Songs of self pity

[Flyingcursor]

The Sarah McLachlan thread got me thinking about all the songs, popular or otherwise, expressing self-pity. I never liked them too well.

I'm talking about the songs that take themselves serious. Unlike classic country songs such as "She got the gold mine, I got the shaft". Self-pity yes but supposed to be funny.

The first one that comes to mind is a stomach-turning ditty from the '70s by Janis Jan called "At Seventeen".

Here's a sample:

The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth.


Another one, "Alone Again, Naturally". Gilbert O'Sullivan.

More?

[emmline]

The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth.

gaggaggag...thanks Fly. It's in my head now.

[buddhu]

Nooo...

You can't just write off the blues like that...

[jbarter]

I think the Beatles' Yesterday might slip into this category.

[missy]

I'm talking about the songs that take themselves serious. Unlike classic country songs

well, ok, then I won't bring up:

"You've done stomped on my heart,
And you mashed that sucker flat....."

[SteveK]

Everything Happens to Me. It actually has a nice melody. To be fair, the song may come from a 1938 comedy movie of the same name.

Writer(s): dennis/adair

I make a date for golf -
You can bet you life it rains.
I try to give a party -
And the guy upstairs complains.
I guess Ill go thru life;
Just catchin colds and missin trains,
Evrything happens to me.

[Flyingcursor]

Nooo...

You can't just write off the blues like that...

Well...I don't count the blues. I can see where this might backfire.

How 'bout them Tigers?

[emmline]

There's a Ringo Starr song, and it's just not coming to mind...what is it...what is it?

Act Naturally. That's it.

[fearfaoin]

Tori Amos has some self-pity in her music, but she tempers it with a
healthy dose of wrath.

• He said you're really an ugly
  But I like the way you play
  And I died...
  But I thanked him
  Can you believe that?
  ...
  I wanna smash the faces of those beautiful boys
  Those christian boys
  So you can make me ***
  That doesn't make you Jesus
  
  etc.

[Innocent Bystander]

Wasn't "Act Naturally" a Country & Western song before Ringo did it?

I'm partial to "Yesterday" (I can play it!) so I'd rather not include it in the Self-pitiful category.

But pretty nearly anything by Leonard Cohen.

Pretty nearly anything by the Smiths. (Okay, okay, anything that I happened to hear.)

Before I learned that "Sylvia's Mother" (or whatever it's called) was a mickey-take to start with, I thought it was excrutiating. But now I'm in the know, I like it.

If you were to include "poetry" (in the widest sense) there is an entire cyberspace universe full of self-pitying "why me?" poetry.

But there you go. There are so many songs with emotional strings attached, that's one reason why I like jigs, reels, slipjigs and hornpipes. Oh, and waltzes and polkas. And anything by O'Carolan that I haven't got words for.

[emmline]

Before I learned that "Sylvia's Mother" (or whatever it's called) was a mickey-take to start with, I thought it was excrutiating. But now I'm in the know, I like it.

Which reminds me of that Brooklyn Bridge song:
Girl...they say you're getting married, say you're getting married,
this time you're really sure. And this is the end...

[fearfaoin]

Ooo, the ultimate self-pity song: The Police's Can't Stand Losing

• I guess you'd call it suicide,
  but I'm too full to swallow my pride.
  I can't stand losing you.

[Congratulations]

Why's everybody always pickin' on me?

[Flyingcursor]

Buck Owens recorded "Act Naturally" in 1963. The Beatles in 1965.

What is a "mickey-take"????

[chas]

The first one that comes to mind is a stomach-turning ditty from the '70s by Janis Jan called "At Seventeen".

Oh, geez, that one really only touches the tip of the iceberg where Janis Ian is concerned. Another song on that album is "Pass the tea and sympathy."

She's very interesting. She had her first hit when she was 15, "Society's Child," which was banned from many radio stations in the South. One DJ was shot for playing it. It's about a white girl in high school who's dating a black guy. Within a few years, she checked into a mental hospital for some time (I think over a year). She was away from recording for about 4 years. Her first album back, Stars, is wonderful, and really had her first inward-looking songs. As you might expect, it was very dark. The title song chorus:

Stars, they come and go, they come fast or slow
And we go like the last light of the sun
All in a blaze
And all you see is glory

That album also had Jessie, with which Roberta Flack had a hit. It had lines in it like

Jessie come home, there's a hole in the bed where we slept
and it's growing cold

Then came Between the lines, the one with At Seventeen on it. This was her "comeback album" at the ripe old age of about 25. The followup, Aftertones, was probably the darkest of her albums, at least musically, and had some true wrist-slitters on it. After that she pepped up and went largely electric and I lost interest.

If you like depressing music those three Janis Ian albums should be right at the top of your list.