I Only Listen to Sad, Sad Songs

I mentioned the other day that, unlike most people I know, song lyrics are important to me. One reason is that if you don't pay attention to lyrics, you miss the awesome phenomenon of peppy-sounding songs on depressing subjects. Catherine mentions Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland, 1945" ("The only girl I've ever loved / Was born with roses in her eyes / But then they buried her alive / One evening 1945 / With just her sister at her side / And only weeks before the guns / All came and rained on everyone") in this regard. The best example, however, continues to be Nena's "99 Red Balloons", a cheery pop ditty about the nuclear destruction of the world.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2006/11/i-only-listen-to-sad-sad-songs/40830/