Tag Archives: rock music

Monday Melody: Beautiful Day (U2)

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The early 2000’s weren’t exactly the best time for popular music. Sirius, Youtube, and EDM (for the most part) were still in the future, and radio rock, though still ubiquitous, was well past its prime. The airwaves were full of interchangeable post-grunge, nu-metal, Britney Spears, and unmemorable R&B and rap. But there were a few gems that stood out all the more because they were so rare. One of those gems was 2000’s “Beautiful Day” by the supergroup U2–this was one of the last great rock songs.

From the Wikipedia entry for the song:

According to Bono, “Beautiful Day” is about “a man who has lost everything, but finds joy in what he still has.” Blender interpreted the song and the line “it’s a beautiful day” as “a vision of abandoning material things and finding grace in the world itself”.

The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There’s no room
No space to rent in this townYou’re out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you’re not moving anywhere

You thought you’d found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace

It’s a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away

You’re on the road
But you’ve got no destination
You’re in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

You love this town
Even if that doesn’t ring true
You’ve been all over
And it’s been all over you

It’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away
It’s a beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I’m not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away
Beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I’m not a hopeless case

What you don’t have you don’t need it now
What you don’t know you can feel it somehow
What you don’t have you don’t need it now
Don’t need it now
Was a beautiful day

Monday Melody: Back on the Chain Gang (The Pretenders)

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The Pretenders were one of the most successful new wave groups of the early to mid 1980s, and “Back on the Chain Gang” was and still is my favorite Pretenders song. Chrissie Hynde, the band’s lead singer, wrote it after the drug overdose death of her husband, James Honeyman-Scott. She was three months pregnant with their daughter at the time.

To me, both this song and video shows a maturity and depth that wasn’t present in their earlier work, without sacrificing their catchy power-pop sound. Although “Back on the Chain Gang” could be thought of as depressing, it always lifted my spirits and made me want to get up and dance. It’s also a song that, to me, defines the 1980’s, but also still sounds fresh and relevant even in 2016.

Monday Melody: “Somethings Always Wrong” (Toad the Wet Sprocket)

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The ’90s holds a special place in my heart and of all the decades, I like the music of that decade the best–even though technically I was a little too old for it.   ’90s music seems the most versatile to me.   No one knew it yet, but it was the last decade where good rock music was still dominant, before it disintegrated into the commercial post-grunge of the early 2000s, and the eventual takeover of hip hop and finally, EDM.

Sometime during the late 1980s, new wave segued into early alternative (or what used to be called “college rock” before it became “alternative” in the 90s. )  No matter that I was no longer in college and was in fact married by then, I was always drawn to this type of music.  REM is a fantastic band and of all the early alternative bands probably became the most famous and long lived.   But there were others that seemed so underrated to me.    Toad the Wet Sprocket (formed in 1986) made music that wasn’t offensive to anyone’s ears but was never over-produced or overcommercialized either.   Their lyrics were always meaningful.   “Something’s Always Wrong” wasn’t their biggest hit; in fact it never became much of a hit at all, although it did get some airplay in 1994.   It’s my favorite song by this band.  The harmonies are just gorgeous and I can’t get enough of the jangly guitars.   I never get tired of it.

I know it’s Wednesday. It’s two days late because I forgot. I don’t have any other excuses. 😳

Monday Melodies: Accidents Will Happen (Elvis Costello)

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I had the good fortune of living in New York City (well, actually in Queens, NY) during the punk and new wave explosion of the late 1970s at just the right age. Until 1979 though, I was largely unaware of it, and satisfied myself with Boston, Aerosmith, and Fleetwood Mac, because in those pre-MTV days, that’s what was getting all the radio airplay (along with disco, of course).

On New Years’ Eve, 1978, I met a young man through a friend and fell head over heels in limerence with him. Never mind that he turned out to be a narcissistic jerk (they all were), for the first half of 1979 we had blast. Mark was what today you might call a hipster–he was a Jewish art student who wore skinny ties and trench coats, and he had an earring when they were still a novelty on men. He ate organic food, rode a bike everywhere, listened to obscure music and he adored punk and New Wave. He hated what I listened to and proceeded to give me a music education.

He used to take me downtown to the East Village, and it was like a carnival. Young people everywhere wearing Mohawks, black leather with safety pins, ripped T-shirts, cheap eateries on every corner, second hand record stores. And of course, a multitude of smoke-filled hole-in-the-wall music clubs, the most famous one being CBGBs.

New wave and power pop bands that would become famous during the early 1980s got their start there. Probably the most famous of all of them was a nerdy looking young Irishman named Declan McManus, more famously known as Elvis Costello.

Costello had a hiccupy, neurotic voice and a spastic dance. He wrote songs with deep, almost indecipherable lyrics and incredibly catchy music with melodies that stuck to you like caramel sticks to your teeth. You were never sure if he was sincere or sarcastic, but no matter–all his songs sounded great and you found yourself singing and bopping along.

His biggest hit was a little ditty called “Accidents Will Happen.” Although my life then was no less shitty than it ever was, I always associate this song with good times. It’s impressive for how far ahead of its time it is. It sounds more like a song that would have been popular in 1986, not 1979. I never grew tired of it, and enjoy it as much today as I did when I was 20.

11 songs about BPD and NPD #5

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My song lists about NPD and BPD are among my most popular posts (and are so much fun to put together), so I think it’s time to post another set. There are so many great songs about Cluster B disorders!

Since it’s sometimes so hard to distinguish lyrics about people with BPD from people with NPD, I’m going to just combine 10 songs I haven’t reviewed before in one new post, and specify which disorder I think is being described in the narrative, and where I’m not sure, I’ll say so.
Wherever possible, I tried to post the lyric videos.

1. The Cars: Dangerous Type

Thanks to Mary Pranzatelli for suggesting this one! This is a great, catchy song, the Cars were one of my favorite bands back in the day. I think this describes a girl with BPD.

2. Three Days’ Grace: Animal I Have Become

Three Days’ Grace (along with Alanis Morrisette) seems to have a lot of songs about personality disordered individuals. This rocker from the early 2000s seems to be sung by a guy with severe or malignant BPD (edging toward sociopathy) who is all too aware of how sick he’s become.

3. Smashing Pumpkins: To Forgive

A dark and poignant lament from a man with either BPD or NPD about the child he was whose soul was destroyed.

4. Of Monsters and Men: Little Talks

Duet where the female singer appears to be suffering from BPD and is having a dialogue about it with her worried lover.

5. The Beatles: Run for Your Life

There are few songs from the 60s about BPD or NPD and The Beatles weren’t a band you expected to write about such dark material anyway, but this lesser known of their songs seems to be about a really jealous guy with malignant NPD or psychopathy.

6. John Lennon: Jealous Guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzhyKn1ThpU

Well, related to the above, maybe John Lennon had issues, because he wrote this very pretty ballad about a guy lamenting the way he hurt his lover and he seems to have BPD.

7. Halsey: Gasoline

This woman describes what could be a bad case of self destructive BPD, even though Halsey’s Wikipedia entry says she actually suffers from Bipolar Disorder.

8. Shawn Colvin: Sunny Came Home

A pretty murder ballad about a woman who suffered a BPD psychotic break and snapped. She may have been a psychopath too since the murder was premeditated.

9. Limp Bizkit: Behind Blue Eyes

The singer is clearly a self-aware narcissist.  Thanks to Akram for this suggestion!

10. Sia: Breathe Me

Poignant ballad about a young woman suffering with BPD.(Like Halsey above, Sia Furler’s Wikipedia entry states she actually suffers from Bipolar Disorder)

11. Kelly Clarkson: Because of You

Emotional ballad that portrays Clarkson as a young woman who suffers from emotional problems, possibly BPD.   I’ve included the regular video because of the story it tells. She meets her child (true) self, who helps her to remember her narcissistic parents who caused her to develop severe self esteem problems.   The video is also interesting in that Clarkson is shown periodically in what appears to be a house of mirrors.  Clarkson appears to be in tears at the end.

If you enjoyed this post, please check out my other BPD/NPD song lists:

20 Songs About Narcissists (#s 1 — 10)

20 Songs About Narcissists (#s 11 — 20)

12 More Songs About Narcissists, Part one

12 More Songs About Narcissists, Part two

11 Songs About Borderline Personality Disorder

If you have a song suggestion that you don’t see on my lists, please suggest it in the comments and I might include it in a future list.

“I wanna be sedated.”

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A great retro Ramones tune from 1978 for a boring, snowy Friday in 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLlLtSG7xe4

Long-forgotten one hit wonder I just heard on the radio!

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I loved this one hit wonder song when it came out in 1984 but it didn’t receive airplay much beyond its radio life, so like so many other songs that came and went over the years, providing my life’s soundtrack,  I completely forgot about it.

Just a few minutes ago, I heard it on the radio (a local indie-rock station that plays both old and new music), probably the first time in about 20 years.   It’s a song from one of the happier times in my life (which there haven’t too been many of), so it brings back pretty good memories.

I love when that happens.  I wish it would happen more often.  There’s probably so many others songs I completely forgot about, but would remember immediately if I heard them again.

No Doubt also covered this song in 2003.  Their version is just as good.   On  side note, Gwen Stefani appears to be portraying  woman with Histrionic Personality Disorder or maybe BPD.

Rest in Peace, David Bowie.

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David Bowie was a musical visionary and he died after an 18 month long battle with cancer, at the age of 69.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/11/entertainment/david-bowie-death/

I don’t have much more to say, so I’ll just post this in his memory:

He will be missed. 😦

NarCissistic Mary: Psychopathic Stalker Girl (new song!)

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Great news! My friend Mary, a survivor of narcissistic abuse, who started her rock band NarCissistic Mary after breaking free, has a brand new song, Psychopathic Stalker Girl!

Please listen and share.

Their song It’s In Your Head was previously featured on this blog.
Mary writes all her own music and lyrics.

NarCissistic Mary: It’s In Your Head

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My friend Mary’s ’90s-style hard rocker, “It’s In Your Head,” a song about narcissistic abuse, is now up on Youtube! (I posted the soundcloud version a few weeks back).

Please listen! She and her band are great. More new music from them will be coming soon!
Mary is a huge inspiration to me because since she left her abuser(s), she has come out of her shell and had the confidence to finally discover her musical talents and put together her band.

The two mirror images of Mary with her guitar form two white owls. You might have to look at the graphic from a distance, but it’s clear as day once you see it. Mary assured me this was COMPLETELY unintentional. So eerie!