Author Topic: Most Depressing Songs Ever  (Read 37464 times)

distance

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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #30 on: May 06, 2005, 05:17:00 pm »
Quote
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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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #31 on: May 06, 2005, 05:20:00 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by distance:
   
Quote
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?

lionforce5

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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #32 on: May 06, 2005, 06:55:00 pm »
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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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #33 on: May 06, 2005, 09:14:00 pm »

Bartelby

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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #34 on: May 06, 2005, 09:33:00 pm »
Quote
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".

distance

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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #35 on: May 07, 2005, 01:07:00 am »
Quote
Originally posted by Ellis D. Fleischbach:
   
Quote
Originally posted by distance:
   
Quote
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.

glitz

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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #36 on: May 07, 2005, 12:51:00 pm »
Let down-Radiohead

Liberte

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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #37 on: May 07, 2005, 01:59:00 pm »
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.

JonParker

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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #38 on: May 07, 2005, 05:09:00 pm »
Quote
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.

smakawhat

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Re: Most Depressing Songs Ever
« Reply #39 on: May 09, 2005, 12:25:00 pm »
Cure's "Pornography" is MASSIVELY depressing, even by Cure standards.. but in a good way of course   :D