Top 10 Songs to Wallow in a Sea of Your Own Misery To

Autumn is traditionally a time people with seasonal affective disorder dread. The days are getting shorter and they know that they are going to start getting depressed. A lot of people are actually affected quite a bit by the change in the length of the days. The advent of artificial lighting has done wonders in creating depressed patients to fuel the mental health industry. I can discuss that in another post. In honor of the oncoming season, I present my favorite ten songs that I find particularly good at listening to over and over and over when I am feeling down. I apologize that most of the songs are rather dated, but since I have been working in small towns and did not until only recently acquire a satellite radio, I have been out of touch with "real music" as it were. Rest assured, though most of these are oldies, they are goodies:



10

"People Who Died" - The Jim Carroll Band

A song enumerating many friends of the writer who died, several through drug use. The sad point is driven home if one aware of the fact that this song is true. These were actually real people who died, and there were quite a few.

9

"Everybody Hurts" - REM

Until the release of Automatic for the People, REM's music was largely upbeat, and at times rather silly. Lyrics were most notably incomprehensible much of the time and this was a signature feature of the band. Not to mention their refusal to print the lyrics on the liner notes. This album changed that tone notably. This song, intended to cheer up the broken hearted missed the mark with its slow pace and melodic tones that had not been heard from Micheal Stipe previously and only made people feel even more alone. That said this was one of their best, if not their best album ever made. Then they started to suck. (Sorry boys. I love you, always will, but the truth is the truth and new REM is just not old REM.)

8

"The Rat" - Dead Confederate

One of the few contemporary songs on the list. Anyone who has ever felt brushed aside or labeled as insignificant can sympathize with the rat killed in the song because it is viewed as vermin to humans. Even worse for the rat is that it is brushed off at the Pearly Gates as well so even in death gets no respect.

7

"Every Day is Like Sunday" - Morrisey

I hate to use the Smiths/Morrisey more than once, but Morrisey is by far the best depressing music writer ever. Lacking the talent of guitarist Johnnie Marr, his solo music did not have the musical quality as the Smiths. Despite that, the depressing tone of the music lasted. Only Morrisey could successfully portray the image of being miserable while on vacation in a resort town. And to tie it in with imagery from the movie "The Beach" where the Australians are awaiting the nuclear dust cloud to come and rain down on them after WWIII and slowly kill them- absolutely brilliant!

6

"Misplaced Childhood" - the entire album, minus the last song- Marillion

Being so desperate for love one man falls in love with a prostitute. Then buys her a ticket to England expecting her to meet him there and actually get on the plane. Not surprisingly, he gets stood up and totally breaks down into a miserable heap of self pity. This concept album by one hit wonder Marillion must be heard in its entirety to fully get the entire range of emotions. The down side is the last song turns it all around and makes everything better, spoiling the whole effect.

5

"Wish You Were Here" - Pink Floyd

Written as a tribute to former (and now deceased) member of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett. In many ways, an attempt to apologize for kicking him out of the band. Not that it did not need to happen. Barrett's bizarre and unmanageable behaviors interfered with his ability to perform as a musician. Ironically what was initially believed to be the result of excessive drug use turned out to be severe mental illness. Anyone who has been separated from a loved one can identify with this song and it is very useful to play it repeatedly, at least 10 times to really get one's mood down.

4

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" - The Smiths

Enough said.

3

"Grapevine Fires" - Death Cab for Cutie

Just the name of the band is morbid. A song about a couple, presumably in California, sitting in an elevated graveyard drinking wine while all of their worldly possessions burn to the ground. The woman's daughter dancing happily through the gravestones. Could there ever be a more peaceful sight? The lyrics, the pace of the song, everything, leaves this very solemn feeling of doom and destruction that hangs with you for hours. Great way to really feel blue all day long.

2

"How Soon is Now" - The Smiths

Not to be perseverative, but these guys are by far, the masters of misery and unhappiness. The Smiths have perfected the depressing song to such ridiculous heights that they actually become humorous. This one is a six plus minute long masterpiece of whiny lyrics, whiny sounding guitar licks, whiny everything. And it drags on long enough to really drive home the point. Most songs cut out after 3-4 minutes and do not have the chance to really sink in and ruin your day. This one has just enough time to do that without the endless droning of those songs produced by 70's acid rock bands that just got annoying after a while. The lyrics are indescribably depressing: "...so you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home and you cry and you want to die." You simply cannot beat that.

and finally....

1

"The Wall" - Pink Floyd

This includes the movie and the album. The entire two record long album, for those of us who were lucky enough to have survived the years living with roommates without it getting stolen. Even the writer was miserable when he wrote it. The majority of the album was written while Roger Waters was going through heroin withdrawal in rehab. The theme of the story is semi-autobiographical in that the main character, like Waters, lost his father as an infant while away at war in WWII, developed a terrible heroin addiction and had a lot of unresolved emotional conflicts. It helps to see the movie, but only in a good movie theater or at least a home theater system with a good surround sound system, and it helps to watch the movie a good three of four times. At first it seems rather incomprehensible. It takes a couple viewings or the explanation of a veteran of the movie to understand what is going on. What is quite certain is the main character, Pink, is quite miserable, and spends the vast majority of the movie pondering the terrible experiences he has had throughout his life and really does not like to be disturbed while he is busy being miserable. If you do not want to go so far as to see the movie, the album is still pretty depressing, but the story is not as clear. You might best to well to listen to "Hey You" and "Comfortably Numb" over and over again until your roommate whacks you over the head with the turntable that you worked so hard to hunt down so you could play that two album set that you worked so hard to keep from getting stolen.

Now for the instructions on how to wallow in your own misery:

Pick out your favorites, and I am sure you know many of your own, download them onto your IPod shuffle, lock yourself in your room with too much ice cream/cake/cookies, pop, beer, Red Bull, whatever makes you happy and play over and over and over and over and ...... Ignore the rest of the world. Blow off your roommate, especially if you do not like him. Or family, SO, etc. Repeat.

In the end of it all, after you have had your few hours of crying in your beer/energy drink/diet pop, eaten three gallons of double chocolate chip ice cream and missed the biggest party of the year sitting locked in your room burning out your IPod, it is time to realize that while it is good to have some time to let the pain out and stop internalizing your feelings so much, that life goes on and you need to break out of it. If you find yourself following this ritual every night, there is a problem and you need to seek help. More people than you might realize do, including many of the musicians that wrote the dreary depressed music above because they were, after all, depressed when they wrote it. That did not mean they were unable to write after being treated, but the tone of their music was different. Besides, you have been hogging all the double chocolate ice cream and I want some, too.