Although I began compiling this list in pursuit of fun, I
might have created a monster here; repeatedly listening to the following songs might
destroy every ounce of hope holding your tormented psyche together. With that prior warning in mind, here’s
the list:
10. “Embrace,” Low
Apparently, Mimi Parker was having a baby around the time
this song was written. The lyrics do suggest giving birth: “Holding my head for
the last of race/Pushing my body to get that embrace.” Yet, this song is not a
celebration of childbirth, but instead a chilling reflection on the transience
of both infancy and motherhood, perhaps from someone doubting their aptitude as
a parent.
9. “Love is a Losing Game,” Amy Winehouse
As a lyricist, Amy Winehouse could write songs that sounded
simultaneously concise and emotive; that sounded darkly self-deprecating
without asking for pity. “Love is a Losing Game,” one of the late musician’s
masterpieces, illustrates this rare capacity.
8. “Mercy Mercy Me (The
Ecology),” Marvin Gaye
Given the strong hints of sexuality in a lot of his songs,
it is no wonder that Marvin Gaye sometimes gets pigeonholed as a musician meant
for sexytimes. Indeed, once could say the same of the music behind his 1971
concept album What’s Going On? The
lyrics, on the other hand, are a different story; the whole album follows a soldier
returning from Vietnam only to find his country ravaged by unemployment,
inflation, racial tension and environmental degradation. In “Mercy Mercy Me,” probably
the most well-known track from the album, Marvin laments the destruction of
planet earth.
7. “Little Girl Blue,” Janis
Joplin
One thought more depressing than that of a little girl,
sitting alone in a corner, unhappily counting her fingers, is the realization
that this unhappy little girl might be a young Janis Joplin. By covering an
old standard, changing the lyrics so as not to include the happy ending in the original, this is one
of the legendary singer’s most vulnerable recordings.
6. “Names,” Cat Power
Chan Marshall states the names of childhood friends who were
killed, sexually-assaulted and addicted to drugs before age fifteen, all with
an unsettling matter-of-factness in her voice.
5. “Alone Again (Naturally),” Gilbert O’Sullivan
Gilbert O’Sullivan mourns about being orphaned.
First Dad dies, then Mom dies shortly thereafter of a broken heart. following
all that death, feeling terribly lonely and lacking a single soul to talk to, the narrator "treats himself" to suicide.
4. "Michael," Red House Painters
Mark Kozelek wonders what happened to his best friend from adolescence.
Considering all those allusions to delinquency, drugs and mental illness, “Michael”
could be anywhere, if he's even alive at all.
3. "The Kids," Lou Reed
“The Kids,” from Lou
Reed’s concept album Berlin, is a
remarkably cruel, disturbing track. Without giving away too much of the story,
the narrator believes that the “miserable rotten slut” in the lyrics, his
previous lover, deserves punishment – namely the loss of parental rights – for
her sexual promiscuity and drug use. In truth, the entire Side B of Berlin is an incredible downer, but the
malicious lyrics and the added sounds of shrilly-screaming children earn this
particular song a place on my list.
2. "I Know It's Over," The Smiths
No tribute to a failed relationship competes with this
devastating Smiths classic. I’ve often thought that the four lines starting
with “sad veiled bride, please be happy” critique the unhappy business of
marriage altogether, but so much of Morrissey’s brilliant lyrics are best left
to your own, personal interpretations.
1. "The Crucifixion," Phil Ochs
As the 1960s progressed, the songs of topical
singer Phil Ochs, once sanguinely revolutionary, eventually became
characterized by intense expressions of political despair. I personally find
lots of his later work debilitating. This song, about how we build moral
leaders only to tear them down, was originally written about John F Kennedy, but unintentionally
picked-up Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and Salvador Allende
along the way. As his surviving brother once described, Ochs had the ego to
take the violence of the 1960s personally, thus leading him headlong into the torments of his later life.
Honorable mentions include Tracy Chapman’s tale of poverty,
divorce and alcoholism, “Fast Car,” and Janis Ian’s classic teenage angst
track, “At Seventeen.”
While putting the finishing touches on my list, I listened
to every one of these songs. If you did as well, are you as drained as I
am? Anyone fancy a drink?
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