Chick Habit by April March
No Good by Amy Winehouse (it’s kinda up-beat, right?)
People Who Died by Jim Carroll
Accidents Will Happen by Greenday
Ciao! by Lush
Like a Friend by Pulp
The classic example for me has to be Mack the Knife, especially as sung by Bobby Darin.
Springsteen’s Born in the USA is way bleaker than most people think.
Excitable Boy by Warren Zevon
“Cannibal” by Ke$ha: “be too sweet, and you’ll be a goner/Yup, I’ll pull a Jeffery Dahmer”
“Buffalo Soldier” by Bob Marley
Don’t Fear The Reaper is a fairly morbid song about death.
Mr. Tambourine Man is about drug addiction.
“Mexicali Blues” by Bob Weir/Grateful Dead is a very upbeat, chirpy song about being on the run, and fleeing to Mexico, after having (sort of inadvertently) committed murder.
“I Should Be So Lucky”, by Kylie Minouge is about unrequited love, but sounds very upbeat and happy.
Poi Dog Pondering’s God’s Gallipoli.
“You Are My Sunshine”
Oh! “We’ll Sing In The Sunshine” by Gail Garnett. that’s usually my go-to answer.
LOADS of Springsteen songs sound upbeat but have really bleak lyrics.
“Glory Days” SOUNDS like a happy sports-themed song, which is why so many pro football and baseball teams play it over the loudspeakers during breaks… but lyrically, it’s a downer of a song about how quickly our youth passes, and how soon we turn into boring, nostalgic, drunken old farts with nothing but memories.
Is it? Dude, they aren’t so depressing that Jeremy is one of their more upbeat songs. Yellow Ledbetter is more upbeat than that one.
nm
The song that goes “Oh where oh where can my baby be…”
I was enjoying it one day when I started actually listening to the lyrics - it’s about a fatal car accident.
Fast Times at Clairemont High by Pierce the Veil doesn’t sound very upbeat – on the surface it sounds like an angsty emometal song about not having friends, but in the background there is sometimes party shouts like “let’s take this a bit faster” which makes it sound less serious.
Then, on a third layer, when you read the lyrics, the guy really is pining for the girl with all his heart – so that he and her can consummate their love in the middle of a burning building. So yeah.
“Last Kiss” by Wayne Cochran. The oldies version most well-known is probably the one by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. Or perhaps you’re familiar with the Pearl Jam version. I’m 37, and I find it somewhat surprising at how many people I’ve met thought this was a Pearl Jam song, not an oldie from the 60s.
While we’re at the whole “dead teenager” song genre (why in the hell was this ever a “thing”?), I’ve always been particularly amused by Laurie (Strange Things Happen).
The entire recorded output of The Housemartins.
Also the first few albums by Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe.
Extreme’s “More Than Words” gets played at weddings. If you really listen to the words, it’s a dude telling his girlfriend that she’s history unless she has sex with him. :rolleyes:
How about “Brick” by Ben Folds Five, although that one’s kind of obvious.