes up:

Submitted by Comment Box Sanitation Dept. - never sticks to cars

Not just the sad song but the perfect moment. Years ago I was driving home. I had just been dumped and I didn’t see it come. It was a foggy night. Driving home through the fog I was listening to Led Zeppelin’s Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.

If you know the song, there are a few moments ( the first is at 1:00 minute) where Paige explodes on the acoustic guitar, Bonham drops a beat, and Plant starts to get screamy. In the second of those moments, I drove out of the fog just as there was a huge crack of lightning with simultaneous thunder. It was the bone-chillingly perfect punctuation to my misery.

Submitted by JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

I immediately thought of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with this. They’re frequently on my car playlist, so I’ll actually hear their more depressing songs in the car rather frequently. I could have went with a song off of Spectre at the Feast, since it was written after Robert Levon Bean’s father (and tour manager) died of a heart attack on tour. It’s not a happy album. I’ll go with The Line. It’s just dark.

Submitted by dolsh

My brother and I were big post-hardcore fans in the 2010s and we did a BJs run on a shitty rainy day in December while our Grandfather was in hospice. We got “the call” as we were checking out and head right over to Pop and Gram’s to be with him in his final moments and cranked “She Watched the Sky” on the ride over. Neither of us can listen to “The Past, the Love, the Memory” without associating with to that day and is my go to sad blast on the road.

Submitted by NicoZura

Sad playlist? Without any Porcupine Tree?

Submitted by something something vape joke

This song is the closest I can get to what things felt like inside my head when my depression and anxiety were undiagnosed and running rampant through my life. Loud/quiet, clear and growled, a wall of sound that doesn’t go away, pulling you down again. Spiraling.

Submitted by Buckfiddiousagain

My Old Man’s favorite song was “Songbird” by Christine McVie. Lost him about 13 years ago. Put me in a car by myself and this 55 year old grown-ass man will weep like a child.

Submitted by JadeRose

Mojave 3, Life in Art is a good one that immediately comes to mind

Submitted by Markoff8585

One of my favorite driving on a lonely road through the desert songs...

Submitted by Waydude

This one’s been hitting me hard lately...

Submitted by sausagefingers76

This is just a bonus bummer from me to you all. This one is a machine designed to take your happiness and hope and grind it into flour for Jason Molina’s bread.

RIP.