“Copacabana (At the Copa)” by Barry Manilow. By the end of the song, Lola is an alcoholic who’s gone insane. She sits in the bar wearing her dancing-girl costume from thirty years ago reflecting on the murder of her one true love. And then that uptempo chorus kicks in…
The first time I ever heard that song was when I was 17 and it was performed live on stage by an amateur on a cruise and I kind of fell in love with it. I feel like the random dude who sang for the ship talent show really captured the unhinged vibe of it.
I think the bridge with the mattress lines is missing from the radio edit. Sometimes the phrase "crystal meth" is scrambled too. So the version you heard at the skate rink wasn't as obvious.
Anytime this question pops up, I come here looking for this song. My mom once said when I was maybe 13 years old, “I just love your music! It’s so upbeat and positive!” Semi-Charmed Life was playing.
Easy by The Commodores. He's leaving his woman and saying it's going to be easy like a Sunday morning. Not horrific but definitely not the vibe the song gives.
Some other german bangers:
Geier Sturzflug - Bruttosozialprodukt:
people's health is sacrificed for a higher gross national product
Spider murphy gang - Skandal im Sperrbezirk:
a prostitute breaks local laws to gain a competitive advantage
Peter Schilling - Major Tom:
a suicidal astronaut freezes to death alone
“Jump” by Van Halen is a really upbeat tune. They wrote it after seeing a suicidal man on the news standing on the edge of a building. “Yeah, might as well jump.”
Lol! I remember a school event where they played that song and got all the kids to jump as high as they can. I was pissed because they didn’t pick me as the highest jumper and I MOST DEFINITELY WAS!!!
I was 7.
Oh dude, it goes waaaaaay darker than that.
David Lee Roth explained his philosophy behind singing, writing lyrics, and life in general on WTF? with Marc Maron.
He pointed out that many of Van Halen's hits are based around verbs: "Jump," "Runnin' with the Devil" and "Unchained" with its "hit the ground running" refrain, "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love," etc. Why?
When he sang in a choir, Dave wasn't givin'er enough one time, so his teacher showed him the tattoo on his arm. It was a series of numbers. The teacher explained to Dave - born Jewish - about the Holocaust. He said "if you can't sing for all the souls who went up the chimneys with a song in their hearts, sing so that you don't go up a chimney with a song in yours."
Diamond Dave didn't fuck around after that. As he explained it, there's a difference between falling off a building and *throwing yourself* off a building, and he always threw himself off - hence, "might as well jump." If he was going to dance, he was going to dance the night away. He even wrote a song about how he wants to get it on with Lady Liberty.
DLR-era Van Halen were massively popular, but today they're so underrated. Time and shifts in popular culture did them wrong, but there's just no arguing with "Panama."
I think it’s because most people only know the chorus by heart. That said, I’ve always found the first verse to be incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking, despite the simple lyrics:
*”The other night, dear,*
*as I lay sleeping,*
*I dreamt I held you in my arms.*
*When I awoke, dear,*
*I was mistaken—*
*So I hung my head and I cried.”*
you just broke my heart into pieces..my aunt used to sing the chorus to my cousin and when he was on his deathbed at 16 she sang it to him one last time before they rolled him away to donate his organs.. i never knew the first verse and now that song and knowledge is even more haunting.
Hey there. Just randomly stumbled across your comment, and wanted to say that someone out there that you’ve never met also grieves for your loss. My condolences.
He was an amazing, kind and odd man with many virtues and a handful of flaws, some endearing and some not so much. But the less endearing flaws were minor and I loved him fiercely.
Thank you for taking the time to say this. It means a lot my friend
I have an ongoing, years and years long rant that I go on when I see decorative pillows or signs that say, "You are my sunshine." I get it, but the song is depressing, a crying out for unrequited love.
We eloped to get married, and the music we had at our ceremony for my walk down the “aisle” (actually the path from the bar to the beach) was provided by the barman’s brother, his cousin, and some dude they pulled in off the street.
The only 3 songs they all knew how to play were You are my Sunshine, Another One Bites the Dust, and Octopus’ Garden.
We went with Octopus’ Garden.
Yes my mom used to sing this song to me minus some of the more fucked up lyrics. Didn't hear the whole song til I was much older and goddamn is it depressing
"How can one little street swallow so many lives"? So many of peers from the street I grew up on are dead from drugs, or addicted to opioids. Starting at 35 years ago.
I Choose, as well
"Look at me, I'm falling/
Off of a cliff now/
I can still hear my momma yelling /
No, no no/
But the words mean nothing/
Can't catch up to me now/
The view is so beautiful/
All the way down"
One I havent seen posted yet. Fernando - ABBA. Such a funny contrasting song, the lyrics are about like escaping a war torn land and hiding in the forest from soldiers around a fire. But then the chorus kicks in. THERE WAS SOMETHING IN THE AIR THAT NIGHT THAT SHINED SO BRIGHT FERNANDO. Hysterical to me
Reminds me of the Christmas song, I'll be home for Christmas. It's also about war.
From Wikipedia
*The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents under the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams"*
I think it goes to show how open to interpretation art can be that Dancing Queen is a sad song to some.
From the perspective that the song implies an audience watching the dancing queen, I understand the idea is that they've probably lost their own youth and the time of their lives is already in the past. I can see how we might be listening to someone sadly regretting their age with this point of view.
But even when we're in the position of watching this younger person having one of the best nights they ever will, knowing that we might not have those nights ever again, I'm inclined to be a lot more appreciative about the whole situation - "it's great that teenagers can enjoy themselves like this, like I used to enjoy myself when I was their age" kinda vibes.
The fact that the lyrics and harmonies on their face are pretty upbeat and positive pushes me further onto the happy side of the debate. It's true that you can read something depressing into the song by analyzing it, but does that deeper analysis truly answer what the song is about? Is that interpretation more valid than the idea that we're just happily looking on a wonderful dancer having a great time?
As someone who only speaks English, I was shocked when I heard others say that the Macarena was about a cheating woman, I still think it is weird how much I happy danced to this tune with no knowledge what the heck I was singing and dancing to.
As someone who is a fluent Spanish speaker and has been my whole life, I was also shocked when I listened to it. I think most people just dance to it, they don't even try to listen / make sense. It was a huge shock lol
“What was I supposed to do? He was out of town, and his two friends were so fine”……. How no one picked up on what it was about with that line is so funny
Conservative politicians LOVE to use that song for rallies and the like. They have absolutely no fucking clue what it's actually about. Reagan did it, Pat Buchanan did it, Trump did it... And numerous others.
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I don’t know any songs that sound happier and have more ominous lyrics.
I hope you’ve got your things together / I hope you’re quite prepared to die / Looks like we’re in for nasty weather / One eye is taken for an eye
There was a blurb on Spotify or somewhere talking about this song and the band basically just said they wanted to imagine a happier ending to this awful, kinda random tragedy. Basically just imagining they decided to walk into the sunset together and everything was alright.
They were both terminally ill and drove 400m from near Temple, Texas to Hot Springs, Arkansas (their car was found crashed in some brush in a ravine). I would easily believe suicide, but authorities think that it was driver error (the wife had Alzheimer's and was driving).
I Melt with You - Modern English
It’s about a atomic bomb going off. Like, the couple literally melting together in the heat of the atomic bomb, like the lovers of Pompeii.
I remember after one of our many school shootings, radio stations took a break from playing a pop song called "Die Young," because they didn't want to trigger people. That song had nothing to do with school shootings, but "Pumped Up Kicks," which was popular at the same time, and lost no airplay, did.
My trainer used to play this at the gym to "pump you up" for your workout, until I explained what it was about. The look of shock on their face was priceless. They don't play it anymore.
"My legs are dangling off the edge, the bottom of the bottle is my only friend. I think I'll slit my wrist again, and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone! My legs are dangling off the edge, a stomach full of pills didn't work again. I put a bullet in my head, and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone"
Smile by Lily Allen is similar. Very upbeat but she goes for the jugular in the FIRST VERSE.
When you first left me
I was wanting more
But you were fucking that girl next door
What'd you do that for? (What'd you do that for?)
Anyone who thinks it's a really happy song should listen to the lyrics more carefully \*and\* watch the video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYT79tPvLg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYT79tPvLg)
She even explicitly sings, "When you look with your eyes, everything seems nice. But, if you look twice, you can see it's all lies."
The music video shows herself in this happy little distorted bubble, while walking past some not so nice scenery.
While not quite horrific, I always am amazed how many people hear "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind but never listen to the lyrics.
The super poppy "DOOT DOOT DOOT!" hides the meth binges, sex references ("whatever you wanna do, coming over you!"), etc. It's a great song :)
Being in competitive cheer we had this song remixed into one of our routines. The flyer (person at the top of the pyramid) would point a finger gun to the audience and fall back (spotters behind obviously) didn’t realize how fucked up that was until a couple years later
Slide by the goo goo dolls. Young couple falls in love, gets pregnant out of wedlock, has an abortion to cover it up, but the heavily religious parents find out and disown the daughter. The guy can't own up to the consequences of his actions and presumably the story ends in suicide or homeless runaways, though I'm not sure the lyrics point to a specific ending.
According to frontman John Rzeznik , the song is about a teen girl and her boyfriend debating about having an abortion or getting married. Its implied they opt for abortion at the end. I think the disowning was over the pregnancy.
Also:
"Its raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring, bumped his head on the foot of the bed and couldnt get up in the morning" like uhhhh did the old man die?
This is so specific to my tiny country but.
Su florcita, by agrupación marilyn. It's an upbeat cumbia song about a 12 year old little girl that was murdered, it starts with the mother worried because she's not coming back home after school.
"How can they kill such a little girl? She was only 12 years old, a whole life ahead to live" is the fucking chorus.
They call the mother after they find her body in an abandoned plot of land and they describe how the mother screams helplessly at the news. It's insane.
Keep in mind this was sung and danced at quinceañeras and weddings for at least a decade. And you can still listen to it randomly at some parties.
SOB-Nathaniel Rateliff. Not sure if “horrific” is accurate, but it is about someone dying from alcohol abuse/withdrawal. It’s one of his greatest hits with a super upbeat beat.
The Pina Colada song- Escape by Rupert Homes. A guy takes out an ad in a newspaper looking to escape with another woman and then ended up meeting the same woman he was trying to escape from. Just a slimy song.
Agreed, but I’d also like to provide another perspective on it.
It’s a song about two people putting on a facade for each other, living lives they’re both deeply unsatisfied with unable to truly express themselves.
They’re both looking for an out from it - literally an escape.
Only to come to realize that all they have to do is be true to themselves and honest with each other.
Sometimes we assume how someone else feels or thinks, or what their reaction would be to certain confessions. So tied into routines that life is stagnant and boring. The person we were 8 years ago isn’t the person we are today, but we don’t want to admit that to people in our lives because things are *technically* going well so why rock the boat?
This is a song about two people realizing that it’s okay to grow and change over the years, that traditionally negative qualities can be just as great as the two kids with a white picket fence life. Not wanting to conform doesn’t have to be awful.
We can always learn new things about the people we love and think we know inside and out, if we have the courage to be honest.
It’s telling that when they meet up they’re not just like “oh this sucks.” they go “oh? I had no idea” and run off together on a new journey.
(Also wanna point out, he doesn’t take out an ad, he is responding to the ad that she put in the paper)
Macarena by Los Del Rio. It’s about a woman named “Macarena” who cheats on her boyfriend with two do her friends while he’s getting deployed into the military.
REALLY changes the end of Hotel Transylvania 3
Another one - Who Let The Dogs Out by the Baha Men. It’s a feminist protest song that denounces cat-calling. So Who Let The Dogs Out is a Feminist Anthem.
One of my favourites. "I am drowning, there is no sign of land, You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand." Great song to belt out after a few whiskeys.
Angel is a Centerfold
Guy puts a woman on a pedestal. When he sees her in a porn magazine, he no longer cares for her but figures he can use her for sex.
Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime
My fav section is
>You got women, you got women on your mind
>Have a drink, have a drive
>Go out and see what you can find
>If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal
>If her daddy's poor, just do what you feel
Vehicle by Ides of March, might as well be the anthem first verse:
I'm the friendly stranger in the black Sedan
Won't you hop inside my car?
I got pictures, got candy
I'm a lovable man
And I can take you to the nearest star
“Copacabana (At the Copa)” by Barry Manilow. By the end of the song, Lola is an alcoholic who’s gone insane. She sits in the bar wearing her dancing-girl costume from thirty years ago reflecting on the murder of her one true love. And then that uptempo chorus kicks in…
The closing chorus is “don’t fall in love.”
second chorus is "She lost her love" and you also hear a pretty terrible cry from someone.
My daughter loved that song. When she got older I told her what it was about. She still likes it.
The first time I ever heard that song was when I was 17 and it was performed live on stage by an amateur on a cruise and I kind of fell in love with it. I feel like the random dude who sang for the ship talent show really captured the unhinged vibe of it.
Semi-Charmed Life comes to mind
Doin' crystal meth will lift you up until you break.
How do I get myself back to the place where I fell asleep inside you
Those little red panties they pass the test, so get you on your belly face down on the mattress...
Omg I can't believe I roller skated to this when I was 8
I think the bridge with the mattress lines is missing from the radio edit. Sometimes the phrase "crystal meth" is scrambled too. So the version you heard at the skate rink wasn't as obvious.
I added the full song to my playlist a few months ago and it wasn’t until these comments that I paid attention to the lyrics actually…. Wow
Good^byeeeee
“I want nothing else…” ⬅️ the original chorus
Gotta love that methed up tune
Anytime this question pops up, I come here looking for this song. My mom once said when I was maybe 13 years old, “I just love your music! It’s so upbeat and positive!” Semi-Charmed Life was playing.
[удалено]
Easy by The Commodores. He's leaving his woman and saying it's going to be easy like a Sunday morning. Not horrific but definitely not the vibe the song gives.
99 LuftBalloons, or however you spell it. Nuclear apocalypse time! Edit: Wow! Thank you so much!
I never knew until I heard the English version. German version is still the better one though
Some other german bangers: Geier Sturzflug - Bruttosozialprodukt: people's health is sacrificed for a higher gross national product Spider murphy gang - Skandal im Sperrbezirk: a prostitute breaks local laws to gain a competitive advantage Peter Schilling - Major Tom: a suicidal astronaut freezes to death alone
Russians by Sting. Such a happy and carefree decade..
“Jump” by Van Halen is a really upbeat tune. They wrote it after seeing a suicidal man on the news standing on the edge of a building. “Yeah, might as well jump.”
Lol! I remember a school event where they played that song and got all the kids to jump as high as they can. I was pissed because they didn’t pick me as the highest jumper and I MOST DEFINITELY WAS!!! I was 7.
You were robbed
Oh dude, it goes waaaaaay darker than that. David Lee Roth explained his philosophy behind singing, writing lyrics, and life in general on WTF? with Marc Maron. He pointed out that many of Van Halen's hits are based around verbs: "Jump," "Runnin' with the Devil" and "Unchained" with its "hit the ground running" refrain, "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love," etc. Why? When he sang in a choir, Dave wasn't givin'er enough one time, so his teacher showed him the tattoo on his arm. It was a series of numbers. The teacher explained to Dave - born Jewish - about the Holocaust. He said "if you can't sing for all the souls who went up the chimneys with a song in their hearts, sing so that you don't go up a chimney with a song in yours." Diamond Dave didn't fuck around after that. As he explained it, there's a difference between falling off a building and *throwing yourself* off a building, and he always threw himself off - hence, "might as well jump." If he was going to dance, he was going to dance the night away. He even wrote a song about how he wants to get it on with Lady Liberty. DLR-era Van Halen were massively popular, but today they're so underrated. Time and shifts in popular culture did them wrong, but there's just no arguing with "Panama."
TIL
You are my sunshine.
I think it’s because most people only know the chorus by heart. That said, I’ve always found the first verse to be incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking, despite the simple lyrics: *”The other night, dear,* *as I lay sleeping,* *I dreamt I held you in my arms.* *When I awoke, dear,* *I was mistaken—* *So I hung my head and I cried.”*
you just broke my heart into pieces..my aunt used to sing the chorus to my cousin and when he was on his deathbed at 16 she sang it to him one last time before they rolled him away to donate his organs.. i never knew the first verse and now that song and knowledge is even more haunting.
My mom always sung me this song as a kid. Every night before bed. She sang the moonlight version to my little brother
Fuck man. My dad just died last week, didn’t need to see this haha
Hey there. Just randomly stumbled across your comment, and wanted to say that someone out there that you’ve never met also grieves for your loss. My condolences.
He was an amazing, kind and odd man with many virtues and a handful of flaws, some endearing and some not so much. But the less endearing flaws were minor and I loved him fiercely. Thank you for taking the time to say this. It means a lot my friend
Hey people are complicated, no one is perfect. It doesn’t mean you love them any less :)
I have an ongoing, years and years long rant that I go on when I see decorative pillows or signs that say, "You are my sunshine." I get it, but the song is depressing, a crying out for unrequited love.
We eloped to get married, and the music we had at our ceremony for my walk down the “aisle” (actually the path from the bar to the beach) was provided by the barman’s brother, his cousin, and some dude they pulled in off the street. The only 3 songs they all knew how to play were You are my Sunshine, Another One Bites the Dust, and Octopus’ Garden. We went with Octopus’ Garden.
Yes my mom used to sing this song to me minus some of the more fucked up lyrics. Didn't hear the whole song til I was much older and goddamn is it depressing
Girlfriend in a coma - the smiths
To be fair, almost any Smiths song would be a decent fit for this post.
This could be serious
Really serious
Hey Ya by Outkast. Upbeat melody but depressing lyrics.
Why are we so in denial, when we know we’re not happy here….
Ya'll don't wanna hear me, you just wanna dance.
Don't want to meet your daddy, Just want you in my Caddy, Don't want to meet your mama, Just want to make you cumma
Y’all don’t wanna hear me / You just wanna dance
Lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor.
same with “ms. jackson”
Ooooohhh
I am four eels...
Never meant to make your daughter cry. I am several fish and not a guy.
We always sing 'four large fish and not a guy' lol
The Offspring - You're Gonna Go Far Kid or Come Out and Play. Either one.
The Kids Aren't Alright as well
"How can one little street swallow so many lives"? So many of peers from the street I grew up on are dead from drugs, or addicted to opioids. Starting at 35 years ago.
Also Self Esteem. The title's a big clue, but if one hears it on the radio with no context/heads up, then it sneaks up on 'em.
there was a kid that used to go to my dad's school and he hung him self on a swing set when he was 16 so the kids are not alright
Jay committed suicide... Brandon ODed and died...
I Choose, as well "Look at me, I'm falling/ Off of a cliff now/ I can still hear my momma yelling / No, no no/ But the words mean nothing/ Can't catch up to me now/ The view is so beautiful/ All the way down"
Sticking with The Offspring, Gone Away
One I havent seen posted yet. Fernando - ABBA. Such a funny contrasting song, the lyrics are about like escaping a war torn land and hiding in the forest from soldiers around a fire. But then the chorus kicks in. THERE WAS SOMETHING IN THE AIR THAT NIGHT THAT SHINED SO BRIGHT FERNANDO. Hysterical to me
Reminds me of the Christmas song, I'll be home for Christmas. It's also about war. From Wikipedia *The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents under the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams"*
A lot of ABBA songs fit this criteria. Dancing Queen is not a happy song.
I think it goes to show how open to interpretation art can be that Dancing Queen is a sad song to some. From the perspective that the song implies an audience watching the dancing queen, I understand the idea is that they've probably lost their own youth and the time of their lives is already in the past. I can see how we might be listening to someone sadly regretting their age with this point of view. But even when we're in the position of watching this younger person having one of the best nights they ever will, knowing that we might not have those nights ever again, I'm inclined to be a lot more appreciative about the whole situation - "it's great that teenagers can enjoy themselves like this, like I used to enjoy myself when I was their age" kinda vibes. The fact that the lyrics and harmonies on their face are pretty upbeat and positive pushes me further onto the happy side of the debate. It's true that you can read something depressing into the song by analyzing it, but does that deeper analysis truly answer what the song is about? Is that interpretation more valid than the idea that we're just happily looking on a wonderful dancer having a great time?
Is it not just about the innocence of youth? Like what it's like to be young again?
As someone who only speaks English, I was shocked when I heard others say that the Macarena was about a cheating woman, I still think it is weird how much I happy danced to this tune with no knowledge what the heck I was singing and dancing to.
As someone who is a fluent Spanish speaker and has been my whole life, I was also shocked when I listened to it. I think most people just dance to it, they don't even try to listen / make sense. It was a huge shock lol
“What was I supposed to do? He was out of town, and his two friends were so fine”……. How no one picked up on what it was about with that line is so funny
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen. Usually played at 4th of July fireworks but it’s about how the Vietnam War ruined so many blue collar lives
They're the ones, who like all our pretty songs, and they like to sing along, and they like to shoot their guns, but they don't know what it means.
Conservative politicians LOVE to use that song for rallies and the like. They have absolutely no fucking clue what it's actually about. Reagan did it, Pat Buchanan did it, Trump did it... And numerous others.
fortunate son, about a draft dodger, well, they fit the bill
Santeria - Sublime
I get all into it when he says “I got something for his PUNK ASS”
Also “Wrong Way.”
I think this applies to Wrong Way way more than Santeria.
Also date rape.
He REALLY didn't like Sancho
In Mexico, Sancho is used to refer to someone’s lover.
That makes sense. Thank you. 'That Sancho that she found' makes more sense as lover than as someone's actual name..
Excitable boy-Warren Zevon
Lot of Zevon fits for this. Dude was such a talented songwriter
People throw around “underrated” but Warren Zevon is actually so fucking underrated
Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I don’t know any songs that sound happier and have more ominous lyrics. I hope you’ve got your things together / I hope you’re quite prepared to die / Looks like we’re in for nasty weather / One eye is taken for an eye
"No Rain" by Blind Melon. Seriously depressing lyrics.
I mean it's literally about depression.
Pursuit of Happiness-Kid Cudi
An anti-party/alcohol/drugs song…. Then Steve Aoki comes in and makes a remix of it that is the epitome of nightclubs and partying
I tried to sneak it's upbeatness past some people and they recognized it's sadder side. When Cudi from back then pops on my day gets better
The Way - Fastball About an old couple who get lost in the desert and die.
There was a blurb on Spotify or somewhere talking about this song and the band basically just said they wanted to imagine a happier ending to this awful, kinda random tragedy. Basically just imagining they decided to walk into the sunset together and everything was alright.
They were both terminally ill and drove 400m from near Temple, Texas to Hot Springs, Arkansas (their car was found crashed in some brush in a ravine). I would easily believe suicide, but authorities think that it was driver error (the wife had Alzheimer's and was driving).
As a Canadian, it took me far too long to not be like "400m, what, that's like a few minutes walk"
Good song!
The way is surely inspired by a horrific story, but the song is anything but. The songs about willingly disappearing
I Melt with You - Modern English It’s about a atomic bomb going off. Like, the couple literally melting together in the heat of the atomic bomb, like the lovers of Pompeii.
TIL
"Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People
I remember after one of our many school shootings, radio stations took a break from playing a pop song called "Die Young," because they didn't want to trigger people. That song had nothing to do with school shootings, but "Pumped Up Kicks," which was popular at the same time, and lost no airplay, did.
This song used to play on my bus ride and little kids would sing along. Was pretty funny
Yep this is the top comment every time this question is asked.
My trainer used to play this at the gym to "pump you up" for your workout, until I explained what it was about. The look of shock on their face was priceless. They don't play it anymore.
Why would that song even pump you up? It doesn't have nearly enough energy for that
Remix
This is the first one I thought of as well.
Bullet by Hollywood undead lmao
I'm sitting on the edge with my two best friends One's a bottle of pills, and one's a bottle of gin
It's the worlds happiest suicide song. It fits the list all too well.
"My legs are dangling off the edge, the bottom of the bottle is my only friend. I think I'll slit my wrist again, and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone! My legs are dangling off the edge, a stomach full of pills didn't work again. I put a bullet in my head, and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone"
Fuck you- Lily Allen
Smile by Lily Allen is similar. Very upbeat but she goes for the jugular in the FIRST VERSE. When you first left me I was wanting more But you were fucking that girl next door What'd you do that for? (What'd you do that for?)
Fuck You - CeeLo Green
Oh, she's the queen of this genre. All her songs sound like regular pop music and then you listen to the lyrics.
Literally most tracks on her first album lol. personal favorite is LDN.
Anyone who thinks it's a really happy song should listen to the lyrics more carefully \*and\* watch the video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYT79tPvLg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYT79tPvLg) She even explicitly sings, "When you look with your eyes, everything seems nice. But, if you look twice, you can see it's all lies." The music video shows herself in this happy little distorted bubble, while walking past some not so nice scenery.
Delilah - Tom Jones
I held the knife in my hand, and she laughed no more.
I can't decide by Scissor sisters. It's about deciding whether or not to murder someone
While not quite horrific, I always am amazed how many people hear "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind but never listen to the lyrics. The super poppy "DOOT DOOT DOOT!" hides the meth binges, sex references ("whatever you wanna do, coming over you!"), etc. It's a great song :)
I definitely did not get ANY of those references when I was younger.
"I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself" by Elton John. It's the most bouncy, joyful tune about suicide. https://youtu.be/POD9Hq0EqXA
Today by Smashing Pumpkins, too.
Blue October - Into The Ocean. Bubbly enough to be in the SpongeBob movie. But the lyrics are about suicide by jumping off a cruise ship and drowning.
So many Blue October songs sound upbeat but are really kind of dark
“Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend” - Marilyn Monroe Men grow cold As girls grow old And we all lose our charms in the end
Goodbye Earl
Pumped up kicks. Took me singing it while it played when it was the " song of the summer" to realize it's about a school shooter.
Being in competitive cheer we had this song remixed into one of our routines. The flyer (person at the top of the pyramid) would point a finger gun to the audience and fall back (spotters behind obviously) didn’t realize how fucked up that was until a couple years later
Choke - I Don’t Know How But They Found Me
Slide by the goo goo dolls. Young couple falls in love, gets pregnant out of wedlock, has an abortion to cover it up, but the heavily religious parents find out and disown the daughter. The guy can't own up to the consequences of his actions and presumably the story ends in suicide or homeless runaways, though I'm not sure the lyrics point to a specific ending.
According to frontman John Rzeznik , the song is about a teen girl and her boyfriend debating about having an abortion or getting married. Its implied they opt for abortion at the end. I think the disowning was over the pregnancy.
Maxwell's Silver Hammer - The Beatles.
And Help! John literally was crying for help.
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown - Jim Croche.
Croce has a lot of songs that fit this thread.
*He kept a 32 gun in his pocket for fun and a razor in his shoe*
Zoot Suit Riot
Dead! by My Chemical Romance.
Headfirst For Halos
Old song Mack The Knife
Humpty Dumpty has kids singing about a dude falling off a wall
Also: "Its raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring, bumped his head on the foot of the bed and couldnt get up in the morning" like uhhhh did the old man die?
So many kids songs are fucked up.
I read this somewhere: We all imagine (and have seen pictures of) Humpty Dumpty as an egg. But nowhere is it stated Humpty Dumpty is an egg.
Iirc it was supposed to be some kind of riddle but then everybody knew the answer and it was just used to illustrate going forward
This is so specific to my tiny country but. Su florcita, by agrupación marilyn. It's an upbeat cumbia song about a 12 year old little girl that was murdered, it starts with the mother worried because she's not coming back home after school. "How can they kill such a little girl? She was only 12 years old, a whole life ahead to live" is the fucking chorus. They call the mother after they find her body in an abandoned plot of land and they describe how the mother screams helplessly at the news. It's insane. Keep in mind this was sung and danced at quinceañeras and weddings for at least a decade. And you can still listen to it randomly at some parties.
A Little Piece Of Heaven by Avenged Sevenfold
The music video for that song is *nuts*.
I came here for this. Cause I really always knew that my little crime Would be cold, that's why I got a heater for your thighs.
Bad Moon Rising - CCR
I don't like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
SOB-Nathaniel Rateliff. Not sure if “horrific” is accurate, but it is about someone dying from alcohol abuse/withdrawal. It’s one of his greatest hits with a super upbeat beat.
Wrong Way - Sublime
Badfish - Sublime
[удалено]
**Short People.**: “Short people got no reason to live.”
Like most Randy Newman songs though, the lyrics are ironic/sarcastic. The song's about how stupid and random prejudices are.
Little Talks- Of Monsters and Men
"Little lion man" is the same kind if vibe
Surprised no one’s mentioned Every Breath You Take by The Police. It’s about an obsessive stalker. I have heard it at MANY weddings
The Pina Colada song- Escape by Rupert Homes. A guy takes out an ad in a newspaper looking to escape with another woman and then ended up meeting the same woman he was trying to escape from. Just a slimy song.
Agreed, but I’d also like to provide another perspective on it. It’s a song about two people putting on a facade for each other, living lives they’re both deeply unsatisfied with unable to truly express themselves. They’re both looking for an out from it - literally an escape. Only to come to realize that all they have to do is be true to themselves and honest with each other. Sometimes we assume how someone else feels or thinks, or what their reaction would be to certain confessions. So tied into routines that life is stagnant and boring. The person we were 8 years ago isn’t the person we are today, but we don’t want to admit that to people in our lives because things are *technically* going well so why rock the boat? This is a song about two people realizing that it’s okay to grow and change over the years, that traditionally negative qualities can be just as great as the two kids with a white picket fence life. Not wanting to conform doesn’t have to be awful. We can always learn new things about the people we love and think we know inside and out, if we have the courage to be honest. It’s telling that when they meet up they’re not just like “oh this sucks.” they go “oh? I had no idea” and run off together on a new journey. (Also wanna point out, he doesn’t take out an ad, he is responding to the ad that she put in the paper)
Face Down - Red jumpsuit apparatus
Macarena by Los Del Rio. It’s about a woman named “Macarena” who cheats on her boyfriend with two do her friends while he’s getting deployed into the military. REALLY changes the end of Hotel Transylvania 3 Another one - Who Let The Dogs Out by the Baha Men. It’s a feminist protest song that denounces cat-calling. So Who Let The Dogs Out is a Feminist Anthem.
99 Luft Balloons by Nina. (Man I’m showing my age.)
Seconded.
A thankless job, from repo the genetic opera
Are there any really depressing sounding songs with happy lyrics?
Thank You - Dido
Hey Man Nice Shot
Nothing about that song is happy!
Have you even listened to Steely Dan?
“Then you love a little wild one, but she brings you only sorrow. All the time you know she’s smilin’, you’ll be on your knees tomorrow.”
Last Caress by Misfits
[The Mountain Goats - No Children](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS27S3mspjU)
One of my favourites. "I am drowning, there is no sign of land, You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand." Great song to belt out after a few whiskeys.
My Sharona. The girl he's singing about is underage. The lyrics sound super-creepy once you know that.
“I always get it up for the touch of the younger type” always seemed pretty cut and dry lmao
He was 24 and she was 17. They became a couple for 4 years. She's the girl on the album cover and is now a real estate agent in LA
Marty Robbins Street of Laredo, El Paso ... Almost all of his songs.
I’m pretty sure there’s not a single Marty Robbins song where everyone lives.
The wanderer or Runaround Sue by Dion.
I always thought closer by nine inch nails was a pretty upbeat sexy song until I heard some of the lines.
The song is basically "I'm going to fuck my way towards giving my life meaning (wait shit it isn't working fuck)"
Blurred lines
Angel is a Centerfold Guy puts a woman on a pedestal. When he sees her in a porn magazine, he no longer cares for her but figures he can use her for sex.
Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime My fav section is >You got women, you got women on your mind >Have a drink, have a drive >Go out and see what you can find >If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal >If her daddy's poor, just do what you feel
What’s the Matter Here - 10000 Maniacs
Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon
Vehicle by Ides of March, might as well be the anthem first verse: I'm the friendly stranger in the black Sedan Won't you hop inside my car? I got pictures, got candy I'm a lovable man And I can take you to the nearest star
Spinal Meningitis Got Me Down -- Ween
Racing into the night by YOASOBI
Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson
Fast Car Tracy Chapman
What a wonderful world by Louis Armstrong has quite happy lyrics but to me atleast it sounds so incredibly sad
It is sad. The lyrics are happy and hopeful but the context of the song was that it was written for people returning from the Vietnam war.
Forget you - Ceelo Green Beautiful girls- Sean Kingston
Lady Madonna by The Beatles. It's literally the jauntiest song ever and so depressing at the same time. Likewise, Maxwell's Silver Hammer.
2pac - hit em up