Life Sucks, and Then You Die: Songs of Disillusionment, Despair and Death

[dreamshark]

Okay, I've finally got it. Thanks to thorintatge for helping me fine-tune the order, and for pointing out that if I was going to arrange them in that particular fashion I should use the obvious title.

Here's the concept. I started out with songs that generally reflect the disillusionment, depression and despair theme, using nature and color to illustrate the point until we are just wallowing in tears. Then we get a small selection of some of the things we might be depressed about from my copious collection of songs about personal tragedy (missed planes, dead girlfriends, alienation and loneliness). Then a long side trip into a very unhealthy sounding neighborhood, and finishing up with a melancholy but oddly peaceful song about death.

Here's the playlist:

I Am A Rock - Simon & Garfunkel
Avalanche - Leonard Cohen
Lemon Tree - Peter, Paul & Mary
Leaves That Are Green - Simon & Garfunkel
Green Grows The Laurel - Mick Moloney
Little Green - Joni Mitchell
Blue - Joni Mitchell
Girl Of Constant Sorrow - Joan Baez
Crying - Don McLean
Cry, Cry, Cry - Johnny Cash
Crying In The Bathtub - Nate Bucklin
Early Mornin' Rain - Peter, Paul & Mary
Ebony Eyes - The Everly Brothers
Polly Von - Peter, Paul & Mary
Stranger Song - Leonard Cohen
People Are Strange -The Doors
Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles
Ramblin' Boy - Tom Paxton
Aragon Mill - Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir & Ed Trickett
Desolation Row - Bob Dylan
Brokedown Palace - Grateful Dead

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

These seem more sad than about despair or death. Most of them are about the breakup of a love affair; an occasion to cry but doesn't seem angst-riddeen. Ah well. It's your tears.

I'd be tempted to do one of these -- I have a set of songs I listen to in a deep, dark mood -- but then I'd be in a deep, dark mood. A quick, off the top of my head, list:

I Am, I Said -- Neil Diamond
Land -- Patty Smith (a lot of Patty Smith...)
Shaking of the Sheets -- Steeleye Span (a lot of SSpan...)
Dancing Bear -- The Mamas and the Papas
St. James Infirmary -- Cab Calloway (or Howard Harrison)

...and depending on my mood
The Boxer -- Simon and Garfunkel
Tears On My Pillow -- Little Anthony and the Imperials

...and so on. Geeze, now I'm depressed... and it's Mother's Day... I'm lucky I don't have a digital copy of the saddest song of all time, Flowers Are Red -- Harry Chapin.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"Most of them are about the breakup of a love affair..."

NOT! Although I'm guessing 90% of the sad songs in the world ARE about lost love, only 8 of my 21 are about a lost love, and 2 of those are about dead girlfriends (not "the breakup of a love affair.")

I wanted to include The Boxer, but the only recording I have of that one is from a concert CD and ends with about 5 minutes of applause, which I do not want in the middle of my compilation. Similarly, I had planned to include one of the two versions of St. James Infirmary that I got from you, but I had a similar problem with Howard's interminable introduction, and the Calloway version is just an instrumental. Up until the last cut I had one of the dying sailor/cowboy songs in my list, but it just didn't fit the flow.

Of course, this is just the CD-length version of the collection. I actually had identified over 100 songs from my iTunes library in the first pass, including a lot more about suicide and death. But I was actually planning to give this one to Trish, and wasn't sure just how much depression she wanted. If you like, I can make a different collection for you aiming for maximum despair. You'll have to bring a note from your psychiatrist before I'll give it to you, though. :-)