I would say Jeff Buckley's music generally is the saddest I know. I was also thinking of Alice in Chains, stuff like "Down in a Hole" and "Nutshell". Their music is generally quite tinged with sadness, but that is often overwhelmed by angst and aggression. I'd say sadness is the dominant emotion in Jeff Buckley's music:
Looking out the door
I see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners
Parading in a wake of sad relations
As their shoes fill up with water
And maybe I'm too young
To keep good love from going wrong
But tonight, you're on my mind so
you never know
Broken down and hungry for your love
With no way to feed it
Where are you tonight?
Child, you know how much I need it.
Too young to hold on
And too old to just break free and run
Sometimes a man gets carried away,
When he feels like he should be having his fun
Much too blind to see the damage he's done
Sometimes a man must awake to find that, really,
He has no-one...
So I'll wait for you... And I'll burn
Will I ever see your sweet return,
Oh, will I ever learn?
Oh, Lover, you should've come over
Say it's not too late.
Lonely is the room the bed is made
The open window lets the rain in
Burning in the corner is the only one
Who dreams he had you with him
My body turns and yearns for a sleep
That won't ever come
It's never over,
My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder
It's never over, all my riches for her smiles
when I slept so soft against her...
It's never over,
All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter
It's never over, she's the tear
That hangs inside my soul forever
Oh, but maybe I'm just too young to keep good love
From going wrong
Oh... lover you should've come over...
Yes, (I) feel too young to hold on
I'm much too old to break free and run
Too deaf, dumb, and blind
To see the damage I've done
Sweet lover, you should've come over
Oh, love I'm waiting for you
Lover, you should've come over
'Cause it's not too late.
Perhaps another one not to listen to after a break up.
I thought of adding some more random lyrics of his, but they don't in themselves quite do justice to the feeling of sadness and disappointment and despair that his music conveys. But in the most beautiful way. It's true sadness, I think, because it shows such awareness of the good things in life that could be, which only adds to the sense of disillusionment with what is. True sadness always looks at beauty and happiness out of the corner of one eye.
All of which only partially overlaps with the requirements of your thread. But if you don't know Jeff Buckley, you need to. All of you. He is part of music's national curriculum. And you can bet you'll get a question on him in the exam.
Or something. |
