Art Activism

Tales of Woe From the iPodless

Lillian Beauregarde on 12 12, 2009

See? Even Jared’s sad that my iPod died…

As I’ve managed to break my iPod today *sniffle* I think now’s as good as any to bring up the rainy day sad songs that make our heads go “Nobody feels this way” and our hearts go “Yeah, man… you sing it.” It’s amazing how many songs fit into this category and how embarrassed we generally are to admit that we’ve actually loved the song. Encompassing everything in our lives from people dying, our lovers leaving us, our lives changing, to just plain old emo kid depression… the sad songs, “…they say so much.” (“Sad Songs” – Elton John)

Ella Fitzgerald

The old ballads like “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” by Ella Fitzgerald with its wonderfully haunting and heart wrenching melodies are just as powerful today as they were fifty years ago. The simplest versions of her songs still resonate with an overwhelming clarity. Ella Fitzgerald has the awesome power in her hands to make a rainy day comfortable while still making you understand that she gets your heartache, she sympathizes with your pain, and she encourages you to sing along.

Jimmy Eat World

If you want to talk love, loss, and absolute heartbreak in a song… for me it’s “Hear You Me” by Jimmy Eat World. This song kills me no matter when it comes on. A friend of mine committed suicide in 2001 and my brother sent me this song as a way to heal afterward. It’s not about suicide, but the loss of a friend who provided “some place to go…” It was one of those times where the fear of losing another friend scared the absolute shit out of me and I felt the need to keep people as close as possible.

Ingrid Michaelson

The next track I found when I still watched Grey’s Anatomy (before Izzy and George started cheating with each other and people started seeing ghosts, though I really didn’t mind the guest appearances by Jeffrey Dean Morgan…) anyhoo… “Keep Breathing” by Ingrid Michaelson is simply one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. She manages to capture a kind of lethargic loss of something… something indescribable and life changing. Ingrid is someone whose music moves me to my very core and I love the wonderful build in much of her music, this song included.

The Beatles

My high school memories are filled with hours of driving around in my car with friends listening to music with the windows down and angsting about this boy or that boy or why I didn’t get this part or that part or what have you… but mostly it was about listening to The Beatles. I’ve loved The Beatles my entire life. “In My Life” by The Beatles is one of those songs I played at the end of plays and there’s something so familiar about it that I feel seventeen all over again every time I hear it.

Death Cab For Cutie

If “love is watching someone die,” then “What Sarah Said” by Death Cab For Cutie shows us just how it feels. Terrible food from vending machines eaten while waiting for nurses to tell you what will come next. Sitting in hospital rooms for hours watching someone getting sicker and thinner and more exhausted. As a veteran of no wars but of endless nights in hospital chairs… it’s as if the song comes from all of those secret places where none of us want to admit just how scared we are.

Last 5 posts by Lillian Beauregarde

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• And for those of us who have less than fluffy bunny feelings about Twilight - January 18th, 2010
• Women in Pop Music, a sung commentary - January 18th, 2010
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