And as I hung up the phone it occured to me,
he’d grown up just like me. My boy was just like me.
Harry Chapin, Cat’s in the Cradle
“And I’ve watched the flatcars take away our timber,
I’ve watched the coalcars steal our rock.
And now that we’ve got nothing left to take, we’re told
That the TV station will be closing,
Main street windows will need boarding,
And that this foolish dream must stop.”
- Cowboy Junkies The Last Spike
My first post and I’m doing it in sad songs, but I have to throw in Harry Chapin’s Shortest Story:
It is 20 days today
Mama does not hold me anymore
I open my mouth
but I am too weak to cry
Above me a bird
slowly crawls across the sky
Why is there nothing
now to do… but die?
Not a popular song, but a damn sad one:
Stabbing Westward, Dawn:
Its too hot now to fall asleep
So I’ll just lie here and watch you breathe
In the morning you’ll be gone
Like everything I’ve ever loved
Just kiss me before you go
Just kiss me before you go
Just kiss me before you go
Promise to kiss me before you go
Truly one of the most disturbing songs ever is The Jam’s “Down At The Tube Station At Midnight”, about being beat up and mugged by a gang of hooligans. The final verse contains this cheery little lyric:
“I glanced back on my life
And thought about my wife
'Cause they took the keys
And she’ll think it’s me”
Me, too. That’s a great one. The Pogues, for me, are tops for that kind of immediate visceral reaction. Another great one, along slightly different lines, is Young Ned of the Hill, which never fails to get me cursing the Brits until I remember my ancestry is English.
“A curse upon you, Oliver Cromwell, who raped our motherland!
I hope you’re rotting down in hell for the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers, whom you robbed of their birthright,
To Hell or Connaught! May you burn in hell tonight!”
Urge Overkill’s “Emmaline”, about the singer’s girlfriend, who always wanted to be a movie star, but just couldn’t make it:
“It was a cold and dark December night
When I opened up the bedroom door.
To find her lying still and cold upon the bed
A love letter, lying on the bedroom floor, it read:
Darling, I love you,
But I just can’t keep on living on dreams no more.
I tried so very hard not to leave you alone,
But I just can’t keep on trying anymore.
Emmaline…”
Urge Overkill’s “Emmaline”, about the singer’s girlfriend, who always wanted to be a movie star, but just couldn’t make it:
“It was a cold and dark December night
When I opened up the bedroom door.
To find her lying still and cold upon the bed
A love letter, lying on the bedroom floor, it read:
Darling, I love you,
But I just can’t keep on living on dreams no more.
I tried so very hard not to leave you alone,
But I just can’t keep on trying anymore.
Emmaline…”
Reading this section, I was struck by how the music and performance of the song added to the poignancy of the lyrics (the contradistinction of poetry and lyrics is an area that’s long interested me)
OTOH, one of my favorite childhood groups, Simon and Garfunkel, wrecked one of my favorite childhood poems [“Richard Corey” by Edward Arlington Robinson]:
Here’s the original with its lightning bolt final line:
"WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head"
I am Sooooo grateful that I never head the S+G version until I was in my 30’s or I’d have blown my stack every time sone one said “Oh yeah, the Simon and garfunkel song!” Instead, all these years, I thought (mistakenly) that it was wonderful that they’d brought it to a wider audience
I’m kind of surprised that The Cure, who along with the Smiths are the kings of the wallowing-in-a-love-induced-foul-mood song, haven’t been mentioned yet. Well, fear not. Here I come to the rescue.
The two that always bring me into a black depression are
Love Song (yes, it’s the chorus, but it is the end of the song):
However far away
However long I stay
Whatever words I say
I will always love you
and Pictures Of You:
There was nothing in the world that I ever wanted more than to feel you deep in my heart
There was nothing in the world that I ever wanted more than to never feel the breaking apart
My pictures of you
Yes, I admit it…they bring to mind one particular girl. Who I almost started to discuss in the “who broke your heart” thread but changed my mind before hitting submit. It would have been a lot harder to keep up the “super-cool, completely together, arrogant jerk” act if you all knew what a sap I really am. haha
What? I just blew the act?
Ok, folks…Move along, nothing to see here!
JSexton: You should check out the original version of “Emma”, by Hot Chocolate.