The next three songs on my list of 500 personal all-time favorite songs all have pretty somber and sometimes rather disturbing lyrics...awesome! Each of them is very thought-provoking, even if you might disagree with the message...and the music is spectacular. Just don't let it all get you down, especially the last entry...
22 INVISIBLE SUN...the Police
Ghost in the Machine is my favorite album of the hybrid British/American reggae/rock/jazz trio the Police, from 1981. Invisible Sun is one of its early tracks and speaks of a dystopian, nightmare world of society unraveling into violence...but that's getting too much like the world I'm starting to see around me. What I love about it is the creepy, ominous musical buildup and background as Sting sings his words and gives the impression that like it or not, we're now all in survival mode on this runaway train, this crazy world with conspiracy theory fanatics, alternative "facts" and increasingly violent reactions to what many see as provocations against the groups they identify with, whipped up by social media, TV and radio. I first heard this song in '83 and it captures the climate of our divided, decreasingly civil society more than ever today...
21 THE WASP (TEXAS RADIO AND THE BIG BEAT)...the Doors
Although the Doors existed as a popular American rock band from 1967 to 1971...when lyricist and singer Jim Morrison died in France apparently due to drugs...I didn't go past their singles releases deeper into their six studio albums until around 1994-95 when I submerged myself in their collected works. Ultimately, this track toward the end of their final L.A. Woman album emerged as my all-time favorite of theirs...it's so unique with a lot of talk and a little singing as the topics drift from music with a wicked back beat to turning one's back on the world to existential alienation. And the music is hard-driving with some cool, jazzy guitar/keyboard/percussion interaction thrown in for good measure..."We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping" is my favorite of many lines from it...
20 NOVOCAINE FOR THE SOUL...the Eels
Speaking of existential alienation, if there were any song that should have captured the essence of the Goth movement...at least as it was portrayed on the South Park cartoon series...it's this blunt complaint about how society's different institutions have miserably failed the upset young singer, who is so pained as he pleads for relief in an ironically calm voice..."before I sputter out". It was a rock hit back in 1996 if memory serves me right and is one of the best examples of a "venting" song. In the "real world", when I hear someone on an emotional rant like this, I've learned to patiently and sympathetically hear them out without trying to throw in my own two-cents worth...how about you?
Next week: #19-17...
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