Melancholy '77

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I started a tape with The Boys Next Door's "Shivers", Cowboys International's "Thrash", The Only One's "Another Girl, Another Planet" and Squeeze's "Up The Junction".

I need approximately 72 more minutes of sad boys in skinny ties.

― fritz, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nembutol numbs it all but i prefer new answers.

― fritz, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

http://jamesmarsh.safeshopper.com/images/b00xrgfi.jpg

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

So, yeah, Talk Talk.....and "One Step Ahead" or "Message to My Girl" by Split Enz, and "When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty" or "Ten Feet Tall" by XTC.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(by the way, don't be too fussy about the timeframe, '77 - '84 is just a suggestion)

― fritz, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Might be a bit late (it was released in '84) and not quite what you had in mind, but The The's "Uncertain Smile" or "This Is the Day" could work. And there's LOADS of Soft Cell songs, but particularly "Say Hello Wave Goodbye". And Marc and the Mambas "Untitled". Ned will probably come up with the perfect one that I've forgotten about. Also, the Fun Boy Three version of "Our Lips Are Sealed" is ever so sad. The Human League's

Are chicks allowed? Cause those early Pretenders singles certainly fit the bill. Though maybe you're looking for something a bit more obscure.

― Arthur, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned will probably come up with the perfect one that I've forgotten about.

"Heat" is a bit too intense, perhaps, for the proceedings. But "Youth" works brilliantly, "Numbers" perhaps.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

chicks always allowed, yep.

funboy three sad is exactly the sad I've in mind, but don't feel limited by that.

― fritz, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

OK, then. The Bangles version of "Going Down to Liverpool". Patti Smith-"We Three", Yaz/Yazoo-"Only You"

― Arthur, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Starry Eyes," the Records.
"The Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric.

― scott p., Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, I'd recommend this album I just got and am listening to, Chapter 13's The World From Heaven. Pure elegant gloom Visage/Human League/John Foxx synth revivalism from just two years ago, and damn it's good stuff.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Specials - Ghost Town/Saturday Night & Sunday Morning ep fits too. (this is a terry hall dream thread)

― fritz, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Jimmy Jimmy", Undertones
"Yachting Types", Yachts

And get some Yanks in there:
"Gates of Steel", Devo (check those skinny ties chords)
"Out of My Hands", Dwight Twilley
"Yellow Pills", 20/20
"Tragedy", Shoes

― Curt, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Big Star-"Holocaust" and "Nighttime".

― Arthur, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Cristina-"He Dines Out on Death"

― Arthur, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Something from Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos? "You and Your Sister" or "Look Up".

― Curt, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

For melancholia, it's hard to beat Chris Bell: The Man & The Music. Also that bit in "Nighttime" when Chilton sings "get me outta here/I hate it here/get me outta here/I hate it here" always gets me.

I'm thinking about Epic Soundtracks' "Meet Me On the Beach" now.

― fritz, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Johnny Thunders "You Can't Put Your Arms around a Memory" (the skinny tie is tied around his arm)and Patti Smith at her most melancholy has got to be "Pissin' In A River"

― fritz, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Good feeling'-Violent Femmes

― Michael Bourke, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Also that bit in "Nighttime" when Chilton sings "get me outta here/I hate it here/get me outta here/I hate it here" always gets me.

Oh, me too, me too. You don't know how many times I've sung that song to myself out at a bar or a club or a party. It's right up there with "How Soon Is Now".

― Arthur, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hmm. what about japan?

― cecilia, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart.
The Cure - One Hundred Years.

The easiest is to take "Hatful of Hollow" by The Smiths in its entirety. Must be around 45 minutes. That leaves you with 27 minutes left, Fritz.

― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You asked for Japan; you got it. Not only do several of the songs on their "Quiet Life" qualify, but David Sylvian wears an actual skinny tie on the album cover.

― Sean, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

How about the entirety of LOOK SHARP! by Joe Jackson?

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

when sylvian switched his skinny tie for a mao outfit he wrote ghosts, now that's beyond melancholy I think,although it comes very close to depressing.

between the skinny tie and the bowl of rice it was gentlemen take polaroids: also recommended for this tthread (nightporter!)

― erik, Saturday, 9 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmm, from the kitchen sink downbeat drama of Up the Junction you need to sweep into something grander sweep maybe:

Propaganda - Sorry for Laughing.

Then you can move into later eighties synth tinged pop or have a nice slide into postcard pop - Bourgie Bourgie even. however I'd move the melancholia into icier waters with

Berlin Blondes - Science

If you dont have that anything from Systems of Romance (Just for a moment maybe?)

So just as you established it you got to break from the synth gloom mood, and keep things going and make everyone thing you should have skipped the synth grandure bit and kept with the kitchen sink, late period Madness for instance, first album Smiths... which reminds me of:

Pink Industry - What I wouldn't give or

Associates - Kitchen Person (hah geddit? actually 'easter' would be better here.

And THEN you go for the strummy singer songwriter... good call on The The above (though Perfect Day would be nicer than Uncertain Smile just there surely?). I'm never obvious though so I'd go for

2.3 All TIme Low

Or Patrick Fitzgerald - All Sewn Up

Now I hope nobody thinks I'm being to opinionated here but the next 15 tracks are....

― Alexander Blair, Saturday, 9 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Undertones 'Positive Touch' includes some of the least positive tunes ever recorded, esp. 'You're Welcome' (is that the right title?), girl-boy separated by prison sentence for 'terrorist' activities apparently. Very cheery.

― Snotty Moore, Saturday, 9 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You've got to have Talk Talk's "Such A Shame" from '84, a shiveringly regretful masterpiece but somehow as big a hit in Germany as anything by Modern Talking or Alphaville (*why* didn't it go Top 40 in the UK?). Quite miraculous in every way.

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 9 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the swans- god damn the sun

*oh yes*

― gabe, Sunday, 10 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

any late 70s melancholy comp *needs* Kraftwerk's Computer Love.

― rener, Monday, 11 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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Melancholy '77 - '84