The depressive stuff

[Vader]

Everyone I Love Is Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpQw5WdkL7g

Seems three years
Though maybe four
Someone drops dead
Whom I adore
You love someone
There will be grief
The kiss of death
Lips of a thief

Goddamnit

A dusty stack
of photographs
Of times I've cried
But mostly laughed
Commit the past
Into blue flame
Acrid smoke
Cowardly shame

Goddamnit

At times I'm truly
terrified
'Cause dope and booze
Don't help to hide
They're used to mask
A weakling's hurt
It's just like painting
Over dirt

Everyone I love is dead (ha-ha)

Life's a game
I cannot win
Both good and bad
Must surely end
The mirrors
Always tell the truth
I love myself
For hating you

Everyone I love is dead

[Sorus]

Abney Park - The Story That Never Starts is one that hits a little close to home these days. Even if it does end on a somewhat upbeat note, that's not the part I'm listening to.

From the time we are born, the time we're alive
Waiting for our story to start
We practice all day, we practice all night
But we're waiting for our story to start

Then we're taught what is true, we're taught what is right
We're taught not to follow our heart
And then, the next thing we know, we're trapped in a place
Where the story will never start

On this trip we all bend; we bend and we break
We break all our pacts with ourselves
We merely try to survive and we drop all our goals
And put our dreams all on our shelves

And we're told our new goals, we're told our new dreams
They're nothing like the dreams we once held
And now to follow our dreams we have to buy all this crap
Fulfil the dreams of someone else

But don't let 'em check you, they're sucking the wrong brew
The cowards should not steer your life by their own fear
care what you are dreaming; the future is teeming
With stories that want to start

From the time we are born, the time of the life
Waiting for our story to start
We practice all day, we practice all night
But we're waiting for our story to start

Then we're taught what is true, we're taught what is right
We're taught not to follow our heart
And then, the next thing we know, we're trapped in a place
Where the story will never start

Don't let 'em check you, they're sucking the wrong brew
The cowards should not steer your life by their own fear
care what you are dreaming; the future is teeming
With stories that wait to start

Don't let 'em check you, they're sucking the wrong brew
The cowards should not steer your life by their own fear
care what you are dreaming; the future is teeming
With stories that wait to start

[Vader]

I was at this gig invited by the boys Aug 2007. Peter (bass player and singer) died April 2010. That was the end for my favorite band, but more so I lost some kind of a friend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1oVfjlrGV8

Like a flash of light
in an endless night
Life is trapped between
two black entities
'Cause when you trust someone
Illusion has begun
No way to prepare
Impending despair

Did one say so cruel
'Tis better to love and lose
Ignorance is bliss
Wish not knew your kiss
So many times been burned
This lesson goes unlearned
Remember desire
only fuels the fire
Liar!

Betwixed birth and death
Every breath regret
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I pity the living
Envy for the dead
Emotionally stunned
In defense - I'm numb
I'd rather not care
then to be aware
Be scared

I don't need love

Are a thousand tears worth a single smile?
When you give an inch, will they take a mile?
Longing for the past but dreading the future
If not being used, well then you're a user and a loser

World renowned failure at both death and life
Given nothingness, purgatory blight
To run and hide, a cowardly procedure
Options exhausted, except for anesthesia
Anesthesia

I don't feel anything
I don't need anything
I don't need love

[ussusimiel]

"Tonight's The Night"

Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night
Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night
Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night
Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night.

Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van.
A sparkle was in his eye
But his life was in his hands.

Well, late at night
when the people were gone
He used to pick up my guitar
And sing a song in a shaky voice
That was real as the day was long.

Tonight's the night, yes it is,
tonight's the night
Tonight's the night, yes it is,
tonight's the night.

Early in the mornin'
at the break of day
He used to sleep
until the afternoon.
If you never heard him sing
I guess you won't too soon.

'Cause people let me tell you
It sent a chill
up and down my spine
When I picked up the telephone
And heard that he'd died
out on the mainline.

Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night
Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night.

Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van.
Well, early in the morning
at just about the break of day
He used to sleep
until the afternoon.

Tonight's the night, yes it is,
tonight's the night
Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night
Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night
Tonight's the night,
tonight's the night.


u.

[peter]

Bertold Brecht, as quoted at the end of the film Cross of Iron - a harsh Second World War drama directed by Sam Peckinpah. And depressing at more than one level alas.

'Do not rejoice in his defeat you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is back in heat again.'

[Vader]

If this doesn't drag you down and wants you to hit a tree - you're already dead. Powerful lyrics,

Sisters of Mercy - Some Kind of Stranger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGD7mPcqeO4

And yes I believe in what we had
But words got in the way
And only yesterday
As I was leaving
Lord knows I've tried to say but I've
Heard a million conversations
Going where they've been before
Seen the way that careful lingers
Undecided at the door

CHORUS
And all I know for sure
All I know for real
Is knowing doesn't mean so much
When placed against the feeling
The heat inside
When bodies meet
When fingers touch

All my words are secondhand and
Useless in the face of this
Rationale and rhyme and reason
Pale beside a single kiss
And I've heard so many things I
Fail to understand at all
I'd settle anytime for
Unknown footsteps in the hall outside

CHORUS

Because the world is cruel and
Promises are broken
Don't try to tell me
Anything don't try to tell me
You'll be true to me you know the
Real truth is never spoken
And I know the world is cold but
If you hold on tight to what you
Find you might not mind too much though
Even this must pass away and
Memories may last for years but
Names are just for souvenirs
Some kind of angel let me
Look into your eyes
Don't give me whys and wherefores
Reason or surprise
I don't care for words that don't belong
And I don't care what you're called
Tell me later if at all
I can wait a long long time
Before I hear another love song

Come here I think you're beautiful
My door is open wide
Some kind of angel come inside

Come here I think you're beautiful
I think you're beautiful beautiful
Some kind of angel come inside

Come here I think you're beautiful
I think you're beautiful
Some kind of angel come inside

Come here I think you're beautiful
My door is open wide
Some kind of stranger come inside

Come here I think you're beautiful
I think you're beautiful beautiful
Some kind of stranger come inside

Come here I think you're beautiful
I think you're beautiful
Some kind of stranger come inside

[Ananda]

You need The Swans songs in a depression song thread.

The Swans - Failure
And I, I've been lonely
And I, I've been blind
And I, I've learned nothing
So my hands are firmly tied
To the sinking leadweight
of failure

I've worked hard all my life
Money slips through my hands
My face in the mirror tells me
It's no surprise that I am
Pushing the stone up the hill
of failure

And they tempt me with violence
and they punish me with ideals
And they crush me with an image
Of my life that's nothing but unreal
Except on the goddamned slaveship
of failure

I'll drown here trying
To get up for some air
But each time I think I breathe
I'm laid on with a double share
Of the punishing burden
of failure

I don't deserve to be down here
But I'll never leave
And I, I've learned one thing
You can't escape the beast
In the null and void pit
of failure

When I get my hands on some money
I'll kiss its green skin
And I'll ask its dirty face
"Where the hell have you been?"
"I am the fuel that fires the engines
of failure."

I'll be old and broken down
I'll forget who and where I am
I'll be senile or forgotten
But I'll remember and understand
You can bank your hard-earned money
on failure

I saw my father crying
I saw my mother break her hand
On a wall that wouldn't weep
But that certainly held in
The mechanical moans of a dying man
Who was a failure

My back hurts me when I bend
Because I carry a load
And my brain hurts like a knife-hole
Because I've yet to be shown
How to pull myself out from
The sucking quicksand
of failure

Some people lie in hell
Many bastards succeed
But I, I've learned nothing
I can't even elegantly bleed
Out the poison blood
of failure

[peter]

I was a massive Sisters of Mercy fan Vader. I saw them live backing up Depeche Mode in the 1990's . I didn't do the Goth thing - I was a bit too old for that - but wow! What a band!

[Vader]

Saw the Sisters back in 93 together wit the Ramones and monster Magnet.

Also essential: CRANES

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD9zmHUU2jE

[peter]

How about any of the other Goth bands of the time? Think The Cult, Feilds of the Nephilim, The Cure etc. I saw bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Killing Joke which I think were sort of 'proto-goth' but no other [what I would call] 'pure' goth bands.

[michaelm]

Attached to the goth thing when it was at its peak was Alien Sex Fiend, who were a great live band - noisy and in your face, but spellbinding to watch. Took a lot of acid and played music apparently.

[peter]

Back on the depressive stuff [it doesn't have to be just song lyrics does it?] the other day I was feeling a bit 'near the edge' [too much booze the day before the day before] and started wondering what the **** it was all about - I mean why do we stick it. If every day is a day that brings ever more suffering of one form or another without end - why do we go on? [these I hasten to add were musings, not the slow walk toward a rash act]. I realised that for many the only real answer to this is the fear of death - the fear of what is - or isn't - on the other side. Now with these thoughts in your head go and read Hamlets Soliloquy, ["To be, or not be; that is the question"] and you will understand every word.

[Cambo]

Okay, I'm a giant fanboy, but I can't allow the absence of Nine Inch Nails in this thread to continue.

Nine Inch Nails- The Wretched

just a reflection
just a glimpse
just a little reminder
of all the what abouts
and all the might have
could have beens
another day
some other way
but not another reason to continue
and now you're one of us
the wretched

the hopes and prays
the better days
the far aways
forget it

it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to
it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, did it?
it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to
it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, did it?

now you know
this is what it feels like
now you know
this is what it feels like

the clouds will part and the sky cracks open
and god himself will reach his fucking arm through
just to push you down
just to hold you down
stuck in this hole with the shit and the piss
and it's hard to believe it could come down to thisback at the beginning
sinking
spinning

and in the end
we still pretend
the time we spend
not knowing when
you're finally free
and you could be

but it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to
it didn't turn out quite the way that you wanted it

now you know
this is what it feels like
now you know
this is what it feels like

you can try to stop it but it keeps on coming
you can try to stop it but

[Vader]

Also fits into the noisy or heavy stuff threads, but to me this is pure despair. bordering a nihilistic kind of self-abandonment. Look at his heroin ridden eyes at 2:06.

Ministry - The Fall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7urikS5tbQ

Take this invitation
Bishop's Queen to Pawn
All of us were taken
All that was, is gone
Of this information
Shames us, one and all
Where's my compensation
Watching others fall
Welcome to the fall

Everything is useless
Nothing works at all
Nothing ever matters
Welcome to the fall

[Ananda]

A song written by a son watching the father with whom he had a complicated relationship die of cancer. The proceeds went to cancer charity.

Bruderschaft - forever
youtu.be/eBugs8pgtK0

I don't believe in the existence of mercy's guiding hand...
Not with all that I have witnessed, I cannot understand.
Forever burdened with the knowledge that I could have been so much more
When the truth is hard to suffer, I knew this all before.

There is no comfort in faith, the heavens still will fall.
A thousand towers rise before me and I cannot climb them all.
There is no kind of joy in this, there is no time that it can heal,
When emptiness enshadows bliss, there is nothing left to feel.

I have not abandoned hope, though I know there's nothing more.
Tired and alone, you forget what you hoped for.

I will walk this ground forever
and stand guard against your name.
I will give all I can offer,
I will shoulder all the blame.
I am sentry to you now,
all your hopes and all your dreams.
I will hold you to the light,
that?s what forever means.

I was never what you wanted, I could never never please.
I swallowed all our sorrow in the midst of my disease.
All my fortunes, all my gains, all the battles I have won...
Now collapsing like the rain, I stand alone, your only son...

Take some solace in these words, take notice of this place.
Hollow whispers that they are, like the wind upon my face.
Sing softly in my ear and look at me with wonder.
I will try to ease your fear as the darkness pulls you under.

I will walk this ground forever
and stand guard against your name.
I will give all I can offer,
I will shoulder all the blame.
I am sentry to you now,
all your hopes and all your dreams.
I will hold you to the light,
that?s what forever means.

[Sorus]

Rush - The Pass

Proud swagger out of the schoolyard
Waiting for the world's applause
Rebel without a conscience
Martyr without a cause

Static on your frequency
Electrical storm in your veins
Raging an unreachable glory
Straining at invisible chains

And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Can't face life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be

All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars

Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back and slam the door on me

It's not as if this barricade
Blocks the only road
It's not as if you're all alone
In wanting to explode

Someone set a bad example
Made surrender seem all right
The act of a noble warrior
Who lost the will to fight

And now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
Staring down into a heartless sea
Done with life on a razor's edge
Nothing's what you thought it would be

All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars

Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back and slam the door on me

No hero in your tragedy
No daring in your escape
No salutes for your surrender
Nothing noble in your fate
Christ, what have you done?

All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars

Turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back and slam the door on me

[michaelm]

Good call above with 'Tonight's the Night'. Excellent album!

[Zarathustra]

Johnny Cash does NIN's "Hurt"
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real

The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

[michaelm]

Yeah, he kills that song. I think even Trent Reznor said that Cash nailed it.

[Cagliostro]

Speaking of Tom Waits (from page 1), the most depressing I think he wrote was Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis, while also being very funny. It also has one of the greatest of song titles.


Hey Charlie I'm pregnant again
I'm living on the 9th street
Right above a dirty bookstore right off Euclid Avenue
And I stopped takin' dope and I quit drinkin' whiskey
And my old man plays the trombone and works out at the track

He says that he loves me, even though it's not his baby
He says he's gonna raise him up like he was his own son
He gave me a ring that was worn by his mother
He takes me out dancin' every Saturday night

Hey Charlie I think about you every time I pass a fillin' station
On account of all the grease you used to wear in your hair
I still got that record by Little Anthony and The Imperials
"Going out of my head over you, out of my head over you..."
Someone stole my record player now how do you like that?

Hey Charlie, man, I almost went crazy after Mario got busted
I went back to Omaha to live with my folks
Everyone I used to know was either dead or in prison
So came back to Minneapolis, and I think I'm gonna stick around

Hey Charlie I think I'm happy for the first time since my accident
I wish I had all the money that we used to spend on dope
I'd buy me a used car lot, but I don't think I'd ever sell any of 'em
I'd just drive a different car every day, dependin' on how I feel

Hey Charlie for Chris sakes, man, you want to know the truth of it?
I ain't got no husband, baby, nahhh, and he don't play the trombone
I need to borrow money to pay this lawyer
And Charlie, hey, they say I'll be eligible for parole come Valentines Day