If your happy your betting on the wrong horse,it never lasts and if I see you in the street, prancing around, all wide eyed, praising the day – man alive, you better believe I will gather a crowd to throw shit at you. The way forward is sadness followed by sporadic bursts of euphoria, anything that good happens will just be cream on the bitter cracker that is your terrible terrible life. This isn’t quoting My Chemical Romance lyrics through the medium of facebook statuses sadness either, I don’t know what that is, modern language has no name for that. I am talking about that kind of sadness where Film Four make post humous biopics about you. That’s my sadness there, if I had to pick a sadness I’d pick that one, then I would go live in the forest like Grizzly Adams and collect rifles. Subsequently I would never want to trivialize the rare moments of illumination in the life of the tortured artist or the tragic genius, but here’s an arbitrary list based on personal preference . ZING
1) Sparklehorse – It’s A Wonderful Life
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There’s an old couple who live next door to me, they are hitting the seventies, and the husband is a little bit racist but I imagine this just plays on continuous loop in their house like an Weathers Original advert whilst they move in slow motion. Not the bedroom though, that’s Pretty Ricky slow jamz hour.
2) Elliot Smith – Say Yes
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Elliot Smith’s remembered for his breathy little fragments of melancholy, drawing you into his own perturbed world where he soundtracks Wes Anderson movies and does superhuman amounts of coke. However I will always remember him for this little song which is also like a quaint little indie comedy, but this one has Michael Cera in it.
3)Joy Division/New Order – Ceremony
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I would write a paragraph about their contribution to music, but don’t worry the NME’s on it. It’s like their Princess Di.
4)Nick Drake – Northern Sky
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This is my Grizzly Adams Jam, this is what I will be spinning when I am with my bears in the woods. Sipping Hennessey, fishing Salmon, being all self reflective and sheet, until one of them accidentally kills me.
5) The Smiths – Ask
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I don’t want to perpetuate the media myth that all Smiths songs are about rampant homsexual activity, but this one’s about bumming.
6) Jesu – Silver
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When I was young, Justin Broadrick punched me in the face with the godless abomination that was Grindcore and Industrial Metal (Napalm Death & Godflesh), it left me an aggy little teen with a bad case of being a badass/no social skills, he came back to apologize with Jesu. I don’t hate you Justin just promise to take care when you cross the road, I don’t think I could take it.
7) ODB – BROOKLYN ZOO
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Technically, this isn’t a sad song, by a sad person, but I made a promise to an old man on his deathbed, that I would put ODB on every list I ever make, even shopping lists. Although to be fair, when he could articulate words, and wasn’t using them to discuss the conspiracy by George Bush to kill him, he was a fractured genius. Here’s him failing to be sober for the one day or so it took to film this.
The Smashing Pumpkins – Drown
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Billy Corgan looks like Gerard Way. Discuss.
This entry was tagged as elliot smith, jesu, joy division, new order, nick drake, odb, sparklehorse, the smashing pumpkins, the smiths.
