Sometimes I get the feeling that the fact that people can have really sad things happen in their lives is felt by many people as either threatening, or as so out of kilter with their daily lives that they need to see have to treat songs about such matters as a bit absurd.

To sing sings like that straight, you've got to know that life really can be that way. And it can. The singing is at the same time a kind of expression of solidarity with the people in the song, and a sigh of relief that, touch wood, the singer's own fortune has so far been better than that. And a way of gearing yourself up for what the future might hold.