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=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: Yank on May 06, 2005, 01:31:00 am
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From NEWS.scotsman.com
Heaven knows we're miserable now
TIM CORNWELL
BRIDGET Jones would love it. An American music writer is to publish a new guide to the most depressing pop songs ever written.
Tom Reynoldsâ?? tongue-in-cheek list of 52 songs ranges from time-honoured weepies like Terry Jackâ??s Seasons In The Sun to Let Her Cry by Hootie And The Blowfish.
It also includes Harry Nillssonâ??s Without You, sung by Mariah Carey, whose lyrics ("I canâ??t live if living is without you") were a favourite of Renee Zellweger in the film Bridget Jonesâ??s Diary.
The list includes not a single known Scottish band, surprising for a country whose art often explores the darker side of life.
Mr Reynoldsâ?? choice of the most depressing song ever is The Christmas Shoes, by a US Christian rock group, Newsong, which has been a big US hit.
Mr Reynoldsâ?? book, titled I Hate Myself and Want to Die, is published in September.
His list ranges from the Celine Dionâ??s All By Myself to Barry Manilowâ??s Mandy. More recent offerings include Bruce Springsteen, the Cure, Smashing Pumpkins and Joy Division.
But rock fans will undoubtedly complain that classic hits have been left out - like Luka, by Suzanne Vega, which topped one internet list of the saddest songs. Don McLeanâ??s Vincent is missing, nor does Led Zeppelin put in an appearance.
Mr Reynolds is a writer and television producer based in Los Angeles. He recently wrote a History of Motorcycle Culture.
Albert Depetrillo, Mr Reynoldsâ?? editor at the Sanctuary Group, said his writing showed the humour of "gonzo" journalist Hunter S Thompson.
Mr Depetrillo said: "This is the first book of its kind. There have been books of songs, but not about this particular topic, and the response has been enormous. Heâ??s just hit a nerve. Everybody seems to have their favourite depressing song and they all want to talk about it.
"He tries to be a bit offbeat with his choices and a bit provocative as well. He divides the book into categories because songs can be depressing for different reasons.
The first section, "I Was A Teenage Car Crash", includes Teenangel by Mark Dinning and Tell Laura I Love Her by Ray Peterson, both tearful teen tales of death on the road from the golden era of rockâ??nâ??roll.
Another category, "Horrifying Remarks of Already Depressing Songs", includes All by Myself and Without You, along with Landslide by Smashing Pumpkins and Send In The Clowns by "everybody".
The section "Iâ??m Trying to be Profound and Touching but Really Suck At It" includes Round Here by Counting Crows and Donâ??t Cry Out Loud by Melissa Manchester.
The Christmas Shoes, first released in 2000, has become a perennial hit in the US and even inspired a television film starring Rob Lowe. Newsong have recorded more than 13 albums.
Mr Reynolds says he first heard about it from a friend as the song she always heard in department stores during the Christmas holidays.
He claimed the "diabolically depressing" song was "more depressing than The Cureâ??s entire career", and he went into shock after listening to it for the first time.
He writes: "Itâ??s the most depressing song ever written because itâ??s long, criminally insufferable and, worst of all, Christmas themed, which means we will always hear it during the Yuletide season, year after year."
THE MOST DEPRESSING POP SONGS
Tell Laura I Love Her - Ray Peterson
Teen Angel - Mark Dinning
Last Kiss - J Frank Wilson And The Cavaliers
Goodbye To Love - The Carpenters
At Seventeen - Janis Ian
My Immortal - Evanescence
It Must Be Him - Vicki Carr
One - Metallica
Round Here - Counting Crows Lucky Man - Emerson, Lake And Palmer
Beth - Kiss
MacArthur Park - Richard Harris
Don't Cry Out Loud - Melissa Manchester
In The Year 2525 - Zager And Evans
Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg
The Rose - Bette Midler
Mandy - Barry Manilow
Captain Jack - Billy Joel
Let Her Cry - Hootie And The Blowfish
Sam Stone - John Prine
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
You Don't Bring Me Flowers - Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand
In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Brick - Ben Folds Five
Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town - Kenny Rogers And The First Edition
All By Myself - Celine Dion
Without You - Mariah Carey
I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
Landslide - Smashing Pumpkins
Send In The Clowns - Everybody
The River - Bruce Springsteen
The Freshmen - The Verve Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
Maggie's Dream - Don Williams
People Who Died - The Jim Carroll Band
Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
DOA - Bloodrock
Sylviaâ??s Mother - Dr Hook And The Medicine Show
The End - The Doors
Alone Again - Gilbert O'Sullivan
Artificial Flowers - Bobby Darin
Indiana Wants Me - R Dean Taylor
Prayers For Rain - Cure
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As usual..these lists are always a classic case of 'IMHO' but how can you have list of miserable songs without Morrissey/Smiths on it, never mind topping it!!!
Girlfriend in a coma, There is a light, Suffer little children....the list is endless as everyone knows!
The Beautiful South can get pretty maudlin as well. One of my favourite sad songs of theirs is "Woman in the wall"
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Yeah... even the title is Smiths... I was thinking of Girlfriend in a Coma... catchiest darned song though!
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imagine having to listen to all those songs one after another...talk about suicide....
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Originally posted by sonickteam3:
imagine having to listen to all those songs one after another...talk about suicide....
Or a Wilco album!
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Originally posted by O'Mankie:
Originally posted by sonickteam3:
imagine having to listen to all those songs one after another...talk about suicide....
Or a Wilco album! [/b]
dude, come on its friday, and i am leaving for Canada in 3 hours, stop trying to bum me out! :)
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well this guy obviously wanted to sell books rather than make an accurate list, so a lot of it has to be mainstream stuff that everyone's heard ... i'd have to include at least a couple of red house painters songs, maybe "lord kill the pain" and "michael," but you could really choose any of them, even their "biggest" song, "have you forgotten" is incredibly maudlin ... oh, and definitely elliott smith ... did this guy just not realize that there's an entire genre called "sadcore"?
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What's really depressing is his confusing The Verve with The Verve Pipe. Or maybe it's a typo. Whatever.
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just because lyrics are sad, that doesn't make the song sad. look at half the magnetic fields' stuff. so many of these songs sound sad but really don't make you feel like cutting your heart out with a spoon.
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asleep by the smiths makes me want to slit my wrists with a spoon.
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The cat and the cradle and the silver spoon song always makes me cry. Don't know the real title of it though.
And what about Fade Into You by Mazzy Star?
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I would have to think that REM's "Everybody Hurts" has to be on that list.
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Originally posted by K8teebug:
And what about Fade Into You by Mazzy Star?
To me, that's a soothing, chill song.
How about Blasphemous Rumours (DM)?
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Suicide Child - The Nuns
God I hate that song.
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Originally posted by K8teebug:
The cat and the cradle and the silver spoon song always makes me cry. Don't know the real title of it though.
father and son by cat stevens?
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50 cent and candy shop.
I find it incredibly depressing that anyone could buy into such a no-talent.
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Billy don't be a hero ... Paper Lace (I think)
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Originally posted by Miss MArKiE?:
50 cent and candy shop.
I find it incredibly depressing that anyone could buy into such a no-talent.
you sound older than you felt at the wonder stuff show
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Originally posted by Miss MArKiE?:
50 cent and candy shop.
I find it incredibly depressing that anyone could buy into such a no-talent.
RACIST! ;)
Any person of colour is talented, even when they're not.......you've lived in doodleville long enough to know that.
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Originally posted by O'Mankie:
As usual..these lists are always a classic case of 'IMHO' but how can you have list of miserable songs without Morrissey/Smiths on it, never mind topping it!!!
Girlfriend in a coma, There is a light, Suffer little children....the list is endless as everyone knows!
The Beautiful South can get pretty maudlin as well. One of my favourite sad songs of theirs is "Woman in the wall"
I'll have to agree with you about The Smiths. Hell, for that matter, almost any band from Manchester. They are a bunch of miserable bastards in the that city. :p
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Originally posted by O'Mankie:
Originally posted by Miss MArKiE?:
50 cent and candy shop.
I find it incredibly depressing that anyone could buy into such a no-talent.
RACIST! ;)
Any person of colour is talented, even when they're not.......you've lived in doodleville long enough to know that. [/b]
although that satire was hilarious, really, you're completely missing the point.
no one in their right mind would try to argue that 50cent is talented, it's the people who make his music who have the skills to pay the bills.
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Originally posted by Mr Dodgy Slapper:
My Immortal - Evanescence
One - Metallica
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
Landslide - Smashing Pumpkins
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
Prayers For Rain - Cure
this list is utter shit.
just picked a few examples here.
#1: one: is this a _POP_ song? wtf? that's all i have to say about that one.
#2: my immortal: when i hear this song, i don't think depressing, i think pain. as in this song is so bad it's painful to listen to. evanescence lyrics are so bad that even trent reznor would be too embarassed to have released them!
#3: love will tear us apart: i'm sure i could easily find a more depressing joy division song. LWTUA is one of the more upbeat-sounding JD songs, i think.
#4: landslide: not nearly the most depressing songs in the SP catalog, but it's not even an SP song. at least pick a song by the band if you're going to compile a list like this. though i do prefer this cover to the original and any other covers i've heard. most SP covers kind of suck.
#5: comfortably numb: again, i would say this isn't the most depressing song in the PF catalog. i'm not sure what i'd pick, but when i think of the wall, i don't really think depressing so much as i think "over-the-top" and "over-rated". i mean i like pink floyd a lot (i own practically all the albums -- missing only a couple compilations, zabriskie pt sdtrck and the '87 live album), but the wall isn't their best work and i'm sure i could pick out a more depressing song than that. i'm also in the camp that thinks that DSOTM is over-rated as a PF album.
#6: prayers for rain: come on. there's SO much more to choose from than prayers for rain. check out the live performance of disintegration that's on the prayers for rain single. it blows the album version away and i'd rank it above the album version of prayers for rain also as far as this category goes. also, why do people always forget about the album 'faith'? there's plenty of stuff to go on there. i think the cure 'trilogy' was utter BS. pornography/disintegration/bloodflowers isn't nearly as good of a trilogy as seventeen seconds/faith/pornography. that's the real trilogy there.
why do people constantly feel like they have to compile ridiculously subjective lists like this? i mean.. isn't there enough of this bullshit on VH1 these days? (when they're not showing something like 'the fabulous life of...' or the latest season of the surreal life.
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Originally posted by distance:
this list is utter shit.
the dude's just trying to sell books ... i bet he would tell you that he picked songs people knew, not really "the most depressing songs ever"
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Originally posted by K8teebug:
The cat and the cradle and the silver spoon song always makes me cry. Don't know the real title of it though.
Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:
father and son by cat stevens? [/QUOTE]
No, it's the song that goes "And the cats and the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon. When you coming home son? I don't know when. But we'll get together then, dad, you know we'll have a good time then." Ugh, eyes tearing up just thinking about that song.
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i still stand by my belief that the saddest song I have ever heard is "Messenger Bird Song" by Bright Eyes. Ouch. Hurts just thinking about it.
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Cats in the Cradle is a Harry Chapin tune. It's depressing enough without knowing the fact that Harry was later killed in an auto accident.
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What about BEN, by Michael Jackson. A song about a rat.
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I always thought the most depressing thing about that song was that some cheesey, second-rate hair-metal band went to the Top Ten with a remake of it.
Originally posted by kmdobrz:
Cats in the Cradle is a Harry Chapin tune. It's depressing enough without knowing the fact that Harry was later killed in an auto accident.
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'Honey' by Bobby Goldsboro. Depressing. And dreadful.
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Loving You, by MINNIE RIPPERTON
You Light Up My Life, By DEBBIE BOONE
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division???
How about:
Love WIll Keep Us Together, by CAPT.& TENILLE
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Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
I always thought the most depressing thing about that song was that some cheesey, second-rate hair-metal band went to the Top Ten with a remake of it.
ugly kid joe?
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Originally posted by distance:
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
I always thought the most depressing thing about that song was that some cheesey, second-rate hair-metal band went to the Top Ten with a remake of it.
ugly kid joe? [/b]
Ugly kid joe was hair-metal?
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Ugly Kid Joe was hair metal that came along after hair metal was out and grunge was in, so they had to have a new image.
I think he could've just said "The Cure" without naming a song and that would've been fine enough.
maybe not "Fade Into You," but their cover of "Five String Serenade" has a sort of brilliant melancholy to it.
And honestly, there's no reason for "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush not to be on that list.
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Animals are Muslim too (http://www.filmcement.org/rummage/mp3s/animals_are_muslim.mp3) by the Muslim Scouts (http://onlineislamicstore.com/v80.html)
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Originally posted by Relaxer:
What's really depressing is his confusing The Verve with The Verve Pipe. Or maybe it's a typo. Whatever.
You are so right about that and I don't think it's a typo...plus everyone dismisses The Verve because of Bittersweet Symphony - so maybe that's the saddest song...the piece of crap that (mis-)defined them to potential fans. The saddest song they wrote...and the title escapes me: Lyrics: "I'm going to die a lonely man; I want to die a lonely man..." YIKES;
Saddest song by a new group: Blue Merle's "Stay".
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Originally posted by Ellis D. Fleischbach:
Originally posted by distance:
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
I always thought the most depressing thing about that song was that some cheesey, second-rate hair-metal band went to the Top Ten with a remake of it.
ugly kid joe? [/b]
Ugly kid joe was hair-metal? [/b]
whether or not you want to classify them as hair metal, i don't know, but they did come around at the end of the hair metal era, they did cover that song, and they did have a 'hit' with it.
i just guessed that was the band being referred to.
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Let down-Radiohead
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Couple of things.
First, it almost goes without saying that lists like this are inherently stupid. Not that that has prevented me personally from making them, or complaining about those I run across. There will never be a top-anything list that everyone will agree on. Hell, I can't even make a top-anything list that I would agree with myself after a little time passes--especially when the criteria are things as subjective and prone to mood swings as "most depressing." People mainly throw these lists out there to support some agenda: riling people up, "proving" how smart/cool they are, getting attention, making a buck, whatever. The lists themselves have little or no intrinsic value, unless you count the ability to provide entertainment for people taking potshots at them. Which we all love to do.
Second, though, is that this list is particularly stupid because it mashes up about five different shades of meaning for "depressing," and to no good effect. There are torch songs (one of the most fabulous varieties of song, IMHO) that just rip your personal emotional scars open. There are maudlin songs, which use any cheesy trick to try and pluck your heartstrings (sometimes successfully, sometimes with unintentially comic results). There are desperately clueless songs, which are depressing in the sense that you feel ashamed the human race is capable of such drivel. There are songs whose lyrics are about depressing topics; they might actually be uplifting if there's a moral to them and some that could be almost jaunty with a few words changed. There are songs that put you in a foul mood because the artist has obviously gotten away with something, foisting such a piece of crap on a population of ADD-afflicted record buyers. (If you want to start a new list of all the flavors of "depressing" that music could embody, I'm sure this community of aficionados could add some beauties.) Whatever minimal coherence the list might have had is pretty much ruined by the mix. The guy didn't even bother to make interesting juxtapositions.
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Originally posted by kmdobrz:
Cats in the Cradle is a Harry Chapin tune. It's depressing enough without knowing the fact that Harry was later killed in an auto accident.
I'm pretty sure he died of cancer, actually. Not that it was a great loss to music, although I'm sure his family misses him.
I never thought of Jim Carroll's "People Who Died" as a particularly depressing song, despite the subject matter. It's more of a tribute than a lament.
The Cure's "Pornography" is depressing as all hell, both lyrically and musically.
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Cure's "Pornography" is MASSIVELY depressing, even by Cure standards.. but in a good way of course :D