Big Star has some great melancholic tunes. This one looks sad, but it's sooooo much sadder with the music.
"GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE" (Bell/*Chilton*)
You feel sad 'cause I got mad
And I'm sorry, I'm sorry
Things I said made things seem bad
But don't worry
'Cause it's gonna be all right now, be okay
You know I just don't think before I speak
I've been looking for to find
Something to believe in my mind
And I thought it was you
All this time since you've been mine
I've been angry, so angry
Made it known I could make it alone
But I'm changing
And I'm gonna be all right now, be okay
You know I just woke up and I see the way
Don't give up on me so fast
I see it's me that's wrong at last
Give me another chance
It's so hard just to stay alive each day
I really can't go on this way, oh no, oh no
Pink Flyd
Time
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say
The Pogues - A Pair Of Brown Eyes
One summer evening drunk to hell
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
"Where the water lilies grow"
And on the jukebox Johnny sang
About a thing called love
And it's how are you kid and what's your name
And how'd you bloody know?
In blood and death 'neath a screaming sky
I lay down on the ground
And the arms and legs of other men
Were scattered all around
Some cursed, some prayed, some prayed then cursed
Then prayed and bled some more
And the only thing that I could see
Was a pair of brown eyes that was looking at me
But when we got back, labelled parts one to three
There was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me
And a rovin' a rovin' a rovin' I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
I looked at him he looked at me
All I could do was hate him
While Ray and Philomena sang
Of my elusive dream
I saw the streams, the rolling hills
Where his brown eyes were waiting
And I thought about a pair of brown eyes
That waited once for me
So drunk to hell I left the place
Sometimes crawling sometimes walking
A hungry sound came across the breeze
So I gave the walls a talking
And I heard the sounds of long ago
From the old canal
And the birds were whistling in the trees
Where the wind was gently laughing
And a rovin' a rovin' a rovin' I'll go
For a pair of brown eyes
Nobody can make me cry like Bonnie Raitt.
Turn down the lights, turn down the bed
Turn down these voices inside my head
Lay down with me, tell me no lies
Just hold me close, don't patronize - don't patronize me
'Cause I can't make you love me if you don't
You can't make your heart feel something it won't
Here in the dark, in these final hours
I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power
But you won't, no you won't
'Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't
I'll close my eyes, then I won't see
The love you don't feel when you're holding me
Morning will come and I'll do what's right
Just give me till then to give up this fight
And I will give up this fight
'Cause I can't make you love me if you don't
You can't make your heart feel something it won't
Here in the dark, in these final hours
I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power
But you won't, no you won't
'Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't...
Your love is fading
I can feel your love fading
Girl it's fading
Away from me
Cause your touch has grown cold
Like someone else controls your very soul
I've fooled myself just as long as I can
I can feel the presence of another man
It's there when you speak my name
It's just not the same
Ooo baby
I'm losing you
Endless Sleep by Jody Reynolds
The night was black rain falling down
Reached for my baby she's nowhere around
Traced her footsteps down to the shore
Afraid she's gone forevermore
I looked at the sea and it seemed to say
I took your baby from you away
Stole her away from the angry sea
I looked at the sea and it seemed to say
You took your baby from me away
My heart cried out she's mine to keep
I saved my baby from an endless sleep
Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good die young
I just looked around and he's gone.
Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good die young
I just looked around and he's gone.
Has anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good die young
I just looked around and he's gone.
Didn't you love the things they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good in you and me?
And we'll be free
Someday soon
It's gonna be one day
Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walking up o'er the hill
With Abraham, Martin and John
Sunshine
Blue skies
Please go away
My girl has found another
And gone away
With her went my future
My life is filled with gloom
So day after day I stay locked up in my room
I know to you
It may sound strange
But I wish it would rain
Based on real letters:
Kilkelly, Ireland, 18 and 60, my dear and loving son John
Your good friend the schoolmaster Pat McNamara´s so good
As to write these words down.
Your brothers have all gone to find work in England,
The house is so empty and sad
The crop of potatoes is sorely infected,
A third to a half of them bad.
And your sister Brigid and Patrick O´Donnell
Are going to be married in June.
Your mother says not to work on the railroad
And be sure to come on home soon.
Kilkelly, Ireland, 18 and 70, dear and loving son John
Hello to your Mrs and to your 4 children,
May they grow healthy and strong.
Michael has got in a wee bit of trouble,
I guess that he never will learn.
Because of the dampness there´s no turf to speak of
And now we have nothing to burn.
And Brigid is happy, you named a child for her
And now she´s got six of her own.
You say you found work, but you don´t say
What kind or when you will be coming home.
Kilkelly, Ireland, 18 and 80, dear Michael and John, my sons
I´m sorry to give you the very sad news
That your dear old mother has gone.
We buried her down at the church in Kilkelly,
Your brothers and Brigid were there.
You don´t have to worry, she died very quickly,
Remember her in your prayers.
And it´s so good to hear that Michael´s returning,
With money he´s sure to buy land
For the crop has been poor and the people
Are selling at any price that they can.
Kilkelly, Ireland, 18 and 90, my dear and loving son John
I guess that I must be close on to eighty,
It´s thirty years since you´re gone.
Because of all of the money you send me,
I´m still living out on my own.
Michael has built himself a fine house
And Brigid´s daughters have grown.
Thank you for sending your family picture,
They´re lovely young women and men.
You say that you might even come for a visit,
What joy to see you again.
Kilkelly, Ireland, 18 and 92, my dear brother John
I´m sorry that I didn´t write sooner to tell you that father passed on.
He was living with Brigid, she says he was cheerful
And healthy right down to the end.
Ah, you should have seen him play with
The grandchildren of Pat McNamara, your friend.
And we buried him alongside of mother,
Down at the Kilkelly churchyard.
He was a strong and a feisty old man,
Considering his life was so hard.
And it´s funny the way he kept talking about you,
He called for you in the end.
Oh, why don´t you think about coming to visit,
We´d all love to see you again.
This Sting song always makes me cry.
Why are these women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
Their faces fixed like stone?
I can't see what it is they despise
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone
It's the only form of protest they're allowed
I've seen their silent faces scream so loud
If they were to speak these words
they'd go missing too
Another woman on the torture table
what else can they do
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos
Ellas danzan con los muertos
Ellas danzan con amores invisibles
Ellas danzan con silenciosa angistia
Danzan con sus padres
Danzan con sus hijos
Danzan con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas
Hey Mr. Pinochet
You've sown a bitter crop
It's foreign money that supports you
One day the money's going to stop
No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns
Can you think of your own mother
Dancin' with her invisible son
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone
Wow. These are great. All we need is the music to make us all fall apart.
Had our number changed today, although I hated to
But each time the phone would ring,
They'd want to speak to you
And it hurts to tell them, you're not here with me
Maybe now, ole telephone wil let me be.
It's not in the book now, so you'd better write it down
Just in case your love for me should ever come around
You might want to call and break the news to me
Just call Lonesome 7-7203.
I keep the telephone beside me all the time
Hoping you might want to call and say you've changed your mind
If you do, then darling you know where I'll be
I'm at Lonesome 7-7203
You're the only one I've given my new number to
So now if the telephone should ring I'll know it's you
If you ever long for love that used to be
Just call Lonesome 7-7203
(Justin Tubb wrote it, but Burl Ives wailed it.)
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy on me
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy if you please
I used to have plenty money
Finest clothes in town
Bad luck and trouble overtook me
Why did you let me down.
Please have mercy.
Lord have mercy
Keep on working night time
Or in the morning - oh
Well if I been a bad boy baby
I'll change my way
Don't bad luck and trouble worry me
All of my days
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy on me
Lord have mercy
Lord have mercy if you please
Oh, Lord
Raindrops
So many raindrops
Falling from my eyes
Since my love has left me
I'm so all alone
I would bring her back to me
But I don't know where she's gone
I don't know where she's gone
There must be a cloud in my head
Rain keeps falling from my eyes
Oh no it can't be teardrops
Cause a man ain't supposed to cry
So it must be raindrps
So many raindrops
Falling from my eyes
It keeps on falling
Faling from my eyes
(end with nerve shattering scream)
As I walk along I wonder
what went wrong
With our love
The love that was so strong
I'm a walking in the rain
To the ball and I feel the pain
Wishing you were here by me
To end this mysery
And I wonder wo wo wo wonder
Why why why why
She ran away
And I wonder where she will stay
My little runaway
Run run run runaway
Well who was that guy I saw you with the other day
He shouldn't be allowed to come and take my baby away
Baby why don't you wake up
All we gotta do is make up
Come on baby don't break up with me
Don't you remember when the time you were so true
Then he came along and looked at you
Don't you remember when you said you loved me so
Baby please don't go
Well look here I know you won't be true
If you like him and I know he likes you
Baby why don't you wake up
All we gotta do is make up
Come on baby don't break up with me
Born to lose
I've lived my life in vain
Every dream
Has only brought me pain
All my life
I've always been so blue
Born to lose
And now I'm losing you
Born to lose
It seems so hard to bear
When I awake
And find that you're not there
You've grown tired and now you say we're through Born to lose
And now I'm losing you
Sit up, edgar, and take your face out of that beer.
When you take the blues and make a song
You sing them out again
JACKIE
(Sinéad O'Connor)
Jackie left on a cold, dark night
Telling me he'd be home
Sailed the seas for a hundred years
Leaving me all alone
And I've been dead for twenty years
I've been washing the sand
With my ghostly tears
Searching the shores for my Jackie-oh
I remember the day the young man came
He said, "Your Jackie's gone
We got lost in the rain"
And I ran to the beach
And laid me down
"You're all wrong", I said
And they stared at the sand
"That man knows that sea
Like the back of his hand
He'll be back some time
laughing at you"
And I've been waiting all this time
For my man to come
Take his hand in mine
And lead me away
To unseen shores
I've been washing the sand
With my salty tears
Searching the shore
For these long years
And I'll walk the seas forever more
Till I find my Jackie oh
Till I find my Jackie oh
Till I find my Jackie oh
Jackie oh
Jackie oh
