Yeah, I meant two at the end before the “I”.
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Depressing sounding songs
- Thread starter Don CT
- Start date
There is a bit of a backstory to the MASH theme ("Suicide is Painless").
The director, Robert Altman, decided that his 14-year-old son Mike should write the lyrics to the theme. Unsurprisingly, the lyrics are a vapid, meaningless mess, and the TV show wisely stuck to an instrumental version.
The kicker is that Mike Altman received over $1 million in songwriting royalties, allegedly more than his dad got for directing the movie.
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“Carmelita” & “Blue Bayou” by Linda Ronstadt. Carmelita is more depressing to me, with the verse:
Well I'm sittin' here playing solitaire
With my pearl handled deck
The county won't give me no more methadone
And they cut off your welfare check
Also “Disco Apocalypse” by Jackson Browne:
Well I'm sittin' here playing solitaire
With my pearl handled deck
The county won't give me no more methadone
And they cut off your welfare check
Also “Disco Apocalypse” by Jackson Browne:
Okay. If this thread is still going, let's see if I can't kill it.
This makes "Honey" sound like "Sugar Sugar". 1975---and it got airplay! I'm only aware of it because KFMB (AM), San Diego played it when it was new.
Here's the audio (yeah, it's a video, but it's just something whoever posted it thought went with the song---and they were wrong). I'd suggest you don't get distracted by the bad 90s hair:
This makes "Honey" sound like "Sugar Sugar". 1975---and it got airplay! I'm only aware of it because KFMB (AM), San Diego played it when it was new.
Here's the audio (yeah, it's a video, but it's just something whoever posted it thought went with the song---and they were wrong). I'd suggest you don't get distracted by the bad 90s hair:
"Carmelita" was written by Warren Zevon. His version is better. Ronstadt also recorded Zevons "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" which was about a sleazy womanizer...
Zevon could take over this thread. "Excitable Boy", "Lawyers, Guns and Money".
I don't find "Disco Apocalypse" depressing---it's actually kind of a hoot. It's exactly how I would expect Jackson Browne to react to disco and to couch the chorus---all about pleasure--- in impending doom:
Tonight's the night I'm gonna make you mine (Yeah)
Gonna dance right out onto the edge of time
When the sound starts a-pumpin'
And the lights are flashin'
And my hearts-a-thumpin'
And I feel the passion
And the world is right there waiting
At my finger tips
He wouldn't loosen up and actually have fun with that emotion until "Somebody's Baby".
Actually, my favorite Zevon---
Big gorilla at the L.A. Zoo
Snatched the glasses right off my face
Took the keys to my BMW
Left me here to take his place
I wish the ape a lot of success
I'm sorry my apartment's a mess
Most of all I'm sorry if I made you blue
I'm betting the gorilla will, too
They say Jesus will find you wherever you go
But when He'll come looking for you, they don't know
In the mean time, keep your profile low
Gorilla, you're a desperado
He built a house on an acre of land
He called it Villa Gorilla
Now I hear he's getting divorced
Laying low at L'Ermitage, of course
Then the ape grew very depressed
Went through Transactional Analysis
He plays racquetball and runs in the rain
Still he's shackled to a platinum chain
Big gorilla at the L.A. Zoo
Snatched the glasses right off my face
Took the keys to my BMW
Left me here to take his place
Big gorilla at the L.A. Zoo
Snatched the glasses right off my face
Took the keys to my BMW
Left me here to take his place
I wish the ape a lot of success
I'm sorry my apartment's a mess
Most of all I'm sorry if I made you blue
I'm betting the gorilla will, too
They say Jesus will find you wherever you go
But when He'll come looking for you, they don't know
In the mean time, keep your profile low
Gorilla, you're a desperado
He built a house on an acre of land
He called it Villa Gorilla
Now I hear he's getting divorced
Laying low at L'Ermitage, of course
Then the ape grew very depressed
Went through Transactional Analysis
He plays racquetball and runs in the rain
Still he's shackled to a platinum chain
Big gorilla at the L.A. Zoo
Snatched the glasses right off my face
Took the keys to my BMW
Left me here to take his place
Equally depressing is that Paul Williams played an orangutan in "Battle for the Planet of The Apes". He didn't sing in that movie though...😑.
Zevon's "Run Straight Down" is another bleak one. He even managed to use the word Entropy in the lyrics...
If you haven’t actually listened to Paul Williams’ “One More Angel” above, do. Hang in till the last verse. Holy crap.
Also, I mentioned it makes “Honey” sound like “Sugar Sugar”—-but I just realized it was written by Jeff Barry —-who WROTE “Sugar Sugar”.
Seriously, if this song doesn’t kill the thread, I’d hate to hear what would.
Also, I mentioned it makes “Honey” sound like “Sugar Sugar”—-but I just realized it was written by Jeff Barry —-who WROTE “Sugar Sugar”.
Seriously, if this song doesn’t kill the thread, I’d hate to hear what would.
D.O.A. -- Bloodrock
Some other good Zevon songs for this thread are "My Ride's Here" & "Desperadoes Under The Eaves". Thanks for posting that gorilla song Michael, it's great! I wonder if he had a chimp on his shoulder from writing it...
I read an interview with Warren somewhere around the time. He had the first half of one more verse:
Then the ape grew very pissed off
Taking meetings with Walter Yetnikoff
At the time, Yetnikoff ran Columbia Records. Zevon said he decided not to test his business relationship with David Geffen and besides, he really never could come up with a second half for that verse.
The whole song's great, but this verse is hands-down my favorite:
I wish the ape a lot of success
I'm sorry my apartment's a mess
Most of all I'm sorry if I made you blue
I'm betting the gorilla will, too
All right, one more entry from me.
"Streets of Heaven" by Sherrie Austin. I heard this on Lon Helton's country countdown 20 years ago at like #37. Lyrics start like this:
"Streets of Heaven" by Sherrie Austin. I heard this on Lon Helton's country countdown 20 years ago at like #37. Lyrics start like this:
It's a lively, happy sounding big band song, but the lyrics of "Artificial Flowers" by Bobby Darin are quite sad.
From 1966, B. J. Thomas and Billy and Sue?
The Three Bells by The Browns:
Ronan by Taylor Swift, about a kid dying of cancer:
Ronan by Taylor Swift, about a kid dying of cancer:
Bobby Vinton found himself in a situation similar to "Billy" in "Mr. Lonely" (1962) -- a soldier who feels he's been forgotten, never even gets mail from home. Fortunately, he decides against battlefield suicide and is a "Coming Home Soldier" in 1966. But he sings in the latter hit that his girlfriend has been "waiting patiently" for him. Really? After not writing to him for four years?
Mr. Lonely:
Coming Home Soldier:
If it's anything like my uncle's situation, he got back from Vietnam to find his wife patiently waiting for him. She was patient in optics only. She ran around on him the entire time he was gone, and they divorced shortly after his return.
Well, "The Three Bells" is only a third depressing. The first two were his birth and wedding.
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