According to a new survey, a randomly queried set of Britons have identifed as the Saddest Song Ever REM's dirgelike "Everybody Hurts." I'm not convinced. The others named are really no better, taking in songs from the mawkish ("Candle in the Wind," for God's sake) to the bombastic ("My Way" - !) to the simply mystifying (are there really people who burst into tears when hearing "Seasons in the Sun"?). A few genuinely are misery-inducing ("Eleanor Rigby," for one, not to mention "Leavin' on a Jet Plane," which can still get me when the mood is just right), but on the whole, I think it's at best a highly incomplete sampling.
For example, not a single song by Janis Ian appears on the list, and that seems to me an egregious oversight. Making up for that, here we have a live rendition of her "Tea and Sympathy" (from an Israeli TV show a few decades ago, a number likely too lugubrious, I fear, for the definitely un-depressing Redundant Variety Hour...). Listening, keep in mind that this is probably not even one of Janis's top-ten tearfests - this is the woman, after all, who came up with "At Seventeen," "In the Winter," and "Breaking Silence," just to grab three titles from her woebegone catalogue.
Long ago and far away, I worked a Janis Ian show, and even then it was a surprise that she was actually a funny, feisty, and fairly completely non-lachrymose personage. More recent videos show that, even though she remains a master of sorrow (not to mention having become rather startlingly lesbo-matronly), this is still the case, which is somehow very nice to know - I would have to think that five decades of making people cry would get to you, somehow.
And to think we haven't even started on the hardcore stuff - "Strange Fruit," anybody? "Anyone who had a Heart"? And let's not even bring up "Puff the Magic Dragon"...
Elvis Presley. First Album. "Old Shep". It's about a dying dog, for chrissakes, a Dying Dog! Just knowing I was going to have to type the words Old Shep filled me with remorse so deep that I must go recline.
ReplyDeleteNot one Dolly Parton on the list - what about her fantastic tear-jerker "Letter to Heaven" for goodness sake? It has me in tears (of laughter) every time... Jx
ReplyDeletealmost everything from the WWII era..
ReplyDeletestardust, my buddy, p.s. i love you
and the once upon a time, way overplayed
the way it is by bruce hornsby.
Don't get me started on sad songs. Just don't.
ReplyDeleteA while back I discovered the wacky side of Janis Ian. She did a duet with none other than Howard Stern---a parody of "At Seventeen", no less!
(Thanks for the Redundant shout-out, honey!)
Some friends and I went to an outdoor Janis Ian show a few years ago and it was so yawn-inducing, we wound up sitting there reading the New York Times. At least it was a Sunday edition.
ReplyDeleteI have it on the very good authority of One Who Entertained The Troops that, in the right hands, "P.S. I Love You" can be a weapon of mass destruction.
ReplyDeleteBut you never know what's going to hit someone. I had a childhood friend who, 'round about six or so, used to weep hearing "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean." Tearfully, he'd just be able to choke out, "But...his bunny...is DWOWNING!" (did I mention that that we met in speech therapy?)
As for either Wacky Stern Janis of Somniferous Park Concert Janis - well, we all have our days, don't we?
Oh, bring back my bunny to me!
ReplyDelete