Jeez Loise. Nobody has yet mentioned Always Look On The Bright Side of Life?
Barbarians.
Seasons In the Sun? One of the finest songs the Kingston Trio ever recorded. I know not this “Terry Jacks” impostor.
Sand And Water by Beth Nielson Chapman. At first I thought it was just a whiny breakup song, but when I finally paid attention to the lyrics, it grew on me. It’s a woman mourning the loss of her boyfriend/husband, and finding new meaning in life as she realized her lover’s spirit is alive and well in their son.
She Goes On by Crowded House. I interpret it as a recognition that the eponymous “she”, though no longer “here”, is still a beautiful person, and that she led a beautiful life worth remembering with joy. It inspired one of my finer bits of bad verse (now making its Internet debut): “Her many-storied life is done, grieve not her passing, pray / For while she lived she taught the sun t’ illuminate the day”.
Throw all the tomatoes you want. I like it.
Try We Life-Long, from The Gondoliers, by Gilbert and Sullivan. “Hop and skip to Fancy’s fiddle / Hands across and down the middle / Life’s perhaps the only riddle / That we shrink from giving up”
Really can’t beat ‘Keep Me In Your Heart" and "Knockin’" by Zevon.
But my choice for third place is “Sadder Day” by Fleming and John. It’s a very happy song until you realize she’s singing about a friend of hers who ends up killing himself.
One of my favorites is Arrival’s Gate by Ani diFranco. My two favorite verses:
*gonna go out
to the arrivals gate at the airport
and sit there all day
watch people reuniting
public affection is so exciting
it even makes airports ok
watching children run
with their arms outstretched
just to throw those arms
around their grandpas’ necks
watching lovers plant kisses
old men to their misses
at the arrivals gate
watching a mother
with a mother’s smile
don’t tell me to move
i just wanna sit here for a while
i have determined
it’s a sure cure for cancer
watching excitment turn family
dogs into dancers
at the arrivals gate*
On the surface it’s about the airport, but it always sounds to me like she’s singing about the afterlife, and how your loved ones meet you there.
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.
Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain.
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.
But I always thought I’d see you one more time again.
I always wondered if that was about a suicide pact? Like “When you die, worry not, for I will kill myself so I can be with you”? Or more of a “When you die, I’ll be at peace knowing you’re in heaven and I know you’ll be there when my time comes”?
I’ve thought of it as a more symbolic “I love you so much, I’d follow you anywhere, including to my own death” sort of message. It also has a dash of “us against them” where he discusses that they don’t need Heaven or Hell, only each other.
Even though it was not a song from my generation, I see it as a classic piece of grief and nostalgia. For a guy that likes history it is like a time capsule.
…
*I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father Son and Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
And they were singing…
Bye bye Miss American Pie,
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ol’ boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
Singing “This’ll be the day that I die,
This’ll be the day that I die.”*
His take on “Vincent” Van Gogh goes to the subject of this thread too:
