It seems like all polkas are happy! Are there ANY exceptions?
"Roll out the coffins
Roll out the coffins of dead people
Roll out the coffins
Grief, and sorrow, and misery
Roll out the coffins
Death awaits us all
Now’s the time to roll out the coffins
And wallow in in despair"
Nah, can’t see it.
They Might Be Giants have “Famous Polka” or something like that, with the following words:
It’s pretty depressing.
Punk Polka by The Toons
In Heaven, There Is No Beer seems like a grim prospect, but the singers seem pretty happy.
The Too Fat Polka is sad for somebody, but not for the singer.
I came to post these.
The only other depressing polka I can think of is Who Stole the Kishka?
Makes me cry everytime when I hear about the plight of the missing kishka.
Weird Al’s “Bohemian Polka” has sad lyrics (same as Queen’s Rhapsody…) but the music is uproariously joyful. It’s quite an amusing song!
Although they’re not technically polkas, Mexican norteno/ranchero music is a direct descendant. There’s plenty of sad norteno songs; they sound like half-speed to one-third speed polkas.
A clue if it’s a happy or sad song: if the singer goes “hwah hwah hwah!” at some point, it’s usually happy. “Ay ay ay!” typically means it’s sad.
“At six years of age and at his mother’s request, Gustav Mahler presented her with his first written composition. It was a spirited polka to which he then added a funeral march as introduction.” (cite)
I don’t know if it qualifies as a polka, but in The Nightmare Before Christmas, there’s a band in Halloween Town that plays everything in a very dreary, depressing fashion. One of the songs they play that serves as kind of background music (like when the Mayor visits Jack’s house) sounds fairly polka-ish to me, but sad.
Most polkas from Scandinavia are sad, or at least not very happy.