# Cheerful songs about maudlin things **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2006, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211 "2006-05-10T12:23:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![blueserge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@blueserge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blueserge)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/41 "2006-05-10T19:40:49Z")
> [@snorlax](#): > > This may not be exactly what you’re looking for as it’s more black humour than truly depressing, but Harry Chapin’s song [30,000 Pounds of Bananas](http://www.harrychapin.com/music/30000lbs.shtml) concerns a fatal trucking accident. This wreck happened in the early 60s. My first BF was riding in a car with his mom right behind that truck When I met him ten years later in HS, we always ate lunch together, and one day I pulled a banana out of my lunch bag and he freaked! He told me the story later, and played the record for me one night. His mother had grim memories of it, too. Neither could stand the smell of bananas, and said once you smelled burned ones you never forgot it. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/42 "2006-05-10T20:31:25Z")
**The Smiths?** Really? I’ve never heard Morrissey singing and thought he was happy. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/43 "2006-05-10T20:38:16Z")
Some **Smiths** tunes are true dirges, but those cited above have music that sounds kind of lighthearted and upbeat to many ears, and lends a fair amount of irony to the lyrics. I always took this to signify that Moz, while quite clinically depressed, had a rather darkly sarcastic sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/44 "2006-05-10T20:52:29Z")
“Jane Says”, by Jane’s Addiction. An absolutely chipper, upbeat, bouncy song with some of the most depressing lyrics I’ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/45 "2006-05-10T21:19:50Z")
“Hatred” by the Kinks is so bouncey you could dance to it. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/46 "2006-05-10T21:26:01Z")
Look for a song called “All You Need Is Hate” by a band called The Delgados. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/47 "2006-05-10T21:47:29Z")
_The Worst Pies in London_, from the (very dark) musical _Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street_ is the song that sprang immediately to my mind; it’s awful, sickening and even depressing, lyrically, but it sounds cheerful enough. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/48 "2006-05-10T21:52:31Z")
Another one is Jimmie Rodger’s “The TB Is Whippin Me.” Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco fame) does a pretty upbeat cover on a… um, I’m not sure if it was a legit release, but I have it on something called “Outta Print Outta Sight” ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/49 "2006-05-10T22:00:44Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > “Jane Says”, by Jane’s Addiction. An absolutely chipper, upbeat, bouncy song with some of the most depressing lyrics I’ve ever heard. While I agree that “Jane Says” is totally maudlin, I’ve certainly never noticed it being even remotely chipper or upbeat. It’s almost heavy. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePasto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@AuntiePasto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePasto)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/50 "2006-05-10T22:21:43Z")
Check out “Charlie Horse” by the amazing Canadian band Great Big Sea. It’s a peppy song with a chorus that’s fun to sing along to, but it’s about a horse that fell through thin ice and died, and a group of people who go to get the corpse. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/51 "2006-05-10T22:26:14Z")
“What A Way To End It All” by Deaf School is a peppy, enthusiastic song about a guy who is going to commit suicide. On the same album, “Second Honeymoon,” are upbeat songs about getting stood up for a date, and a crumbling love affair. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/52 "2006-05-10T22:43:57Z")
Sting and The Police have a lot of dark lyrics matched to bouncy (or at least major key) melodies. One of my favorites is “Murder by Numbers,” a jazzy riff about gettin’ down with your bad mass-murderin’ self. Sample lyrics include: _There really isn’t any need for bloodshed You just do it with a little more finesse If you can slip a tablet into someone’s coffee Then it avoids an awful lot of mess…_ and \*Now if you have a taste for this experience And you’re flushed with your very first success Then you must try a twosome or a threesome And you’ll find your conscience bothers you much less Because murder is like anything you take to It’s a habit-forming need for more and more You can bump off every member of your family And anybody else you find a bore\* Then there’s the charming love song “Once upon a Daydream,” featuring a pair of teenage lovebirds who expect a kid out of wedlock, the revelation of which leads to child abuse, forced abortion, and homicide. Yay!!! \*Once upon a daydream Doesn’t happen anymore Once upon a moonbeam This is no place for tenderness Once her daddy found out He threw her to the floor He killed her unborn baby And kicked me from the door Once upon a nightmare I bought myself a gun I blew her daddy’s brains out Now hell has just begun\* Definitely a love song for the ages! Finally there’s “The Lazarus Heart,” from Sting’s solo years. The music is breezy, jazzy, joyful. The lyrics? Not so much. This has gotta be the most cheerful song EVAR about obsessive maternal/filial codependency, portents of death (“birds on the roof”), and sarcrifice! Samples: _He looked beneath his shirt today There was a wound in his flesh so deep and wide From the wound a lovely flower grew From somewhere deep inside He turned around to face his mother To show her the wound in his breast that burned like a brand But the sword that cut him open Was the sword in his mother’s hand_ and _Birds on the roof of my mother’s house I’ve no stones that chase them away Birds on the roof of my mother’s house Will sit on my roof some day They fly at the window, they fly at the door Where does she get the strength to fight them anymore She counts all her children as a shield against the pain Lifts her eyes to the sky like a flower in the rain_ Really, there are too many other examples among Sting’s output (and The Police too) to cite, which is probably why he also rated [url=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368295&highlight=sting]this recent thread\* about why so many of his “love songs” are rather … disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/53 "2006-05-10T22:44:10Z")
Sting and The Police have a lot of dark lyrics matched to bouncy (or at least major key) melodies. One of my favorites is “Murder by Numbers,” a jazzy riff about gettin’ down with your bad mass-murderin’ self. Sample lyrics include: _There really isn’t any need for bloodshed You just do it with a little more finesse If you can slip a tablet into someone’s coffee Then it avoids an awful lot of mess…_ and \*Now if you have a taste for this experience And you’re flushed with your very first success Then you must try a twosome or a threesome And you’ll find your conscience bothers you much less Because murder is like anything you take to It’s a habit-forming need for more and more You can bump off every member of your family And anybody else you find a bore\* Then there’s the charming love song “Once upon a Daydream,” featuring a pair of teenage lovebirds who expect a kid out of wedlock, the revelation of which leads to child abuse, forced abortion, and homicide. Yay!!! \*Once upon a daydream Doesn’t happen anymore Once upon a moonbeam This is no place for tenderness Once her daddy found out He threw her to the floor He killed her unborn baby And kicked me from the door Once upon a nightmare I bought myself a gun I blew her daddy’s brains out Now hell has just begun\* Definitely a love song for the ages! Finally there’s “The Lazarus Heart,” from Sting’s solo years. The music is breezy, jazzy, joyful. The lyrics? Not so much. This has gotta be the most cheerful song EVAR about obsessive maternal/filial codependency, portents of death (“birds on the roof”), and sarcrifice! Samples: _He looked beneath his shirt today There was a wound in his flesh so deep and wide From the wound a lovely flower grew From somewhere deep inside He turned around to face his mother To show her the wound in his breast that burned like a brand But the sword that cut him open Was the sword in his mother’s hand_ and _Birds on the roof of my mother’s house I’ve no stones that chase them away Birds on the roof of my mother’s house Will sit on my roof some day They fly at the window, they fly at the door Where does she get the strength to fight them anymore She counts all her children as a shield against the pain Lifts her eyes to the sky like a flower in the rain_ Really, there are too many other examples among Sting’s output (and The Police too) to cite, which is probably why he also rated [this recent thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368295&highlight=sting) about why so many of his “love songs” are rather … disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Baine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Baine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baine)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/54 "2006-05-11T04:24:38Z")
While I’m not entirely sure what They Might Be Giants’ **Don’t Let’s Start** is about, it does have these lines: _No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful_ ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/55 "2006-05-11T12:52:38Z")
There’s a song form the '70s by Eric Clapton – maybe “Peaches and Diesel”? – which is sung in a light, cheerful, folksy style, but the lyrics include things like “Boy, you’re gonna be dead!”. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/56 "2006-05-11T13:04:25Z")
“Assassin’s Song” from the little known musical “Blondel.” He’s an a-double-s, an a-double-s-i-n. ---
**Author:** ![Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fromage_A_Trois)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/57 "2006-05-11T13:50:07Z")
Oh, and there’s the **London Underground** song by Dr Suman Biswas and Dr Adam Kay (Google “underground song”). A chirpy (sweary) song about not enjoying travel on the Tube. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/58 "2006-05-11T14:20:16Z")
Going back a few years, the first song I thought of was a snappy littly ditty by **The Buoys** called “Timothy” about a mine cave-in and the ensuing cannabilism on the title character. The first verse: Trapped in a mine that had caved in And everyone knows the only ones left Were Joe and me and Tim When they broke through to pull us free The only ones left to tell the tale Were Joe and me ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/59 "2006-05-11T14:24:35Z")
Looking Glass’s “Brandy” is a very sad tale: At night, when the bars close down Brandy walks through a silent town And loves a man who’s not around. And what about Manilow’s “Copacabana”: Murder, mayhem, mental illness, all to a Latin beat. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211/60 "2006-05-11T14:53:24Z")
I don’t think “Brandy” is all that upbeat, musically. In fact, in terms of relentlessly depressing songs, it’s right up there in my mind with “Ode to Billy Joe”. But its music is less maudlin than its lyrics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheerful-songs-about-maudlin-things/356211.md?page=4)