# Songs that sound upbeat but have darker meanings **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485 "2013-05-16T03:57:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/81 "2013-05-17T15:11:32Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Yeah, a lot of songs mentioned here don’t camouflage their fairly depressing nature. “Pumped Up Kicks,” “King of Pain,” “The One I Love,” “Jeremy,” “I Don’t Like Mondays” all convey their darkness lyrically and melodically. I agree, but I think an argument can be made for “Pumped Up Kick” sounding melodically upbeat. As much as I dislike the song, it sounds breezy and fun to me, and if you look around the net, that’s not an uncommon perception of the song. Heck, even the Wikipedia article has this to say: “The song was written and recorded by frontman Mark Foster while he was working as a commercial jingle writer. Contrasting with the upbeat musical composition, the lyrics describe the homicidal thoughts of a troubled youth.” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/82 "2013-05-17T15:15:27Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#): > > _Norwegian Wood_ by the Beatles. I’m always surprised by how many people miss the fact that he burns down the girl’s apartment in the end since she refused to have sex with him. Not to menton _Maxwell’s Silver Hammer_, which is a lot more out front with the darkness in the lyrics but still has a bouncy, whimsical kind of sound to it. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/83 "2013-05-17T15:33:59Z")
Warren Zevon’s _Excitable Boy_. The music is very upbeat, but the lyrics are all about rape, murder and insanity. For extra bonus marks, I even heard it played at a high school dance! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/84 "2013-05-18T00:54:04Z")
Tom Waits’ [“Frank’s Wild Years”.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzfrTDc0ngA)Not really upbeat but kinda smoooth. ---
**Author:** ![nitroglycerine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nitroglycerine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nitroglycerine)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/85 "2013-05-18T01:06:29Z")
I am disappoint no one mentioned Violent Femmes [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZNBZj2BKvU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZNBZj2BKvU) ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/86 "2013-05-18T02:09:51Z")
I love the bouncy, cheerful tune of the Smiths’ “Girlfriend in a Coma.” ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/87 "2013-05-18T05:45:50Z")
The Sign by Ace Of Base is a song about being over someone, wondering how they could have loved the person, how you have to make yourself feel happy, etc. It’s a fairly sad song in content but it is SO happy and just always makes you FEEL so happy 🙂 But it works because it’s about feeling better about realizing the truth about a crappy relationship and being over it, so not really too much of a contradiction. Mack The Knife is a great contribution to the thread earlier and I wanted to 2nd it. One of my favorite songs but with the lyrics “lies a body just oozing life” you know you’re listening to something pretty dark. Butcher Pete is a song about a rapist “he’s hackin and wackin and smackin!” It’s the most fun you’ll ever have singing about rape, it really is the original hide your kids, hide your wives, hide your husbands too because he’s raping everybody up in here, song 🙂 And part 2 also celebrates raped people waiting in line to be raped some more! Yay!!! ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/88 "2013-05-18T05:51:26Z")
Most of the works of the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies fit this thread very well. Their big hit, “[Zoot Suit Riot](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IqH3uliwJY)” is about actual riots that occurred in Los Angeles in the 1940s but it sounds like an upbeat dance tune of the era. “[Drunk Daddy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lspXdFPKmEY)” is about a child abuse victim but its so upbeat and danceable too! ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/89 "2013-05-18T06:40:15Z")
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Possum Kingdom by The Toadies is kinda catchy. Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash I used To Love Her by Guns And Roses Lovefool by The Cardigans is very depressing to me. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/90 "2013-05-18T07:52:11Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > The entire recorded output of The Housemartins. And, of course, that goes for the Beautiful South, too… ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/91 "2013-05-18T16:43:48Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Mack The Knife is a great contribution to the thread earlier and I wanted to 2nd it. One of my favorite songs but with the lyrics “lies a body just oozing life” you know you’re listening to something pretty dark. Well, that’s if you’re going on Bobby Darin’s version. If you listen to the version that comes straight from the Threepenny Opera (“Moritat”), it is much more dissonant and harsh-sounding, and the more direct translation of the lyrics (which were much more loosely translated for “Mack the Knife”) were much more graphic. (There’s a reference to an arson that killed seven children and an underage widow who got raped.) You’ll hear both versions in the movie Quiz Show…the bouncy Darin version in the beginning and the harsher, spookier “Moritat” sung by Lyle Lovett at the end. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/92 "2013-05-19T00:07:42Z")
[Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s second version of Then I See a Darkness](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-xSxWX7_-4) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/93 "2013-05-19T20:13:34Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > As freakin’ eerie as your version is, I don’t think there was ever much controversy on this one. It’s, “Jeremy spoke in class today.” Yup, that’s exactly how I always heard it. I used to own the album (well, cassette tape) that song appeared on, and I think it included the lyrics in the liner notes. Can’t verify now, since I no longer have it. ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic is a master of the upbeat music/dark lyrics technique: [Melanie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeOR14izgkc) [I Remember Larry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyXRApqwJps) [Good Old Days](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCL4AJOf6Y) ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/94 "2013-05-19T22:19:40Z")
Steely Dan have made a career of songs like that. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/95 "2013-05-19T22:39:54Z")
“Veronica,” by Elvis Costello. ---
**Author:** ![BlueMit11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@BlueMit11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMit11)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/96 "2013-05-20T00:19:09Z")
Joshua James: The New Love Song. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/97 "2013-05-20T15:12:33Z")
Another “upbeat” but bleak Springsteen song is widely regarded as a Dave Edmunds osng: “From Small THings (Big Things One Day Come).” The music is very cheery, but it’s about a woman who abandons her husband and kids to go on the road with some jerk that she eventually kills. She spends most of her life in prison, while her kids grow up without her. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/98 "2013-05-20T16:26:08Z")
Pink Floyd’s “Free Four” is a very upbeat sounding tune about getting old and dying. I tried to find a YouTube link, but they are all “blocked in my country.” ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/99 "2013-05-20T16:47:30Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > “You Are My Sunshine” What I came in to say. \*You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy when skies are gray You’ll never know dear, how much I love you Please don’t take my sunshine away You told me once dear, you really loved me And no one else could come between But now you’ve left me and you love another And you have shattered all my dreams\* ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485/100 "2013-05-20T16:57:58Z")
Oh! _Listen To The Mockingbird_ is a classic one of these! It’s so bouncy and whimsical it was actually one of the Three Stooges’ themes, but it’s about the singer’s dead lover. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-sound-upbeat-but-have-darker-meanings/658485.md?page=6)