Songs that are so miserable they're funny

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I remember laughing the first time I heard both "Life in Prison" as covered by The Byrds and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" by The Smiths. Perfect early morning music...

― rollergrrl, Friday, 25 February 2005 02:40 (twenty years ago)

most maudlin songs of ever

like these?

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Friday, 25 February 2005 02:44 (twenty years ago)

The Smiths own this thread.

― rich, Friday, 25 February 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

that song jody posted on the ILMxor (LaBelle "Moonshadow") blog is hillarious. all about her losing an arm or an eye or somthing.

― LaToya JaXoN (JasonD), Friday, 25 February 2005 05:50 (twenty years ago)

Tindersticks excel at this ("My Sister", "Paco de Renaldo's Dream", "Singing", etc.)

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 25 February 2005 06:23 (twenty years ago)

Har Mar Superstar's cover of "Alone Again (Naturally)" is funnier than the original.

― TayBridgeCatastrophe (TayBridge), Friday, 25 February 2005 06:34 (twenty years ago)

Also, Roy Orbison's "It's Over". It begins with "Your baby doesn't love you anymore..." and steadily gets more depressing.

"All the rainbows in the sky/ Start to weep and say goodbye/You won't be seeing rainbows anymore." Way to rub it in, Roy you sadistic bastard.

― TayBridgeCatastrophe (TayBridge), Friday, 25 February 2005 07:23 (twenty years ago)

God Damn The Sun by Swans:

They found my letter/rolled up in your pocket/where I said I'd kill myself/if she left me again

beat

So now she's gone...

― jim (jim5et), Friday, 25 February 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)

"22: The Death of All the Romance" by the Dears. The deadpan opening line "I have never cried in anybody's arms the way that I have often cried in yours," prevents me from suspending my disbelief that the preceding song is goning to be anything but terrible.

On second thought this probably qualifies more as "Songs that aim for miserable, but hit terrible instead, and then become funny."

― Yoshinorimike (Yoshinorimike), Friday, 25 February 2005 08:11 (twenty years ago)

Tom Waits to thread.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 25 February 2005 09:04 (twenty years ago)

Being born was the worse and the first mistake I ever made
The doctor didn’t spank me, he just slapped me in the face
And the cup of love was always quenching someone else's thirst
Leaving me to swallow the bitter taste of hurt...

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Friday, 25 February 2005 10:06 (twenty years ago)

Steve Fisk's "I Wish I Were Dead" OWNS OWNS OWNS this thread.

― donut debonair (donut), Friday, 25 February 2005 10:08 (twenty years ago)

Too many country songs to list here

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 25 February 2005 10:10 (twenty years ago)

Tindersticks "Dying slowly" is a hoot. (It's just that dying slowly/ it seemed better than shooting myself..."

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 25 February 2005 10:14 (twenty years ago)

"Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town" - especially the Leonard Nimoy version.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 25 February 2005 10:44 (twenty years ago)

A lot of Jacques Brel songs, tho a lot of the times Jacques is in on the joke

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 25 February 2005 11:01 (twenty years ago)

Dinosaur Jr's "Why Don't You Like Me?" is a good 'un also. Incredibly self-pitying.

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Friday, 25 February 2005 11:24 (twenty years ago)

The first time I heard the Sisters 'After Hours' I nearly pissed myself laughing. Though it's fair to say Eldritch may well be doing miserable-as-a joke to most of his songs.

― darren (darren), Friday, 25 February 2005 11:39 (twenty years ago)

Stay by Shakespeares Sister

― the other kate (ffs!) (papa november), Friday, 25 February 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

Smog - You Moved In

― marac, Friday, 25 February 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

Peggy Lee, "Is That All There Is?"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 25 February 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

I like The Cure a lot, but "Siamese Twins" always sounds like unintentional self-parody to me.

― AdrianB (AdrianB), Friday, 25 February 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

Johnny Cash (written by Loudin Wainwright) --"The Man Who Couldn't Cry"

I suppose this one is meant to be funny, but a bunch of miserable things happen to the protagonist in the lyrics. It is similar to "Boy Named Sue" in this way.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Friday, 25 February 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

Oh good one, I don't know the Cash version but sounds perfect for his voice

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 25 February 2005 13:47 (twenty years ago)

"Welcome to My LIfe" by Simple Plan...esp. the ersatz "Everybody Hurts" video (itself a good candidate for this thread) never fails to make me giggle. or piss me off.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 25 February 2005 13:49 (twenty years ago)

Holocaust by Big Star is pretty over-the-top gloomy.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 25 February 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

Amen to that Holocaust, but I find it more disturbing than funny.

And yes the context for that sentence will probably never occur again.

― Yoshinorimike (Yoshinorimike), Friday, 25 February 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

Queen Victoria... the 20th Century belongs to you and me

― Charles Dexter (Holey), Friday, 25 February 2005 18:23 (twenty years ago)

Stephin Merritt owns this thread

― daavid (daavid), Friday, 25 February 2005 20:24 (twenty years ago)

"Is That All There Is" is a great answer. I rarely connect with a song in my sad-as-fuck mode that I cannot laugh at.

― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Friday, 25 February 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Ambulance Blues by Neil Young is one of the great rambling, depressive songs. He even says at one point "It's hard to say the meaning of this song" That's before he starts in about the Farmers Market and pissing in the wind.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 25 February 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

holocaust is my vote, from the ones suggested. "youre a wasted face (space?), youre a sad-eyed lie, youre a holocaust."

yeesh.

― peter smith (plsmith), Friday, 25 February 2005 20:50 (twenty years ago)

"The Desperate Things You Made Me Do" by Magnetic Fields. I miss those old Magnetic Fields songs where we wasn't trying so hard to be clever, it just seemed more natural. And I miss all the synths.

― Bent Over at the Arclight (Bent Over at the Arclight), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:34 (twenty years ago)

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