25 of the most depressing songs of all time ?????

Never mind June Tabor, try getting through Shane MacGowan's (ThePogues)version without shedding a tear, go ahead ya heartless b***tards....

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:
What a great idea for a thread, and an interesting list for starters. I am a bit of a one for depressing stuff - comes from growing up with Joy Division and the Cure I guess.

One of the most depressing songs I know is 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'. Try the version by June Tabor from her excellent 'Airs and Graces LP'. Truly moving.

Nigel

Time by Pink Floyd on DSOTM is depressing enough. Melanie's "RailRoad". Richard & Linda Thompson's "Nothing at the End of the Rainbow". Pretty Things "SF Sorrow" is a depressing subject, but one of my favourite albums of all time.

How about something to cheer me up, like having an Albert Hammond bootleg in the house.

Rotf

quote:

Originally posted by Shayman:
Where the Wild Roses Grow - Nick Cave

Jonathan

in fact anything by nick cave, although, i quite like depressing music.

I'd agree with the Lou Reed nominations, and would add "Dirty Boulevard" off of New York.

And two of the most depressing songs I know: Husker Du's "Too Far Down" and "Hardly Getting Over It."

Best,

Bob

It's Over: Roy Orbison
Magdalene Laundries: Joni Mitchell
Wildfire: Michael Martin Murphey

Wildfire's combined melody and lyrics are crushing; especially to someone who loves animals.

Weldon

Tindersticks - My Sister

Do you remember my sister? How many mistakes did she make with those never blinking eyes? I couldn't work it out. I swear she could read your mind, your life, the depths of your soul at one glance. Maybe she was stripping herself away, saying

Here I am, this is me

I am yours and everything about me, everything you see...

If only you look hard enough

I never could.

Our life was a pillow-fight. We'd stand there on the quilt, our hands clenched ready. Her with her milky teeth, so late for her age, and a Stanley knife in her hand. She sliced the tyres on my bike and I couldn't forgive her.

She went blind at the age of five. We'd stand at the bedroom window and she'd get me to tell her what I saw. I'd describe the houses opposite, the little patch of grass next to the path, the gate with its rotten hinges forever wedged open that Dad was always going to fix. She'd stand there quiet for a moment. I thought she was trying to develop the images in her own head. Then she'd say:

I can see little twinkly stars,

like Christmas tree lights in faraway windows.

Rings of brightly coloured rocks

floating around orange and mustard planets.

I can see huge tiger striped fishes

chasing tiny blue and yellow dashes,

all tails and fins and bubbles.

I'd look at the grey house opposite, and close the curtains.

She burned down the house when she was ten. I was away camping with the scouts. The fireman said she'd been smoking in bed - the old story, I thought. The cat and our mum died in the flames, so Dad took us to stay with our Aunt in the country. He went back to London to find us a new house. We never saw him again.

On her thirteenth birthday she fell down the well in our Aunt's garden and broke her head. She'd been drinking heavily. On her recovery her sight returned, a fluke of nature everyone said. That's when she said she'd never blink again. I would tell her when she started at me, with her eyes wide and watery, that they reminded me of the well she fell into. She liked this, it made her laugh.

She moved in with a gym teacher when she was fifteen, all muscles he was. He lost his job when it all came out, and couldn't get another one. Not in that kind of small town. Everybody knew everyone else's business. My sister would hold her head high, though. She said she was in love. They were together for five years until one day he lost his temper. He hit her over the back of the neck with his bullworker. She lost the use of the right side of her body. He got three years and was out in fifteen months. We saw him a while later, he was coaching a non-league football team in a Cornwall seaside town. I don't think he recognised her. My sister had put on a lot of weight from being in a chair all the time. She'd get me to stick pins and stub out cigarettes in her right hand. She'd laugh like mad because it didn't hurt. Her left hand was pretty good though. We'd have arm wrestling matches, I'd have to use both arms and she'd still beat me.

We buried her when she was 32. Me and my Aunt, the vicar, and the man who dug the hole. She said she didn't want to be cremated and wanted a cheap coffin so the worms could get to her quickly. She said she liked the idea of it, though I thought it was because of what happened to the cat and our mum

Glenda

Was that a C&W song?

Jim

Famous Blue Raincoat by Lenny Cohen

Edith and the Kingpin by Joni Mitch

Great track Neill S but why so depressed when listening to Joni - try Melanie and listen to 'Steppin' or 'Babe Rainbow', but not if you're feeling depressed before you listen.

Rotf

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Haven't read the whole thread yet, so I don't know if anyone's mentioned this song yet, but to me this is one of the most depressing songs of all time:

God Bless the USA (I'm Proud To Be An American) by Lee Greenwood.

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I always thought "Dazed and Confused" by Led Zep was pretty depressing.

Last movement of Beethoven 9, all those Nazis goose stepping about Ughhhh.

RKO,

You do realise that the Ninth Symphony was written over 110 years before the Nazi party was formed?

Fawlty, Yes they would have had difficulty otherwise.

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quote:

Originally posted by KRO:
Last movement of Beethoven 9, all those Nazis goose stepping about Ughhhh.

Speaking for myself, I refuse to let the Nazis claim that music, especially considering that the intent of the music is antithetical to everything the Nazis represent.

Take back the music.

.

Sorry everyone i meant to say Springtime for Hitler,do they relly march to the 9th?

quote:

Originally posted by KRO:
Sorry everyone i meant to say Springtime for Hitler,do they relly march to the 9th?

I don't think so... Though there is a Turkish march in the middle with tenor soloist, joined by full choir, and then a huge fugal section in tempo, but anyone attempting to march to it would end up looking as silly as the propoganda film about the Nazi goose-steppers, to to the Lambeth Waltz, in all probability.

Only two pennies worth... Fred

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quote:

Originally posted by KRO:
Sorry everyone i meant to say Springtime for Hitler

Well, that's quite a different kettle of fish ... not depressing at all.

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KRO,

You're thinking of "The Producers" a film by Mel Brooks.

The Producers

Oh wow! Someone else (Seagull) has heard of Vinny Peculiar!! I may start a thread elswhere....
but on this one I nominate Minnie Ripperton's 'Loving you' - cos it was written and produced by former child (and temporarily adult) genius Stevie Wonder. And you thought Paul McCartney's talent had dropped like a stone!

How about I'm not satisfied which FZ recorded on Freak Out and again on Ruben & the Jets along with Stuff Up the Cracks, Turn on the Gas, I'm Gonna Take My Life

Of course Ray Davies wrote Life Goes On (which is not as depressing)

My bank went broke and my well ran dry.
It was almost enough to contemplate suicide.
I turned on the gas, but I soon realised
I hadn't settled my bill so they cut off my supply.
No matter how I try, it seems I'm too young to die.
Life goes on and on and on ....

I haven't read most of this thread so this one may've already been covered, but what about Asleep by the Smiths......


Mozza at his haunting best.

Paul

"Desparados Waiting for a Train" Guy Clarke but it's the Freddie White version that brings tears to my eyes and makes me more morose than I usually am.

not too many songs this good about death,

I suppose Schubert's Winterreise would have to come top; it's remarkable that such a disconsolate, despairing voyage into the abyss can be such an awesome inspiration. Dreadful indeed, but perhaps being full of dread is what inspires the great to be greater.

EW