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Secretly sad songs...

Bryan Burnett | 20:00 UK time, Tuesday, 15 February 2011

I hope we've come up with a theme for Wednesday which will provide a challenge and give you something to get your teeth into. It's 'sad songs that actually sound happy and happy songs that sound a wee bit sad'. I saw Raul Malo in concert a few weeks ago and was struck by how many of his sad songs sounded cheery and upbeat. Dance The Night Away is a good example. There are other songs that fit the bill like Here Comes My Baby or even Road To Nowhere.
Sad sounding songs that are secretly happy could be more of a challenge, but as I say this is a theme designed to make us all get the thinking caps on...

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I posted about this recently. The idea came about through listening to the song 'Iceberg' by 10CC...a really jaunty jolly tune with really quite dark lyrics.
    Having been really into punk and new wave in my formative years, it took a wee while to rediscover how very clever and inventive 10CC were.

    'Iceberg' - 10CC

  • Comment number 2.

    Secretly Happy:

    Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Gome

    Secretly Sad:

    Bruce Springsteen - Bobby Jean

  • Comment number 3.

    WEDNESDAY


    Sounds upbeat, but a sad subject. Something for all of us to look forward to. If we live that long...


    'Old Folks Boogie' - Little Feat



    The guys do their best to make this song sound sad, but they're enjoying themselves too much. And it is very funny!


    'It's Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long'





  • Comment number 4.


    DC,

    So, your roof is leaking?

  • Comment number 5.

    Meat Purveyors ~ Hey Little



  • Comment number 6.

    The Happening - The Supremes

    amazingly happy pop tune, the funk brothers at their best, and you'd have thought 'The Happening' was a happy happening -but a really unhappy dark lyric.Suicidal, almost.

    #1 total agreement, Julie. I first saw 10CC in the Apollo in 1974 when Sheet Music came out - totally blown away by the musicianship (Eric Stewart must be our greatest unsung guitarist heros) and hilarious Jewish humour.Sheet Music remains one of the best albums ever made imho.

    By the way, I've been petitioning to have something from Plastic Beach played for the last year - my album of 2010 - and today put the case once more. Pleased to hear Melancholy Hill, but yet again, no acknowledgment

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 7.

    'you can go your own way'....fleetwood mac (is back,were nivver away, hooray)

    comes under the category............sounds happy but is quite sad really



    cheers frae the dale.

  • Comment number 8.

    another 'appy little ditty but sooooooo sad.

    'you were right'...............badly drawn boy

    is worth it just to hear him 'turn madonna down'


    cheers frae the dale

  • Comment number 9.

    Some miserable sounding songs are actually quite reassuring and life-affirming. They don't necessarily translate into happy. Happy is overrated. Reassuring suits me better.
    Carole King You've Got A Friend
    REM Everybody Hurts

  • Comment number 10.

    A Brighter Beat - Malcolm Middleton

    Now you've gone and left me and there's nothing here

    Thairis air a' Ghleann - Runrig - achingly sad melody, uplifting lyrics

    I looked behind me
    Without rancour without pity
    To where my footprints were scattered
    On their journey through the dust
    From the beginning to an end of time
    And to the bright everlasting days
    Beyond the valley

    We will praise
    The love and the grace
    That gave us our existence
    So lowly beneath a sun
    As it poured out its light
    On alien stars

    You came down
    To a barren wilderness
    And you raised the shadow from the valley
    Gratitude and shame
    The measure in each hand
    We will proclaim your name in voice
    On Gods way

  • Comment number 11.

    Happy ... yet sad?

    'Beautiful World' ... Devo
    Disco beat disguises apocolyptic thoughts


    Sad ... yet happy?

    'Because We're Dead' ... The Slow Club
    Anything but!

  • Comment number 12.

    Anyway Bryan you would be sad too if Tricia Yearwood chucked you.

    Which reminds me

    Trishia Yearwood - believe me baby I lied

  • Comment number 13.

    #4 nope


    Jeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzz.........


    A boat is a vessel which may or may not have a "roof" (as you put it). If it doesn't, there's no roof to leak so you are wrong. If there is a facility to go below decks, there has to be a means of getting there. Now that means that rain can collect in that area and thence overflow into the cockpit drains. Now such drains do not flow directly into the sea because that could mean that, in turn, the sea could flow into the boat (ie the boat will leak). To avoid this, the drains flow into the bilge where the water can be collected for removal by pump in a controlled manner.


    And so you have been telt




    Again


    DC

  • Comment number 14.

    Wednesday:

    New Faces - The Rolling Stones

    A sad story about someone who is intensely worried that his girl fancies somebody else. It is sung in a jaunty manner with no fewer than three accoustic guitars, each expertly played.

    Get It On Bryan.



    DC

  • Comment number 15.

    But you're more likely to play

    When I'm dead and gone - McGuinness Flint


    but I'll leave it up to you









    (as though I have a choice...)


    :-)

    DC

  • Comment number 16.

    #5

    a dead cert ... If ever there was a competition to find the winner of the most certain certainty in certainville!
    ... that'll be the kiss of death then old son ...

  • Comment number 17.

    Bryan, if you're doing 'Here Comes My Baby - The Tremeloes' there is a a recent remaster of the original hideous mix in which the bass level is totally out of kilter with the rest of the recording.

    It's worth a listen as it actually improves on an absolute pop classic,

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 18.

    Happy to second Believe me baby I lied (#12)

    Slow me down - Aberfeldy
    The one that got away - Allison Moorer
    Livin' on a prayer - Bon Jovi
    Substitute - the Who
    Dreaming of you - the Coral
    Misguided angel - Cowboy Junkies
    Little bird - Emmylou Harris
    Little does she know - Kursaal Flyers
    Relator - Yorn/Johansonn
    Since you been gone - Rainbow
    Stay - Sugarland

    Joe
    Linlithgow

  • Comment number 19.

    Sad songs that sound happy ?How about Country Joe and the Fish's infamous antiwar anthem "Feel like I'm fixing to Die,Rag".In the Woodstock film there was even a little"tempo ball" over the words inviting us to sing along to the happy refrain"Hooray, we're all going to die!"I saw them at Isle of Wight in 1970 when they preceded the song with notorious(1970, remember)"Fish Cheer"where Joe would spell out the word fish beginning with of course "Give me an F"and so on but the audience had other ideas and soon it became another "F"word!Now, Joni Mitchell..love her but "Big Yellow Taxi"drives me nuts it annoys me so much.There she is yodeling away about "You dont know what you got till it's gone"(the planet ,that is)and even ending with a giggle!I love the Mamas and the Papas cover of Rodgers and Hart's paradoxically titled "Glad to be Unhappy"No explanation needed here.Could we have Country Joe please Bryan?..All together now,"Give me an F"!!Cheers,Willie Bartke
    Tempo Ball...mmm,now where have I heard that before! ;0)

  • Comment number 20.

    #1,#6.10CC are coming to Glasgow on 5th March,Julie and Henri.I was at the Apollo ,probably Greens then too ,Henri.Brilliant band that they were I think they suffered a bit (imho)from not having much stage charisma and no front man really.One of UK's best groups ever just the same.Will definitely be checking out that March gig.Funny, Henri, I was going to suggest the Supremes"The Happening"too! Cheers(but no fish)!Willie Bartke

  • Comment number 21.

    Sounds Happy but sad

    There's a ghost in my house / R Dean Taylor
    Harvest for the world / Isley Brothers
    Love Lies Bleeding / Elton John
    Dancing The Night Away / Motors
    Your Favourite Shade of Blue / Adventures
    In Your Letter / Reo Speedwagon


    Sounds sad but happy


    After all these years / Journey
    Celebration of a life together

  • Comment number 22.

    #18 seconds for Relator and # 19 for Country Joe.

    He Didn't Have to Be - Brad Paisley (thanks to SG)

    never fails to raise a tear, it's probably the happiest song I know

  • Comment number 23.

    Happy lyrics to a sad tune:

    Wonder if we might get a Chris Wood track tonight Bryan, now that some more of the world has heard of him with his double-success in the recent 'Folk Awards' (one for Best Folk Singer Of The Year).

    'Summerfield Avenue' is a collection of happy childhood memories, deliverd in Chris Woods typical understated and refective style.

    Got tickets to see the man himself in Shrewsbury next month... can't wait!

  • Comment number 24.

    Changed my mind


    Free Four - Pink Floyd.

    A short, very cheery little song about old age and impending death. Just the thing to get folk's feet tapping.

    In fact, I like this song so much, I have it for my ringtone.......


    Have a happy day


    :-)


    DC

  • Comment number 25.

    #19 No fishin' chance!

  • Comment number 26.

    Am I the only one who will be having a "Fish cheer"if they play Scissor Sisters "Comfortably Numb"?:0)Willi Bartke

  • Comment number 27.

    - Frankie Miller

    and we won't be having that one either.

    #26 DC will join you, with a lobster or two to chuck at the radio

  • Comment number 28.

    Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Blues - David Lindley

    a tragic little tale to a jolly tune

  • Comment number 29.

    #26 / #27 the radio will be used for bait

    DC

  • Comment number 30.

    Previously on the Blog....

    EC in the North Sea - forget Yosemite Sam, should read Gattuso.

  • Comment number 31.


    "Dont Worry, Be Happy" - a happy tune but it makes me so depressed whenever I hear it. I wonder why?


    Here's a little song I wrote
    It might make you wanna boak

  • Comment number 32.

    How many of last night's songs were actually by artists who have been depicted in cartoon form?

  • Comment number 33.

    'Breaking Up Is Hard To Do' - Neil Sedaka. Think he did a slow version but the original was quite jaunty.

  • Comment number 34.

    #33

    Surprised you didnt ask for the DC version, Julie.

  • Comment number 35.

    Sally Don't You Grieve - Woody Guthrie
    Grown So Ugly - Captain Beefheart

  • Comment number 36.

    #34

    This DC, of course



    Though, Oor DC has a sleeveless cardigan very much like that one.

  • Comment number 37.


    This one is a shoo-in.

    Still Gonna Die - Old Dogs

    A bunch of grown men having a ball pointing out the inevitability of death.
    You can laugh or you can cry. But you're still gonna die!

    ;o)

  • Comment number 38.


    #36 - Adam - You owe me a lunch. I just lost mine.

    ;o)

  • Comment number 39.

    #36 You mean the one you left last time you were here? Ah, I wondered who owned that 70s item

    DC

  • Comment number 40.

    #31 if you're happy and you know it clap your hands has the same depressing effect on me.

  • Comment number 41.


    Stamp your feet.

  • Comment number 42.

    TEAR STAINED LETTER from HAND OF KINDNESS by RICHARD THOMPSON

    THE ANGELS TOOK MY RACEHORSE AWAY from HENRY THE HUMAN FLY by RICHARD THOMPSON

    I’M GLAD from SAFE AS MILK by CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND

    DON’T SING NO MORE SAD SONGS from ODD DITTIES by KEVIN AYERS

  • Comment number 43.

    #30 Maybe EC is Rank Bajin?

  • Comment number 44.

    #42

    Here's a version of a great song

  • Comment number 45.

    Take Good Care Of My Baby - Bobby Vee

    jaunty little number, but heard in a particular way, quite sad

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 46.


    #42 - #44 - I didn't know that was one of his! Support for Tear Stained Letter

    :o)

  • Comment number 47.

    Dancing by Myself - Generation X
    Crossroads - Cream
    Born Under a Bad Sign - Albert King

  • Comment number 48.

    #43 ah, you've met him?

    DC

  • Comment number 49.

    Previously on the Blog.....

    #128 - Nothing new there Gaie. On Wild Men night we had Ozzy Ozbourne (Crazy Train) in the first hour and Black Sabbath (Paranoid) in the second.
    /programmes/b00xnkrc

  • Comment number 50.

    #39
    In which case send it waast by to Senga.

  • Comment number 51.

    #49 Och well, maybe they'll make up for it tomorrow when we have blues night. That's what they mean by musicians who sing about their own genre? You don't hear people singing 'I got the folk song/heavy metal/trance/indie/techno/punk/dubstep for you' do you?
    Sorted.

  • Comment number 52.

    and in any case

    We're All Going to Die - Malcolm Middleton

  • Comment number 53.

    #50 too late, I chucked it out a couple of years ago because it was beginning tae ferment

    DC

  • Comment number 54.

    #46 Someone else does it?

  • Comment number 55.

    Almost forgot - another Holland - Dozier - Holland classic:

    Band of Gold - Freda Payne

    comes complete with the completely common sense advice not to consummate your marriage - much less expensive

    regardez youse

    henri

  • Comment number 56.

    Squeeze - up the junction

    James - sit down

  • Comment number 57.

    A very sad tale of a ordinary bloke going about his daily business who falls in love, gets mixed up in a love triangle and is slain by his love rival. All sung in a most jolly manner.

    Ernie / benny Hill


    Or even better
    Bryan / blogetariat.

    Has noone recorded it yet?

  • Comment number 58.


    Glen, further to your comparison of Bruce's "Working on a Dream" and Teddy Thomson's "In My Arms"...

    Whatabout Ron Sexsmith's "Believe It When I See It" and Bruce's "Girls in their Summer Clothes"?

  • Comment number 59.

    I believe it's being reissued as a covers album under the title Play Jar Eyes

  • Comment number 60.

    You are worrying about Bruce copying others songs at a time like this - inflation up, unemployment up, our hero mariner manning the pumps and we don't even know if Handley has had a second date?!!!

  • Comment number 61.

    He's seeing her again - she deliberately left her pension book

  • Comment number 62.

    Strange. There were several sad tune/happy lyrics suggestions here on the blog that were ignored in spite of requests for same.

  • Comment number 63.

    So nothing new then



    Bilges cleared btw

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