Betrayed by Peter Hammill.

utterly bonkers and wonderful too

Scott Walker: "Farmer in the City"

The fact that some people find this dreck meaningful depresses me more than anything I care to mention. The premature death of Miss Cassidy was, of course, tragic. She was a very good guitarist and had a fine voice. I just wish she'd chosen better material. Was the word "schmaltz" invented just for her?

"Well he shot four men
in a cocaine deal
And he left them
lyin' in an open field
Full of old cars
with bullet holes
in the mirrors.
He tried to do his best
but he could not."

Mournful, wailing, tragic with a haunting pedal steel part (see Ben Keith post from a few days ago).

Can't find the studio version on YouTube, but this version's pretty good:

Not saying it's a bad track, it's excellent. But I actually had to give the album to someone else because I couldn't listen to it any more. What a downer.

...regardless of performer.

By the way, Terry Jacks should be shot for his interpretations of Le Moribond (Seasons in the Sun)and Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away). If you want to hear Brel performed in English I recommend Rod McKuen,

I first heard it when I was about four years old, up to which point I'd been blissfully unaware of the mournful and the tragic, so Jacks gets the blame for shattering my childish illusion that the world wasn't all about fun. B*stard.

I Can't Comfort You

Hit track 5 on this

http://c-60lownoise.blogspot.com/2010/07/michael-j-sheehy-sweet-blue-gen...

There's something strangely cathartic about depressing songs? It's a bit like the It's Enough To Make Grown Men Cry thread, there's nothing like a depressing song to cheer you up. I have so many favourites, Nick Drake's Way to Blue is a good example, not to mention the cover of Tears for Fears' Mad World by Gary Jules.

yes. But Seasons in the Sun should come with a warning. Years ago, when I worked in a bookshop, there was an edition of Confessions of a Mask by the nihilist's nihilist Yukio Mishima - which carried a warning on the first page that anyone picking it up who was prone to depressive illness should probably put it down, as 'the conclusions reached in the novel are so unbearably bleak'. They removed the warning for later editions and it never sold quite so well afterwards.

but like the blues, they are cathartic - you feel better after hearing them.

This is depressing. It makes you feel worse, even if you don't remember the Sunday evening programme it evokes.

..then we can have a competition to see who can listen to the whole thing and get through it in one piece.

and

...by the smiles and laughter at the start of this clip. The album version is bleakness itself.

Billy's voice sounds particularly mournful.