Songs of Despair and Pessimism

Subject: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 05:59 AM

re Ed Pellow's August 2000 thread "Songs of Hope and Optimism", recently revived : Here then, is the other side of the coin!!
Remember that joke : "Q. How many Folksingers does it take to change a lightglobe?? A. 16 : 1 to change it and 15 to sing about how good the old one was!"
Well, I am compiling a Festival Workshop for my a cappella harmony group The Lightglobe Singers(!!!) and would appreciate any song suggestions.
To start this off :
ALL THE GOOD TIMES ARE PAST AND GONE is an obvious one.
GOODBYE TO THE 30 FOOT TRAILER with its "for folks these days would far sooner pay for a thing that's been made out of plastic"
Then there's THE CAST IRON SONG : "since cast iron is now all the rage and scarce anything's now made without it"
How many more are there?? (THEY DON'T WRITE 'EM LIKE THAT ANYMORE!!)

I do have a small list already, which I have carefully put down SOMEwhere ...
Cheers!
Poor Misery (using Rich-Joy's 'puter)

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 06:17 AM

(cookieless again)"nobody love me everybody hates me/I'm going to the garden to eat worms". that's the one my dad usedto sing . sure that must be locatable with a search, if not PM me.

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: DMcG
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 07:35 AM

And all along the Rossendale you'll hear the weary cry
Don't give a damn for the working man, 'cos no-one really cares

(I've probably not put the right lines together there)

Dust Song: It's soon no more the pit I'll see
But I'll carry it round inside of me
Now my hewing days are through, through
Now my hewing days are through

This one is maybe to humourous, but some lines match your idea

Digging graves is my delight, oh digging graves for you to lie in
Digging graves from morn to night, I make my living from the dying
...
Mangled men with sightless eyes
Babes in arms and maids likewise
Fit or foolish, weak or wise
Dust to dust and ashes to ashes

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: kendall
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 07:44 AM

Alone and forsaken by Hank Williams

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 08:14 AM

Thanks to all so far. I was rather hoping for more of the "things were so much better in the old days with the old ways" variety!!
Cheers! P-M

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:29 AM

Cyril Tawney's "The Oggie Man" fulfills your criteria perfectly: personal misery and nostalgia for the good old days in equal measure. And a complete masterpiece of a song. can someone help with a clicky?

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:33 AM

Well you asked for despair!!!

Rod's song. Tune: Searching for lambs. Words E M Draper

The decks are silent, the wheel is still
No voices raised in song.
No capstan turning, no sails unfurling,
Now the shanty man is gone.

The journey's over, no course to steer,
No foaming billows roar.
The sailors songs are faint and gone,
And the shanty man's no more.

The masts and sails are turned to dust,
The wheel and tiller are gone,
The days of steam are just a dream,
So too, the shanty man's song.

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:47 AM

Let us not forget the Stan Rogers song "First Christmas".

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: reggie miles
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 11:12 AM

Bert Williams performed one called "Bring Back Those Wonderful Days" and was sang this song during a time that some of us think of as the good old days. He was popular way back when Jolson and Cantor were doin' their thing.

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Amos
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 12:02 PM

Hang Down Yore Head and Cry, poor Boy
Irene, Goodnight
What's Gonna Become of Me?

A

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 12:29 PM

"It's So Lonesome In The saddle Since My Horse Up and Died".

"I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Almost Like Having You Here".

Rick

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 05:10 PM

Prayer Before Birth (Louis MacNiece

I am not yet born, console me, I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me, with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me, on black racks rack me, in blood baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me, with water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light In the back of my mind to guide me..

I am not yet born; Oh fill me , With strength against those who would freeze my humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton, would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with one face, a thing. and against all those who would dissipate my entirety, would blow me like thistledown, hither and thither, or hither and thither, like water held in the hands would spill me.

Let them not drill me, Let them not spill me. Otherwise Kill me.

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 06:06 PM

"Housewife's Lament"

Art

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 06:14 PM

Dylan wrote a number of those, although they also usually had a tinge of something else that fought back against the despair, saw past it to something more eternal, or hurled bolts of irony at it...

"Desolation Row" is one. "Ballad of Hollis Brown" is another. Then there's "Not Dark Yet" and "Most Of The Time".

But Hollis Brown ends..."Somwhere in the distance, there's seven new people born..." Always the possibility of renewal, even redemption, shines through, though the present may be dark indeed. Bob's writing shows that he is well aware that the Earth will keep turning just fine after he's gone...

The most outright despairing and pessimistic song I've ever heard is the one by Crosby, Stills, or Nash...with the lines "I embrace the many-colored beast, I grow weary of the torment, can there be no peace? And I find myself just wishing that my life would simply cease."

I can never understand why people would want to sing that song. It's a true downer. I didn't even like it much back when depression was my modus vivendi.

- LH

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: IvanB
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 07:01 PM

Last Cowboy Song
Drimin Donn Dilis
If Wishes Were Fishes
Last Trip Home
West of Clare
Of these, "Last Cowboy Song" and "Last Trip Home" probably best fit your criteria of "progress has killed this way of life and ain't it too bad?" (Pardon the paraphrase.) But all of them have a "better days are in the past" type of theme.

Subject: Lyr Add: DUW, IT'S HARD (Max Boyce)
From: Gareth
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 07:13 PM

" In our little valley, the've closed the colliery down
Empty Journies red with rust,
go to rest amidst the dust
and the Pit head baths are a supermarket now"

"They came down here from England,
They said our outputs low,
Briefcases full of Bank Clerks,
Who have never been below,
And they'l close the Valleys oldest pit,
Pretending that they are sad,
But don't you worry Butty Bach we're really very gla,
'Cos it's hard, dew it's hard,
Harder then you will ever know,
And if ham were under ground,
Would it be ten bob a pound,
And the Pitheadbaths is a Supermarket now."

"I took my old helmet home with me
I filled it full of earth,
And I planted little flowers there, they grew for all their worth,
And it's hanging in the Glass House now,
Aliving memory, of how those little flowers could have grown over me !
'Cos it's hard, duie it's hard,
Harder then you will ever know,
And if ham were under ground,
Would it be ten bob a pound,
And the Pitheadbaths is a Supermarket now."

My clean clothes lockers empty now,
I thrown away the key,
I've thrown away my muffler, and my Lampcheck 253,
But I can't forget the times we had,
the laughing mid'st the fear,
'Cos every time I Cough I get a miners souveneir!
'Cos it's hard, dew it's hard,
Harder then you will ever know,
And if ham were under ground,
Would it be ten bob a pound,
And the Pitheadbaths is a Supermarket now."

"I know a local Magistrate, she's found a job for me,
Though its only pushing buttons in a local factory,
We get coffey breaks and coffey breaks, and the tea is all for free,
And I know that bloody Anthracite has seen the last of me,
'Cos it's hard, dew it's hard,
Harder then you will ever know,
And if ham were under ground,
Would it be ten bob a pound,
And the Pitheadbaths is a Supermarket now."

Words and tune - Max Boyce

Classifies as a folk song 'Cos it is sung by the folk of South Wales.

Bit late tonite, but tommorow a glossary of words and syntax for those who need a translation from South Welsh to English

Gareth

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 07:32 PM

"The Man on the Flying Trapeze" "One Meat Ball"

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: rich-joy
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 01:05 AM

Once again, thanks to those who've helped so far.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
MY DEAR DARWIN (a little number I myself wrote that appeared to have slipped my mind ...

Someone also said to me : what about Alistair Hewlitt's "OLD PUBS" one - what is this please??

Cheers! P-M

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Deckman
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 07:20 AM

"Life Presents A Dismal Picture" "Bring My Savior To Me" (Evelyn Beers)

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: GUEST,joe in the 'pool
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 08:14 AM

Hiya, Many songs by Alex Glasgow will fit the bill, how about 'close the coalhouse door' great stuff! Joe

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: DMcG
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 08:23 AM

Since you want songs about how things were better before (!) perhaps I should have used different lines from "All along the Rossendale":

And the glory that was England dies
Beneath these smoke-blacked hills
And the legend of Jerusalem
With its dark satanic mills

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 01:08 PM

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" recorded by George Jones "These Cowboys" written by Tom Dundee

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 04:59 PM

I agree with Kendall- I think that Alone and Forsaken, as sung by Hank, is perhaps the rawest, most despairing cry I have ever heard.

Guest/5:10, that's a song I'll have to look up. Wow.

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Lanfranc
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 05:15 PM

Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" (in fact, almost anything by Leonard Cohen!)

Si Kahn's "Aragon Mill"

Jacques Brel's "La Mort" or "La Colombe"

Paul Simon's "Most Peculiar Man"

Tom Paxton's "Whose garden was this?"

Woody Guthrie's "I ain't got a home in this world anymore"

On a lighter note, Robin Williamson's "Way Back in the 1960s"

I could go on, but won't - for now!

Alan

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Gareth
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 06:13 PM

And there is Max Boyce's "Rhondda Grey" - Sorry I'll have to dig this one out before posting.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Peg
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 06:22 PM

De Dannan do a nice version of "A Garden Valley" which seems to me a very sad song...

But in the darkness struggle cold
I think about a garden valley
Gentle as the leaves unfold
Singing out across the Tey
Distant and so far away
There is no peace for me.

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 06:24 PM

"The Revel", said to have been sung by Irish soldiers dying of cholera in India in the 18th century. Versions appear in the database under the titles "Here's to the Last to Die" & "We Loop in the Purple Twilight".

We meet neath the sounding rafter,
And the walls around us are bare,
And the dead echo back our laughter,
For they know that we'll soon be there.

Then stand to your glasses steady.
This world is a world of lies.
Here's a sip to the dead already,
And a cup to the next that dies.

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: harvey andrews
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 07:04 PM

HARVEY ANDREWS THE WAITING ROOM

I DON'T LIKE IT HERE IT'S COLD AND IT'S LONELY AND THE LIGHT HAS GONE I STILL REMEMBER WHEN IT ALWAYS SHONE SHONE ON MY VERY, VERY SPECIAL ONE BUT NOW SHE'S GONE AND I DON'T LIKE IT HERE DAY AFTER DAY THE EMPTY HOURS TO FILL DAY AFTER DAY THE HOURS GROW ON THEIR BILL ME, I SIT SILENT AS AN ACT OF WILL REMEMBERING STILL REMEMBERING STILL

WHEN I WASN'T HERE I HAD THE MORNING AND THE CLEAR BLUE SKY I RACED THE RIVER AS THE SUN CLIMBED HIGH MADE LOVE IN SHADOW WHERE WE USED TO LIE MY LOVE AND I....MY LOVE...AND I DON'T LIKE IT HERE THEY TALK LIKE WE'RE CHILDREN IN A NURSERY FOR WE ARE OLD AND SUCH A MYSTERY LOCKED IN THE PRISON OF A HISTORY THEY'LL NEVER SEE

AND I DON'T LIKE IT HERE WAITING FOR GOD TO COME AND FIND MY DOOR AND WHEN HE DOES, MY GOD, HE'LL GET WHAT FOR I'VE BEEN THE BULL HE'S BEEN THE MATADOR ...THE PICADOR...TOREADOR.

WHEN I WASN'T HERE I HAD THE MORNING AND THE CLEAR BLUE SKY I RACED THE RIVER AS THE SUN CLIMBED HIGH MADE LOVE IN SHADOW WHERE WE USED TO LIE MY LOVE AND I....MY LOVE...AND

I DON'T LIKE IT HERE IT'S COLD AND IT'S LONELY AND THE LIGHT HAS GONE I STILL REMEMBER WHEN IT ALWAYS SHONE SHONE ON MY VERY, VERY SPECIAL ONE BUT NOW SHE'S GONE AND…. I DON'T LIKE IT HERE

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WAITING ROOM (Harvey Andrews)
From: harvey andrews
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 07:10 PM

Sorry. I always forget the breaks

THE WAITING ROOM
Harvey Andrews

I don't like it here
It's cold and it's lonely and the light has gone
I still remember when it always shone
Shone on my very, very special one
But now she's gone and

I don't like it here
Day after day the empty hours to fill,
Day after day the hours grow on their bill
Me, I sit silent as an act of will
Remembering still,
Remembering still,

When I wasn't here
I had the morning and the clear blue sky,
I raced the river as the sun climbed high
Made love in shadow where we used to lie
My love and I....my love...and

I don't like it here
They talk like we're children in a nursery
For we are old and such a mystery
Locked in the prison of a history
They'll never see

And I don't like it here
Waiting for god to come and find my door
And when he does, my god, he'll get what for
I've been the bull he's been the matador
...the picador...toreador.

When I wasn't here
I had the morning and the clear blue sky
I raced the river as the sun climbed high
Made love in shadow where we used to lie
My love and I....my love...and

I don't like it here
It's cold and it's lonely and the light has gone
I still remember when it always shone
Shone on my very, very special one
But now she's gone and…
I don't like it here

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 04:36 PM

You forgot the danged capslock too...

- LH

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: SharonA
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 04:55 PM

"Paradise" ("Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County...")

Joni Mitchell's "Urge for Goin' "

The Beatles's "Eleanor Rigby"

And, on an R&B-oriented note: Marvin Gaye, "Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)" ("...things ain't what they used to be")

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Bruce
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:04 PM

Eric Bogle's "Leaving the Land"

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: MMario
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:11 PM

Despair and Pessimism? check out the lyrics in the Russian Folk Song thread!

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: harvey andrews
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:19 PM

what's a capslock?

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Peg
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:29 PM

the caps lock is a key on the left side of your keyboard; it makes everything you type ALL CAPITALS LIKE THIS (which most people do not enjoy reading).

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:57 PM

I'm fond of this one by Australian poet and rabble rouser Henry Lawson (copy and repaste into WORD/Times/12); it has real depth:

THE OUTSIDE TRACK
(Words by Henry Lawson, 1896; original tune by Gerry Hallom © 1982 Primarily from the singing of Australians Margaret Walters and John Warner, Who Was Here?, Feathers & Wedge © 1997 Words and tune modified somewhat by Charlie Ipcar, 2002)

G----------D----------Em------------D--------G
There were ten of us there on that moon-lit quay
-----D-----------A--D--G
And one on the for'ard hatch;
----D---------Em---------D------------G
No straighter man to his mates than he,
----D---------G---D-A
No one could be his match;
-------------D----G—D--------------------G--D
"'Twill be long, old man, 'fore our glass-es clink,
----------------------------------------A
'twill be long 'fore we grasp your hand!"
----------D--------------Em----------D----G
Then we dragged him ashore for a final drink,
---------D------------A---------------G
Till the whole wide world seemed grand.

Chorus:
G--------D-----G----D------------------G----D
For they marry and go, as the world rolls back,
---------------------------------A
They marry and vanish and die;
-----------D-----------Em---------D-------G
But their spirit shall live on the outside track,
---D------------A-------G
As long as the years go by.

The port-lights glowed in the morning mist
That rolled from the waters so green;
And over the railing we grasped his fist
As the dark tide came between;
We cheered the captain, and cheered the crew,
And our own mate, times out of mind;
We cheered the land he was going to,
And the land he 'd left behind. (CHO)

We roared Lang Syne as a last farewell,
But me heart seemed out of joint;
I well remember the hush that fell
As the steamer cleared the point;
We drifted home through the public bars,
We were ten times less by one,
Who'd sailed out under the morning stars,
Into the rising sun. (CHO)

And one by one, and two by two,
They've sailed from the quay since then;
I've said good-bye to the last I knew,
The last of the careless men;
And I can't but think that the times we had
Were the best times after all,
As I turn aside, raise my glass,
And drink to this bar-room wall. (CHO)

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: SharonA
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 06:59 PM

"Those Were the Days" ("...my friend; we thought they'd never end...")

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: harvey andrews
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 07:48 PM

Why don't they enjoy reading it in capitals? (I copied it from my lyric file where it's all in capitals so I can read it when I'm learning it)..but why the anti capitalism?

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 07:55 PM

How about Pete Seeger's Everything is Crap Now Compared to the Early Sixties?

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 07:59 PM

Wagoner's Lad

Hard is the fortune of all womankind...

Subject: RE: Songs of Despair and Pessimism
From: Bruce
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 04:30 AM

Harvey ... perhaps folks simply feel more affinity with the lower cases.