Bleakest lyrics regularly heard on classic rock radio

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

― ejemplo (crüt), Thursday, April 7, 2016 6:46 AM (4 days ago)

I love this, also out of context it is my life

Any Harry Chapin song fits this. What's more depressing than "Cat's In The Cradle"? And "Taxi", in addition to be pretty bleak, is maybe the most absurdly dramatic and pretentious thing ever recorded (hard to top a Sylvia Plath poem sung in falsetto)...tbh it always makes me laugh when I hear it and sometimes I watch this live version to cheer myself up.

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

did you guys know if you are depressed and you hear a song at work or in the grocery store, it is a bleak song of dusty nothingness that speaks to the emptiness of mankind, even if ja rule made that song

Harry Chapin doesn't actually get CR airplay anywhere, does he? (Nor Suzanne Vega.)

I heard Taxi a few times on classic rock radio in St. Louis in '08 or '09, but I think that was because that station had No Repeat Weeks. Growing up in Nebraska, every station played "Cat's In The Cradle". That might be a regional thing though.

Oh, cool.

cats in the cradle is a brutal tearjerker. kid was neglected by his busy father, who is now a lonely, elderly man, neglected by his son. the song pretends to be about the cycle of life but it's just about a cycle of neglect.

or maybe it's not pretending anything. the dad realizes the son grew up "just like him," too preoccupied with work to make time for his family.

the socialist in me wonders whose really to blame here: the dad for losing sight of priorities, or the insane working hours americans are expected to keep

fast car is pretty much the saddest song i have ever heard. i didn't even know it until raymond posted it and i listened again. jesus christ.

like all that stuff Werner Herzog says about what he sees in the faces of bears is sort of what I imagine about the souls of John Mayer fans

this is cracking me up.

Burma Shave by Tom Waits has a similar theme to fast car but is way more depressing.

disagree, there's a theatrical nature to waits thing that sort of keeps you at arm's length

be someone
be someone
;_;

Angel of darkness is upon you
Stuck a needle in your arm
So take another toke, have a blow for your nose
One more drink fool, will drown you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you

which reminds me of:

I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done

out of the blue and into the black
they give you this but you paid for that
but once they're gone you can never go back
when you're out of the blue and into the black

'Fast Car' is bleak, but even bleaker, albeit for a different reason, is the Jonas Blue cover version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjnadPBMJGs

Most depressing Waits lyric I've ever heard is from "A Little Rain," on Bone Machine:

She was fifteen years old
And she'd never seen the ocean
She climbed into a van with a vagabond
And the last thing she said
Was "I love you Mom"

jesus

For bleakest Waits, I'm partial to "A Soldier's Things"

Davenports and kettle drums and swallowtail coats
Tablecloths and patent-leather shoes
Bathing suits and bowling balls and clarinets and rings
And all this radio really needs is a fuse

A tinker, a tailor
A soldier's things
His rifle, his boots full of rocks
Oh, and this one is for bravery
And this one is for me
And everything's a dollar in this box

Cufflinks and hubcaps, trophies and paperbacks
It's good transportation but the brakes aren't so hot
Neckties and boxing gloves, this jackknife is rusted
You can pound that dent out on the hood

A tinker, a tailor
A soldier's things
His rifle, his boots full of rocks
Oh, and this one is for bravery
Oh, and this one is for me
And everything's a dollar in this box

Please tell me which classic rock radio station plays Tom Waits songs that aren't sung by Rod Stewart

Yeah, they don't even play the Eagles "Ol' 55."

the classic rock station I made up in my head where I go to escape this cruel world

"Fire and Rain." (At least it used to get occasional play on the classic rock station here--they're making the transition towards Simple Minds right now.)

Somewhere out there on that horizon
Out beyond the neon lights
I know there must be somethin' better
but there's nowhere else in sight
It's survival in the city
When you live from day to day
City streets don't have much pity
When you're down, that's where you'll stay
In the city, oh, oh.
In the city

I was born here in the city
With my back against the wall
Nothing grows, and life ain't very pretty
No one's there to catch you when you fall
Somewhere out on that horizon
Faraway from the neon sky
I know there must be somethin' better
And I can't stay another night
In the city, oh, oh.
In the city

then he started into dealing with slaves
and something inside of him died
she had to sell everything she owned
and froze up inside

So you decide to take a holiday
You got your tape deck and your brand new Chevrolet
Ahhh, there ain't no place to go anyway
What for?

So you got everything, aw, but nothing's cool
They just found your father in the swimming pool
And you guess you won't be going back to school,
anymore.

But Captain Jack can get you high tonight
And take you to your special island
Aw Captain Jack will get you by tonight
Just a little push and you'll be smilin'

yeah that song is like a face tattoo exclaiming "life is meaningless"

good call on "in the city"

They cry in the dark
So you can't see their tears
They hide in the light
So you can't see their fears
Forgive and forget
All the while
Love and pain become one and the same
In the eyes of a wounded child

Everybody's got a secret son,
Something that they just can't face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take

Till one day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down
Where no one asks any questions
Looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town
In the darkness on the edge of town

And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he'd done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and he headed home again

Twelve o'clock, I gotta rock
There's a truck ahead, lights starin' at my eyes
Oh my God, no time to turn
I got to laugh 'cause I know I'm gonna die

If it feels alright, maybe you can stay all night
Shall I leave you my key?
But you've got to give me a sign, come on girl, some kind of sign
Tell me, are you hot mama? you sure look that way to me

Are you old enough? will you be ready when I call you bluff?
Is my timing right? did you save your love for me tonight?

That Jonas Blue cover of fast car is wretched because it's hopeless -- the original version has always sounded to me like the narrator's saying "fuck this, I'm done with it" finally.

tom jones - not unusual

it's not unusual to see me cry/I WANNA DIE

i sometimes wish i'd never been born at all

. . .

nothing really matters, anyone can see
nothing really matters
nothing really matters to me
. . . anyway the wind blows. . . .

Not the bleakest, but this couplet always bring me down:

So many people, have come and gone
Their faces fade as the years go by

You don't hear "Eleanor Rigby" on classic rock stations too often (except maybe during a Beatles 6-pack or rock block), but those lyrics never fail to block out the sun.

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.

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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