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On That Note - Part One - I'm Down

MeanDean

MeanDean

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Jan 5, 2009
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Blue Grass IA-Jensen Beach FL
This week I'm doing two postings. The first, this one, will be the typical OTN post. The second will follow with a Part Two heading.

So, last week @cyclones500 went with the idea for the songs that make you happy. It seemed only natural to flip the subject and look for the opposite; songs that make you melancholy or sad. It can be the song lyrics or the mood of the music/arraignment. Or another reason might be that the song was playing or popular when you lost a family member or brings back memories of a person you've lost. Or the classic cause: Lost love.

Being a Beatles fan I'll post a couple from their catalogue that always brought that emotion for me. After their announced breakup in April 1970, Long and Winding Road was released as their last single. The poignancy of the lyrics after the musical voyage they'd taken us on seemed appropriately fitting. (Of course the legitimate releases are not on YouTube, yet this slightly crude demo still works.)



The second song I'm posting hit me hard on the evening of December 8, 1980. Just graduating from ISU in November I was back home desperately looking for gainful employment. My brother knocked on my bedroom door and told me Lennon had been shot. He didn't know yet whether he was alive or dead. Didn't take long to find out it was fatal. I tuned to KFMH, the local prog rock station, who were already in Beatles/Lennon mode. This song was one of the first played. The lyrics seemed cruelly ironic at that point. And every time I've heard it since that emotion still comes flooding back.



Okay, away from the Beatles but still staying in Liverpool. I've always really liked this one. Just the right mix of emotion in Gerry's voice. You can really feel like he knows how you feel when you've lost your love.



Back to death.... Sorry 'bout that. Goes with the territory, no doubt. This song is about a mother dying; my Mom passed last summer. No, I wasn't a little boy. There was a lot of childhood missed with her - through no fault of her own, suffering mental illness - she was not with us for much of our growing up period. I was one of 6 children (the Baby Boom was probably the end of the large family as the norm). So the line, "You left Six of us to fend for ourselves - guess it's just part of some master plan." especially always gets me.



This last one has no personal story to go with it. And it's not really lyrically about any kind of death or lost love, near as I can tell. It just seems to be so full of emotion, the performance just makes me feel melancholy. No other explanation. It's Van Morrison. The man is a musical treasure. And evidently it's not just me. If you go to the YouTube post and read the top comments it touches many souls.





So what are your songs and stories?
 
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Funny little side story on this one. I came at this one from the Janis Joplin version. After hearing this, the original version from 1963, I was immediately of the opinion it is superior.

The funny bit: His name is Garnet Mimms. I assumed it was sung by a woman, as was the Janis version. Probably several years before I found out, no he's a dude.

And just if you have some time head to YouTube and spend a half hour sometime and play some of his music. Wow, what a vocal talent! So underappreciated.

 
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During discussions with @MeanDean about doing a flipside of “happy songs,” I noted that, occasionally, a song with a bummer-tone and theme can bring a positive by-product. A "jettison transition," if I may coin a phrase.

Example: No specific personal story behind this, but it has element of universal connection, lyrically and emotionally. At its most basic, it’s a “relationship/lost love" story. It makes me feel bad and better simultaneously. Not an easy balance to achieve from a songwriting standpoint.

 
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One of my closest college friends, who was a major fan of The Smiths in the mid-to-late ‘80s, said this at one point: “No matter how depressed I am, Morrissey can make me feel worse.”

In his prime, Morrissey was the King/Queen of exasperated introspection.

Here's an example. (Bonus: Contains the best anticlimactic line of the ‘80s (perhaps Ever): “I was looking for a job/And then I found a job.”)

 
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Comments on a couple from @MeanDean

"Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying." Actually, I have nothing to add to what you wrote. :)

"The Long and Winding Road." Revisionist analysis: Today, it sounds like Paul's pre-nostalgia lament that The Beatles era was about to end. He wanted it to continue, but knew it wouldn't.
 
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Top of the morning, all! ... Now that we have that out of the way ... ;)

This song isn’t so much “depressing” as it is “heavier than ****.”

Arguably, I think it's only the fourth-biggest downer on the LP from which it sprang, “Key Lime Pie.” (I may address that album in a future OTN segment, with only tangential connection to this week’s topic).

Notable line: "There's nothing in this world more bitter than spring."

 
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