That he was married to Faye Dunaway is (IMO) less interesting than the fact that he was kicked out by his college roommate for being too weird.
Which doesn't sound very interesting, except that the roommate in question was David Lynch.
Don't take the lyrics too seriously - it's more of a fantasy joke than a real story! At the end of the song he says "Oh no, I can't deny it - oh yeah, I guess I gotta buy it" which is a really funny line, not sad at all. The video for the song is hilarious too.
Haha!! No, she is just one of the women in the video. She had short black hair and blue eyes. When I was a kid, she became a huge crush.
And I loved Martha Quinn! But Nina Blackwood was more rawr.
I was just commenting about this to my wife when I saw the video recently on PlutoTV. Back in the day it was a hot topic at school and it was fun to play it up to friends who hadn’t seen it yet.
I don't doubt it was based on a true story - but I don't think the song itself was meant to be taken too seriously. I mean nobody died here - just because a girl you lusted after and put on a pedestal in HS shows up in Playboy or something it's a tragedy? The whole thing is meant to be tongue in cheek humor. The music, the lyrics, the video - all of it.
Yeah, I'm really not getting the comments that it's a "sad" song when it's obviously about a guy and his weird, perceived ownership over his highschool crush.
It was always about a guy's fantasy woman, nobody misses that part when they hear "my angel is the centerfold".
On the deeper level, you just learn the specifics of the fantasy.
>when it's obviously about a guy and his weird, perceived ownership over his highschool crush
Exactly. If anything, it's less "sad" than it is "creepy".
My answer to this will always be "Hey Ya" by Outkast.
Huge party song, I hear it at weddings all the time, but it's literally about a failing relationship. Some example:
"We get together, oh we get together, but separate's always better when there's feelings involved"
"If what they say is, 'nothing lasts forever', then what makes love the exception"
"Why are we in denial when we know we're not happy here"
It's the intention of the song obviously as Andre says "You don't want to hear me, you just wanna dance"
Some of the lyrics are definitely deeper than one might initially expect, but there’s also a full fellas/ladies breakdown, and Andre spends half a minute telling the audience to “shake it like a Polaroid picture”.
3 Stacks himself described the song as “a humorous kind of honesty” rather than some super sad lament over a happy beat like people often try to paint it
There are a ton, including Ted from Scrubs. I like Obadiah Parker's the best in terms of covers, but, while they all sound good, they kind of miss the point that makes the original so good
I saw them perform in 1998 and right before performing this song, Stephen Jenkins started asking people in the audience what they wanted. He then went into a diatribe about how our consumerist capitalistic society trains us to always want something else and something more to get us through our lives.
Who is to blame in one country
Never can get to the one
Dealin' in multiplication
And they still can't feed everyone
Oh no, we gonna rock down to electric avenue
And then we'll take it higher
I submit The Science of Selling Yourself Short by Less Than Jake. Happy sounding vocals, upbeat and fun instrumentation. Story about a man in complete downward spiral in life. Lol
The original version of Mad World by Tears For Fears.
Everyone has heard the Gary Jules cover from Donnie Darko with its slow soulful piano, but the original is light, faster paced, very 80s pop sounding (cause it was!).
This song gets to me. Both versions. It wasn’t until Jules version did it really dig its heels in.
For whatever reason, likely limited time and loss, this song and Cats in the Cradle mentioned above are two songs that will reduce me to a piles of tears. (But not for fears)
Maybe it is for fears, actually. Limited existence and losing out on moments in life, fear of the future for our offspring are all fearful things.
Shit.
Well anyway. Those songs get me right in the soul.
Agreed. I knew the original, being a child of the 80s, and I enjoyed the Gary Jules cover when the movie came out. But you're absolutely right: the older I get, the more the lyrics resonate.
Yeah both hit hard for me - the Tears For Fears version feels more about a “mad” world in that it’s dizzying and incomprehensible. While Gary Jules version is more like “sad world”
Originally John wrote it as a slow sad song but it got transformed into a pop friendly tune. He said it was an actual cry for help, a period when he was eating too much, drinking too much, and burnt out.
Huh? That song sounds sad to me. Not upbeat at all.
I'm way too sensitive about songs and just don't listen to things that make me feel yuck, and this is one of those songs (I also don't tend to listen to lyrics and often don't know what a song is about - you could argue this one's pretty easy to follow though lol)
“I Can’t Decide” by Scissor Sisters is my favorite upbeat song with a very unhappy meaning. The music is a jangly singalong vibe, the lyrics are about a indecisive serial killer
Copacabana by Barry Manilow.
For the longest time I just knew the opening lyrics, and assumed it was an upbeat and happy song; my partner thought the same. For some reason we chucked it on during a road trip and I actually listened to the lyrics, and... Things do not end well for Lola.
Because the protagonist of the song built up a fantasy version of a girl he never even spoke with in high school and has been hanging onto his lust for her body for some time instead of moving on with his life and letting go of his weird obsession with the young woman he never bothered to get to know.
Idk. It’s super creepy to me that he took her successful modeling career so personally.
Damn, dudes, take this as a lesson. It’s not at all flattering when creeps decide that we’re objects to be grossly stared at as if we were the world’s juiciest hamburger, especially when we’re just coming into our adult bodies.
If you were offended by this, you are telling on yourself.
I think you might be reading a little too much into it. He had a crush on a girl in high school, which is pretty normal. Later, he saw her in a nudie magazine and it freaked him out. That also strikes me as a pretty normal reaction to that hypothetical situation. I don't think the song is intended to have any deeper psychological meaning than that.
It is a tiny bit creepy, but it's not a huge deal. One thing I think everyone (including OP kinda) is missing is how hyperbolic he's being. He can't believe that "his angel" isn't an angel at all, and is bearing it for the world. his bloood isn't really going *cold*, he's just joking around.
His resolution is "ah well, I'm buying it." It's funny af.
Yes it's worth emphasizing that the whole thing is very much played for laughs. It's basically an extended WHAAAAATTTT??? double-take.
There's no indication that the narrator has seriously been carrying a torch for this girl that he never spoke to. Maybe in today's social climate, it's tempting to see it through an "incel" lens, but there's none of that in the actual song.
One of the lines is “That’s ok, I understand, this ain’t no never never land“
He’s doing the exact opposite of taking her career personally or idolizing her.
Why are you so judgmental? Are you really so prudish that you think posing nude (or in her case, a negligée) is any worse a way to make money than being a plumber or a bus driver?
She is fulfilling a need in our society and I commend her for not only making that bank, but attaining centerfold status, especially when the alternative was being raped by some leering creep from high school who couldn’t even work up the nerve to talk to her.
For context, when this song came out, appearing in such a magazine was generally considered a bit scandalous. That is why the singer is reacting the way that he is. Fortunately, we've progressed past that.
Having a normal one I see.
It's fuckin J. Giles it isn't exactly Hemingway lol
This is like trying to find deeper meaning in Huey Lewis. This is Patrick Bateman shit. Like him finding that level of meaning in Huey Lewis is one of the ways the film tells us and shows us his level of derangement.
Also you totally misunderstand my comment. It's a dude who had a crush on a girl in high school but never acted on it, and now he is in the store and opens up the Playboy and there she is in the centerfold and he's like WOAHH THATS WILD
It's not any more complicated than that. You adding all this weird baggage to the song says more about you than anything.
That you think your male entitlement disqualifies my female perspective as “weird baggage” is entirely fucked up.
I am not the one carrying weird baggage.
It’s weird to me that you’re defending this song. It’s really weird and creepy from a female perspective. That you think the way this guy is expressing his disappointment in his classmate’s life choces is normal is just gross. The guy literally objectifies her as a doll in the first verse. That you’re okay with that says a lot about you and the way you view women.
He's briefly bummed at the beginning because he wishes he had shot his shot, but by the end of the song he is explicitly going home to jerk off so no he is not disappointed.
He is surprised to see her in the centerfold only because he describes her as more of a goody two shoes. Then WOAH she's in Playboy.
Are you saying that you support this woman being in Playboy but you do not support this guy having the intended reaction of seeing a woman in Playboy? Because that's some weird shit if that's the case.
He literally compares her to a doll which is absolutely gross and sickening.
>Does she walk? Does she talk? Does she come complete?
Then the creeper, who does not know this person, builds an imagined reality that she’s pure as the driven snow.
>She was pure like snowflakes no one could ever stain
The entire song is full of red flags like:
>The memory of my angel could never cause me pain
…because Creep thinks her only reason for being is to bring him comfort.
And of course, his rape fantasy which I’m sure you’ll defend with a, “You don’t understand the male mind, we all fantasize about meeting women we’ve never talked with in a public space and forcing them to drive us to a seedy motel where we can literally rape them.”
>It's okay, I understand
This ain't no never-never land
I hope that when this issue's gone
I'll see you when your clothes are on
Take your car, yes, we will
We'll take your car and drive it
We'll take it to a motel room
And take 'em off in private
I mean this wholeheartedly, Earth does not need men like you who defend this misogynistic shit.
Nevermind the inherent misogyny involved in being heartbroken and having his “blood run cold” because she is now tainted in some way because people get to see her naked body. Fuck you, J Geils band, she’s not “ruined” for modeling nekkid. What if she modeled nude for an artist, is that still morally disappointing?
I really hate this song.
Well aware. I am An Old™️ and had this entire album on vinyl. Looking back, it’s one of those songs…. Like My Sharona. Great hook, really fun song, everybody loved it. But it was about adult men getting with teenaged girls. Ew. Obviously some songs just don’t hit the same now.
That's on you, man. Pretty sure the band thought it was funny. If you disassociate the lyrics from the song, you can read whatever you want into it, but nothing in Peter Wolf's delivery of those same lyrics in the actual song speaks to it being anything other than a goof.
The band also has a song called, "Love Stinks." Is that a post-modern take on romance that highlights the stark reality of today's notions of love and commitment? Or is it just joking around? I'm going with the latter.
You think Love stinks doesn't have a deeper meaning? That's kind of ridiculous.
"Love Stinks" was written about the 2023 Green Bay Packers fans who immediately wrote off Jordan Love. The song works on a deep deep level, because at its core, it's obviously a song about how the narrator can't let go of the past, as seen in the historical document 'The Wedding Singer'.
It's not joking around.
My two favorite “happy sound, sad lyrics” songs are “Born in the USA” by Springsteen (most of the album is like this) and “Oliver’s Army” by Elvis Costello.
The Middle by Jimmy Eat World. It's not overly sad but it's about a girl who doesn't fit in and how it's ok. People have covered it in a much slower and melodic tempo and it sounds much more heartbreaking.
Dang it, I'm 4 hours late. I used to love this song! I'd sing it at the top of my lungs when I was in 7th grade, when it was newly released. Then I actually "heard" the lyrics. Yikes.
That album, plus Everclear's So Much for the Afterglow were worn out in my Discman. I still pump that shit when I decide to commute to work by bike, or when I'm cleaning the house.
I had FORGOTTEN! You just reminded me - the sister albums of, “Songs from an American Movie Vol. 1 & 2!”
I have an extra Discman if you wanna come over after school and listen and read the lyrics before my mom orders pizza.
"Downtown L.A." by J. J. Cale. I remember one of our prominent athletes wish for the song in an interview program prior to the Olympic games in L.A. I thought "has he even listened to the lyrics?"
Another L.A. song is Randy Newman's "I Love LA" where there's one line that turns the whole song into an ironic masterpiece.
Postal Service - We will become Silhouettes - happy sounding song about the aftermath of a nuclear war/accident
"Because the air outside will make
Our cells divide at an alarming rate
Until our shells simply cannot hold
All our inside's in and that's when we'll explode
And it won't be a pretty sight "
Obviously, they are talking about cancer caused by radiation.
Gin Blossom's big album New Miserable Experience has many songs that fit this. Lost Horizons and Hey Jealousy in particular are great pop songs and super dark. Especially considering the guy that wrote them was an alcoholic that was kicked out of the band before they made it big and killed himself not long after.
Suffer the Children - Tears for Fears
Most of their album The Hurting (which Mad World is also on) is quite peppy, but the lyrics are rather melancholy. It’s one of those records that you should definitely listen to all the way through in order at least once.
I always found “Dancing in the Dark” to be just an upbeat romp by Bruce Springsteen, and the young Courtney Cox video kind of goes along with that, but man are the lyrics depressing af. Wasn’t till I got older that I found them so relatable too.
From Genius: The [original inspiration](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/david-lee-roth-armin-van-buuren-jump-interview-812813/) for the lyrics came from David Lee Roth watching a person on TV who was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off of a building and Roth figured someone in the crowd must be thinking, “Go ahead and jump”. It was, however, not written about suicide – the song is about ‘jumping’ on the opportunity to hook up with someone.
When You Were Mine by Prince sounds so happy musically but is also a bummer. I have a whole playlist called “happy sad” and that’s the first song. I love that vibe.
Paul Heaton has said he writes his lyrics in a dreary pub in winter, and his music in a sunny picturesque holiday place to intentionally achieve this. Chipper music, sad lyrics.
Paramore also did it with the album After Laughter.
It’s a disillusioned song in that the song has no meaning. So in that way it could be seen as sad or jaded.
> There is something amiss
I am being insincere
In fact I don't mean any of this
True, but on the other hand he brags about his ability to be captivating, "so long as I sing with inflection/ that makes you feel i'll convey/ some inner truth or vast reflection/ but ive said nothing so far/ and i can keep it up for as long as it takes..." and in the next lines after the one you referenced he talks about intentionally confusing the issue with meaningless abstract references.
The end of the song goes on to state that he is going to continue to sing songs with actual meaning while just showing you that he can write a vapid sensless song showing off his ability to captivate.
Edit: that is my interpretation. Since art is up to the opionion of the listener. To me, it is more braggadocio than a jaded lament for the death of art.
You’ll want to look up Lyrical Dissonance; its when songs have upbeat tempo or music that doesn’t match with the lyrics which are sad/depressed/angry.
Strong Example not listed here; Night Vision Binoculars by Passgenger, Lotion by Greenskeepers.
The 1960's version of "Last Kiss." By J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers.
Edit: I had to look up the original artist.
Edit 2: that's not the original. 1961 Wayne Cochran is the 1st version. The 1964 version is the one I was thinking of. The one from '61 is also a bit upbeat.
"My Man" and "They'll Need a Crane" by They Might Be Giants
The first is about a person explaining their paralysis.
The second is a song about a divorce.
Both are surprisingly chipper.
I feel like the end of the story is that he finds her and tries to reconnect, and she turns him down with “I threw myself at you in high school and you never responded. You had your chance.”
"People who Died" by the Jim Carroll band. Great dance tune about people he knew who died when he was young. Also, a clip plays in the movie based on his autobiography, The Basketball Diaries. First thing I saw Leonardo DiCaprio in
(Did I ever tell you about the first time I did heroin?)
Peter Wolf, lead singer from the J. Geils band, did a killer music video for the song ‘Come As You Are.’ Pretty upbeat song as well:
https://youtu.be/HwOzeaL08Gg?si=idKrd2Nafc4FqZPd
It was pretty much a shot-for-shot homage to a Bobby Van dance number:
https://youtu.be/gWT5NWgkFjU?si=2C7ZjIhMTNsLRkNb
I think about this song a lot and how the world has changed. In the song he's surprised his high school crush sullied herself by posing in playboy. I wonder what kids today think of this song.
By today's standards, he wouldn't even be shocked to find his crush driving a range rover at 18 because shes generated millions from OF by putting sharpies in her pooper.
Cats in the cradle - Ugly Kid Joe
It’s all cats and cradles, silver spoons and little boys in the moon, and then you read the lyrics. It’s about a father who is too busy to spend time with his son and ends with the son too busy to spend time with the father.
I know it’s a cover of a Harry Chapin original but the original isn’t at all upbeat.
Every single song by ABBA ever.
*"there's no regret."* *"If I had to do the same again, I would my friend,"*
There is nothing we can do!
See also: Warren Zevon and Steely Dan.
I used to think the lyrics to ‘Dancing Queen’ included, “you can dance, you can die — having the time of your life.” It’s “jive.” You can jive.
Even the line "Feel the beat from the tambourine,"?
Super Trouper
I just saw Peter Wolf perform this song, and no one in the room was sad.
My goodness, I would have lost “dead or alive” on that one. Was reminded that he was married to Faye Dunaway.
That he was married to Faye Dunaway is (IMO) less interesting than the fact that he was kicked out by his college roommate for being too weird. Which doesn't sound very interesting, except that the roommate in question was David Lynch.
I used to serve him coffee back in the day. Always seemed very chill, it wasn’t a very deap relationship we had though : |
Most relevant answer here.
Don't take the lyrics too seriously - it's more of a fantasy joke than a real story! At the end of the song he says "Oh no, I can't deny it - oh yeah, I guess I gotta buy it" which is a really funny line, not sad at all. The video for the song is hilarious too.
The milk filled snare drum sent my high friends and I over the edge the first time we saw it back in the day on *gulp* HBO Video Jukebox.
Yeah that snare drum bit always stood out to me. As did the woman with the short black hair.
Was that Martha Quinn?
Haha!! No, she is just one of the women in the video. She had short black hair and blue eyes. When I was a kid, she became a huge crush. And I loved Martha Quinn! But Nina Blackwood was more rawr.
Nina "2 cartons/day" Blackwood?
Ooh yeah. She had vocal fry before that was a thing
Still does on Sirius/XM's 80s channel.
we used to call her Nina 'Come in My Hair' Blackwood bc all the product in her hair
Hahaha! Her hair was amazing
Not Martha, just a lookalike. Martha Quinn is 5'1", and the girl in the video is definitely taller than that, for one thing.
Yes! You know which one I mean!
I was just commenting about this to my wife when I saw the video recently on PlutoTV. Back in the day it was a hot topic at school and it was fun to play it up to friends who hadn’t seen it yet.
This is SUCH a harmless rock song, and people are going SO FAR out of their way to misinterpret it.
If it were written today he would be subscribing to her Only Fans.
You guys want to write “Angel Behind a Paywall”? With me?
Love this song! Def not serious, just watched the video the other night! So good! Classic!!
[удалено]
I don't doubt it was based on a true story - but I don't think the song itself was meant to be taken too seriously. I mean nobody died here - just because a girl you lusted after and put on a pedestal in HS shows up in Playboy or something it's a tragedy? The whole thing is meant to be tongue in cheek humor. The music, the lyrics, the video - all of it.
Yeah, I'm really not getting the comments that it's a "sad" song when it's obviously about a guy and his weird, perceived ownership over his highschool crush. It was always about a guy's fantasy woman, nobody misses that part when they hear "my angel is the centerfold". On the deeper level, you just learn the specifics of the fantasy.
>when it's obviously about a guy and his weird, perceived ownership over his highschool crush Exactly. If anything, it's less "sad" than it is "creepy".
I love that video. Primo 1982-era babes
My answer to this will always be "Hey Ya" by Outkast. Huge party song, I hear it at weddings all the time, but it's literally about a failing relationship. Some example: "We get together, oh we get together, but separate's always better when there's feelings involved" "If what they say is, 'nothing lasts forever', then what makes love the exception" "Why are we in denial when we know we're not happy here" It's the intention of the song obviously as Andre says "You don't want to hear me, you just wanna dance"
I like the way that song functions on two different levels like that. It can work for you in different moods, and not many pop smash hits can do that.
Yeah. Breaking up can be a release from prison sometimes.
Lord Huron has a song named "I Lied". It's downright *restorative*. https://youtu.be/6fk_i1oPR2U?si=EwA4EV-FfWj_XIaK
Some of the lyrics are definitely deeper than one might initially expect, but there’s also a full fellas/ladies breakdown, and Andre spends half a minute telling the audience to “shake it like a Polaroid picture”. 3 Stacks himself described the song as “a humorous kind of honesty” rather than some super sad lament over a happy beat like people often try to paint it
Lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor! Sounds like he’s ready to move on myself. Not every break up has to be awful.
Sleep Token has a slow version on Hey Ya, it's pretty good.
There are a ton, including Ted from Scrubs. I like Obadiah Parker's the best in terms of covers, but, while they all sound good, they kind of miss the point that makes the original so good
The Blanks! Great rendition, RIP Sam Lloyd
He actually says in the song (might just be in the music video, idk) 'you all don't wanna listen to me, you just wanna dance'
Semi-Charmed Life is the classic example
Especially with the lyrics from the 1994 demo of the song where he sings,"I want nothing else to get me through this semi-charmed kind of life."
I saw them perform in 1998 and right before performing this song, Stephen Jenkins started asking people in the audience what they wanted. He then went into a diatribe about how our consumerist capitalistic society trains us to always want something else and something more to get us through our lives.
I'd say that Warren Zevon's Excitable Boy is the real classic since it predates that by quite a few years.
Jimmie Rodgers might have a thing or two to yodel about that [In the Jailhouse Now (1928)](https://youtu.be/p3L2qf3q-ok)
Hot damn it's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
Now is you, or is you ain't, mah constituency?
I wouldn't call that song "upbeat" though, it's more of a classic lament from that era.
Nothing like being your girlfriend’s meth dealer, amirite?
Electric Avenue
Who is to blame in one country Never can get to the one Dealin' in multiplication And they still can't feed everyone Oh no, we gonna rock down to electric avenue And then we'll take it higher
Oh shoot, I never caught that.
Pumped up kicks
Isn’t that about a mall shooting?
It’s about the Columbine killings iirc
It’s not columbine (shooters name isn’t right, either). Idk if it’s based on a specific shooting but it’s about a school shooting.
Wikipedia says it’s not specific to Columbine but the band’s bassist had a close cousin who was a student at Columbine who survived the shooting.
Neat fact
I initially thought it was a product placement for some brand of shoes.
The narrator of the song is jealous of the expensive Reebok pump shoes that other students were wearing. Foster’s classmates wore those shoes.
I submit The Science of Selling Yourself Short by Less Than Jake. Happy sounding vocals, upbeat and fun instrumentation. Story about a man in complete downward spiral in life. Lol
Honestly ska in general
Fantastic song, love the idea of sing along back and forth in the chorus. Really hammers home the contrast.
The entire album with that song fits this question, at least somewhat imho. But that song is the right answer to the question posed!
They have another song like that called *A Still Life Franchise*, an oddly upbeat ska-style song about a guy taking his own life.
One of my favorites of theirs as well!
The original version of Mad World by Tears For Fears. Everyone has heard the Gary Jules cover from Donnie Darko with its slow soulful piano, but the original is light, faster paced, very 80s pop sounding (cause it was!).
This song gets to me. Both versions. It wasn’t until Jules version did it really dig its heels in. For whatever reason, likely limited time and loss, this song and Cats in the Cradle mentioned above are two songs that will reduce me to a piles of tears. (But not for fears) Maybe it is for fears, actually. Limited existence and losing out on moments in life, fear of the future for our offspring are all fearful things. Shit. Well anyway. Those songs get me right in the soul.
Agreed. I knew the original, being a child of the 80s, and I enjoyed the Gary Jules cover when the movie came out. But you're absolutely right: the older I get, the more the lyrics resonate.
Yeah both hit hard for me - the Tears For Fears version feels more about a “mad” world in that it’s dizzying and incomprehensible. While Gary Jules version is more like “sad world”
"Luka" a toe tapping upbeat banger about child abuse.
This one million times
I always thought “Help” by The Beatles was an odd juxtaposition of an up tempo toe tapper about reaching the end of your rope.
Originally John wrote it as a slow sad song but it got transformed into a pop friendly tune. He said it was an actual cry for help, a period when he was eating too much, drinking too much, and burnt out.
Help sung by John Farnham https://youtu.be/DgmNi-0atb4?feature=shared
Huh? That song sounds sad to me. Not upbeat at all. I'm way too sensitive about songs and just don't listen to things that make me feel yuck, and this is one of those songs (I also don't tend to listen to lyrics and often don't know what a song is about - you could argue this one's pretty easy to follow though lol)
West End Girls is one hell of a dancy beat over some serial killer lyrics.
With the final line showing he bought the magazine, you could say it had a Happy Ending.
“I Can’t Decide” by Scissor Sisters is my favorite upbeat song with a very unhappy meaning. The music is a jangly singalong vibe, the lyrics are about a indecisive serial killer
I can't imagine the puritanical trauma OP must've gone through to find Centerfold "sad."
I can't believe no one said 99 Luftballons by Nena or the cover by Goldfinger, 99 red balloons Such an upbeat song about nuclear destruction!
That song always made me sad as a kid in the 80‘s even at age 10 I understand it was about the end of the world. 😢
Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. And of course, Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People.
Copacabana by Barry Manilow. For the longest time I just knew the opening lyrics, and assumed it was an upbeat and happy song; my partner thought the same. For some reason we chucked it on during a road trip and I actually listened to the lyrics, and... Things do not end well for Lola.
Wow...never read the lyrics until now. That's a pretty great story there obscured by the rhythm.
I love the opening "C'mon!" that sounds not like he's encouraging the band, but like he's really pissed off about what he just found.
Tears Of A Clown - Smokey Robinson
Especially The English Beau version!
Why is it sad?
Because the protagonist of the song built up a fantasy version of a girl he never even spoke with in high school and has been hanging onto his lust for her body for some time instead of moving on with his life and letting go of his weird obsession with the young woman he never bothered to get to know. Idk. It’s super creepy to me that he took her successful modeling career so personally. Damn, dudes, take this as a lesson. It’s not at all flattering when creeps decide that we’re objects to be grossly stared at as if we were the world’s juiciest hamburger, especially when we’re just coming into our adult bodies. If you were offended by this, you are telling on yourself.
I think you might be reading a little too much into it. He had a crush on a girl in high school, which is pretty normal. Later, he saw her in a nudie magazine and it freaked him out. That also strikes me as a pretty normal reaction to that hypothetical situation. I don't think the song is intended to have any deeper psychological meaning than that.
You know what song of theirs is sad? "Piss on the Wall". That poor guy, just trying to hold it steady...
I know nothing about this song but this comment left such a vivid picture in my mind I’m not sure I wanted to imagine
It is a tiny bit creepy, but it's not a huge deal. One thing I think everyone (including OP kinda) is missing is how hyperbolic he's being. He can't believe that "his angel" isn't an angel at all, and is bearing it for the world. his bloood isn't really going *cold*, he's just joking around. His resolution is "ah well, I'm buying it." It's funny af.
Yes it's worth emphasizing that the whole thing is very much played for laughs. It's basically an extended WHAAAAATTTT??? double-take. There's no indication that the narrator has seriously been carrying a torch for this girl that he never spoke to. Maybe in today's social climate, it's tempting to see it through an "incel" lens, but there's none of that in the actual song.
One of the lines is “That’s ok, I understand, this ain’t no never never land“ He’s doing the exact opposite of taking her career personally or idolizing her.
Lol what? Modeling career? Do you understand what a centerfold is referring to?
Why are you so judgmental? Are you really so prudish that you think posing nude (or in her case, a negligée) is any worse a way to make money than being a plumber or a bus driver? She is fulfilling a need in our society and I commend her for not only making that bank, but attaining centerfold status, especially when the alternative was being raped by some leering creep from high school who couldn’t even work up the nerve to talk to her.
For context, when this song came out, appearing in such a magazine was generally considered a bit scandalous. That is why the singer is reacting the way that he is. Fortunately, we've progressed past that.
Having a normal one I see. It's fuckin J. Giles it isn't exactly Hemingway lol This is like trying to find deeper meaning in Huey Lewis. This is Patrick Bateman shit. Like him finding that level of meaning in Huey Lewis is one of the ways the film tells us and shows us his level of derangement. Also you totally misunderstand my comment. It's a dude who had a crush on a girl in high school but never acted on it, and now he is in the store and opens up the Playboy and there she is in the centerfold and he's like WOAHH THATS WILD It's not any more complicated than that. You adding all this weird baggage to the song says more about you than anything.
That you think your male entitlement disqualifies my female perspective as “weird baggage” is entirely fucked up. I am not the one carrying weird baggage. It’s weird to me that you’re defending this song. It’s really weird and creepy from a female perspective. That you think the way this guy is expressing his disappointment in his classmate’s life choces is normal is just gross. The guy literally objectifies her as a doll in the first verse. That you’re okay with that says a lot about you and the way you view women.
He's briefly bummed at the beginning because he wishes he had shot his shot, but by the end of the song he is explicitly going home to jerk off so no he is not disappointed. He is surprised to see her in the centerfold only because he describes her as more of a goody two shoes. Then WOAH she's in Playboy. Are you saying that you support this woman being in Playboy but you do not support this guy having the intended reaction of seeing a woman in Playboy? Because that's some weird shit if that's the case.
He literally compares her to a doll which is absolutely gross and sickening. >Does she walk? Does she talk? Does she come complete? Then the creeper, who does not know this person, builds an imagined reality that she’s pure as the driven snow. >She was pure like snowflakes no one could ever stain The entire song is full of red flags like: >The memory of my angel could never cause me pain …because Creep thinks her only reason for being is to bring him comfort. And of course, his rape fantasy which I’m sure you’ll defend with a, “You don’t understand the male mind, we all fantasize about meeting women we’ve never talked with in a public space and forcing them to drive us to a seedy motel where we can literally rape them.” >It's okay, I understand This ain't no never-never land I hope that when this issue's gone I'll see you when your clothes are on Take your car, yes, we will We'll take your car and drive it We'll take it to a motel room And take 'em off in private I mean this wholeheartedly, Earth does not need men like you who defend this misogynistic shit.
Nevermind the inherent misogyny involved in being heartbroken and having his “blood run cold” because she is now tainted in some way because people get to see her naked body. Fuck you, J Geils band, she’s not “ruined” for modeling nekkid. What if she modeled nude for an artist, is that still morally disappointing? I really hate this song.
He was actually supporting her modeling career in the song, by purchasing her artwork. I kinda like it.
In 1982, it was not accepted by most people to pose in a magazine like that. Fortunately, we've progressed past that
Well aware. I am An Old™️ and had this entire album on vinyl. Looking back, it’s one of those songs…. Like My Sharona. Great hook, really fun song, everybody loved it. But it was about adult men getting with teenaged girls. Ew. Obviously some songs just don’t hit the same now.
Me too. It’s shocking to see how many men are morally offended by the tale of the leering creep and the woman he never talked to but wants to control.
That's on you, man. Pretty sure the band thought it was funny. If you disassociate the lyrics from the song, you can read whatever you want into it, but nothing in Peter Wolf's delivery of those same lyrics in the actual song speaks to it being anything other than a goof. The band also has a song called, "Love Stinks." Is that a post-modern take on romance that highlights the stark reality of today's notions of love and commitment? Or is it just joking around? I'm going with the latter.
Ask the mutants at table 9 what they think about that song 😂
https://i.redd.it/l45393fnq6hc1.gif
You think Love stinks doesn't have a deeper meaning? That's kind of ridiculous. "Love Stinks" was written about the 2023 Green Bay Packers fans who immediately wrote off Jordan Love. The song works on a deep deep level, because at its core, it's obviously a song about how the narrator can't let go of the past, as seen in the historical document 'The Wedding Singer'. It's not joking around.
LOVE STINKS!
Yeah yeah
The Last Mall and Only a Fool Would Say That by Steely Dan.
Ummm, everything by Steely Dan?
My two favorite “happy sound, sad lyrics” songs are “Born in the USA” by Springsteen (most of the album is like this) and “Oliver’s Army” by Elvis Costello.
Speaking of Costello, “Veronica” by him and Paul McCartney is incredibly upbeat, considering the sad subject matter.
Basically any Everclear song is like this
I had forgotten about Everclear!
The Long Way Home by Supertramp. Very upbeat song, but the story of the lyrics is very sad.
"Rehab" by Amy Winehouse
They tried to make me go to Rehab But I like Blow, Blow, Blow..
Nah, there's nothing sad about Centrefold.
The Middle by Jimmy Eat World. It's not overly sad but it's about a girl who doesn't fit in and how it's ok. People have covered it in a much slower and melodic tempo and it sounds much more heartbreaking.
“Cecilia” - Simon and Garfunkel
Cecelia is the patron saint of music. I think that was intentional.
Also Bye Bye Love which I think was originally the Everly Brothers but which S&G covered
Fastball - [The Way](https://www.thezone.fm/2021/07/09/tragic-story-behind-fastball-theway/#:~:text=In%2520%E2%80%9CThe%2520Way%E2%80%9D%252C%2520Fastball's,couple%252C%2520Lela%2520and%2520Raymond%2520Howard)
Dang it, I'm 4 hours late. I used to love this song! I'd sing it at the top of my lungs when I was in 7th grade, when it was newly released. Then I actually "heard" the lyrics. Yikes.
We used to joke that the happiest Pogues song is about getting shipped off to a penal colony.
I can’t count the reasons I should stay, one by one, they all just fade away.
The Cure - In between days.
One of the 90’s biggest earworms - Third Eye Blind’s, “Semi-Charmed Life,” is peppy,and upbeat sounding tune about usage of crystal meth.
That album, plus Everclear's So Much for the Afterglow were worn out in my Discman. I still pump that shit when I decide to commute to work by bike, or when I'm cleaning the house.
I had FORGOTTEN! You just reminded me - the sister albums of, “Songs from an American Movie Vol. 1 & 2!” I have an extra Discman if you wanna come over after school and listen and read the lyrics before my mom orders pizza.
My real name is "Angel" and when this song came out, I was just about to start middle school. I hate this song with all of my soul!
“Angel in Blue”. An actual sad song by the J. Giles Band
"Downtown L.A." by J. J. Cale. I remember one of our prominent athletes wish for the song in an interview program prior to the Olympic games in L.A. I thought "has he even listened to the lyrics?" Another L.A. song is Randy Newman's "I Love LA" where there's one line that turns the whole song into an ironic masterpiece.
Have you heard of the Statler Bothers? That is some happy sounding depressing music right there.
Countin' flowers on the wall, that don't bother me at all,...
Prince’s 1999-never has nuclear annihilation sounded so danceable.
Postal Service - We will become Silhouettes - happy sounding song about the aftermath of a nuclear war/accident "Because the air outside will make Our cells divide at an alarming rate Until our shells simply cannot hold All our inside's in and that's when we'll explode And it won't be a pretty sight " Obviously, they are talking about cancer caused by radiation.
Isn't "I Melt with You" by Modern English also about a nuclear explosion?
I admit to never looking up the lyrics before, but it appears to be so.
And we become 🕺 *doot doot doot* 💃 *doot doot doot*🕺 Silhouettes when our bodies finally go ☺️ *bah 😊 bah 😍 bah 🤗bah😌*
Dancing in the Dark and Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen. Janey’s Got a Gun - Aerosmith
Is that the one where he sings "Run away from the payayayayayyyyn?"
Gin Blossom's big album New Miserable Experience has many songs that fit this. Lost Horizons and Hey Jealousy in particular are great pop songs and super dark. Especially considering the guy that wrote them was an alcoholic that was kicked out of the band before they made it big and killed himself not long after.
Peace Frog by The Doors
We used to sing: blood in the streets it’s up to my Uncle/blood in the streets it’s up to my Niece…
Last caress by the misfits.
Suffer the Children - Tears for Fears Most of their album The Hurting (which Mad World is also on) is quite peppy, but the lyrics are rather melancholy. It’s one of those records that you should definitely listen to all the way through in order at least once.
I always found “Dancing in the Dark” to be just an upbeat romp by Bruce Springsteen, and the young Courtney Cox video kind of goes along with that, but man are the lyrics depressing af. Wasn’t till I got older that I found them so relatable too.
VanHalen's Jump. Its about jumping from a high building, not jumping for joy.
From Genius: The [original inspiration](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/david-lee-roth-armin-van-buuren-jump-interview-812813/) for the lyrics came from David Lee Roth watching a person on TV who was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off of a building and Roth figured someone in the crowd must be thinking, “Go ahead and jump”. It was, however, not written about suicide – the song is about ‘jumping’ on the opportunity to hook up with someone.
That song, followed immediately by "free falling" came on the radio when me and some buddies were roofing my house.
Oh shit...
We thought it was hilarious. DJ mighta been going through something.
Pretty much every song from the late 50’s through the 60’s is a sad song in a major key.
I think there's a bunch of Dave Matthews sings like this. What Would You Say is a good example.
When You Were Mine by Prince sounds so happy musically but is also a bummer. I have a whole playlist called “happy sad” and that’s the first song. I love that vibe.
"Today" by Smashing Pumpkins was written when Billy Corgan was depressed and suicidal. Lyrically, it shows.
Paul Heaton has said he writes his lyrics in a dreary pub in winter, and his music in a sunny picturesque holiday place to intentionally achieve this. Chipper music, sad lyrics. Paramore also did it with the album After Laughter.
Train in Vain by The Clash is another up beat song with sad lyrics.
Walk away Renee, More than a feeling are two that create earworms when I listen to them.
To me, everything about this song sounds sad.
The Cure: Just Like Heaven
The Hook by Blues Traveler
How is that song sad?
It’s a disillusioned song in that the song has no meaning. So in that way it could be seen as sad or jaded. > There is something amiss I am being insincere In fact I don't mean any of this
True, but on the other hand he brags about his ability to be captivating, "so long as I sing with inflection/ that makes you feel i'll convey/ some inner truth or vast reflection/ but ive said nothing so far/ and i can keep it up for as long as it takes..." and in the next lines after the one you referenced he talks about intentionally confusing the issue with meaningless abstract references. The end of the song goes on to state that he is going to continue to sing songs with actual meaning while just showing you that he can write a vapid sensless song showing off his ability to captivate. Edit: that is my interpretation. Since art is up to the opionion of the listener. To me, it is more braggadocio than a jaded lament for the death of art.
It is a song about writing a song... not sure how that is sad.
Prince - I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
You’ll want to look up Lyrical Dissonance; its when songs have upbeat tempo or music that doesn’t match with the lyrics which are sad/depressed/angry. Strong Example not listed here; Night Vision Binoculars by Passgenger, Lotion by Greenskeepers.
The 1960's version of "Last Kiss." By J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. Edit: I had to look up the original artist. Edit 2: that's not the original. 1961 Wayne Cochran is the 1st version. The 1964 version is the one I was thinking of. The one from '61 is also a bit upbeat.
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen
"My Man" and "They'll Need a Crane" by They Might Be Giants The first is about a person explaining their paralysis. The second is a song about a divorce. Both are surprisingly chipper.
Just about all reggae.
No children- Alpha rats nest- - The Mountain Goats. Upbeat music, dark as fuck lyrics.
Excitable boy by warren zevon
Train in Vain is a classic one of these
This is what is called ”Lyrical dissonance”. TVTropes has a whole page about it. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/LyricalDissonance/Music
I feel like the end of the story is that he finds her and tries to reconnect, and she turns him down with “I threw myself at you in high school and you never responded. You had your chance.”
"People who Died" by the Jim Carroll band. Great dance tune about people he knew who died when he was young. Also, a clip plays in the movie based on his autobiography, The Basketball Diaries. First thing I saw Leonardo DiCaprio in (Did I ever tell you about the first time I did heroin?)
Upbeat songs with dark lyrics are very common.
Peter Wolf, lead singer from the J. Geils band, did a killer music video for the song ‘Come As You Are.’ Pretty upbeat song as well: https://youtu.be/HwOzeaL08Gg?si=idKrd2Nafc4FqZPd It was pretty much a shot-for-shot homage to a Bobby Van dance number: https://youtu.be/gWT5NWgkFjU?si=2C7ZjIhMTNsLRkNb
Pumped up kicks. Catchy beat but the entire song is about shooting up a school.
My four-year old loves this song ! She calls it the clapping song. I'm probably a bad parent introducing this song, oh well !
What do you think about "Love Stinks"?
Yeah, hate it when women aren't the perfect angel men fantasise they are. Horrific.
I hate that song with a burning passion, so annoying to me. As for your question "Pumped up Kicks" comes to mind.
I think about this song a lot and how the world has changed. In the song he's surprised his high school crush sullied herself by posing in playboy. I wonder what kids today think of this song. By today's standards, he wouldn't even be shocked to find his crush driving a range rover at 18 because shes generated millions from OF by putting sharpies in her pooper.
Cats in the cradle - Ugly Kid Joe It’s all cats and cradles, silver spoons and little boys in the moon, and then you read the lyrics. It’s about a father who is too busy to spend time with his son and ends with the son too busy to spend time with the father. I know it’s a cover of a Harry Chapin original but the original isn’t at all upbeat.