I think Teddy Bear was also by Sovine. He also did an especially weepy one (“Giddy-Up” was part of the title, IIRC) about a CB kid whose momma or poppa just died and went to heaven. Red Sovine’s voice never cracks harder than in this song. Makes you wanna kill the radio, if not yourself.
In the Seattle area we’ve had a novelty music show called “Music with Moscowitz” floating from station to station over the years. When he was based on a C&W station, over the course of four hours Madman Moscowitz played two hours of Dr.Demento fare, then an hour of country novelty tunes, then an hour of straight twangy classic country. Often in the novelty C&W segment he wallowed in the “Cheeze Factor.” The cheezier and more depressing, the better. The titles you mentioned were old standbys for the Madman. The total “cry in your beer, hug yer dog & kiss yer pickup truck” kind of cheeze.
Seeing Peter Gabriel on the list brought to remembrance a song earlier in his career, called Biko. It’s about Stephen Biko, an anti-apartheid activist who was unjustly jailed, and subsequently murdered. An EXCELLENT song, but quite depressing. However,I will have to throw my hat in the ring and give a small list of equally depressing songs.
1.Another Auld Lang Syne, by Dan Fogelburg
2. Blind Man in the Bleachers (wish I knew who recorded THAT song, but I threw away the K-Tel albums a long time ago.
3. Run, Joey, Run (Not necessarily the most depressing song, but I know I had to clear out whenever it played on the radio. After the first 5 times hearing it, I wanted to kill Joey.
4. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot. An EXCELLENT song when you’re on speed and really NEED to come down quickly, (Or so I am told)
There is a song called “Giddy-up-go” its by the same guy who does “Teddy Bear” (though I don’t know who it is) Giddy-up-go is about a man who is a trucker and his wife leaves him taking his son and he never sees them again. His truck is the only thing he has and it is called Giddy-up-go cuz thats what his son first said about it. What happens is while he is driving around he sees a brand new diesel rig with a little sign on it that says… you guessed it. ‘Giddy up go’ Well he follows him to a coffee shop where they get to talking shop then he asks about the name of his rig and the guy explains that he got it from his pop and he had lost all track of him. He had also lost his mother when he was just past 16. The guy tells him he has something to show him and he takes them out to the rig rubbing off the dirt from the sign. It turns out this is his kid and they are reunited etc etc
“gone away” the Offspring
“And it feels like heaven is so far away,
the world has gone cold now that you’ve gone away.”
i often think “ordinary world” by DuranDuran is depressing
(i do not know why i think that)
“And i won’t cry for yesterday , There’s an ordinary world somehow i have to find, and if i try to make my way to the ordinary world, i will learn to survive.”
“one” and "pride(in the name of love) , both by U2 also strike me as fairly sad.
**“I Can’t Make You Love Me” ** (Bonnie Raitt) - she’s sleeping beside someone who doesn’t love her anymore, and she knows it’s the last night she’ll have him next to her. She’s asking him to “Give me tonight, To give up this fight.”
** “Tears In Heaven” ** (Eric Clapton) - a parent grieving over the death of his son. Someone give me a hankie.
** “Angel” ** Sarah McLaughlin - This song has a silver lining, I suppose, but it still depresses me.
** “The Last Farewell” ** (Elvis Presley) - about a dude going off to sea and leaving behind his sweetheart. “I have no fear of death which brings no sorrow/But how bitter will be this last farewell.”
[mope]
Yeah, thanks Diesel. Now I’ve found a thousand new ways to go into a deep blue funk and dozen songs stuck in my brain.
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[/mope] Interesting read and news ones I’d never heard before.
Just in case there’s anyone who’s not depressed yet, here’s another Peter Gabriel song - Washing of the Water :
“River, show me how to float
I feel like I’m sinking down
Thought that I could get along
But here in this water
My feet won’t touch the ground
I need something to turn myself around”
R.E.M. hasn’t been mentioned yet and they’ve got some beautifully depressing songs, like Try Not to Breathe :
“I will try not to breathe
This decision is mine
I have lived a full life
And these are the eyes
That I want you to remember
I need something to fly
Over my grave again
I need something to breathe
Baby don’t shiver now
Why do you shiver?”
Everybody knew - nobody said.
A week ago last Tuesday
She was just fifteen years,
When she reached her full term,
She went to a grotto,
Just a field,
In the middle of the island,
To deliver herself,
Her baby died,
She died,
A week ago last Tuesday.
It was a sad, slow, stupid death for them both,
Everybody knew - nobody said,
A week ago last Tuesday.
At a grotto,
In a field,
In the middle of the island.
Everybody knew - nobody said.
Christy Moore / Nigel Rolfe
The lyrics seem a bit flat written but sung, they bring a tear to my eye. The song is a true story about Ann Lovett in Granard, Ireland who died from a botched self induced late term abortion in the late 80’s
“amazed” by offspring
-your heart breaks. no ones there. yeah if i make it id be amazed, just to find tomorrow…
“before i go” by unwritten law
-life hurts so bad don’t want you sad, just look back to good times we’ve had…live fast die young, its part of me. before i go, i need you to know, i’m still alive in you. it’s my time to go…
“blaspehmous rumours” by depeche mode
“suicidal dream” by silverchair
(the title says it all)
and copied from zette’s earlier post:Here are a few of mine
“For No One” The Beatles
“Tear In Your Hand” Tori Amos-the first couple lines just get me
“Waltz #2(XO)” Elliot Smith
“She Thinks I Still Care”, George Jones-but the James Taylor version -I’m listening to it right now!
“Something In The way She Moves” James Taylor
" A Pair of Brown Eyes" The Pogues
One of the most depressing I’ve heard is My Sister by Tindersticks]. It is a spoken-word recording done over a sort of upbeat, lounge-ish music. The speaker is telling about his sister, who went blind at 5, burned down the house at 10 (which killed their mother and their cat, and after which time the father walked out never to return), fell down a well while drunk at 13, was ostracized by the town because of her choice of boyfriends at 15, was paralyzed after being hit during a fight with that boyfriend at 20, and eventually died. The last verse goes:
We buried her when she was 32. Me and my aunt, the vicar, and the man who dug the hole. She said she didn’t want to be cremated, and wanted a cheap coffin so the worms could get to her quicker. She said she liked the idea of it, though I thought it was because of what happened to the cat and our mum.
Also depressing: Like the Weather by 10,000 Maniacs, and the entire CD of **Everything I Touch Runs Wild ** by Lori Carson - if you aren’t already sad when you start to listen to it, you will be after finishing.
When I was young (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) there was a popular song, sung by a woman…”but you say it’s time we moved in together, started a family of our own you and me, you want to marry me…” The chorus sounded pretty, but the verses were a horrible expose of the futile prison of her parent’s marriage and the dismal prospects of her friends from college who had gotten married already. Perversely, my mother liked that song. I don’t think she ever really listened to it. Does anybody know title or singer?
Other similarly themed depressions:
“Jack and Diane” …by John Cougar Mellancamp (sp?)
“Fast car” by Tracy Chapman
“Young hearts are free tonight” by Rod Stewart
Interesting read and news ones I’d never heard before.