Darkest "POP" songs of all time.

Clay Aiken, "Invisible."
The Police, "I'll Be Watching You."
Carrie Underwood, "Jesus Take The Wheel."

Depeche Mode rules this thread.

'Master and Servant'
'Strangelove'
'Behind the Wheel'
'Never Let Me Down'

The Cardigans released alot of very dark singles as well.

I'm convinced 'Follow Me' by Uncle Kracker is about heroin addiction.

Totally an addict song.

Terry Jacks - 'Seasons In The Sun'
The Crystals - 'He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)'

Alone Again, Naturally

Spent six weeks at the #1 Billboard spot in 1972. So depressingly cheestastic it's one of my favorite bad songs.

I'll take the easy road and say that 'Born in the USA' is a dark song. I think most people on the left have realized this at this point, but it sure doesn't stop seemingly everyone from using it as some sort of 'ra-ra USA' anthem.

"Darling Nikki" by Prince
'nuff said.

I think Springsteen's done a lot to heighten the darkness of Born in the U.S.A. by primarily playing the acoustic version in concert and on concert albums.

How is Darling Nikki dark? Girl can't help it if she likes to fuck.

Verve Pipe "Freshmen" (maybe not pop, but soooo fucking dark)
The Darkness "Growing On Me"

We need a whole separate thread to tackle the lyrical nuance of Uncle Kracker and the Verve Pipe!

Harry Nilsson Without You

Nena - "99 Luftballoons"

It's about accidental nuclear holocaust, for Christ's sake.

Mark Dinning - 'Teen Angel'

She went back for her class ring!

The Shangri Las - 'Leader of the Pack'

ETA

Elvis Presley - 'Jailhouse Rock'

'Number forty-seven said to number three
Youre the cutest jailbird I ever did see
I sure would be delighted with your company
Come on and do the jailhouse rock with me'

Don't believe me? Child abuse.

"Luka"

My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes I think you've seen me before

If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble. some kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was

I think it's because I'm clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it's because I'm crazy
I try not to act too proud

They only hit until you cry
After that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore

Yes I think I'm okay
I walked into the door again
Well, if you ask that's what I'll say
And it's not your business anyway
I guess I'd like to be alone
With nothing broken, nothing thrown

Just don't ask me how I am [X3]

My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes I think you've seen me before

If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was

And they only hit until you cry
After that, you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore

Shawn Colvin - Sunny Came Home. Abused girl burns her hometown to the ground.
Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life. Meth/sex addiction.
Goo Goo Dolls - Black Balloon. Heroin overdose and abortion.

Brick by the Ben Folds Five was pretty gut wrenching, and yet got constant rotation on the local alt/pop stations when it came out.

Hey Joe-Hendrix
Positively 4th Street-Dylan
Under My Thumb-Stones
Season of the Witch-Donovan
911 Is a Joke-Public Enemy
Long Black Veil-Johnny Cash
Heart-Shaped Box-Nirvana
Mama Tried/Sing Me Back Home-Merle Haggard
Mind Playin Tricks On Me-Geto Boys

I realize there's nothing "sneaky" about these two, but the fact that they were actual bona-fide chart hits is pretty amazing:


The Buoys: "Timothy":

Trapped in a mine that had caved in
And everyone knows the only ones left
Was Joe and me and Tim
When they broke through to pull us free
The only ones left to tell the tale
Was Joe and me

Timothy, Timothy, where on earth did you go?
Timothy, Timothy, God why don't I know?

Hungry as hell no food to eat
And Joe said that he would sell his soul
For just a piece of meat
Water enough to drink for two
And Joe said to me, "I'll take a swig
And then there's some for you."

Timothy, Timothy, Joe was looking at you
Timothy, Timothy, God what did we do?

I must have blacked out just around then
'Cause the very next thing that I could see
Was the light of the day again
My stomach was full as it could be
And nobody ever got around
To finding Timothy

Timothy, Timothy, where on earth did you go?
Timothy, Timothy, God why don't I know?

Timothy...

(written by that Pina Colada fuck, Rupert Holmes, by the way)


Bloodrock: "D.O.A.":

Laying here looking at the ceiling
Someone lays a sheet across my chest
Something warm is flowing down my fingers
Pain is flowing all through my back

I try to move my arms and there's no feeling
And when I look I see there's nothing there
The face beside me stopped it totally bleeding
The girl I knew has such a distant stare

I remember
We were flying along and hit something in the air
I remember
We were flying along and hit something in the air

Then I looked straight at the attendant
His face is pale as it can be
He bends and whispers something softly
He says there's no chance for me

Life is flowing out my body
Pain is flowing out with my blood
The sheets are red and moist where I'm lying
God in Heaven, teach me how to die

They ate Timothy! Those bastards!

I honest to God never even considered what I think you're insinuating here. To quote Bill Hader: Well, that just shatters my whole universe.

"D.O.A." manages to tiptoe right up to the edge of Spinal Tap-esque cheesy excess, but still remain on the side of incredibly creepy. It's that fucking organ/siren that makes me shudder.

On topic: it was many, many years before I realized what I Don't Like Mondays was really about.

girl by beck is absolutely a song about him picking out girls to murder on the beach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Cf5OusjrQ Speaking of... "Painted Black"


Murder in the backwoods medley... Toadies' "Possum Kingdom" & Warrant's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

And especially creepy pedo tune...
Jethro Tull's "Aqualung"

Sitting on a park bench
eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot running down his nose
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Feeling like a dead duck
spitting out pieces of his broken luck.
Sun streaking cold
an old man wandering lonely.
Taking time
the only way he knows.
Leg hurting bad,
as he bends to pick a dog-end
he goes down to the bog
and warms his feet.

Feeling alone
the army's up the rode
salvation à la mode and
a cup of tea.
Aqualung my friend
don't start away uneasy
you poor old sod, you see, it's only me.
Do you still remember
December's foggy freeze
when the ice that
clings on to your beard is
screaming agony.
And you snatch your rattling last breaths
with deep-sea-diver sounds,
and the flowers bloom like
madness in the spring.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds:

Yeah, male rape is always popular 'round here.

Is Nick Cave really pop? Most of his songs are pretty dark.

Run for Your Life-The Beatles

Pretty much the entire Steely Dan catalogue. Case in point, Do It Again, a song about someone who keeps trying to commit suicide but keeps messing it up. Damned catchy too.

What, you thought somebody already mentioned Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life"

CCR's got some dark stuff, all the more insidious due to the cheery melodies - is there a happier-sounding melody than "Bad Moon Rising"?

Yet the lyrics...

"Don't go 'round tonight
Oh it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise"

The uptempo poppyness of "Oasis" by Amanda Palmer is one of the reasons it's such a great dark and sick song. I mean, it goes:

When I got to the party, they gave me a 40
And I must have been thirsty, 'cause I drank it so quickly
When I got to the bedroom, there was somebody waiting
And it wasn't my fault that the barbarian raped me

Then it goes onto deal with abortion. I'm one of the biggest Warren Zevon fans around, and the man is unreplacable, but I think there's a pretty clear line from stuff like:

And after ten long years they let him out of the home
Excitable boy, they all said
And he dug up her grave, built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy

To a lot of Palmer's stuff. But that's me.

Not that I'm being argumentative, but how is that dark? I mean, if you're into the whole Jesus thing that would be pretty uplifting, I would think.

Now, her "Before He Cheats" Song might qualify - if it's not necessarily "dark" it's damn sure sociopathic.

ETA - in that same vein, Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder & Lead" and to a lesser extent, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" are pretty dark. But I don't know if country songs should even be on this list - country music has a habit of getting pretty dark and it's not necessarily "pop" (with the exception of that "Before He Cheats" song - that was a pretty big crossover hit).

I think one of my favorite stories was (IIRC) Faith Hill talking about driving along and hearing Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road" on the radio....she turned it up and started singing along, and halfway through the 2nd verse realized she had to change the station because she had her kids in the car and they really shouldn't be learning the lyrics to that particular song.

I was being sarcastic about putting that in there, but that song really misses the point of "God helps those who help themselves."

Yeah, but what about the times when you saw only one set of footprints, Rath? What about that??

And on topic - "Take These Broken Wings" by Mister Mister seems like a sappy little love ballad but, and maybe it's just me, but it's creepy as shit.

"Norwegian Wood." I mean, John burns the girl's house down because he thinks she's a cocktease.

Also, isn't "There She Goes" by The Las (and covered a few times) actually about heroin?

Crash Into Me.

Still boggles the mind there are still women willing to fuck Dave Matthews after that.

The Outfield, Your Love:
Josie's on a vacation far away
Come around and talk it over
So many things that I wanna say
You know I like my girls a little bit older
I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

I ain't got many friends left to talk to
No one's around when I'm in trouble
You know I'd do anything for you
Stay the night but keep it undercover
I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

Trying to stop my hands from shakin'
Somethin' in my mind's not makin' sense
It's been a while since we were all alone
I can't hide the way I'm feelin'

As you leave me please would you close the door
and don't forget what I told you
Just 'cause you're right - that don't mean I'm wrong
Another shoulder to cry upon
I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

Yeah

I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight
I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

Tonight

I always laugh when the girls at bars belt this out at top volume.

to be fair....i'm dumb. that darkness one is a good one though, so there!


listen to it, then consider that the song is about having herpes.

Zombies, "Care of Cell 44"

Susannah Hoffs covering this song is in the top ten weird musical moments I've had in this decade.

Bob Dylan's Ballad in Plain D. The one song Dylan regrets he ever wrote.

Europe - Cherokee

what we did to those indians was wrong. manifest destiny = wrong.

Not So Manic Now

There is a Britpop era electro group called Dubstar who had a minor hit with Stars and followed it up with a single called Not So Manic Now which i used to really like a put it on in the pub every night on the jukebox.

Then a year or so ago I downloaded the track and listened to the words.....

It seems fairly obvious that the song is about home invasion and rape.

Lyrics like: " This younger man, twenty five, advantageously took away her pride "

and the worst bit:

"I staggered shaking slowly to the door
Through the frosted panel I could see you
Your intentions as a salesman truly cush
You endeavoured as a psycho just to push
And whilst lifting and throwing to the wall
My puny structure of an ageing OAP
No reason why you chose my flat
Breathing deeply in a trance"

As someone whose ex-girlfriend was raped I shed a tear everytime now, and I used to like to listen to it when I was drinking for gods sake!

"Johnny Carson" by The Beach Boys

Don't Stand So Close to me ; The Police - Teacher Studient relationships - What's worse about this one is Sting used to be a teacher.

Mothers Little Helper - The Rolling Stones. Very cheery little song about an addiction to mood altering pills.

Depending on the definiton of Pop Run to the Hills - Iron Madien.
Killing Indians always makes for a good pop song.

Headless Chickens - Gaskrankinstation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-uZsJk5u1U

I won't bother putting the lyrics up, but fuck me it goes to some very dark places in a very stark manner for one of NZ's greatest mainstream acts (who, admittedly, were ALWAYS a bit left of centre, like most NZ mainstream stuff).

The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia
Vicki Lawrence
Words and Music by her husband, Bobby Russell

(peak Billboard position # 1 in 1973)

He was on his way home from Candletop
Been two weeks gone and he thought he'd stop
At William's and have him a drink 'fore he went home to her
Andy Wolloe said "Hello"
And he said "Hi, what's doin', Wo?"
"Seth, sit down, I got some bad news, it's gonna hurt"
He said "I'm your best friend and you know that's right"
"But your young bride ain't home tonight"
"Since you been gone she's been seein' that Amos boy, Seth "
Well, he got mad 'n' he saw red and Andy said "Boy, don'tcha lose your head"
" 'cause to tell ya the truth, I been with her myself"

That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That's the night that they hung an innocent man
Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer
'cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands

Well, Andy got scared and left the bar
Walkin' on home 'cause he didn't live far
See, Andy didn't have many friends and he'd just lost him one
Brother thought his wife musta left town
So he went home and finally found
The only thing Papa had left him, that was a gun

And he went off to Andy's house
A'skippin' through the backwoods quiet as a mouse
Came upon some tracks too small for Andy to make
He looked through the screen at the back-porch door
And he saw Andy lyin' on the floor
In a puddle of blood and he started to shake

Well, the Georgia Patrol was a'makin' their rounds
So he fired a shot just to flag 'em down
And a big-bellied sheriff got his gun and said "why'dya do it?"
And the judge said "Guilty" in a make-believe trial
And slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile
Said' supper's waitin' at home and I gotta get to it"

That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That's the night that they hung an innocent man
Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer
'cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands

Well, they hung my brother before I could say
The tracks he saw while on his way
To Andy's house and back that night were mine
And his cheatin' wife had never left town
And that's one body that'll never be found
See, little sister don't miss when she aims her gun

That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia, oh-oh-aah
That's the night that they hung an innocent man, ah-huh-unh
Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer

FADE
'cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands...

Wiki entry...