Smile for a while - let's be jolly. Life shouldn't be so melancholy

Finding a reason to be cheerful is better, rather than just being jolly because someone says so. Kon Kan were wrong/unhelpful to not offer reasons/some good examples.

you brits got that Kon Kan song over here? that guy worked in this DJ record store in toronto and used to sell me late-80s house 12"s...

on your own, if they follow you

don't look back

Rob, I think it might've even gone Top 10. The follow up Harry Houdini got nowhere.

There is nothing more depressing than enforced jollyness.

If the moment takes you - the smell of a rose, the sense of sun on your face, the particular light of an English summer afternoon filtered through the leaves of an oak tree - then it is good to remember how to feel glad.

But I don't believe in hedonism. Hedonism all too frequently becomes a method of hurting people. Not all of life is pleasant or happy. Some things are difficult, and some things *are* hard work, emotionally or otherwise. That does not mean that you have the right to avoid them.

I think perhaps the message is 'melancholy is ok but in moderation' and Kon Kan are not advocating straight out hedonism per se.

I understand what you mean, Stevem, but it's just hard to take when you're horribly depressed.

Kon Kan stole that advice. The original purveyor was Lynn Anderson, who also came up with the equally pertinent:

'You'd better look before you leap, still waters run deep, and there won't always be someone there to pull you out'

and

'You don't find roses growing on stocks of clover. So you'd better think it over'.

I don't think you can argue with either of those.

All of the words in that song are great, I mean, "I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden" is pretty great hook to hang a song on.

Hats off to Mr. Joe South! And thanks also for "Hush" and "The Games People Play"!

As in

'All the games people play now
Every night and every day now
Never meaning what they say now
Never saying what they mean' ???

Was he the writer, or the perfomer? I've looked for that song, and all I can find is a cruddy 90s-pop-reggae style thing by Inner Circle.

He was writer and performer but everyone's done that song haven't they?

Who else has done it?? It would be nice to own a version that isn't terrible.

.... well you did ask:

Nathan Abshire
Bill Anderson
Lynn Anderson
Bob Andy
Paul Anka
Bill Black
Bluegrass All-Stars
Bob & Marcia
Camper Van Chadbourne
Petula Clark
Ben Colder
The Countdown Singers
Deal's Gone Bad
Lee Dorsey
The Everly Brothers
Paul Frees
Dick Gaughan
The Georgia Satellites
Don Gibson
Barry Goldberg
Merle Haggard
Johnny Hartman
Al Hirt
Inner Circle
Wanda Jackson
Waylon Jennings
Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra
King Curtis
Bettye Lavette
Byron Lee & the Dragonaires
Jerry Lee Lewis
Barbara Mandrell
Jim Nabors
Jimmy C. Newman
The Pleasure Barons
Della Reese
Jeannie C. Riley
Shirley Scott
Bud Shank
Brush Shiels
Joe South
Bill Staines
The Staple Singers
Wynn Stewart
Johnnie Taylor
Tesla
Mel Tillis
Mel Tormé
The Tremeloes
Doris Troy
Ernest Tubb
Conway Twitty
The Ventures
Dionne Warwick
Don Williams
Hank Williams, Jr.
Sheb Wooley

There's quite a few in there I wouldn't mind hearing!

"The further I get from the things that I care about/The less I care about how much further away I get" - Robert Smith, whose lyrics are peppered with gems like this.

This is 'Rose Garden', or 'Games People Play'?

I only know the one Lynn Anderson song, but on the basis of that I'd look for more.

The Doris Troy version of either would be fantastic, I'm sure.

No, that's "Games People Play". I knew it was a favourite of soul singers but didn't realise quite how much of a favourite it was!

There's an excellent reissue of two Joe South albums on one CD - Introspect/Don't It Make You Want To Go Home which contains both "Games People Play" and the original of "Rose Garden" as well as lots of other considerably more startling psychopathic/delic stuff. On the Australian Raven label, therefore not cheap, but definitely recommended.

Sounds good.

'The older I get, the more life starts to make sense, and the less I care' - Buck 65