Songs about middle-class suburban unhappiness

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Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
The Kinks - Well Respected Man

― David Allen (David Allen), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Many many Pet Shop Boys and Suede songs.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Fog – ‘Check Fraud (non-album version)’

― Orange, Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Descendents - "I'm Not A Loser," "Parents," "Suburban Home" for a start

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"My Generation" by The Who.

― Stupid (Stupid), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

The Void - Dehumanized

― eleki-san (eleki-san), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

http://digilander.libero.it/gialastep/damon-albarn.jpg

― Aaron A., Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Thank yaow, and naow, 'Hairless Man.' 'CHARMLESS. Charmless Man.'"

*two men leave, the dog scratches self*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

ben folds five, rockin' the suburbs

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

EVERY DAMN EMO SONG EVER RECORDED

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Talking Heads - Found A Job

Yeah, loads of Blur.

― Chris Jones (Crackity Jones), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre000/e003/e00305zg6bm.jpg

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Saturday, 6 March 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

goodly portions of the frank zappa song catalog, come to think of it.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 6 March 2004 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I have life
Ordinary wife
I have car
A favourite bar
I have job
A moderate wage
I get the pains
That come with age

I am so ordinary

I have child
She goes wild
I have home
A mortgage of my own
I have hobby
But it's nothing very special
I do the garden
I watch girls

I am so ordinary

I have life
I have cage
I'm going bald
I want to tell the world
I've done nothing
I've achieved nothing
I work for a firm
But I want to burn it down, down

I am so ordinary
I am so ordinary

I was born
One day I'll die
There was something in between
I, I don't know what
Or why
I'm a man
I want to break a rule
I am a no, no, no, no, no, no, nobody
Everybody's fool
I am so ordinary

Frustration
I'm so tired of endless art
Love stories
I'm beginning to not give a damn
I wish I could reach right out for the untouchable
Film starring Bruce, John Wayne, Elvis Presley
Experiment with cocaine, LSD and set a bad bad example
Live a little, run a harem, be a tiger
Meet Bo Derek and be her Tarzan
Reach, reach out out
Live, live, live
Die, die, die
I, I, I, I wanna die...

Frustration, oh
Frustration
I wanna die
I wanna die, die, die, die
die, die, d..d..d..die, die, die
Frustration
I wanna die

― rw, Saturday, 6 March 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

"Lose Yourself"

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 6 March 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Rush -- "Subdivisions"

― rainman (rainman), Saturday, 6 March 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

xiu xiu - "sad pony guerilla girl"

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 6 March 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

"Club Med Sucks" by Camper Van Beethoven

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Saturday, 6 March 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Kinks, "Shangri-La"

― no opinion, Saturday, 6 March 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"Harry's House/Centerpiece" -- Joni Mitchell

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Saturday, 6 March 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Man with the Blurry Face" by Firewater

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 6 March 2004 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"Mr.Pleasant" by the Kinks
"Mrs. Jones" by the Circle Jerks

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 6 March 2004 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

The Rolling Stones - Mother's Little Helper
The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday
The Guess Who - Bus Rider

― maypang (maypang), Saturday, 6 March 2004 22:02 (twenty-one years ago)

"Discount Rebellion" by Cop Shoot Cop

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 6 March 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"Well Paid Scientist" and about nine dozen others by the Dead Kennedys

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 6 March 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"59 Lyndhurst Grove" by Pulp.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 6 March 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Fortunate Son" - CCR
"We Got To Get Out Of This Place" - Animals

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 7 March 2004 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

David Byrne was obsessed with suburban life. Let's not forget "The Big Country". "I wouldn't live there if you paid me too".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Sunday, 7 March 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"KErosene" - Big BLack

― Cacaman Flores, Sunday, 7 March 2004 06:30 (twenty-one years ago)

"captain jack," "scenes from an italian restaurant," "the great suburban showdown" and about 97 percent of the rest of everything billy joel has ever done.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, 7 March 2004 07:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Town I Live In"-Jackie Lee

― Arthur (Arthur), Sunday, 7 March 2004 07:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Pete Seeger - "Little Boxes"

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 7 March 2004 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"semi-detatched suburban mr james", Manfred Mann
"Sunny Afternoon", The Kinks.
Gosh, this was a furrow Ray D ploughed often, no?

― harveyw (harveyw), Sunday, 7 March 2004 08:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Pete Seeger - "Little Boxes"

Jus' for the record, it's a Malvina Reynolds song. Common mistake.

― m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Sunday, 7 March 2004 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Milky Wimpshake "While Liberal Guilt"

― pinkgerl, Sunday, 7 March 2004 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Jus' for the record, it's a Malvina Reynolds song. Common mistake.

Well, yes. I understand she recorded many of her songs herself (do they make good listening?), but let's not deny Pete's skills as a co-opter extraordinaire. :)

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 7 March 2004 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"Synchronicity II" by the Police
"Chop Chop" by Killing Joke

Take a walk to the new town, take a look around
Pretty road names pass us by, a foundation sound
They paint their walls and ceilings white to feel clean inside
Ten square miles so synchronized I could have cried

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 7 March 2004 22:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" - Marianne Faithfull

― Saskia, Sunday, 7 March 2004 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

is "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" by Roxy Music one of these? never heard it but the title always screamed that to me

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Sunday, 7 March 2004 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"in every dream home a heartache" sort of does belong here, i guess. it's more upper class than middle class, though, and i'm not sure if his obsession for an inflatable doll counts as "unhappiness." that could be a whole 'nother thread right there.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, 7 March 2004 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, yes. I understand she recorded many of her songs herself (do they make good listening?), but let's not deny Pete's skills as a co-opter extraordinaire. :)

I wouldn't dare deny Mr. Seeger's skills a co-opter, though I imagine he'd say he was more a promoter of musicians he liked (including Dylan, until he got all wonky and axe-happy about Bob going electric).

Does Malvina Reynolds make good listening? Depends on your tolerance for folk-music voices that are expressive but not...what's the word?...good. Smithsonian Folkways put out a nice comp of her songs a few years back -- Ear to the Ground -- and I love her lyrical approach to topical songs. Smart, funny tune about Ronald Reagan, the environment, suburbia (duh), and so on. It's fairly typical liberal folkie stuff, but Reynolds was around retirement age when she wrote a lot of her music, so there's something appealingly spunky/punky about her takes.

― m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Monday, 8 March 2004 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

"Sunny Afternoon", The Kinks?

You consider stately homes to be middle-class! How aristocratic are you?

― Ben Dot (1977), Tuesday, 9 March 2004 00:46 (twenty-one years ago)

seventeen years pass...

Wow, what a great list!

Any stirring folk songs about, say, the plight of ad salesmen?

― Night of Olay: The Resurrection (I M Losted), Saturday, 25 December 2021 22:01 (four years ago)

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