Something for the Weekend by Divine Comedy is a lovely little bouncy pop song about getting bashed in the head and robbed by a lover.
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan, a nice little tune about suburban despair and insanity. Here’s Marianne Faithfull’s version.
Emma by Hot Chocolate, a nice little tune about how failing to achieve one’s dreams leads to suicide. There’s a cover out there by the Sisters Of Mercy if this isn’t dark enough for you.
“Last Kiss”, which I remember from the 70’s but I think was redone by Pearl Jam. Young couple gets in a car accident and the girl dies in his arms.
I don’t know if it’s so much “dark” as so excessively maudlin that it’s unintentionally funny.
Maybe he’s too “country” for this thread topic but I’m surprised at the lack of Johnny Cash selections. Here are just a few:
I love how it’s played at 4th of July fireworks extravaganzas and other America: Fuck Yeah! type festivities.
I Wish I Was a Girl by Counting Crows is about a woman dreaming of killing herself by jumping off of a building.
Come to think of it, that theme pops up in a few of their songs:
- Round Here - “She looks up at the building/She says ‘I’m thinking of jumping’.”
- Chelsea - “Angels float down from all the buildings/there’s something about an angel that just kills me/I keep hoping something will”
- Insignificant - “Could you see me fall in the light/Of the spotlights and jackknife/Through night as black as a bedroom/And white as a lie?”
Then again, as I’ve said before, Adam Duritz is the most depressing sonofabitch on the face of the earth. Johnny Cash would have told this man to cheer up.
Yup. Recall it well.
Speaking of Casey Kasem: Shannon by Henry Gross. A sweet song - about a death of Carl Wilson’s (Beach Boys) much-loved Irish Setter. Not really dark, so much as sad - And many people missed the import of the lyrics at first.
Casey famously blew his cool when he was asked to segue from a peppy up-beat song to Shannon.
How about Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People?
This could have also gone on the page about songs we enjoyed until we really listened to the lyrics.
Mack the knife by bobby darin. I love how it is the swingingest, happiest little tune, and its all about a serial killer.****
Wow, I’ve listened to that song a million times and never listened to the lyrics. It doesn’t help that the cable music channel has the title listed as “Pumped Up Kids.” I thought it was about excited adolescents.