i wonder what gacy's "summer mix" looks like
[music]
posted by tom / July 28, 2005 / 
What is the best all-time breezy pop song about terrible things happening to little girls?
A) Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland 1945"
B) Okkervil River's "Black"
Other nominations welcome. Really, I'm just looking for the poppiest song about the worst thing, ever. It sounds easy, but once you eliminate the songs about drug abuse the field thins pretty quickly.
(Oh, and thanks to the governess for introducing the internet, of which I am a part, to Okkervil River. They also offer this song for download, and it's also a knockout.)
Comments
If you ever have a chance to see them live, I highly recommend - they always make an Arlington stop when they're on the East coast. Also, if you ever have a chance to download their cover of Elvis Costello's "Riot Act," you should not do that too. Because I'm not saying to download anything. No no no.
I'd vote for Joni Mitchell's "Cherokee Louise." Not exactly poppy, so to speak, but cheerily upbeat in a really misleading way.
Even though you can't really get the irony if you don't speak German, I'm going with "99 Luftballons", by Nena. Never was there a more peppy song about nuclear war.
And I always laugh when I hear "Captain Kirk" mentioned in the middle of the song. Seems completely random, though it makes sense in translation.
"Country Death Song" by the Violent Femmes.
"Cornflake Girl", which is supposedly about ritual vaginal mutilation.
"Janie's Got a Gun" by Aerosmith. And I believe that one went to Number 1 some time in the late 80's/early 90's. I think Janie got away with it though, so maybe it's a happy song.
I by no means consider myself a serious Morrisey fan. It's not in my disposition. I can listen to one or two favorites at a time, otherwise his melodrama sickens me. So the "pop" part of the equation only pertains to the UK where they seem to have a fascination with him, robbie williams and the like. But there is "Big Mouth Strikes Again" by the smiths. the first two and really only stanzas besides the chorus are as follows,
Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking
When I said I'd like to smash every tooth
In your head
Oh ... sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking
When I said by rights you should be
Bludgeoned in your bed
It's an incredibly upbeat poppy song too.
great suggestions. I'm all set for the creepiest ipod DJ night ever (even more than that time german television showed up!).
although I have to say that even after reading the lyrics, I don't understand the cornflake girl connection to FGM at all. But while googling I did turn up Tori Amos quotes saying that's what it's about, so there you go.
My suggestion would be A Brief Conversation Ending Divorce by Smart Went Crazy, which is about a guy on his way to dispose of his wife's body. It's a pretty mellow pop song about murder and thinking about history of the marriage until "Last words 'I can't live like this'/Well you don't have to/You'd don't have to" and that incredibly creepy cello line drops into the song.
Yeah, I understand that the claimed content of "Cornflake Girl" can be difficult to discern from the lyrics. To a certain extent, you're taking people's word for it. (Maybe I should check Snopes on this.) Still, whenever I find myself attempting to discern the meaning of a Tori Amos song, I usually stop myself and remember something important: it's a Tori Amos song.
"Skeletons" by Rickie Lee Jones is pretty damn depressing though I'm not sure it qualifies since it's only about one tragic death as opposed to a holocaust or genocide ...
How about "Strange Fruit"???
Totally my bad ... I missed the part about it being a POPPY song about tragedy ... OK, feel free to cybersmack me. And now I feel challenged to go through my endless collection of power pop to come up with something worthwhile to contribute.
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