New study. Today's songs are sad.

[frankmcr]

NEW STUDY SHOWS THAT PEOPLE PAY TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO NEW STUDIES

"Of course, the implications of this new study will need to be studied," commented Professor . . .

[Nyghthawk]

New study shows people read studies that reinforce their pre-existing beliefs and ignore those that do not. I would say more about it but I did not believe it so I only read the first paragraph...

[architype]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

My best high school friend and I had a category in 1974 we called "suicide folk." I think the last album we consigned to that bin was the Pousette-Dart Band, before we went opposite ways in life. But looking back, the tone of the stuff was still pretty uplifting.



Bottom line seems to be that fifty years of social experimentation have led society down a depressing path.



Bob

Wow! There's a blast from the past. I like the album "Amnesia". I didn't find it depressing. I always thought the song, Amnesia, was more tongue in cheek folk pop, (if there is such a category), kind of in the vein of Jimmy Buffet.

I heard their song "County Line", a great tune, playing in a record store when I was in high school. I asked the clerk who it was, and bought the album on the spot. The band had excellent tight harmonies and were pleasant to listen to.


Sad songs are cathartic for me.

I love listening to and singing along with the Blues & Bluegrass, as well as Jackson Browne, CSNY, James Taylor, Carol King, John Prine, Hank Williams, & Patsy Cline, (from my youth), and Jason Isbell, Julie and Buddy Miller, Turnpike Troubadours to name a few more contemporary artists. Not all of these artist's songs are sad, but they have written some great ones.

There is comfort knowing that others have gone through similar experiences and emotions. It is a powerful thing when a line from a song paints an image, and in just a few words encapsulates your emotional state better than an entire novel.

I love classic Motown. It is generally upbeat and danceable, but even some of those songs talk about the sadder side of life.


I also love old hymns from the Southern Baptist hymnal. They are supposed to be uplifting, but most talk about escaping the misery of this world for a better place someday.

Oddly, I find the newer contemporary "happy" church music kind of vapid and relentlessly repetitive. I'm not a big church goer these days, but my brother was the music minister at his church for a while and whenever we would get together to play he would show me some of the stuff they were playing and it didn't touch me emotionally at all like the old hymns.


To each his own, I guess.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Bottom line seems to be that fifty years of social experimentation have led society down a depressing path.
Bob

LOL.

Go read the Child collection of ballads:

https://www.amazon.com/English-Scott...words=complete

Or the Iliad.

More like five thousand years of human history have lead us down a depressing path.

[guitar george]

I like to listen to and play "Eve of Destruction" recorded by Barry McGuire in 1965. Most of the lyrics pretty much echo what's still happening today.

[Heroditus]

Originally Posted by guitar george

I like to listen to and play "Eve of Destruction" recorded by Barry McGuire in 1965. Most of the lyrics pretty much echo what's still happening today.

P.F. Sloan was a very underrated songwriter and performer. He wrote some very good songs in his rather truncated career. He was the original incarnation of The Grassroots. He hung around The Wrecking Crew and played that beautiful acoustic guitar intro to California Dreaming. He sang Dean's high parts (because Jan thought he did it better than Dean) on songs like Surf City and Little Old Lady From Pasadena. And so many great songs he wrote: From A Distance, Sins Of The Family, Where Were You When I Needed You.....

He should be in the R n R Hall of Fame.

[Nyghthawk]

Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?


This is a quote from a little known poet/author from about 3 thousand years ago. Must have been due to all that social engineering!

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by architype

Wow! There's a blast from the past. I like the album "Amnesia". I didn't find it depressing. I always thought the song, Amnesia, was more tongue in cheek folk pop, (if there is such a category), kind of in the vein of Jimmy Buffet.
I heard their song "County Line", a great tune, playing in a record store when I was in high school. I asked the clerk who it was, and bought the album on the spot. The band had excellent tight harmonies and were pleasant to listen to.

We need a tongue-in-cheek emoji here. The term "suicide folk" was definitely tongue-in-cheek.

I also love old hymns from the Southern Baptist hymnal. They are supposed to be uplifting, but most talk about escaping the misery of this world for a better place someday. Oddly, I find the newer contemporary "happy" church music kind of vapid and relentlessly repetitive.

I agree. Talk about depressing!

I'm not a big church goer these days, but my brother was the music minister at his church for a while and whenever we would get together to play he would show me some of the stuff they were playing and it didn't touch me emotionally at all like the old hymns. To each his own, I guess.

When I was a teenager and filled with spit and vinegar I wanted to burn down the pipe organs and pianos and do church music with a rock band. Four years later when I was in a hot rock band I developed a respect for the old hymns, um, the really old Reformation ones. Right at that moment, the modern worship music movement was born. Just shows that there isn't a popular trend I won't buck.


Bob

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

LOL. Go read the Child collection of ballads:
https://www.amazon.com/English-Scott...words=complete
Or the Iliad. More like five thousand years of human history have lead us down a depressing path.

I read Xenophon's Anabasis (The Inland March) in the original Attic Greek. Does that count?

Bob

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

.....More like five thousand years of human history have lead us down a depressing path.

More like human nature is what it is - far from perfect and prone to making poor decisions, in many ways. We forever struggle to improve upon the past.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

I read Xenophon's Anabasis (The Inland March) in the original Attic Greek. Does that count?

Bob

Nope. Not depressing enough. It has a happy ending.

"Thalassa! Thalassa!"

[Muddslide]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?


This is a quote from a little known poet/author from about 3 thousand years ago. Must have been due to all that social engineering!

It's beautiful, but misses the part where human beings are animals. Great apes in fact.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

I read Xenophon's Anabasis (The Inland March) in the original Attic Greek. Does that count?

Bob

Xenophon is also likely the first to author an extensive treatise on horsemanship , considered by many to be the father of modern horsemanship

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?


This is a quote from a little known poet/author from about 3 thousand years ago...

Actually he's very well-known - learned all about him in the Brooklyn public elementary school I attended; not only was he a prominent statesman and internationally-renowned scholar whose name became a synonym for wisdom, he wrote a chart-topping 1965 hit song for the Byrds ...

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Actually he's very well-known - learned all about him in the Brooklyn public elementary school I attended; not only was he a prominent statesman and internationally-renowned scholar whose name became a synonym for wisdom, he wrote a chart-topping 1965 hit song for the Byrds ...

I did not realize Pete Seeger was that old juss kiddin'