I enjoy times when I’m gleefully happy. But I also enjoy melancholy, which quite often comes out in my musical tastes. Here are some of my favourite melancholy songs, and why I like them.
I’m not going to include any instrumental songs here, though I could. I find instrumental songs so abstract that what I consider to be melancholic someone else could experience a totally different way. This is also mostly a study of the lyrics of my favourite sad songs.
Honestly, I think people either prefer lyrics or melody in music. For me, lyrics is the main thing, though you can hardly have one without the other.
Sad songs say so much by Elton John
Had to include this, since I lifted the title straight from this song. I love the irony of the line “when all hope is gone / tune in and turn ‘em on”, like that’s going to help at all.
But, as the line goes, misery does like company.
Sweetheart Like You by Bob Dylan
Sweetheart like you is one of my favourite down-and-out songs. I say that because the narrator (it’s not Bob, it’s never Bob) seems to be in a bad place. I get the idea that the setting is some greasy spoon restaurant on the wrong side of town, and that he is facing a crippling loss of some kind.
The trauma of that kind of loss can sometimes make us reach out and focus on others as a kind of coping mechanism. We don’t want to think about ourselves so we invest ourselves in others.
The narrator is trying to give hope to someone else who perhaps is living with a challenging situation not unlike his own albeit with slightly more stability, enough that they can hold down a job at least.
Key West by Bob Dylan
I can’t go without mentioning Key West here. In my mind’s eye I see the narrator (Bob?) spending his final days looking out to sea from this location. He’s singing about finding immortality but in reality knowing it beyond his grasp.
Bob is getting on a bit now, and that makes this song even more poignant.
Aberdaron by Bwncath
The Welsh language music scene is incredible. I have purchased so many tracks and full albums from Welsh artists in the last year, not just as an exercise for language learning, but just because I enjoy them so much. Aberdaron is one I find myself thinking about again and again.
The lead singer’s striking vocals really lean into this song, accompanied by the thought provoking lyrics which focus on a time in the narrator’s future where they can rest in a homely cottage by the sea, take their ease “beyond all praise and judgement” and gaze out to the rocks of Aberdaron.
The real stinger in the story is that, if you know the town in question, the best view of the rocks is from the graveyard just up from the beach.
Fin
That’s it I guess. Thought I had a few more to talk about, but it seems I don’t.