Space Oddity - David Bowie*
Suicide by cold, vacuous, infinity. Makes your little wrist slitting attempt seem lame indeed.
That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be - Carly Simon
Listen as Carly guts the concept of a lasting, happy marriage. I don't know if the songstress thought these lyrics were ultimately optimistic, but the feeble final refrain ("We'll marry") is buried beneath the overwhelming evidence that wedding vows lead to misery. So he thinks it's time to move in together? Run!
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
A dirge that relayed the true story of a freighter that had sunk in Lake Superior the year before, taking all hands with it. This song hit #2 on the Billboard chart. For realzies.
At Seventeen - Janis Ian
My mother introduced me to this song and for that I shall forever be ungrateful. In my ugliest, loneliest moments, it never fails to run through my brain like some wretched little anthem. "I learned the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens…" Pathetic? Oh yes.
Tapestry - Carol King
There is no justice in a world where a man can cruelly and pointlessly be turned into a toad.
Taxi - Harry Chapin
You see, she was gonna be an actress, and he was gonna learn how to fly and, well, things didn’t work out for them at all, because now she is shamming domestic bliss and he’s a strung out cabbie. I can’t even listen to this song.**
Perfect Day - Lou Reed
The crown jewel of sad 70s songs. The melancholy. The self-loathing. The pathetic-ness. And then, that surprising backswing of spite: You’re going to reap just what you sow, you’re going to reeeeaaap just whaaaaaat you sow... It’s a perfect song.
*OK, Space Oddity was original released in 1969, but it was re-released on an album of the same name in 1972, so I'm counting it.
** Some listeners may be struck by the thematic similarities between Chapin's Taxi and Dan Fogelberg's Same Old Lang Syne, another song of post-romance synchronicity. If so, then kudos to you.
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Leonard Cohen - Dress Rehearsal Rag
Four o'clock in the afternoon
and I didn't feel like very much.
I said to myself, "Where are you golden boy,
where is your famous golden touch?"
I thought you knew where
all of the elephants lie down,
I thought you were the crown prince
of all the wheels in Ivory Town.
Just take a look at your body now,
there's nothing much to save
and a bitter voice in the mirror cries,
"Hey, Prince, you need a shave."
Now if you can manage to get
your trembling fingers to behave,
why don't you try unwrapping
a stainless steel razor blade?
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
wasn't it a strange way down?
There's no hot water
and the cold is running thin.
Well, what do you expect from
the kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup,
it's all caked and cracked along the rim.
That's not the electric light, my friend,
that is your vision growing dim.
Cover up your face with soap, there,
now you're Santa Claus.
And you've got a gift for anyone
who will give you his applause.
I thought you were a racing man,
ah, but you couldn't take the pace.
That's a funeral in the mirror
and it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
yes it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
ah wasn't it a strange way down?
Once there was a path
and a girl with chestnut hair,
and you passed the summers
picking all of the berries that grew there;
there were times she was a woman,
oh, there were times she was just a child,
and you held her in the shadows
where the raspberries grow wild.
And you climbed the twilight mountains
and you sang about the view,
and everywhere that you wandered
love seemed to go along with you.
That's a hard one to remember,
yes it makes you clench your fist.
And then the veins stand out like highways,
all along your wrist.
And yes it's come to this,
it's come to this,
and wasn't it a long way down,
wasn't it a strange way down?
You can still find a job,
go out and talk to a friend.
On the back of every magazine
there are those coupons you can send.
Why don't you join the Rosicrucians,
they can give you back your hope,
you can find your love with diagrams
on a plain brown envelope.
But you've used up all your coupons
except the one that seems
to be written on your wrist
along with several thousand dreams.
Now Santa Claus comes forward,
that's a razor in his mit;
and he puts on his dark glasses
and he shows you where to hit;
and then the cameras pan,
the stand in stunt man,
dress rehearsal rag,
it's just the dress rehearsal rag,
you know this dress rehearsal rag,
it's just a dress rehearsal rag.
I knew someone was going to throw Leonard Cohen in my face. Yes, this is sad, too.
Throbbing Gristle - The Old Man Smiled
The Old Man Smiled
Will you die for me?
Do you love me enough to give up your life?
Standing here in the desert
The crumbling city
How much do you love me?
Can the world be as sad as it seems?
At this the old man smiled
Sitting there in Tangier
Scars running from his wrist to his elbow
Perhaps I'll buy his book today
And I look at the boy with me hand on his thigh
As I move to the bed in the corner
And he started to smile
A plaintive smile of the boy as he lies on the bed
And the old man smiled as his
Prick started to twitch twitch twitch
And little drops felt out and fell to the floor
And he looked to the side
Wondering what to do with his knowledge
Cold cold water in the bowl by the bed on the floor
23 days and 23 hours of the day
And the old man smiled as the being swelled and the blood came
As he stuck the needle in his arm
Watching the blood burning and turning in the glass
Wondering where he'd be sitting tomorrow
Wondering which table his person would pass that day
Sitting in a cafe in Tangier
And down to his cable came Captain Clark
He'd worked on the ferry for 23 years and a day
Taking the junkies and the babies and the corpses to Spain
Looking at the coffins in a line across the water
You sink if you're dead
Cold cold water
A cloud up above
And everyone's equal if it rains on you
And the old man smiled
And his arm bent as he paid the bill
So I walked round the corner
To a room in the Bowery
And the boy was bent double naked on the floor
Rubbing himself with some kind of cream
And is this all a dream
Look at the blind men
Sitting in a row with white sticks
Takking at the TV screen
And they try to eat us
By the broken bed
They're always mad
And Captain Clark welcomes you aboard
Flight 23 from New York to Miami
And it crashes in a forest
Burning bodies growing cold
People spewing blood from their faces
Screaming "Why me?" "Why?"
And everyone says I'm mad
And everyone says I'm mad
They always say I'm mad
And I see myself in the gutter and the water
With the water wing gangrene dangling myself
Cos we really want to slaughter
Looking wide-eyed and so confused at the wall
It's gone on so long I wonder just who is here
Cold cold water
Cold cold water
And the old man smiled as he walked back to the cafe
Drinking coffee as his friends just stood around
Can the world be as sad as it seems?
Do you love me?
With my knife against your throat
It could only be me
You would only do this for me
And the old man smiled
Just the same as before
Slowly getting old arranging his things
Making business neat and tidy
Sitting in a café in Tangier
That's the way the world ends
With a whimper
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