fifteen sad songs for august

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15. goodbye july - margo guryan
14. you're no good - betty everett
13. summer nights - marianne faithful
12. over you - roxy music
11. just a friend - biz markie
10. there stands the glass - wanda jackson
9. do nothing - the specials
8. broken hearts for you and me - trio
7. too bad on your birthday- joan jett
6. shivers - the boys next door
5. he stopped loving her today - george jones
4. there but for the grace of god go i - machine
3. waterfalls - tlc
2. here I am, here I always am - captain beefheart
1. midnight cowboy theme - john barry

― fritz, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No Gloomy Sunday?

― Siegbran Hetteson, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

wow, i only know the tlc and john barry ones!

― gareth, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Certainly can't go wrong with Margo Guryan

― mms, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

what, no "up the junction" ?

― mike (ro)bott, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

gareth, if nothing else you should try to hear "there but for the grace of god"...it's a stomping 1980-ish disco track, with really dark lyrics about a girl fleeing the suburbs and falling into the urban abyss. I know I've big-upped this track on ILM before, but it's just such a gem.

and yeah, that disc of demos by margo guryan is just blowing me away lately. perfect august music.

― fritz, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Machine to George Jones-what a segue!

I've never heard that Wanda Jackson song, what's it like?

― Arthur, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hey arthur! "there stands the glass" is from her full-on country period, it's not a rockabilly number. It's a dramatic ballad about the first drink of the day... it's a bit of a standard, covered by everybody from merle haggard to jon spencer to ted hawkins, but I like Wanda's version best.

"up the junction" fits perfectly too. thanks, Mike.

― fritz, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

home is where the hatred is - esther phillips so long, babe - nancy sinatra sunshine and grease - royal trux (not sad, exactly, but a wistful & essential summer tune)

― lauren, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the second half of august kinda brings on the slow songs doesn't it? I like every song that you all have added (don't recall that trux one, though...) and I want to add Beat Happening's 'Indian Summer'. I know I know I've lost whatever shred of credibility i had by saying so, but that song is really perfect.

― fritz, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

s&g is on pound for pound:"you're just a summer love, but i'll remember you when winter comes...

― lauren, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Zombies - Beechwood Park.

― dasda, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Pogues - "Thousands are Sailing"

would fit it nicely if we scuttled "Waterfalls" off to the trash compactor

*dodges flying vegetables*

― John Darnielle, Thursday, 15 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

what's wrong with waterfalls, john? (ok the rap isn't that great, but the rest of it is)

― fritz, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

and "summer in siam" is a way better pogues song for this too so la dee da ;)

― fritz, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

oh you know me Fritz I am a lyrics fascist - that chorus is completely unlistenable for me regardless of its melodic charms - how such a half-formed thought doesn't get revised into something less eighth-grade is beyond me. And the "y'all don't hear me" at the end of the HIV verse just grates at me something fierce.

I rather like Left-Eye's rap, actually ;)

― John Darnielle, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and lakes that
You're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way
Or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast

WOT? I think that's a great chorus! But then I'm a sentimentality fascist. And if you can't take a little 8th grade-ism in lyrics, you might as well toss out half of the beatles', beach boys' and neil young's catalogues too.

so, in honour of mr. darnielle, i'm going to have to add the All Saints' "Never Ever" to this list for its blissfully fractured syntax and for saying "a to zee" and "a to zed" in the same song. not to mention the melodic charms.

― fritz, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

tossing half the beatles, etc. sounds about right

― ron (ron), Sunday, 18 August 2002 05:43 (twenty-four years ago)

i missed you fritz!

― geeta, Sunday, 18 August 2002 08:56 (twenty-four years ago)

thanks, geeta!

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Sunday, 18 August 2002 13:48 (twenty-four years ago)

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