You HAVE to check out “Electroshock Blues” by Eels.
Starts out:
“lying on the bathroom floor,
kitty licks my face once more
and I, I could try
but waking up is harder
when you wanna die.”
Dead of Winter:
Standing in the dark outside the house
Breathing in the cold and sterile air
I was thinking how it must feel
to see that little light
and watch it as it disappears,
and fades into the night
So I know you’re going pretty soon
Radiation sore throat got your tongue
magic markers tattoo you
and show it where to aim
strangers break their promises
“You won’t feel any,
won’t feel any pain”
Most of the songs are about death, and it’s just haunting and gorgeous, and ends with a very fragile, cautious optimism:
P.S. You Rock My World:
I was at a funeral
the day I realized
I wanted to spend my life with you
Sitting on the steps at the old post office
The flag was flying at half mast
and I was thinking about how
Everyone was dying
And maybe it’s time to live
Although Joy Division has been mentioned before, I think I should add that ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ was basically Ian Curtis’ suicide note to his (estranged) wife. He committed suicide a month before the single was released.
Here’s the first verse. And the mood goes downhill after this…
When routine bites hard
and ambitions are low.
And resentment rides high
but emotions won’t grow.
And we’re changing our ways
taking different roads.
I’ve found Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt to be far more depressing than NIN.
NIN sounds like a misanthropic teenager who’s having masochistic tendencies for attention.
Johnny Cash sounds like a bitter, broken man who’s been left behind by the world and everone he cares about. Far sadder, IMO. Especially the music video.
(lyric sample)
Please… take this…
and run far away…
far as you can see.
I am tainted
and happiness, and peace of mind
were never meant for me.
All these pieces
and promises, and left-behinds
if only I could see
Am I nothing?
You meant everything, everything to me.
For a more sadistically up-beat and gratingly disrespectful song on suicide, try Lift Your Head Up High (And Blow Your Brains Out) by the Bloodhound Gang:
‘Cause life is a game that no one wins,
But you deserve a headstart the way you’re life’s goin’.
So throw in the towel ‘cause your life ain’t sh*t
No, take the towel and hang yourself with it.
Life’s short and hard, like a body-building elf,
So save the planet and kill yourself.
If you’re feelin’ down and out with what your life is all about,
Lift your head up high, and blow your brains out.
