Damn, you beat me by ten minutes! Absolutely the first thing that sprang to mind.
“Cemetary Gates” , anyone?
I nominate most anything by The Magnetic Fields, or related band The 6ths.
Seriously.
As an example, I present “100,000 Fireflies.” Very upbeat sounding, but containing the lines “I have a mandolin / I play it all night long / it makes me want to kill myself” and "you won’t be happy with me / but give me one more chance / you won’t be happy anyway "
A good portion of their music fits the bill.
There also “What’s the Matter Here?” which sounds kind of peppy given that it’s about child abuse.
And “Don’t Talk” about a verbally abusive drunk is a fun romp.
Almost everything The Unicorns ever did. Their one release, Who Will Cut…, was basically an entire album about death/dying/that kind of thing. Yet, they have some incredible hooks, along with this unending poppy type rock thing. Check out Les Os - French for “The Bones”. It isn’t the best example of their stuff by far, but the best online. Rock out time!
I’m also kind of busy at the moment, but, I should be back with tons of songs/links if you would like.
“Dead Flowers” by the Rolling Stones. A happy, jaunty country-rock tune about heroin addiction:
Similar to Lehrer, there are a lot of songs by Uncle Bonsai that are like this. There’s Isaac’s Lament (about a person who kills himself when he hears that Love Boat has been cancelled), In it for the Children, Cheerleaders on Drugs, Johnny, it’s Downhill from Here, Sponge Boy, Where’s the Milk, Parcel Post and pretty much all the Doug songs. Good stuff.
Main and Broadway by Cub
Your Father and I (two parents telling their different recollections of how their child was conceived) by The Beautiful South. (I’m sure there’s more Beautiful South that fits this category, but I’d have to check through my collection.)
Lots of Randy Newman. Three of my favorites:
“Rednecks”
“Political Science”
“Roll with the Punches”
Thank you all for your replies so far. I should have known The Smiths and The Beautiful South would fit the bill, of course. I’ll swing by HMV on the way home with your suggestions in mind.
I’d say most of Barenaked Ladies’ catalog fits this bill.
Most of Oingo Boingo’s catalog also fits the bill. I’m thinking “Little Girls” which is from the point of view of a pedophile.
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/o/oingo+boingo/little+girls_20102778.html
Also “Possum Kingdom” by the Toadies. http://ww.lyricsdepot.com/the-toadies/possum-kingdom.html
Gilbert O’Sullivan’s Alone Again Naturally
Not exactly the most uptempo melody but the lyrics are absolutely devastating.
Blue Oyster Cult Don’t Fear the Reaper
All it needs is more cowbell!
Country music is loaded with examples. I’m fond of the Statler Brothers’ Flowers on the Wall.
The Smiths, hands down.
Need I go on?
The best I can come up with are the mentioned beautiful south and the smiths.
Also there is, (as you have to mention Beatles):
-maxwells silver hammer
-run for your life
I can’t decide if Wilco songs fit the description. Their lyrics are sad, and their melodies are often upbeat, but there seems to be an underlying sadness anyway. The song Summer teeth is a good example, with the dichotomy right in the title.
I suppose punk rock has a lot of this. Greendays hits longview and basket case seems to fit well.
And, along a similar line, Fishbone’s “Party at Ground Zero”.
Harry Nillsson had a couple. I’d Rather Be Dead (with an old people’s choir) is about becoming old and helpless.
“I’ll tie my tie
Til the day I die,
But if I have to be fed,
I’d rather be dead.”
You’re Breakin’ My Heart
"I sang my balls off for you, baby,
I even broke the microphone.
I closed my eyes to reach the high note,
But when I woke up, I was alone.
(chorus)
“You’re breakin’ my heart,
You’re tearin’ it apart,
So fuck you.”
The Rolling Stones had Dear Doctor, in which Mick begs a doctor to tear out his heart “and preserve it right there in that jar” because “the girl I’m to marry is a four-legged sow.” It’s a great song.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus had The Medical Love Song which lists a mess of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and says, “At least we both were lying when we said that we were clear.”
And one of my personal favorites, also by weird al:
Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung
Since I came in here to mention The Smiths, I may as well add a couple of lyrics:
“I’ve come to wish you an unhappy birthday,
Because you’re evil and you lie, and if you should die,
I may feel slightly sad, but I won’t cry.”
“And if a double decker bus, crashes into us,
to die by your side, what a heavenly way to die.
And if a 10 ton truck, kils the both of us,
to die by your side, the pleasure, the privilege is mine.”
All to sing-songy type music.
I love that!
“Playin’ solitaire ‘til dawn with a deck of fifty-one
Smokin’ cigarettes and watchin’ Captain Kangaroo
Now don’t tell me I’ve a-nothin’ to do”
Tim McGraw’s Just to See You Smile is pretty uptempo, but not so upbeat:
And yesterday I knew just what you wanted
When you came walkin’ up to me with him
So I told you that I was happy for you
And given the chance I’d lie again
Just to see you smile
I’d do anything
That you wanted me to
And all is said and done
I’d never count the cost
I’ts worth all that’s lost
Just to see you smile
And sorry for the earworm, but I think “Seasons in the Sun” may fit the bill.
It’s “bow-legged sow.” And yeah, it is a great song.
I’ll nominate the Grateful Dead’s “Dire Wolf,” a bouncy country ditty with a refrain of:
Don’t murder me
I beg of you, don’t murder me
Plee-ee-ee-ease don’t murder me!
No one yet has mentioned one of my faves, Nick Lowe’s Marie Provost:
*Marie Provost did not look her best
the day the cops bust into her lonely nest
the cheap hotel up on Hollywood west
July 29
She’d been lyin’ there for two or three weeks
The neighbors said they never heard a squeak
While hungry eyes that could not speaksaid
even little doggies have got to eat
chorus:
She was a winner
that became a doggie’s dinner
<snip>
The cops came in and they looked around
Throwin’ up everywhere over what they found
The handiwork of Marie’s little dachshund
That hungry little dachshund*
Plenty of other goodies from Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass, Crawling from the Wreckage (Bits of me were hanging from the trees and from the hedges…)
And a little more obscure, the Motors: You Beat the Hell Out of Me
and Do You Mind?
I wanna squeeze you and break your bones, do you mind?
Howz about Southern Culture on the Skids - Let’s Go Huntin Granpa (We’ll chase him like a deer!)