Lanegan’s Lyrics Epitomized How Sad Music Makes Happiness
Dark Mark was one of the best.
The world is still reeling from the terrible news of Mark Lanegan’s death.
It’s 12 AM. I sit contemplating — as I usually do — things in the world that I disagree with.
Then the midnight world spoke back, abruptly and harshly, as news of Mark Lanegan’s passing filled my newsfeed.
After the fervent shock subsided, I reflected on how it felt like a culmination of sorts, how all of my life’s musical interest had led to this point.
Why did it mean so much?
Well, Lanegan is one of the greatest composers of sad songs.
He felt the pain, so that if we ever did, we’d know we weren’t the first or the last.
A quick retort
It was a searing hot summer's day.
I was standing on the charming grounds of Malahide Castle in Dublin.
Dermot Kennedy — the warm-up act — was just beginning and it was at this juncture that I heard the following words sarcastically pronounced: ‘Oh God, this is going to be so miserable.’
I took umbrage at the notion that sad songs can’t be enjoyed. They can.
The lyrics are the most enchanting part of music — obviously, the beat can bring them to life, but the lyrics contain the cold hard truths.
The crème de la crème of musical impulse.
The best songs are from the grunge era
I’ll go out on a limb and say it: The best song lyrics are sad — particularly those from the Grunge era.
And Lanegan epitomized grunge as much as his friends, Cobain, and Staley, long after they were gone.
Sad lyrics best capture what it means to be human, demonstrating a raw honesty that the cheery, and rather cheap, Pharell Williams’ lyrics in ‘Happy’ could never dream of matching.
You get the sense that overly positive chimes also fail to grasp an understanding of the human condition in the way more painful lyrics do — I mean, you never really live if you only feel happy all the time.
Alice in Chains did it for drug use
While many acts have successfully exploited the meaning that comes with sad lyrics, what makes grunge-era artists stand out is that they were often living embodiments of their painful lyrics.
While Cobain’s suicide immediately springs to mind, the somewhat lesser-known Layne Staley of Alice in Chains perfectly conveyed the travails of drug addiction.
So there’s problems in your life
That’s fucked up, and I’m not blind
I’m just see through faded, super jaded
And out of my mindAIC — Heaven Beside You
You might think: ‘That’s all very well, but there’s a limit to my sympathy for a drug user..’
But just in case you do think that it is a self-pitying pile of drivel, it only takes two lines for them to demonstrate selfless humanity and humility:
When I’m down and blue
Rather be me than you
The thing about sad songs is that they evoke empathy. Happy songs can be misleading as they pretend that life is not sometimes about pain, thorns, and difficulty.
This may be why they often find a willing and waiting audience in the false world of social media. Alice in Chains consistently churned out honest, more relatable lyrics than what today’s cheerleaders of toxic positivity would prefer.
Now for Dark Mark
Sad music is more relatable, especially if you are in an introspective mood — conjuring images of a de facto imaginary friend going through the same as you.
Behold the king of deep lyrics, Mark Lanegan:
This jack of diamonds kicked her heart around
Shoulda known they were walking on holy ground
This life might eventually just be the end of me, will I still be with you
Get in next to me, just keep driving
Cause of you I been aliveMark Lanegan — Strange Religion
All the more poignant at this time.
Strange Religion is such an astounding piece of work that you really must do more than just read the lyrics, but analyze them. If it doesn’t halt you, ground you, punch you in the gut, I don’t know what will.
You could do worse than worship at the altar of his solo album — ‘Bubblegum.’
Bridging the gap for modern-day musers
I’ve developed an affinity of late for Phoebe Bridgers.
It helps that she shares my birth year, birth month, and penchant for dark musings.
For some though, it’s all too much.
A university, fearing Bridgers's dark lyrics — in particular, her subjects hinting at ecstasy use as a coping mechanism upon leaving a psychiatric ward — have seemingly decided, in keeping with the spirit of our times, that it would be better off being canceled.
I imagine that this university also deemed safe spaces to be a viable alternative to exposing students to the reality of life so that they can grow.
But hey ho, you don’t have to take lyrics literally. Music is poetry in motion — make it what you want.
So we spent what was left of our serotonin
To chew on our cheeks and stare at the moon
Said she knows she lived through it to get to this moment
Ate a sleeve of saltines on my floor, and I knew thatI would do anything you want me to
Phoebe Bridgers — Graceland Too
Back to the King
I never knew he had moved to Ireland, my doorstep. Close to me. But it’s fitting.
It makes sense that I hear his words as if he is standing right next to me.
Lanegan's lyrics yelp out at you. You cannot but hear them. One Way Street is haunting, If you haven’t listened, I urge you to:
I drink so much sour whiskey I can’t hardly see
And everywhere I’ve been
There’s a well that howls my name
From the one tiny sting
To that vacant fame
Oh the deafening roar
Remember that’s called a one way street
And you can’t get
Can’t get it down without cryingMark Lanegan — One Way Street
It’s got misery, drug use, and alcoholism by the bucket load, all of society's much-maligned ills. And yet. It brings comfort.
So I won’t have it. The idea that sad lyrics equal sadness is misguided at best. At worst, you are missing out on a meaningful, and enriching experience.
What’s now on your to-do list?
- Listen to grunge
- Especially Lanegan
- Also Bridgers
- And, above all, ‘sad’ music
