Entertainment For Lively Minds
Major break ups
All my life I've been fascinated with the more melancholy side of music. Don't get me wrong, I love a Chic goodtime groove or a Zep freakout as much as the next person. But a Nick Drake lament, James Taylor singing Fire & Rain or Bonnie Raitt singing I Can't Make You Love Me are the things that draw me in, wrap me up and comfort me. My music collection is packed with such songs from Free to Frankie Miller, from Dusty to Del Amitri, from Stevie to Sufjan...songs about break ups. Break ups. We've all had them. They are an all consuming torture chamber of emotions and regrets that haunts you, in some cases, for the rest of your life. So why do we find songs about them so comforting? The greatest break up songs crop up in my playlists all the time. When I'm blue (now there's a phrase! Blue is my favourite colour but it also describes my mood. Who'da thought?) I just love to seek out one of the songs below. Believe me, I got a million of 'em.
David Cassidy 'The Last Kiss' - fantastic 1985 comeback song, written by the peerless Alan Tarney and with George Michael on backing vocals.
Free 'Love You So' - 1970, Paul Rodgers giving one of his greatest vocal performances.
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Break up songs
The Righteous Brothers - 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' - just one of the greatest songs ever written
And my own torture chamber? I played this to death in 1975 when I got dumped for the first time. The vitriol in his voice towards the end says it all.
Bill Withers 'Hope She'll Be Happier.'
Your turn?
So, let's have 'em! And be honest. Nothing wrong with your favourite break up song being Weekend In New England by Barry Manilow!
Emmylou and Gram
and The 'Orrible 'Ooo
Roddy Frame - Surf
The whole album is a melancholy masterpiece, an exploration of where it all went wrong in a relationship and the emotional hangover. Classic lines like "Take her face out of the start of the day for me". Here's my (current) favourite track from it...
...
I seem to remember holidays driving around the Lake District or possibly the Cornwall listening to my parents Country tapes on constant repeat. This song stands out in my memory...
The terrible Honey by Bobby Goldsboro also...
Bert Bacharach has so many good ones....
...and this is quite possibly the best.
Dusty Springfield - I just dont know what to do with myself
Confession time
I have just opened this & started to watch it / listen to it.
I had to stop before it finished, as I had started to fill up!
(My late wife Karen loved this song)
Not a pretty sight, a 55 year old wiping his eyes!
Can't post video- at work.
Jackson Brown - late for the sky
Am I wrong? Mull Historical Society
You're the one Kate Bush
Goodbye Steve Earle
Oh god, I could go on but a dormant decade-old memory is beginning to awaken and gnaw....I'm off to the Happy Thread!
ooh yes - the Trio Bulgarka/Kate classic
bit unbelievable though - who'd want to break up with Kate?
Song for the Dumped, Ben Folds Five
If you don't like profanity in a song, you won't like the lyrics in this one ("Give me my money back, give me my money back you b--ch, and don't forget, to give me back my black T-shirt ...").
But there's something about the quiet petty rage in this that I find both funny and very honest.
Ben has a few
You Don't Know Me (live version with Kate Miller Heidke)
"Damned by the existential moment where
We saw the couple in the coma
And it was we who were the cliche
But we carried on anyway"
And being your Costello correspondent I give you this sweet FU (amongst many I could list)
"The twitching impulses to speak your mind
I’ll lend you my microscope and maybe you will find it
Is it in that ugly place that’s just behind your face
Where you keep my picture still despite the fact
That you had me replaced"
All the Rage
Great suggestion Mr DFB. Also contains one of my favourite Costello lines:
"Baby, can't you act your age" - what does a man want?
But surely his best break up song is the one noting the new man's "turquoise pajamas and his motorcycle hat" the wonderful 'Hope You're Happy Now'.
"And the neighbours have guessed
'cos I've cancelled the milk
And they don't hear your voice through the walls anymore."
How Is Your Life Today? - Porcupine Tree
Two bands
Got me through my separation and divorce:
The Greg Dulli oeuvre:
And Teddy Thompson:
The Afghan Whigs
seem to have a song for every occasion. I love them. Very under appreciated.
See Also:
Twilight Singers
Gutter Twins
Donal Logue once said that what you needed to get over your ex is:
Tullamore dew, the afghan whigs and many, many strippers"
I shall not comment on the accuracy of his statement
Teenage angst
This takes me back
Does this count?
Easy - The Commodores
It's suprising how many people miss the point of this song.
Prefab Sprout
Goodbye Lucille # 1
To misquote Shakespeare, age cannot wither its effect. It still takes me right back to the heartache I felt in Leeds, Winter 1989.
I think...
I just got the 'shivers' there. Great track.
Jam - Bitterest Pill
and
Stiff Little Fingers - I Could Be Happy Yesterday
Find the lyrics
http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/buddy_holly/it_doesnt_matter_any_more....
read them as though you are angry.
Why is it that a recording recorded a half a century ago...
listened to through headphones on a computer sounds better quality wise, than anything recorded today?
I saw these live two days ago. I was impressed
Whitehorse - "Broken"
.be
... and I'd have been the shadow of your shadow...
Thank you Jacques, Scott, Johnny and Wally: the Fab Four.
Here's the Momus version...
I prefer it...
First time I've heard that
Great version, and much closer to Brel's lyrics.
I can't get no lower than the hole I'm in now
Sing, maestro
I realise I'm staggeringly predictable
but this is the greatest break up song ever, bar none
Justin Currie "If I Ever Loved You"
Predictable?
Certainly. Doesn't make you wrong, Dave. JC has one of the most consistent canons when it comes to matters of the (broken) heart. I was going to post a Del's song but didn't for two reasons. One, spoilt for choice. Couldn't decide between Tell Her and Lucky Guy. Two, I knew you'd be along sometime to fulfill your Wordly duty.
if you're going to write a great break up song
then why not just call it that
Don't Leave Me This Way....
The excellent Communards for a stonking life affirming version. Thelma Houston for the disco on and Harold for the one that breaks your heart.
5 break ups for the price of 1
and a happy ending too - ahhhh
Parsley,sage rosemary and thyme...
an (about to) break up classic
The great Sue Hadjapopulous on percussion!
Break Up albums
Every note of John Martyns Grace And Danger.
Teddy Thompsons last album, Bella, is a painful but comforting listen as well.
Hearts And Bones by Paul Simon deserves a mention too.
I;m going to stop now or I'll be here all day!!
see also for post-relationship
Songs for Silverman by Ben Folds
True Romance by Golden Silvers
and the first few songs of Mayer Hawthorn's A Strange Arrangement, of which I think this is the most 'dump-y':
Oh the sweet agony of a heartbreak song...
Sugar's If I can't change your mind is rather stellar and features on my heartbreak mixtape.
As does Thomas Lang (not the drummer) with his song Are you happy now? which contains the lovely lines
"Everything I touch is stained by you
Time has failed to heal my wounds
So I remain haunted by you
Are you happy now"
But you can't beat Sinatra's Wee small hours. It's steeped in "What am I going to do, she's gone, I'll just sit here and drink whisky and smoke..." agony.
Phil, my 'Cocks...
The post-dump slump is the only thing that these two, equally great, songs have in common:
Not big, not clever and certainly not cool
But 'cool' can go take a long walk off a short pier, and as yelps of anguish go...
Hasn't Hit Me Yet
One of my favourite break up songs of all time. Written and sung by Greg Keelor, I'd also say being at a Blue Rodeo gig when they do this song is one of the the great live music experiences.
"This ain't nothing knew to me,
It feels like going home"
Jackson Browne plumbs the well of true desolation in his song In The Shape Of A Heart.
This acoustic version showcases the lyric better than a band version:
Here are a couple of contrasting songs. John Hiatt sings about a break up he never saw coming in Crossing Muddy Waters:
Whereas Gretchen Peters sings about the long, slow death of her marriage in Breakfast At Our House:
Removed
Friday night nonsense
To paraphrase Paddy McAloon....
"Two things you should be slow to criticise: a man's choice of woman and his choice of break-up song."
The funniest, bitterest, sharpest one I know
isn't on YouTube unfortunately, but Tom Robinson's "This Little Romance" on "Still Loving You" is a peach. Sample lyrics include...
"When I met you it was mid-way through the summer
wearing dungarees like a Dexys Midnight Runner...."
"You may be cute but you ain't no sensation
and I can do without the aggravation"
And a stonking tune too.
My favourite is Ballad In
My favourite is Ballad In Plain D by Mr Dylan. Such a bitter song that captures some of the not very nice feelings you can have following a breakup.
I think Pet Shop Boys are particularly good in this genre.......:
Pet Shop Boys- Can You Forgive Her
Pet Shop Boys - Jealousy
..... as is Mr Stephen Jones from Babybird
Babybird - I Can't love you anymore
There is also one called Divorce Song from Between My Ears There Is Nothing But Music - alas youtube has failed me on that one.
PSB's Jealousy
is just flippin perfect - that is all
...
Would this fit the bill?