Looking for happy songs about how everything is terrible.
July 7, 2017 2:52 PM   Subscribe

Songs that describe bleak reality, yet make you feel, Eff it, might as well try and have a good time on the way down.

Much like Lou Reed's Dirty Boulevard, but any genre, and a variety of genres welcome.
posted by sol to Media & Arts (49 answers total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Mountain Goats, Old College Try
posted by praemunire at 2:55 PM on July 7, 2017 [3 favorites]




Prince's 1999 fits the bill for me.
posted by princesspathos at 3:00 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Country Joe McDonald, Fixin' To Die Rag Whoopie, we're all gonna die!
posted by Right On Red at 3:05 PM on July 7, 2017 [3 favorites]


Death Cab for Cutie's Grapevine Fires is too mellow to be happy, but it's an "eff it, might as well have a chill time on the way down" song.
posted by esoterrica at 3:07 PM on July 7, 2017


They Might Be Giants can help you out here: We Live In a Dump; Till My Head Falls Off; Now Is Strange; When Will You Die.

Sorry, I could prepare a TMBG playlist on the subject. On a lot of subjects, really.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:09 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]




No One Is Lost by Stars. "Put your hands up cause everybody dies.."
posted by starlybri at 3:25 PM on July 7, 2017


This pretty recent thread seems very similar.
posted by FencingGal at 3:50 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Dead Milkmen - Life is Shit
posted by rhizome at 3:52 PM on July 7, 2017




When I came to
I was feeling high
I got a telephone call from a friend of mine
Coming through so loud and clear
Yeah he was picking me up
Man he felt so near
When I hung up, and I looked around
I could hear the rain hit the cold cold ground
But there was sunshine just because
and it didn’t matter what the weather was
Yeah a long way down, means a long way up…
Something unreal
I won’t slave for them
I won’t behave for them
I will be brave
You can laugh about it,
If you just let go

Dr. Dog - Long Way Down
posted by bleep at 3:57 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: It's been agreed the whole world stinks so no one's taking showers anymore

Laugh hard, it's a long ways to the bank

Modest Mouse - Paper Thin Walls
posted by bleep at 3:59 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Is That All There Is - Peggy Lee
"So let's break out the booze and have a ball, if that's all there is."
It's based on an 1896 short story called "Disillusionment" by the German writer Thomas Mann.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 4:07 PM on July 7, 2017 [5 favorites]


I know it's not "hep" or "cool" or "something you admit to listening to in public if you care about your reputation" but I sincerely like OneRepublic - All the Right Moves.
posted by wintersweet at 4:08 PM on July 7, 2017


Shearwater's Quiet Americans
"Shake the memories off, hide the evidence under
Piss on the world below
Like a dog that knows its name
Where are the Americans?"
posted by esoterrica at 4:18 PM on July 7, 2017


The Ark - One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young.

There's a lot to be said and to be done today
'Cause one of us is gonna die young
Before they put us in a coffin I've got things to say


Possibly also Disease and Deliver Us From Free Will by the same group.
posted by darchildre at 4:44 PM on July 7, 2017


Always Look On the Bright Side of Life, from Life of Brian.
Naked as We Came, Iron & Wine.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:54 PM on July 7, 2017 [4 favorites]


The Vandals - Let the Bad Times Roll

The Queers - Fuck The World

(edited to fix first url)
posted by Ufez Jones at 5:04 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Quasi - The Poisoned Well. The whole 'Featuring "Birds"' LP, really.
posted by Vek at 5:27 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


The Weepies - World Spins Madly On
posted by epj at 5:35 PM on July 7, 2017


Best answer: The Mountain Goats - Spent Gladiator 2 "Just stay alive. Maybe spit some blood at the camera"

The Mountain Goats - Foreign Object
"One of these days my legs will both snap like twigs/If you can't beat em make em bleed like pigs"

The Mountain Goats - This Year "The scene ends badly, as you might imagine, in a cavalcade of anger and fear/There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year/I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me"

The Mountain Goats - The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
"When you punish a person for dreaming his dreams, don't expect him to thank or forgive you/The best ever death metal band out of Denton will in time both outpace and outlive you/HAIL SATAN, HAIL SATAN TONIGHT".

Basically about 30% of the entire recorded output of The Mountain Goats.
posted by howfar at 5:43 PM on July 7, 2017 [4 favorites]


Jonathan Coulton - Chiron Beta Prime, I Feel Fantastic
posted by Room 641-A at 5:44 PM on July 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


Life is shit by Dead Milkmen
posted by rikschell at 5:56 PM on July 7, 2017


Relax and Take it Easy by Tommy Duncan.
posted by nathan_teske at 6:23 PM on July 7, 2017


One more Mountain Goats song! No Children. It's an upbeat song about a relationship both parties know is toxic and doomed, with the rousing chorus "I hope you die! / I hope we both die!"
posted by rhiannonstone at 6:49 PM on July 7, 2017 [3 favorites]


Craig Cardiff "When People Go". It has a fun, light sound but is about what happens when people die (if memory serves, to explain a death to his young child). One of my favourite songs!
posted by bighappyhairydog at 7:11 PM on July 7, 2017


The "maypole" part of XTC's The Wheel and the Maypole is a very joyous bounce about how everything decays. (The "wheel" part is a different song Andy Partridge didn't know how to end). Andy Partridge is probably a good source for more cheery songs about how terrible everything is. Maybe start (and end?) with Scarecrow People?
posted by fedward at 7:12 PM on July 7, 2017


There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner, Noel Coward
posted by holborne at 7:30 PM on July 7, 2017


Creedance - Bad Moon Rising, maybe; and especially
God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols:
No Future
No Future
No Future
For You
No Future
No Future
No Future
For Me
posted by Rash at 7:41 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]






Best answer: Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger
posted by furtive at 8:56 PM on July 7, 2017


Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now.

Also can you send me a mix CD when this is done :)
posted by Threeve at 8:57 PM on July 7, 2017


Best answer: Alright by Kendrick Lamar (actual song starts at 2:40)
posted by lunasol at 9:20 PM on July 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Commin' Home by Cheeseburger. (AKA the theme from Superjail.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:41 PM on July 7, 2017


Wharf Rat by the Grateful Dead.
posted by Patapsco Mike at 8:41 AM on July 8, 2017


Blankest Year by Nada Surf.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:03 AM on July 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


"Everything Now" by Arcade Fire
posted by Ostara at 9:32 AM on July 8, 2017


"Closing Time" by Leonard Cohen
posted by Ostara at 9:32 AM on July 8, 2017


Everly Brothers Bye Bye Love, a cheerful song about a broker heart.

"Grandma got run over by a reindeer" doesn't sound too upset about Grandma.
posted by SemiSalt at 9:57 AM on July 8, 2017


The absolute winner in this category is David and the Citizens, "Greycoated Morning".

Poppies, happiest music ever (those horns!). Most depressing lyrics ever.
posted by sesquipedalia at 10:36 AM on July 8, 2017


Chumbawamba--Tubthumping. "I get knocked down/But I get up again/You're never gonna keep me down." And repeat.

Might be a little too far on the "defiant" rather than "resigned" side for you though.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:46 AM on July 8, 2017


Tables and Chairs by Andrew Bird
posted by abandonedwig at 6:48 AM on July 9, 2017


Talking Heads - Road To Nowhere
Guns and Roses - Welcome To The Jungle
posted by Room 641-A at 7:37 AM on July 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: When the EVENT happened last year, cortex posted a ditty called Everything is Fucked
posted by knownassociate at 10:39 AM on July 10, 2017 [2 favorites]




Eels - Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)
posted by GoldenEel at 12:37 PM on July 12, 2017


The force is extra strong with The Housemartins, so very peppy, so very going down the tubes:

Happy Hour (music starts at 0:50)

Where the haircuts smile
And the meaning of style
Is a night out with the boss
Where you win or you lose
And its them who choose
And if you don't win then you've lost

We're Not Deep

They said if you try to get on I'd get on
They said there were chances
But now my chance has gone
posted by *s at 2:40 PM on July 19, 2017


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