Oh God this is really miserable...
..for whatever reason, I am often accused by my better half of listening to 'miserable' music.
This normally means one of the following:
Joy Division
The Smiths
Leonard Cohen
Lou Reed (especially Berlin)
All of it somewhat glum, I admit.
However I would suggest that the most miserable piece of music ever committed to vinyl was recorded by a small Irishman in a flat cap. And shorts.
Not only had the poor lad been jilted, and was contemplating suicide, but he had the time to reflect upon the sad demise of his poor old Dad and Mum...
"Now looking back over the years
And whatever else that appears
I remember I cried when my father died
Never wishing to hide the tears
And at sixty-five years old
My mother, God rest her soul,
Couldn't understand why the only man
She had ever loved had been taken
Leaving her to start with a heart so badly broken
Despite encouragement from me
No words were ever spoken
And when she passed away
I cried and cried all day
Alone again, naturally"
Was a sadder song ever recorded?
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Jarvis
Well, there was that story about Albert and the lion on that free Word cd...?
Was playing 'Berlin' yesterday...
...and by God, is that one bleak, especially 'Sad Song' and 'The Kids'.
Some of Scott Walker's stuff is fairly bleak, too- I always get a strong sense of melancholy from songs like 'Boy Child', 'It's Raining Today', 'Joanna' and 'Sleepwalkers Woman'. I don't think I have a strong enough constitution to put myself through 'Tilt' and 'The Drift', based on the samples I've encountered...
Peter Hammill's 'divorce' album 'Over' is another one that's exceptionally grim; some of his best ever songs on it, though, like the punky attack of 'Crying Wolf', the elegiac ode to the passing of time 'Autumn', the haunting 'This Side Of The Looking Glass' and the astonishingly vitriolic 'Betrayed' and 'On Tuesdays She Used To Do Yoga'.
For a long time
Danny Baker has been saying this for years about "Alone again Naturally".Over Xmas he thought a Song by Suzy Boggus,which of course i can't rember the name,was it's equal.
OLD SHEP.
ELECTRO SHOCK BLUES by EELS is a miserable album as it's about his sister's suicide.
What a...
beautiful song that is. I really, really like it. Thanks for posting this, Paul.
I was reading ilx.com one
I was reading ilx.com one day and they were talking about Squeeze's "Up The Junction". One guy said he was playing it in his car while giving his mother a lift somewhere and when the song ended, she burst out crying saying it was just about the saddest song she'd ever heard. This hadn't occurred to me, probably because of it's upbeat tempo, but it really is a heart-wrencher if you listen to the lyrics...
What I can't understand
is why Gilbert O'Sullivan has always been considered a bit of a joke. He's great. A sort of British (or Irish) Randy Newman. And as worthy of respect.
p.s. there's a great Gus Dudgeon remix of We Will on i-tunes
I always assumed. . .
It was the candy-floss perm. Never underestimate the power of hair to make or break an artist.
If I remember rightly
and bear in mind it's a few years ago, but when this was released G O'S had a pudding basin haircut, a big flat cap and was dressed as a character from "When the boat comes in".
Did I just dream that?
Or was it the student life excesses in my past that have brought on early dementia?
Are those my feet? etc.
I refer the honourable gentlemen...
...to the description of Mr O'Sullivan in my original post. The video must have been filmed post-'reimaging' as I am pretty sure this was recorded in the scruffy urchin phase (see 'We Will' on YouTube for the flat cap in all its glory)
Do you know Paul
You are absoultly right. A sad song hidden in a happy song. Dont forget the first 2 verses,
In a little while from now,
If I'm not feeling any less sour
I promised myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower,
And climbing to the top,
Will throw myself off
In an effort to make it clear to who
Ever what it's like when your shattered
Left standing in the lurch, at a church
Where people 're saying,
"My God that's tough, she stood him up!
No point in us remaining.
May as well go home."
As I did on my own,
Alone again, naturally
To think that only yesterday,
I was cheerful, bright and gay,
Looking forward to, but who wouldn't do,
The role I was about to play
But as if to knock me down,
Reality came around
And without so much as a mere touch,
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt,
All about God and His mercy
For if He really does exist
Why did He desert me
In my hour of need?
I truly am indeed,
Alone again, naturally
It seems to me that
There are more hearts
Broken in the world
That can't be mended
Left unattended
What do we do? What do we do?
I always liked him. Saw him a couple of years ago, still has the hair.
Attitude a bit Van the Man if you get my drift. But then he was well and truly screwed by a sh*tty contract and the big payday when he won his case never really resurrected his recording career.
Still I see he is back out on tour again this year.