Vox Pop.

[stoutfellow]

At the end of the article on depressing songs, the Post-Dispatch invited readers to make their own nominations. Now, I don't know whether these songs are mentioned in the book, but they certainly did not appear in the original article. Here are the top three reader-nominees:

Alone Again Naturally, Gilbert O'Sullivan. Yes! This is the absolute epitome of depressing songs, junior class.

Cat's in the Cradle, Harry Chapin. And this one's top-of-the-charts in the senior class.

Downbound Train, Bruce Springsteen. On the money again (although the songs from his 9/11 album, especially "My City's In Ruins", hit me harder - so hard that I made only one attempt to listen to the album, and shut it off after about three songs).

It's almost enough to make me believe in this "democracy" thing...

Comments

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Be concerned then.

The only other post-1980 songs mentioned in the article were: George Jones, "He Stopped Loving Her Today"; Portishead, "Roads"; and R.E.M., "Everybody Hurts". (There may, of course, have been some editorial or reportorial filtering.)

[pompe.livejournal.com]

Joy Division ceased to exist in 1980 - band member suicide, of course. Arguably one of the most important (and depressing) bands of the late 1970's, huge influence on 1980's and 1990's rock/pop. Most famous song: "Love Will Tear Us Apart".