So this morning I was pondering what I would be thinking were I a GOP voter. You see, as between Obama and Hillary, I'm an Obama guy, meaning last night wasn't awesome. However, it occured to me fairly quickly that the stakes are far less significant for our side than it is for theirs. Many GOP voters literally cannot vote for one or more of the frontrunners. Anyway, I started to wonder what I would be thinking were I a GOP voter, and my GOP self became quite depressed. And once my depressed alter ego started to think about music, the subject of most depressing song of all time came to mind. So have at it, with my takes below.
Honorable mention goes to "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" by Bob Dylan. It's not the most depressing song of all time, but it does have what is, for me, the most depressing verse of all time. Stuff gets unimaginably worse with each double line:
People on the platform
Waiting for a train
I can hear their hearts a-beatin'
Like pendulums swingin' on chains
When you think that you've lost everything
You find out you can always lose a little more
I'm just going down the road feeling bad
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door
I mean, my achin' ass. Life is tedium. Life is short, tick tick tick. Things can always get worse, oh and by the way, heaven is full. But other than that, things are peachy. How's by you?;)
Other biggies: we've just finished the holiday season, and there's no depression like Joanie Mitchell's "River" depression. Joanie's got a lot of potential candidates, but for me, this one has always been the king of depressing Mitchell songs. I've always found Johnny Cash's "Sunday Morning Coming Down" unimaginably sad, for the same reason most of Lyle Lovett's "Pontiac" album is a downer (though very good). And despite its ubeat music, "Freefour" by Pink Floyd has to be one of the darkest offerings in an already dank (ha!) discography.
Of course, none of these are love songs per se, and love songs have to be the primary culprit of the goddamn depressing song. I haven't been single since 1994, so I'll leave you to add your nominees. However, Warren Zevon's "Nobody's In Love This Year" deserves mention, imho.
You can't make a list of depressing songs without talking about socially conscious work. The "Strange Fruit"/"Biko"/"Streets of Philadelphia" offerings have a depressing side all their own. When you're in the mood for intimate sadness, they don't do the trick, but every once in a while you're in traffic and you start singing along to one of these, and they hit their mark.
We'd all have different answers tomorrow, but today, what's yours?