Comic Relief on Serious Albums

From the "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" thread:

there's all this heartbreaking, fairly emotionally direct material and then oh hey here's a song I wrote while flipping through a deck of cards

― max buzzword (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, February 10, 2012 7:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's kind of what I love about it! Sort of leavens the proceedings, or it's almost like he's distracting himself from everything he's going through by losing himself in this charming little yarn.

― Doctor Casino, Friday, February 10, 2012 10:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thinking also of:
"Pigs, Sheep, and Wolves" on Paul Simon's You're The One
"The Captain" on Leonard Cohen's Various Positions
Maybe "Mother" on Synchronicity
Maybe "Pink Cadillac", if it had made it onto Born in the U.S.A.

All are blatantly storytelling songs on albums that are otherwise more personal/confessional. Others?

Original "Nebraska"-version "Pink Cadillac" predictably downbeat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZ1WO-0YME

Neat, hadn't heard that before.

Johnny Cash's "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" (American Recordings) fits on this list, too.

American Music Club - Crabwalk (from Everclear)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIeEmoMd3Vo

"Spaced Cowboy" on There's A Riot Goin' On (still a pretty dark song, though, which is only fitting)

"Tourette's," In Utero. Like Riot and a lot of great "difficult" albums, however, there are little bits of black humor peeking out of the mire here and there throughout the record.

The Who has a bunch of these:

- "Tommy's Holiday Camp" on Tommy
- "My Wife" on Who's Next
- "Bell Boy" on Quadrophenia
- "Success Story" on The Who By Numbers

Who Are You is pretty po-faced, and on A Quick One and The Who Sell Out the "serious" numbers provide relief from the wackiness.