Bleakest lyrics regularly heard on classic rock radio

No one knows what happened that day
How his car overturned in flames
But as they pulled him from the twisted wreck
With his dying breath, they heard him say
Tell Laura I love her.

It's a sad song all around... guy wants to get married to the girl he loves, has no money, enters a car race to win money and dies. I think it was even banned at the time for being too bleak for the radio.

In a similar note Last Kiss, which was also a hit for Pearl Jam.

"And if I could move I'd get my gun and put her in the ground."

Actually a country staple (a depressing genre on its own with many examples) but I hear it on classic rock radio all the time.

Was Alan Parsons Project's 'Time' ever a classic rock staple? Because those might be the most depressing lyrics of any charting song ever.

you mean Pink Floyd's "Time"? yes it is a staple

pink floyd rules

From SONGFACTS.. "Mel Tillis wrote this song. He based the song on a couple who lived near his family in Florida. In real life, the man was wounded in Germany in World War II and sent to recuperate in England. There he married a nurse who took care of him at the hospital. The two of them moved to Florida shortly afterward, but he had periodic return trips to the hospital as problems with his wounds kept flaring up. His wife saw another man as the veteran lay in the hospital. Tillis changed the war in the song to the Korean War, and left out the life ending: the man killed her in a murder-suicide. In the song, the man says he would kill her if he could move to get his gun."

"no one told you when to run / you missed the starting gun" is like, too real for me

"Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future" vs. "Don't fear the reaper"

don't fear the reaper is too Romantic to be bleak. in that song, death is the unknown, not the end.

Petty has a lot:

Two cars parked on the overpass,
Rocks hit the water like broken glass
I should have known right then it was too good to last
God, it's such a drag when you're livin' in the past

I've given up, I've given up
I've given up, you tangle my emotions

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some
Who knows maybe you were kidnapped tied up,
Taken away and held for ransom
I've given up, honey please admit it is over

'Cause somewhere deep down inside
Someone is saying, "Love doesn't last that long"
I got this feelin' inside night and day
And now I can't take it no more

It was too cold to cry when I woke up alone
I hit my last number and walked to the road

Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin' in and I'm tired of this town again

You better watch what you say
You better watch what you do to me

"born in the usa" prob the bleakest springsteen song you ever hear on the radio, even if he does end it with "i'm a cool-rockin' daddy in the usa!" for some reason

that song is mostly bleak because it sucks so much and it's a disgrace to the songwriter

River is bleaker imho

the irony is too overt for it to be an effective song, i think, even if it was too subtle for reagan and his campaign team to understand

in born in the usa that is

yes, last dance with mary jane

I've given up, I've given up
I've given up,

the definition of bleak

petty also gets at the fundamental problem with marijuana, you can easily fall into a nostalgia hole

Not sure if Depeche Mode gets played on classic rock radio, but they've got some cheery lyrics:

Girl of eighteen fell in love with everything
Found new life in Jesus Christ
Hit by a car ended up
On a life support machine

I almost never listen to classic rock radio, does "DOA" by Bloodrock still get played anywhere? Because I really can't believe that song was ever a hit (and I owned the 45 when I was 12.)

Wooden Ships by CSN is more bleak than the lovely harmonies would indicate.

haha i don't think bloodrock gets much play but i picked up Bloodrock 2 on a whim cuz it was cheap and woah that band is bonkers

(always wondered if Axl had heard it prior to writing "Coma")

xpost: On the River, the whole song is depressing, probably the bleakest of Springsteen.

"At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
They haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse

That sends me down to the river
Though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight "

The closing line is specially sad, previously in the song they set the river as the place they would go when things go bad and it would make it good at least for a little while. In the end the river has dried and it's heartbreaking, whatever metaphor you wish to attach to it.

"Aqualung" always fills me with despair...

Sitting on a park bench
eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot running down his nose
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Feeling like a dead duck
spitting out pieces of his broken luck.

Sun streaking cold
an old man wandering lonely.
Taking time
the only way he knows.
Leg hurting bad,
as he bends to pick a dog-end
he goes down to the bog
and warms his feet.

Feeling alone
the army's up the rode
salvation à la mode and
a cup of tea.
Aqualung my friend
don't start away uneasy
you poor old sod, you see, it's only me.
Do you still remember
December's foggy freeze
when the ice that
clings on to your beard is
screaming agony.
And you snatch your rattling last breaths
with deep-sea-diver sounds,
and the flowers bloom like
madness in the spring

I glanced back on my life
And thought about my wife
Cause they took the keys, and she'll think it's me

I'm not sure this counts as it's not really 'classic rock' but "Alone Again, Naturally" is lyrically the bleakest shit I've ever heard

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

i remember listening to "Dark Side of the Moon" for the first time when i was 16 or so and reading the lyrics to "Time" and thinking man, I kinda don't want to hear this stuff:

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

"the time is gone, the song is over/thought i'd something more to say..."

I don't think I've ever heard "Aqualung" on classic rock radio

So you think you're a Romeo
playing a part in a picture-show
Take the long way home
Take the long way home

Cos you're the joke of the neighborhood
Why should you care if you're feeling good
Take the long way home
Take the long way home

Really, crüt? It was a staple when I was growing up.

Was Alan Parsons Project's 'Time' ever a classic rock staple? Because those might be the most depressing lyrics of any charting song ever.

you mean Pink Floyd's "Time"? yes it is a staple

pink floyd rules

― rockpalast '82 (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, April 6, 2016 3:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Naw, man, I mean this song that reached #15 on the Billboard pop charts at a time when we were apparently in the throes of a collective depression:

Time, flowing like a river
Time, beckoning me
Who knows when we shall meet again
If ever
But time
Keeps flowing like a river
To the sea

Goodbye my love, Maybe for forever
Goodbye my love, The tide waits for me
Who knows when we shall meet again
If ever
But time
Keeps flowing like a river (on and on)
To the sea, to the sea

Till it's gone forever
Gone forever
Gone forevermore

Goodbye my friends, maybe forever
Goodbye my friends, the stars wait for me
Who knows where we shall meet again
If ever
But time
Keeps flowing like a river (on and on)
To the sea, to the sea

Till it's gone forever
Gone forever
Gone forevermore

And unlike some of the songs itt, the music does nothing to alleviage the heaviness.

Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

Just take those old records off the shelf
I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself

The percentage you're paying is too high-priced
While you're living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he's made on your dreams

Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

See lyrics like this seem to aestheticized to be truly bleak, they're transfiguting despair into art. What's unbearable about jack and diane is the trite bouncy melody juxtaposed with the suicidal lyrics. For captain jack it's the overall sordidness of the experience described.

lol Crüt

The question made me think of Manic Street Preachers' La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh), which after 23 years must be approaching classic rock status, at least in Europe. The song's title and chorus paraphrase the last words of Vincent van Gogh, "La trisesse durera toujours." ("The sadness will go on forever.")

best thing about alan parsons' "time" (he must not have known pink floyd had a song by the same name...) is the way mr. bungle used to cover it back in the day. this footage here is just beautiful, man, beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DKXxMbrJE

"born in the usa" prob the bleakest springsteen song you ever hear on the radio, even if he does end it with "i'm a cool-rockin' daddy in the usa!" for some reason

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, April 6, 2016 3:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I always heard the last line as bitterly sarcastic. And I think it's a great line, because it gives the speaker a sense of humor and makes him more than just an archetypal human tragedy. And yeah, I don't think there's anything much bleaker than the images in that song on classic rock radio.

I used to think that Pink Floyd came up with the phrase "quiet desperation" themselves.

Boomer Suicide Anthems

Just destroys me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEH_ms8d1ws

I don't want to fade away
Give me one more day, please

hungry heart is the saddest bruce springsteen hit, imo

i can't even decide which verse is the saddest. or if the chorus is sadder.

i don't want to play
i just want to bang or get drunk all day

Born to Run is pretty sad to me.

i always saw belle and sebastian's early work as like a response to the beatles' question of where lonely people in the uk come from/belong. it turned out they were predictably sad and lonely but also had rich inner lives, filled with transgressive sex and deep spiritual convictions. that made me feel better.

and if i smile, tell me some bad news
before i laugh, and act like a fool

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time made you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm getting older too

I am never not haunted - even after hearing the song a zillion times in non-bleak contexts - by the backing vocals in Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game," distantly chanting "this world is only going to break your heart" over and over again

i always saw belle and sebastian's early work as like a response to the beatles' question of where lonely people in the uk come from/belong. it turned out they were predictably sad and lonely but also had rich inner lives, filled with transgressive sex and deep spiritual convictions. that made me feel better.

― Treeship, Wednesday, April 13, 2016 4:47 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Does "Johnny and Mary" by Robert Palmer count, because that's as bleak as bleak

yeah, that's a great post, Treeship.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Another year and then you'd be happy
Just one more year and then you'd be happy
But you're cryin, you're cryin now

OP didn't even choose the bleakest line of Jack & Diane, which is:

"Suckin' on a chili dog outside the Tastee-Freez"

I remember when rock was young
Me and Suzie had so much fun
Holding hands and skimmin' stones
Had an old gold Chevy and a place of my own
But the biggest kick I ever got
Was doing a thing called the crocodile rock
While the other kids were rockin' round the clock
We were hoppin' and boppin' to the crocodile rock

But the years went by and the rock just died
Suzie went and left us for some foreign guy
Long nights crying by the record machine
Dreaming of my hevy and my old blue jeans
But they'll never kill the thrills we've got
Burnin' up to the crocodile rock
Learnin' fast as the weeks went past
We really thought the crocodile rock would last

Crocodile-rockin' is something shockin'
When your feet just can't keep still
I never knew me a better time and I guess I never will