h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'Up The Junction' - Squeeze

But if we're going for Squeeze, why not go the whole way and go for 'Labelled With Love'?

I'm not sure which of these depress me the most... They all do a grand job of making me feel wretched.

Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks

Everybody Hurts - REM

Tears In Heaven - Eric Clapton.

I don't believe it's necessary for me to explain these choices...

I'm listening to Better Than Ezra's "Teenager" at the moment, it's pretty depressing


"Listen to them fight
Hear your mother cry
Weekend at your dad's
They don't know what they do to you

Teenager - Teenager
Wrap yourself in black
Listen to The Cure
'Love-line' won't call back
They don't know, they don't care, they don't see, but I do

*And if it feels good, do it
'cause if it tastes fine, then drink
There's a range of possibilities to find
Teenager - Teenager*

No-one knows your name
No-one hears your cry
Fall in with the fringe
'cause they know what you're going through..they do

*

No-one's wrong, no-one's right
It comes down on you
I have found the light - inside mine
Hear your mother cry
Fade into the night
When they ask you why
They won't know, they won't feel, they won't see
But you will

*"

I think people have got confused between depressing and irritating..

Personally ANYTHING by Leonard Cohen would get me to cut someone's head off probably mine to escape the pain...

Anything by Coldplay, as the lead singer sounds nearly as bored singing them as I am listening to them.

Quite a few Sandy Denny sung tracks are fairly downbeat, a few which spring to mind are 'One more chance', 'What is true' and 'Dawn' off Fairport Convention's 'Rising For The Moon' album, and Genesis Hall.

I hasten to add that I love Sandys work and when in the right mood play all the above and more, and 'enjoy' the sadness. It can be quite theraputic at times.

Oh, c'mon now - everybody makes fun of Leonard Cohen being music to slash your wrists by. Can we have a few examples of this, if it be true?

I find his stuff to be totally gorgeous. Thoughtful and intelligent songs written about the human condition. Melodic and heart-felt and with wonderfully poetic lyrics.

Much like I find Tom Waits beautifully melancholic, yet there is so much hope in his music and lyrics.

I totally agree that songs like 'Honey' are sooooooooo depressing because of them being so badly written and, well, just crap.

But how does 'melancholy' end up being 'depressing'?


az

Az, "Dress Rehearsal Rag" might be a good example of a depressing Leonard Cohen song.

I'm not a huge fan of either Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits, but I find them both very interesting. Leonard Cohen is a great songwriter, Tom Waits is a great "arranger".

Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Barry Adamson, et. al.- I can see why other people enjoy them so much, but I can't get "into" them. I guess I find "literary depression" forced and pretensious. I like my depression to either have a wicked sense of humor, or to be so oppressively dark and heavy-handed, you have no choice but to "deal with it", if you know what I mean?

Something else I find dismally depressing, musically speaking, is atrocious music by white people (e.g., Eric Clapton) singing about racial issues they couldn't possibly have experienced or comprehend.

Or Rufus Wainwright (who couldn't sing well or write a decent song if his life depended on it) and his perpetual whining about trivial minutiae. If you want to p*ss and moan, have the courtesey to write a song I can give a cr*p about.

<>

I'm sure I'd agree if I could think of some examples of this. But I don't see Tom or Leonard doing this sort of thing. They are poets who put their words to music, and not always in a melancholy way. There is often a lot of humour there.

*DEPRESSING* songs to me are those that have next to no musical merit, are totally scraping the bottom of the emotional barrel for pathetic lyrics and somehow get people to use these songs at weddings and funerals.


az

>*DEPRESSING* songs to me are those that have next to no musical merit, are totally scraping the bottom of the emotional barrel for pathetic lyrics and somehow get people to use these songs at weddings and funerals.<

Oh, yeah, I'm with you 100% in that regard. Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven" is a prime example of *THAT*!! Or anything by any of those godawful Wainwrights.

And I certainly don't mean to imply that Tom and Leonard are not brilliantly talented composers/lyricists, just that there's nothing to their music I can "feel", sympathize with, or relate to on any level. My enjoyment is purely of an artistic nature.

Examples of melancholy or "depressing" music with a sense of humor would, IMO, include Joy Division, Bauhaus, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, etc. Stuff that's so oppressively gloomy I can't help but like it, includes a lot of stuff I mentioned previously. Pretty much anything by Chrome, Suicide, or the like.

Why does there seem to be an automatic assumption that anything "goth" is "depressing"? Most of it's just whiny and pretentious, and the most depressing thing about it is having wasted one's time to listen to it in the first place.

Leonards stuff would be ok..as long as he wasn't the one 'singing' it.

Listen to Hallelujah and get back to me.


az

Has anybody here heard a tune called 'Song To The Siren' by Tim Buckley (Jeff's dad) ? It's a haunting tune, and the pain and emotion in Mr Buckley's voice really make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up...

And to use the term 'depressing' in the other sense, somebody was playing 'Saturday Night' by Whigfield in the car next to me today... Bleurgh !

Band of Gold; forgot who sung it. A rather poppy song, I think it's about someone left on their wedding day and I like it.

Oh and I love Leonard Cohen and the Smiths, I always get cheered up by the poignancy and poetry of the lyrics and the great tunes. Likewise radiohead.

Let's face it life can be tough at times and it's cheering to know you're not alone and art can be made from it/

Band of Gold - Freda Payne.

Great voice, fab song.


az

az

Another all time favourite of mine,

'It's over' by Roy Orbison

cant remeber the song but its by the bloke from the pogues and nick cave

You mean Shane McGowan. I don't know the song either, but I know that 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' by The Pogues is one of the most depressing songs of all time. Not melancholy and not sad, but brutally, unstintingly depressing. Brief synopsis:

Man is 'a rover' in the outback of Australia. The Great War starts and he signs up to fight. He is sent to Suvla Bay, where everyone he knows gets killed. He is there for six weeks before a shell blows both of his legs off. He is sent home. Song then cuts to the present day, where he sits at a window on his 'perch' watching a rememberance procession and wonders what it was all for.

That's it.

It's not a party song.

yeah thats the fella, waltzing matilda is a good song but it is very sad. the dubliners version is a little more upbeat. one line that is funny but isnt is the " ...and i looked down to where my legs used to be..."

And what about

"Oh Ruby don't take your love to town'

That's got to be right up there. Sung by 'a paralysed Vietnam war veteran'