Are you feeling restless, depressed, anxious, or just generally bummed out these days? (Really, who could blame you, given that the world feels perpetually on the verge of collapse, and the ever-more-pervasive sense that the only thing keeping this country’s social fabric together is a shared rubbernecking toward the plights of starlets?) Is your mood coloring the music you listen to? The Deciblog unearthed a press release from the Peter Gabriel-helmed “cultural suggestion engine” The Filter saying that it had noticed a dramatic uptick in depressing music being spun by its users, with CEO David Maher-Roberts saying “We’re seeing more of our users than ever before rating depressing or slightly miserable tracks more highly than happier types of music. It’s logical to assume that this is a reflection of what’s happening in the economy.” Well, it’s not just the economy, I suspect. The Filter, being the savvy Web startup that it is, marked the occasion with a list of depressing songs that included Evanescence’s “My Immortal” and Radiohead’s “How To Disappear Completely”; the Deciblog countered with its own list of sad metal songs, which contains exactly zero tracks I am familiar with. Great, now I’m even more depressed!
Anyway, there is one track that was ignored by both The Filter and Decibel, which I understand because it’s kind of old. But really, is there anything more gut-wrenchingly melodramatic, more liable to send you into a tailspin of “God, what’s the point,” than Mark Dinning’s “Teen Angel”? The 45-spinning video only adds to the sadness:
Sure, it doesn’t talk about economic woes; its wistfulness is quite specific. But being the “Please, God, I’m Only 17″ of its era has to count for something.
Dramatic Rise In Popularity Of Depressing Music [The Deciblog]
I forgot this one: “Waiting Around to Die”, Townes Van Zandt.
C’mon folks, Bruce Springsteen- “The River.” Especially the version on Live/ 1975-85.
When the harmonica kicks in, it’s earth shattering.
Anathema - One Last Goodbye
The Smiths - I Know It’s Over
Jeff Buckley - Dream Brother, Last Goodbye
Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Tori Amos - Winter, Me and a Gun, etc.
off the top of my head.
Let’s go back to 1966 and take a listen to Love as they play Signed D.C.
My comedown I’m scared to face
I’ve pierced my skin again lord,
No one cares for me….
As mournful and touching as possible.
the Smiths’ “I know it’s over” starts with:
“Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
And as I climb into an empty bed
Oh well. Enough said.”
Seriously… Morrissey is the king of witty despair.
The other song that made me weep like a child is “I’m throwing my arms around paris” also, Morrissey:
“In the absence of your touch
And in the absence of loved ones
I have decided I’m throwing my arms around all of paris because only stone and steel accept my love”
I mean, really, does it get any more intense than that? Only stone and steel accept my love?! That’s fucking gold.
“Alison”, Elvis Costello
Jimmy Cliff, “Many Rivers to Cross”
Sonic Youth, “Schizophrenia”
Fugazi, “I’m So Tired”
Johnny Cash, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”
John Cale’s cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends”
If you have to pick just one song, for me it’ll always be “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed.
@scott pgwp: That part makes my Mom cry, too!
A couple of years ago my girlfriend at the time was dying from cancer and two songs that remind me of how I felt are “Brick” by Ben Folds Five (though not lyrically accurate) and “Paint It, Black” by the Rolling Stones. However, there is one song that acted as a kind of barometer as I coped - if I started to identify with “Fade to Black” by Metallica, I’d know I was going the wrong way (fortunately, I never did).
Richard Buckner, “Blue and Wonder”
The Avett Brothers, “If It’s the Beaches”
These songs and mere thinking about the final scenes of “M.A.S.H.” (the series) will get me weeping in about 30 seconds flat.
Marianne Faithfull’s version of Damon Albarn’s Green Fields; titled in her verision; LAST SONG. It’s a gut twister…
Lost his own, taken down
all his songs
till his all alone
and all our love was harmed
‘cept for you
I’m only young, favourite son
say you tried, take it back
to where you belong
and all the things you say
still untrue
We saw the green fields
turn into homes
such lonely homes
We saw the green fields
turn into homes
such lovely homes
Do what you want to do!
I was digging up, sorting out,
only to built a song alone
till you came along
but all my love was there
just all for you
And in the darkest time
we crossed the line
made a song
cause all the talk was wrong
and all you ever won
can still be true
We saw the green fields
turn into homes
such lonely homes
We saw the green fields
turn into stone
such lonely homes
We saw the green fields
turn into homes
such lovely homes
We saw the green fields
turn into stone
such lonely stone
Now all my love is out
It’s just for you
It’s not a love song
It’s the last song for you
@scott pgwp: I am SO having that song played at my funeral! Three songs, in this order: Grace (Jeff Buckley), Bohemian Rhapsody, and There is a Light That Never Goes Out (Smiths).
I am the biggest Smiths fan in the world (imho) and even I cannot listen to “I Know It’s Over.” Probably haven’t listened to it in 10 years.
I’m kinda like a hyperactive kid, who slows down when you give him speed. Sad songs make me happy, usually. But these are sure to make me sob:
The Last Time I Saw Richard - Joni Mitchell
You Will be Loved - Death Cab
This is to Mother You - Sinead O’Connor
Joan of Arc - Leonard Cohen
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue - Bob Dylan
Quicksand - David Bowie
Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me - Smiths
The Certainty Of Chance - Divine Comedy
The Man with the Child in His Eyes - Kate Bush
@TimmyGUNZ: My boyfriend’s guidance counselor in junior high made him listen to that Mike and the Mechanics song, which I think is high-larious! Why, I am not really sure…
Some other tear-jerker:
1) Rufus Wainwright, “Dinner at Eight”
2)The Eagles: “Desperado”
3) The Cure: “Just Like Heaven”
4) Stevie Wonder: “A Place in the Sun”
5) Death Cab for Cutie: “I’ll Follow You Into the Dark”
**Particularly Embarrassing BONUS TRACK**
6) Genesis: “Follow You, Follow Me”
Clearly, I cry a lot.
C’mon, all these Smiths songs, and not one “How Soon Is Now?”
There’s a club if you’d like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home and you cry and you want to die