most nihilistic song ever ?

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doesn't even have to be the ne plus ultra...

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 20 September 2002 19:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Las Ketchup - Asereje (The Ketchup Song)

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 20 September 2002 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

This is easy - "Hey Jude"

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 20 September 2002 19:30 (twenty-three years ago)

"I Don't Care About You" by Fear

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 September 2002 19:38 (twenty-three years ago)

"ain't talkin' 'bout love"

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 20 September 2002 19:38 (twenty-three years ago)

"Fistfucking Gods Planet"

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 20 September 2002 19:43 (twenty-three years ago)

"Bang on the Drum All Day" - Todd Rundgren

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 20 September 2002 19:49 (twenty-three years ago)

"Don't Worry, Be Happy" - Bobby McFerrin

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Friday, 20 September 2002 19:50 (twenty-three years ago)

either "black as lead and death" (mutiilation) or "life (is the only thing worth living for)" (flipper).

― your null fame (yournullfame), Friday, 20 September 2002 19:51 (twenty-three years ago)

'Gloomy Sunday'! Surely the only song banned by the BBC for fear that it would cause a suicide epidemic (the ban lasts to this day, apparently).

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Wait a minute; "Life" by Flipper is surely anti-nihilist, no?

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:10 (twenty-three years ago)

www.phespirit.info/gloomysunday/article_01.htm -

there's more to this than i thought....

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 20 September 2002 20:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Dinosaur Jr. - "Don't"

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Original "Gloomy Sunday" lyrics (translated of course):

It is autumn and the leaves are falling
All love has died on earth
The wind is weeping with sorrowful tears
My heart will never hope for a new spring again
My tears and my sorrows are all in vain
People are heartless, greedy and wicked...

Love has died!

The world has come to its end, hope has ceased to have a meaning
Cities are being wiped out
Meadows are coloured red with human blood
There are dead people on the streets everywhere
I will say another quiet prayer:
People are sinners, Lord, they make mistakes...

The world has ended!

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:34 (twenty-three years ago)

"Quand mon 6.35 me fait les yeux doux" by Serge Gainsbourg carries this disturbingly casual, almost innocent desire to let oneself be seduced at last by the seductive eye of the gun...

Gainsbourg sang a version of "Gloomy Sunday", by the way... "Je mourrai par un sombre dimanche ou j'aurai trop souffert, alors tu reviendras, mais je serai parti..."

I will die on a gloomy sunday when the pain will be too much to bear, then you will come back, but I will be gone...

I love that.

― Simon, Friday, 20 September 2002 21:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I love Gainsburgs "Gloomy Sunday" lyrics. Too bad the music itself was pretty crappy, I expected a lot better. But the Diamanda Galas version beats them all with those *huge* echoing vocals over that eerie minimalist piano. Scary! The dynamics of the track alone should drive most people up the curtains...

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 20 September 2002 21:47 (twenty-three years ago)

most of 'malediction and prayer' still leaves me speechless, and i've had it for about two years.

www.phespirit.info/gloomysunday/article_01.hmtl

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 20 September 2002 21:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown." Oddly, it's also the greatest song ever.

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― andy, Friday, 20 September 2002 23:12 (twenty-three years ago)

no-one has mentioned swans yet.

― simon 803 (simon 803), Friday, 20 September 2002 23:19 (twenty-three years ago)

"My Sweet Lord"

― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 21 September 2002 01:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Whater - Husker Du

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Saturday, 21 September 2002 02:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey Whater - there's a Fly in my Soup!

― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 21 September 2002 02:29 (twenty-three years ago)

no, "heavy metal kids" is rundgren's best nihilist anthem (thanks to the veiled altamont reference and the prophetic new york moments)

when i first heard "hey jude" i thought they were singing "hate you" so yeah, cool i thought, the beatles' first anti-love song

then i heard "gimme shelter"

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 21 September 2002 03:14 (twenty-three years ago)

no-one has mentioned swans yet.

Too grimly funny. True nihilism is probably found in something sugary sweet in sound but utterly blasted and empty in intent.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 21 September 2002 03:16 (twenty-three years ago)

fear, bFlag, flipper, junior,.. they're all nihilist bands in the first place so maybe they spread it a little thin, or maybe they just don't count

and ned's right, what did the swans have to offer other than feigned nihilism in the first place ?

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 21 September 2002 03:19 (twenty-three years ago)

"The Curse of Millhaven" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 21 September 2002 03:31 (twenty-three years ago)

why is the swans' nihilism feigned?

can anyone who intentionally presents their art to an audience be a nihilist?

anyway, "God Damn the Sun" is sooooo delicious.

― gabriel rodriguez-doerr (gabe), Saturday, 21 September 2002 04:48 (twenty-three years ago)

here's a claim to consider: no song with any 'structure' or 'meaning' can be nihilist, really. espousing or promoting nihilism in the lyrics is a copout as far as nihilists should be concerned!

― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 21 September 2002 05:16 (twenty-three years ago)

can anyone who intentionally presents their art to an audience be a nihilist?

yes -- in the case of the swans it was their m.o. for a period, at which point i decided not to bother with the swans anymore, so they may have gone through other periods, phases, but at the time of the emergence of the swans gestation had been at an all time low

they fitted the fashion outlook of the times -- bleak and brutal, too loud as if volume proved anything, and dressed up as the latest new york art discovery -- josh, nihilism can't exist in a vacuum, or can it ?

when will new yorkers of all americans realise that the rest of the world doesn't think art/music/commerce revolves around a city best exemplified to many by the tony sopranos from that other "suberb", way, way, way across the river ?

what better city to feign pretentions of some high art crossover from ? swans as commentary ? ironic ? symptomatic ? by accident ? to me the swans were one of the biggest indie/art cons, having virtually nothing to say musically -- why not just write a book of poetry, i mean "published in new york" stands a chance doesn't it ?

there are so many people from so many countries who all say the same thing: "i love travel, but i'd never want to live in america, even as a tourist" -- sure the swans had something to say, but the message was domestic

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 21 September 2002 05:22 (twenty-three years ago)

well it all depends how committed you are to it, george. if it even makes sense to be committed to nihilism haha.

― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 21 September 2002 05:37 (twenty-three years ago)

theory: there aren't any nihilistic songs because if you're really nihilistic, you don't even bother to write a song.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 21 September 2002 06:16 (twenty-three years ago)

evangelical nihilism?

― gabriel rodriguez-doerr (gabe), Saturday, 21 September 2002 06:44 (twenty-three years ago)

So how about "4 Minutes 33 Seconds"?

― Enid Roach (Enid Roach), Saturday, 21 September 2002 06:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Wait a minute; "Life" by Flipper is surely anti-nihilist, no?

not the way i read it; it kind of sounds like a sick joke, coming from a bunch of junkies.

also forgot the electric eels. can't think of a specific song, but their sound...

― your null fame (yournullfame), Saturday, 21 September 2002 06:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Every Day Is Like Sunday

― Underclocked, Saturday, 21 September 2002 07:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Underclocked that's a beautiful love song.

― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 21 September 2002 07:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Wedlock - I'm the Fuck You Man (one of yours, no? Tom)

― nick.K (nick.K), Saturday, 21 September 2002 08:22 (twenty-three years ago)

"Don't need religion, don't need no friends/ Got all I want, I don't need to pretend/ Don't try and reach me cuz I'll tear up your mind/ I've seen the future and I left it all behind" - 'Supernaut'

― dave q, Saturday, 21 September 2002 08:24 (twenty-three years ago)

'Two Seconds Till Non-Existence' - No Trend.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Saturday, 21 September 2002 10:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Jeff Mills' The Hacker. I'm tempted to suggest that anything over 155 bpm is nihilistic but it's more likely that I'm not tuned in to the subtlties and there are too many exceptions. I think we need a clearer definition of nihilism.

― nick.K (nick.K), Saturday, 21 September 2002 11:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Myth (To Everyone Like Me And You) by depressed poets

― meg, Sunday, 22 September 2002 02:37 (twenty-three years ago)

nausenblauten's "cocksucker".

i think nick is right about 155 bpm. it's a death trip, one way or another.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 22 September 2002 02:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom, I heard it as a song about living in such a dismal town that the narrator longs for Armageddon to relieve her boredom and put her and the town out of their misery. Am I being too literal?

― Underclocked, Sunday, 22 September 2002 03:30 (twenty-three years ago)

"Flash Light"...Surely even a nihilist believes in The Funk.

― A.V. Alexandre (Keiko), Sunday, 22 September 2002 05:39 (twenty-three years ago)

"Throw Away The Trash" by Kids Of Whidney High

― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 22 September 2002 05:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Gobbing On Life by Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias -

"'Cos living is a cliche, it's all been done before
Death is the only thing we've got left to live for...."

Of course it is entirely possible that they may not have been 100% serious....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 22 September 2002 09:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Ghetto Boys "Mind of a Luntatic"

― Lynskey, Sunday, 22 September 2002 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Big Black, "Tiny King Of The Jews"

― Ian, Monday, 23 September 2002 01:22 (twenty-three years ago)

"We are Nihilists!!!"

"Ja, we believe in nothing!!!"

I can't believe no one's mentioned Autobahn yet.

― hstencil, Monday, 23 September 2002 01:35 (twenty-three years ago)

"final days" by the stones (the dunedin stones, not the rolling ones)

― cameron, Monday, 23 September 2002 14:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Autobahn!?!

Kraftwerk are on the autobahn and are having fun fun fun because of how brilliant the autobahn is.

unless i've always had it totally wrong, there's absolutely nothing ironic about kraftwerk - they think that trains, neon lights, pocket calculators and nuclear power are things of beauty and reasons for joy.

next you'll be telling me that jonathan richman is 'dealing with' the issue of diesel emissions...

― adam b (adam b), Monday, 23 September 2002 14:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Obviously you've never seen The Big Lebowski.

― hstencil, Monday, 23 September 2002 14:50 (twenty-three years ago)

oh.

i kinda missed the first part of your post which suggests you might not be entirely serious - too busy spluttering in outrage.

er, have seen the big lebowski, but still don't really know what you're talking about - bad memory.
does it go on aobut Kraftwerk?

― adam b (adam b), Monday, 23 September 2002 15:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Autobahn concerns a major plot point, so I'll just say you'll have to see it and see what I'm talking about, esp. concerning "nihilism."

"Fucking Germans, nothing changes."

― hstencil, Monday, 23 September 2002 15:40 (twenty-three years ago)

"Autobahn concerns a major plot point"

DOESIT!?! I'm intruiged now - i don't remember anything at all about that and it's the sort of thing i might have noticed - not too many films hinge on Kraftwerk songs.

must pay more attention.

― adam b (adam b), Monday, 23 September 2002 15:54 (twenty-three years ago)

No, it's not the Kraftwerk song. Autobahn is a "band" in the movie. Never mind...

― hstencil, Monday, 23 September 2002 15:59 (twenty-three years ago)

aah, it's sort of coming back to me now.....

― adam b (adam b), Monday, 23 September 2002 16:07 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, the evidence is their on the record cover, but the whole project had such wise political resonance anyway

― george gosset (gegoss), Monday, 23 September 2002 17:59 (twenty-three years ago)

damn, must watch that movie now!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 23 September 2002 18:04 (twenty-three years ago)

"Waiting For Tonight" by J. Lo.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 23 September 2002 18:18 (twenty-three years ago)

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