What about The Smiths, they have some great pathetic songs (not to be taken too seriously, of course) : Heaven knows I’m miserable now, Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me, I want the one I can’t have and Please, please, please let me get what I want.
To each their own interpretation. I see a sad, self-loathing little drunk fast on his way to death and/or prison. To me, the bass riff sounds like a soul slowly winding down.
(OK, I listened to Pork Soda a few too many times as a teenager)
Almost everything ever written by Elliott Smith. For some reason I’m thinking particularly of “Bottle Up and Explode” and “I’d Better Be Quiet Now”.
Well, if you’re going for John Prine, what could be sadder and more pathetic than Sam Stone?
“There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes.
Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose.”
I’ll nominate any number of songs from the Patsy Cline catalog. Start with I Fall To Pieces.
That’s true, but you don’t realize it till you realize at the end, that while maybe true, it’s also a pick-up line.
No one has mentioned that paean to self-pity, “Creep” by Radiohead.
Man, is that guy on the bitter boat! We’d all like to be special.
Goodnight Irene fits the bill I think.
Or just about any folk song really. They’re all pretty depressing.
Esp the way Kevin Riley sings it!
The Persuaders’ "Thin Line Between Love and Hate"And does it get any worse than Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen”? :eek:
How about Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis?
Radiohead’s Creep has already been mentioned, but I reckon quite a few songs off their first album fit the bill. For example, Thinking About You, which is about a guy who helped a girl he liked to become a big star, only to be abandoned for “better” guys.
The Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me song/flash animation. The animation is hilarious, but eventually you just feel bad for the rabbit because he’s so torn up over not having sex.
Placebo’s Centrefold
'Cos that’s wrong and I’ve been waiting far too long
It’s wrong I’ve been waiting far too long
For you to be…be me…be…be mine
All the centrefolds that you can’t afford
Have long since waved their last goodbyes
All the centrefolds that you can’t afford
You’ve long since faded from their eyes
So be…be mine"
The starkness of the piano in this song really makes you feel the pathetic longing…It’s quite beautiful…very haunting.
Ash’s Girl from Mars is a vibrant song that turns what might otherwise be something pathetic into wistful memory. To me it is borderline pathetic. After all, the guy’s in love with a girl whose name he does not know.
It’s such a great song, though! It’s universally pathetic in an upbeat way. Almost every guy has known a “Girl from Mars” and reminisces bittersweet…
“Today I sleep in the chair by the window
It felt as if you’d returned
I thought that you were standing over me
When I woke there was no-one there
I still love you, Girl From…MARS!”
and of course The Violent Femmes’ Please Do Not Go.
I’m kind of a junky for these kind of songs. I love the aforementioned Missing by Everything but the Girl- that song is just so sad and evocative of, well… there really isn’t an English word for it… the Japanese call it sabi- a slow rust, a patina. I guess I can just relate to being pathetically in love. Probably not a good thing to wallow in but I dig the emotion and the feeling that pours into the music and lyrics of these kind of “pathetic” songs. The musicians/lyricists who put themselves on the line and expose themselves emotionally when writing these songs oftentimes dig up some exquisite blackdiamonds.
I suppose it could be worse… I could be a country fan!
There’s a tear in my beer, and I’m crying for you dear…
ooh-ooh! I have a nomination for all time most pathetic song!
Mr. Big- To Be With You
“I’m the one who wants to be with you
Deep inside I hope you feel it too
Waited on a line of greens and blues
Just to be the next to be with you.”
Nothing more pathetic than this Hair Metal ballad!
Heavy Metal Pathetic…it’s almost shameful.
b.t.w.- What the hell is a line of greens and blues? Anybody know?
My mom nominates Air Supply’s Without You -
and Phil Collins’ Against All Odds -
Young Girl — Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
Air Supply? Bleh.
Harry Nilsson. A great album.
I’ll nominate “You’re Breakin’ My Heart” from the followup album, wherein Harry fights back against his misery.
I listened to Air Supply’s version of Without You. Harry’s version is much more anguished.
Today from some strange reason, I’ve had The Presidents of the United States’ Lump in my head. 'Cuz she’s Lump. She’s in my head. Poor dear.