The Statler Brothers, “Flowers on the Wall” - a nice, bouncy, upbeat song about…someone who is housebound and afraid of going outside? For the love of mike, he’s not even playing solitaire with a full deck!
My nomination for the winner of this category, however, is Kenny Rogers’ “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town.” So bouncy and fun that you can hardly sit still while you listen to it - about a woman who is cheating on her deathly sick, paralyzed veteran husband. Kenny, you’re kind of messed up.
No one except probably some of the Spanish-speaking Dopers will have heard of this song, but Cuidate by La Oreja de Van Gogh has very poignant lyrics for such a peppy song.
*
Sin ti ya no podre escuchar
a la buena vida más
volver a reirme de aquel final
en el que el bueno acaba mal
Sin ti ya no regresaré
al lugar donde te conoci
lo se prohibido recordar…*
Without you I can’t listen
to La Buena Vida (a music group) anymore
I laugh again at that end
In which the good turned out bad
Without you I won’t ever return
To the place where I met you
I know, I’m not allowed to remember
The song strikes me as a very realistic portrayal of breaking up. No dramatic declarations of love or hate, just a girl singing about not being able to listen to a favorite band or go back to a place because they remind her of him.
The Beatles’ “Help.” John was suffering a bout of depression-- this was a literal cry for help-- but they quickened the tempo to make it more commercial.
*And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me.*
When the Pearl Jam cover came out I remember some people (I think even here on the SDMB) saying “Oh, I can’t believe they covered that, the original was so much better!” I can understand flat out not liking the song, but at least Eddie Vedder managed to sound like he was sad about that tragic car accident. I don’t understand preferring the Cavaliers version unless one has a really sick sense of humor because, as you say, Frank Wilson sounds downright cheerful about his girlfriend’s death. Sure the lyrics are sad, but whenever I’ve heard that version of the song I think “You crashed that car on purpose, you bastard!”
Thinking of Pearl Jam, “Around the Bend” on No Code works pretty well as a kind of alt rock lullaby, but there is a subtle dark undertone to it. This was deliberate:
It being the season, I’d say “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
I’d always thought of it as cheery, until Chrissy Hynde’s version. Then, I realized that it’s kind of a bitter song–"You have yourself a merry little Christmas’
It’s my favorite version of the song. Now I think it’s incredibly melancholy.
I’ll throw in Smashmouth’s ‘Road Man’ - upbeat, reggae-ish, but the lyrics:
Road man didn’t see the train man
Until it was too late to slow the van
Meanwhile the band is waiting for the Road man
Who was crushed by his beloved sound system
Three pages and nobody’s yet mentioned Lovefool by The Cardigans?
It’s got the most bubblegummy, bippity-boo cheerfulness to the music, but the lyrics are about a woman pleading with a man who doesn’t love her anymore to just pretend, and that’ll be good enough for her:
…I don’t care if you really care as long as you don’t go.
So I cry, I pray and I beg…
(Love me! Love me!) Say that you love me!
(Fool me! Fool me!) Go on and fool me!
(Love me! Love me!) Pretend that you love me!
(Leave me! Leave me!) Just say that you need me.
I can’t care 'bout anything but you.
As somebody already mentioned, Weird Al does this a lot.
One of my favorites is a cheerful little ditty called “Melanie”:
*Chorus:
Melanie, what can the problem be?
Sweet Melanie, why won’t you go out with me?
She lived across the street, on the 15th floor of the Gailmore Building
I saw her in the shower, reaching for some soap
I knew she had to be the girl for me, and to think I probably never would have met her
If I hadn’t bought that telescope…*
Another is “The Good Old Days”
*Do you remember good ol’ Mr. Fender
Who ran the corner grocery store?
Oh he’d stroll down the aisle with a big friendly smile
And he’d say “Howdy!” when you walked in the door
Always treated me nice, gave me kindly advice
I don’t know why I set fire to his place
Oh I’ll never forget the day I bashed in his head
Well you should’ve seen the look on his face
*
And in the song “I Remember Larry”, Al spends several verses describing a “friend” from school who loved to play [sometimes cruel] practical jokes. In the last verse, Al get his revenge:
*Say, do you remember when I broke in Larry’s house
Late at night and tied his mouth with a rag
Then I dragged him by his ankles to the middle of the forest
And stuffed him in a big plastic bag
If the cops ever find him, who knows what they’d say
But I’m sure if ol’ Lar’ were still with us today
He would have to agree with me it was a pretty good gag
Oh boy, what a joker
What a funny, funny guy
I’ll never forget about Larry
No matter how I try
*
Actually an excoriation of the British National Party a party built on racism (only caucasians can be members) that is growing ever more popular.
His best song in this vein, as yet unmentioned here, is “Re: Your Brains” a song sung by the leader of a group of zombies who have cornered their former co-workers and are trying to reason with them to give up and die already. You can hear part of it here. Catchy ditty, with a chorus of:
