Roberta Flack-Ballad of the Sad Young Men 

Roberta Flack perfectly captures the humanity of this beautiful song. Conjures up many images of men of all ages searching for something to hold on to. My thoughts always seem to go to soldiers far from home.

This song made my heart ache when I was 16. It still does the same thing now that I'm 50.

Irregardless of 'what it's about', this is vocalising at it's very best......Just Wonderful singing....!!

Hadn't heard this for years until I stumbled across it here. Wonderful piece that appeals on many levels and for many different reasons. It could be about gays; it could be about alcoholics; it could be about the aging process; it could be about Vietnam; it could be about the fact that very few of us end up in the place we hoped to be at the start. I don't know and frankly I don't care. It's a great song sung by a remarkably talented singer. We should hear it more often

Roberta Flack sings inside my heart!

One of the most beautiful songs ever written

Loneliness, /straight,gay whatever.. Loneliness.

my husband rip) said the viet nam vets loved this of which he was one. it will forever remind me of them....

This is one of the most beautiful songs ever!!! Roberta does it with such feeling, tenderness and passion. Thanks for this post. Blessings!!

I love this song so much I can't even say. I had this album when it was first released but never appreciated this song then for all it's pathos and poetry. Thank you, who ever you are, for this beautiful montage.

"Drinking up the night and missing all the stars" ugh gets to me every damn time

I can remember being a sad young man. Now I'm a sad old man.

FFS people, this is art. It's about whatever you want - no - whatever you NEED it to be about. Nothing else matters.

Powerful Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman tune. If you don't get it, don't comment. Roberta Flack does this tune masterfully.

Beautiful song. Incredible on original vinyl. Consider the era... the US military draft comes into play (1969) - the hopelessness and loss of innocence. With high unemployment and poverty among minorities during that era (and this), so many young men gathered together at bars and drank, some falling into dispair, hopelessness. 1969 DRAFT: "366 blue plastic capsules contained the birthdays that would be chosen in the first Vietnam draft lottery drawing on December 1, 1969. The first birth date drawn that night, assigned the lowest number, “001,” was September 14."

That is hauntingly beautiful. Thank you so much.

I can't believe I never heard this song before! I love Roberta Flack and her beautiful, rich and soulful voice and have always, yet never did I know of this haunting song. Listening to it song brought tears to my eyes. Her voice is so perfect on this. I want to find out more about the song and it's history now. Thank you Roberta for such a touching rendition of it.

This is how to do a Jazz ballad!! A beautifully bitter sweet Jazz ballad definitively and so movingly lived by Roberta Flack, one of the greatest voices of all time. Roberta Flack's own intuitively sad piano arrangements backed by the cream of Jazz musicians of the day, including Ron Carter on Bass. This is by far the most moving version. Couldnt believe it wasnt on RU-vid and you right, it should be. Thank You!

Every time I hear this..jaw drops..chills up my spine This lady could REALLY sing imo- the best thing she ever did..altho- all the "First Take" album is great

I've got chills. This is beautiful.

I remember this song during my youth while the Viet Nam war was drawing to a bitter end. I felt the son was about my generation and me. I was madly in love with Roberta Flack and today when I looked for images and sounds to raise the spirit of Memorial Day I found the image accompanying a Doug Bradley piece about the anti-war movement. Immediately the Roberta Flack rendition of this beautiful ballad

the song is about young men returning from war

One might interpret this song any way he prefers, but when interviewed on National Public Radio a few years ago, Frances Landesman said she had no intention of writing about homosexuality. She said she meant "gay" in the traditional since of joyful. She said it surprised her how often people assumed it to be about gay men. I am inclined to agree since it is her artistic product and the content of remainder of the song is about wasting away in bars rather than enjoying the world as it is. She writes about denial, aging, alcoholism and near the end how men try to chase those monsters away with seedy, casual, sexual encounters "while a grimey moon blossoms up above"... "tired little girls"..."play at making love". I think the important thing is that a sad young man can be straight or gay. The loss of meaningful relationships due to addiction is not the sole property of any sexual orientation.

If you have had a bad day,for whatever reason-I guarantee this will make you feel much better. For me,this is perfection,nothing less.

ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONGS EVER WRITTEN , AND ROBERTA FLACK WHAT CAN I SAY , MAGNIFICENT NO ONE LIKE HER TODAY . BEING A GAY MAN THIS IS ONE OF THE PIECES OF MUSIC THAT CHANGED MY LIFE , A MASTERPIECE THANK YOU SO MUCH

Ulf Wakenius, the jazz guitarist, does a beautiful instrumental of this song.

Sentimental and so beautiful...

Such a beautiful heartbreaking song. It makes me wish I had a proper singing voice, so I could sing it.

First time hearing this song. This is great.

Thank you for sharing one of my most favorite songs!

First time I have really loved visuals. Well done. Perfect with the song. There is a saying....I have made up my mind..don't confuse me with facts The lyrics were written by Fran Landesman, music Tommy Wolf and the song was included in The Nervous Set, co written by her husband Jay. The musical opened in St Louis and a shortened version on Broadway in 1959 well BEFORE the Vietnam war. Roberta Flack's version was the first to popularize the song in 1969. Them's the facts.

Superb, great collage for an epic song. thank you nokewan.

thank you for sharing, LOVE this version!

this really takes me back to when I first heard her. the video is nice - good job

That song is so poignant, she sings right in to my very heart.......

Great job on this...will check out your other videos. I found this posting her videos to my facebook page and after a couple couldn't find this one. Was listening to my iTunes and decided to actually type it into the youtube search and voila. Thanks!

i can just listen to this all day..

superb interpretation, as well as each part of this work, the best from Roberta

In fact, it was we older gays who can attest to having appropriated the song as our own. In pre-disco days, entering a gay bar through a dark alley, knocking first. If you were lucky enough to find a willing partner, slipping into the back room with him -- to SLOW DANCE to the Sinatra, Garland, Whiting, Bassey, Holiday on the jukebox. The torchiest songs invariably got played at last call: this was certainly one: "all the sad young men seek a certain smile, someone they can hold even just for a little while." INDEED. Ah, my earliest experiences coming out. Even in early discos, the last dance was always a slow dance. Similarly, years later, we gays appropriated "What I Did For Love", though that generation had to sing it on the subways heading home. Bars had become too butch for queens singing torchy show tunes.

Have always loved this song..

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO POWERFUL ROBERTA FLACK THE ONE &ONLY

That picture of the guy on the floor with a sand castle is your painting? Wow! That's great!

cold.ROBERTA sings so nice i have to comment twice.cold. ROBERTA when i hear your voice i thank god for my ears

Yes, it is. Thank you. Painting and drawing was my profession for 25 years.

Very beautiful.

superbe album it's just perfect! manque le titre tube the first time..mais tous les autres sont également bon .Grande dame de la soul et comme souvent les premiers albums semblent les meilleurs..

I miss her too but after approx.50yrs of singing she deserves to be simi retirement I will always love her.It's a shame that a lot of people only know her from Gold Finger pity.The trouble with Shirley is that when she does a song she ruins it for everyone else.

Mark Murphy does a nice version too. Never heard this Roberta Flack cover until tonight.

This is a great song by a great artist, stop the hate!!!

one of a kind

It never occurred to me that this song referenced any orientation. It is simply one of the best songs about loneliness I've ever heard. How I wish Sinatra had recorded it.

Thank you.

I still think it's about gay men, primarily. In any case, it's a sublimely beautiful song, and Roberta's performance is magnificent.

Nice one nokewan, your 1st attempt is very good

Ms. Flack................sings this song...and it deals with even today situations..

Dark but beautiful.

How many young men really know she's singing about them.

I interpreted the song to be about about lonely men picking up prostitutes. "All the sad young men seek a certain smile, Someone they can hold for just a little while/ tired little girl does the best she can trying to be gay for a sad young men." Prostitutes put on fake smiles to attract men but most of them don't want to be doing it...

beautifully sad

Right on MrCopperthwaite! The song is about the individuals among us, the disenfranchised, marginalized, aging, different, pushed aside, who start out with high hopes and ambitions and after getting slapped down by life come to the realization that the road ahead is shorter than that already traveled. Ms. Flack version is excellent. I invite you to listen to Kurt Elling's cover.

cold. sad but cold. misbegottenly sad but ROBERTA sings it so good. good and cold.nice and cold

@brandylaflora Thanks for the compliment, I hope it stayed in tune with the song's meaning.

Roberta Flack is soothing

Back in the day, when this song came out, it was considered a gay anthem. Listen to all the words closely, you'll understand what I mean.

sensitive Roberta you certanly have loved a sad young man...

The lyricist, Fran Landesman was without question, writing (with irony and compassion) about gay men. I remember when this song and all of the moody songs of Flack came out. At that time, it was the hey day of gay life, especially in Washington, DC., where Flack played at a Georgetown restaurant and her ballads were in such counterpoint to the disco that filled the clubs. I say all of this to explain that while the performance is great, the observation by Landesman, is dated and while still holding some truth does not today capture the diversity within the gay community that has emerged as the result of strides made regarding gay human rights. In the 70's, gay life was very depressing, but we put on such a show! Call it survival.

the best version of this track, with Kurt Eling's one...

@shout102 Many gay men are sad, and especially at the time this was released, one couldn't blame them. Society, the world even, has been very cruel. As a gay man myself, I find it a very moving and tragic piece. I understand the need to be cautious about victimizing ourselves, but we shouldn't hide our heads in the sand and say our community has not been stricken with overwhelming grief. I appreciate your comment, however.

very sad song indeed

I heard this song when it was first released, I have the album. I used to think the song was about gay men, which, as a gay man, I resented. I now realize it's about all men. It's a pretty tragic view of men but in many ways true. They try to live up to expectations that they and others have created. It's an awful indictment of our society.

This is one of the saddest songs of my youth! By Fran Landesman - poet of the Beat generation. Many people thought it was about homosexuality.

Some right old bollocks being touted here about the song being about gay people. It's about people and it is sublime. Isn't that enough?

Absolutely correct, magoo8454.

this song is about young men returning from war

shout102's response to this song being about gay men and being written by clay gunther is pure fabrication. 'the ballad of the sad young men' is by tommy wolfe and fran landesman from their jazz musical 'the nervous set' which opened march 10. 1959 at the crystal palace in st luis, mo. adapted from an unpublished novel of the same title, by jay landesman and theodore j flicker, the play described 'the beat generation', the young people in post world war ll, pre vietnam america.

I love this song and I love the painting just about 2:45. I need to know the artist please. Cheers!

Listen to Marcin Wasilewski's version

EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES... ! AUG 3, 2016

ODE TO OUR OPPRESSORS AND THEIR OFFSPRING

By far the most moving rendition of this song is by Boz Scaggs on his Speak Low album. Listen when you have a chance.

Irrespective of the issues this song addresses (or not) anything purporting to be for educational purposes requires discussion and a issue, a song, a work of 'art' no less than anything else.

damn

great song from back in the day/ very gay one/ very sad

a grimy moon?

@shout102 : Well put. I think one of the most meanest and vicious words in modern speech is 'loser' and especially the stupid, anti-social meaning it represents.

Yes, I've listened carefully and no, it definitely is not about homosexuality. The misunderstanding is caused by the different meanings of the word : 'gay'. In this case obviously: "light-hearted and carefree". Think about it: 'Trying to be gay'. How does that work? A girl trying to be a homosexual - for a man? Can you become a homosexual just by trying? Then the opposite must be true as well. If you try (or pray) hard enough you can become 'normal'. :-)

Lilyhammer brought me here

Trank You

The comments here are hilarious hahahaha. The word "gay" meant "happy" at old days i think there is a slim chance tht this song is for gay people lol

Who decided that "Over the rainbow" is a gay song? I'm gay and i feel that song is talking about me, anyway. Sorry for that.

For me, Rickie Lee Jones does the best version of this song, on her Pop Pop album. I love Roberta Flack's vocal on this though.

Wrong, Fran Landesman wrote the lyrics and Tommy Wolf wrote the music. Get a clue.

What makes you think that this song is about Gay Men?I have only heard about sad young men.Not sad young gay men.Beside what the hell does sexual orietation have to do with anything?

Give Shirley Bassey's version a listen, she rips your heart out with her delivery, a more robust, angst filled version, full of emotion.

"Tired little girl she does the best she can, Trying to be gay for a sad young man " -- to construe this as a reference to homosexuality is perversely illiterate.

@shout102 This song is about gay men. It was written by Clay Gunther while he was working for a company where they had lots of people writing songs that they would bring out under their name, so he never got recognition for it. He was a great musician, but an alcoholic, from the deep south, that he had to leave because he could not be who he was down there. He died just over ten years ago and I only knew him for the last 10 days of his life.

Nightswimmer this is what I have been saying all along sexual orientation has nothing to do with this song.I first heard this song by Dame Shirley Bassey and love it by her.Although Roberta Flack does a fine job.I love everything Shirley does sorry to hear she's gone into semiretirement but she deserves it.