Playlist for a rough night?
 

Hey, ledgies. What music do you like to listen to when you're down and out?

My usual suspects:

Cyndi Lauper - Shine This song is so uplifting, it's hard to feel bad when you listen to it. Cyndi can fix anything.
Cyndi Lauper - Product of Misery For when I need to remind myself that I'm not defined by my past.
Fleetwood Mac - Why Y'all know what there is to say about this song. Perfection.
Bonnie Raitt - I Can't Make You Love Me Because misery loves company.
Barbra Streisand - On A Clear Day Because you can see forever and ever and ever more!
Fleetwood Mac - Storms Pretty self-explanatory
Dolly Parton - Stairway to Heaven OK, laugh if you must, but this version is so. good. Seriously. This song reminds me that I haven't ruined my life yet. :rolleyes:

So. What do you like to listen to when you're down? Why? Talk to me, Ledgies!

You know what I listen to. Aside from the obligatory Shine and True Colours, I also like Midnight Radio. And um, you know, everything by Cyndi. Oh, lately, it's been Anna Blue I turn to. *rhymes*

Stevie's Somebody Stand By Me.
Both Sides Now, Joni Mitchell. I love her voice, whether it's the flutey original, or the remake with that lowered, smoky sound. I know she dismisses it as being fluffy, early stuff, but whatev. Still moves me.
Hurt, Johnny Cash. The way it just builds instrumentally...
Songbird or Why, Fleetwood Mac.
Ballad of Lucy Jordan, Marianne Faithfull.
My Generation, Patti Smith. Just to help me get my attitude back. :laugh:
Everybody Hurts, R.E.M. I dunno. It's just a nice reminder that... well, everbody hurts.

I forgot Somebody Stand By Me!!! I've probably listened to that more than anything else I mentioned. I also like Both Sides Now, even though I'm not a huge Joni fan. I gotta listen to more Marianne Faithfull.

Anyone who loves this Dolly cover is a friend of mine. It is sheer brilliance.
Have you ever heard He's Alive from White Limozeen ? That song could about make a Christian out of me. When the choir kicks in, every hair on my body stands on end.

I don't tend to wallow much these days, but my top three records for a self pity party are probably :

George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice

Rosanne Cash - Interiors

Joni Mitchell - Travelogue

Oh, and any Trisha Yearwood weepy song. The greatest being The Nightingale, Down On My Knees, River Of You and Lonesome Dove.

On edit - I didn't say why I like these.

George - Because of the melancholy and yearning of the music and his plaintive, pleading voice. Especially when he howls out in the last song, "You once said there's a way back for every man/So here I am/Don't people change/Here I am/Is it too late to try again/Here I am." Tears. My. Guts. Out.

Rosanne - Oh Lord. The record is the anatomy of a breakup. It is the quintessential breakup record. The writing is so clean, concise and clear. My favorite song has this corker of an opening:

"Distance makes the heart start wondering absence makes the anger grow
The world may just be spinning through us and separation lets it show
I walk away the fear and anger I'm talking through the tears each day
I push myself to points of danger but nothing makes it go away
I want a cure a mental geographical cure a physical chemical cure
Sugar or shopping drinking or dropping the emotional highs of my life in disguise
There's one thing for sure I want a cure."

Joni - ? HA. Because she is Joni and she is a f*cking genius. This record runs the gamut and it is all set against the
backdrop of an orchestra. It has sad songs and not sad songs. But it is ultimately uplifting as I shiver with wonder that someone this talented was ever even born.

Trisha - Minor chords, sappy lyrics, a crystalline pure voice, and world class delivery. She whispers in all the right places,
and blows the roof off at exactly the right moment. A good sad Trisha song makes me feel like my favorite person on earth seduced me, made mind numbing love to me and then dumped me. Sheer perfect miseria.

*sends you some Marianne!* Oh, and you need this version of True Colours if you don't have it already... It's from Yokohama 1991, and at the very end she goes, "I love you" in this soft, sincere voice. Gets me every time. :(

I would say the first 15 times I heard this song, I wept. Like, real crying, for real. It absolutely tears me apart. I still tear up when I hear it, no matter how many times I have ... I can't stop myself. I haven't heard that song - I should pick up WL.

I really like Rosanne Cash, but I can't say I've heard much George Michael in my day. I'm familiar with Joni's stuff, but as I said in a previous post, I'm not a huge fan.

In particular, "Cowboys and Angels"

Jeez.......... what makes a rough night???

Emotional????

"Blue" - Joni
"Mystery" - Indigo Girls
"Smoke and Ashes" - Tracy Chapman
"Blue" - Joni
"For The Roses" - Joni

UM! I need that. Both MF and TC. :)

Yeah, emotional. That's what I'm talking about. Man, people really hit the Joni material hard on a rough night!

I sent ya I'm Gonna be Strong from that show, too. Gaaaaawd, Cyndi. She is too good. Marianne is on her way.

Listening to TC already :)

You pretty much rule. :thumbsup:

Aw, shucks ma'am, t'weren't nuthin'. :o

Holy god, this version of I'm Gonna Be Strong ... Christ.

I KNOW. God damn, she nails that one like nobody's business. Sup Unconditional Love. I know a lot of people don't like this, or ANTR, but... it's nice.

sighhhhhhhhhhh.

Much of WL is just fun stuff, but He's Alive, though it is full on Jesus revival stuff, just blows my socks off. STH is flat out great, the climax of it does bring tears to my eyes.



Have you heard Black Cadillac yet ? Her best ever. You should get the George LWP. It is really a great record. Nothing like what you would expect from him. It is beautiful.

Dude, I love Jesus music (and I mean real Jesus music, gospel and stuff like that - not christian rock), even tho I am definitely not a Christian. I'm sure I'll love He's Alive.

Actually, I just bought Black Cadillac a few weeks ago. I love it. And I'll keep that GM album in mind. Thanks, sparky!

This is a mish mash, but why have smooth transitions on a rough night?
I haven't noted songs that are covers, but I am listing the version I would want for this dark night.
I know how to Wallow. Oh yes.

"Ill Wind" Lena Horne
"People They Ain't No Good" Nick Cave
"I Ain't Goin' Down To The Well No More" Marianne Faithful
"El Desierto" Lhasa De Sela
"Mad World" Gary Jules
"The Scarecrow" June Tabor
"Love Has No Pride" Bonnie Raitt
"Crazy Man Michael" Sandy Denny
"Amelia" Joni Mitchell
"My Life" Iris DeMent
"Sweet Old World" Lucinda Williams
"Famous Blue Raincoat" Leonard Cohen
"Miss Murray" Linda Thompson
"Company" Ricki Lee Jones
"Making Pies" Patty Griffin

I need more Lucinda in my life! It's been easily two years since I've listened to her. *digs out Essence* Have you heard her really early stuff? Like Happy Woman Blues? It's good listenin'.

In the spirit of being up way too late and talking too much - If I'm upset, I like to sing really loud and aggressively. Sad, slow songs just make me sadder. And, lots of times I'm also mad when I'm sad. So I hit all Stevie's massive screamers, and some other artists besides. You know, "You're an a-hole, no one looked as I walked by" type of songs. If I've been drinking, the more so.

A sample setlist would include:

Edge - The ultimate screamy - you actually get to scream in the middle of it. It's like double scream icecream with yell chips.

Long Way to Go - ditto

Stand Back - I never don't love it, It never fails to invoke the perfect emotive release. Like "No one looked (bitch!) I walked by! (dammit!) Just a (f*cking!) invitation woulda been just fine, (A**hole!)" - If you see what I mean.

Crazy - Obvious. So yelly, and when you're crazy, why not sing about it?

Blue Lamp - this one is for when there is a touch of maudlin tinging my yelly. Not so much the words as the sound of the music. And I just really like it, it takes the edge off.

Wild Heart - same.

Long, Long, Time - LR - another over the top vocal, though sad. It's most valued for the singing really loud yet emotionally properties rather than the lyrics.

It kind of goes on like that - the louder I can sing, the more yelly the song, the happier I become.
That was just a sample to give you an idea. Although those songs are almost always included. :p

If i have an actual sorrowful night, I like to lay in my bed and read. And at most other times as well. It's hard to sing while you're crying, isn't it? And that's no good. You either cry, or you sing. But if you listen to sad songs while you are crying, it will make you way more sad.