When I writing the post about Nirvana and Pearl Jam I posted a song by Husker Du. I don't wanna know if you are lonely. This song comes off the album Candy Apple Grey. Which was an album I hunted down for years. No one ever seemed to stock it. I eventually found it by chance in a Record/ CD store in Hamburg.
it is not an album you would put on to get a party started. Frankly, it is an album you put on when you didn't get invited to a party, ever.
I was then thinking about the darkest corners of music. Those moments when an artist is seemingly on a spiral downwards and there isn't anger or frustration, but a sense of hopelessness, and no light to reflect upon things properly. Some people have actually managed to get this across. Husker Du were one of them. There is a song on the Candy Apple grey album called Too Far Down.
You have to go to 4.34 on the time to hear it. It is a real baring of the soul. it is not a happy place. But that is the point of the post. Candy Apple Grey is by far the darkest of Husker Du's albums. I would really recommend them if you are looking for something quite different. Start with a best of, Warehouse: Songs and Stories is good.
Now this wouldn't be a complete post if I didn't talk about Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Ian Curtis killed himself just as the band he was in was about to tour the US and release their second full album. Urban legend has it that the creepy warehouse which is shown in the video for Love will tear us Apart , is where he hanged himself, but that isn't true. he hanged himself in his kitchen. I think the film clip gets the sense of loss across reasonably well though. it is their most famous song, because it is their best
I could go on for ages about the whole thing. It is made a lot more potent by the fact he actually did top himself. New Order were formed after his suicide and a lot of people have decided that this is a massive downturn. i am not so sure. i really like New Order, they never were able to get to the depths of despair, but then they didn't have a suicidal lead singer any more.
One band that very unfairly got pigeonholed into the whole grunge thing was Alice in Chains. AIC were more metal than grunge. They were originally headed up by lead singer Layne Staley. The produced some pretty powerful music, especially on their first two albums. Dirt was the one that was their first worldwide album. On that album you had the song, Down in a Hole.
I put the version of lyrics up there because you start to see what he was getting across. The next album they released was Jar of Files and that has a lot more of the same sort of stuff. it opens with Rotten apple
Layne was not a very well person. He had massive problems with addiction and self loathing his entire short life. He died of an overdose , and years of substance abuse, in 2002. His body wasn't found for two weeks after he died because no one went to visit him very often. It is hard to understand and there is that bit of us all that hope that doesn't happen to us.
We are left with some great songs that we can put on and marvel at how good they are. The actual pain these guys had to suffer to get to this point is somewhat frightening really.
So, here is a song sung by a guy who died of old age and was written by a guy who is still with us. This is Hurt , sung by Johnny Cash and written by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor.
That isn't actually the original video, but it is damn good. Does the fact that neither of them actually died by their own hand make the song any less poignant? No , not at all. it is a different dark corner. But still very dark. Johnny gave it a completely different lease of life, in his own way he brought the song to the mainstream, which it would not have ever been if he hadn't dragged it there.
The last song I want to talk about is Millers Angels off of the Recovering the Satellites album by the Counting Crows. This is an extremely melancholy album. The song itself just sort of tapers off into nothing. It is hard to work out the song really. I am not going to pretend i fully understand it all. But there is no doubt the last verse is of a person sinking down into the abyss. I like the Counting Crows. i know I am in the minority , but that's ok.
I have left off The Cure, The Mission, Radiohead and all of the angry songs by everyone against the world. There are songs by Death, he died of a brain tumor, that are horribly dark - really. Slipknot have also done a lot of self loathing. but these are not for this post.
A quick word on depression etc. If you have it, get help and listen to some music you really really like. Even if it is these songs. you're not the only one.
Lou Reed's Berlin is a pretty 'downer' album, although it's a story told in the third person.
ReplyDeleteI do have to mention The Cure even if you didn't. A dark album like Pornography or a bleak album like Faith rival anything by Joy Division for top comedy album awards.
I've dealt with depression since I was a teen and I've always, ironically, found comfort and solace in music like this. I wonder why. But when I was in my late teens and early 20s, The Cure and the more extreme lyrical content of The Smiths were among my favorite music to listen to. As well as Joy Division and a number of those darkwave bands on 4AD.
Finding beauty in despair.
I didn't mention the Cure in this piece because i almost always mention them when it comes to my favourite music.
ReplyDeleteI think listening to Faith can be a very uplifting experience, even though as far as things go it is an extremely despairing album.
Depression is an insidious illness and there is no doubt that this music has helped me through mine more than anything else has. I would like to write more about it and have started a few times but it almost always sounds a bit twee. erhaps i should do a top ten of the darkest songs I know.
It's not twee to those who deal with it themselves. And they usually appreciate it when anyone legitimizes it by talking about it in public.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
Am trying again, will see what comes out.
ReplyDelete