Monday, January 26, 2009

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?


Chuck's Top 10 Best Break-up Songs


I suggest you download these and make a playlist immediately because if you haven't felt the pain of love that leaves you crying hard into your pillow on the floor, then you will. I promise you that you will. We all do. And It's times like these when I get real cynical. And I wonder if relationships are supposed to work out. I wonder if two people who are in love could ever be happy together forever.

"My pillow smelled like snot and tears. What had started out as a slow cry - had developed into a hard sob that contracted my stomach and left me choking for air and unable to breathe. A part of my life was dying, and it was as if I was watching it all happen from an outside perspective." 
-my response after listening to #1 on repeat for what seemed like hours on end.


10. Jimmy Ruffin. "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?"

: Love's happiness is just an illusion/Filled with sadness and confusion/What becomes of the broken hearted/Who had loved that's now departed?


9. Sinead O'Connor. "Nothing Compares 2 U"

: It's been so lonely without you here/Like a bird without a song/Nothing can stop these lonely tears from falling/Tell me, baby, where did I go wrong?


8. U2. "With Or Without You"

: Sleight of hand and twist of fate/On a bed of nails she makes me wait/And I wait without you


7. Snow Patrol. "You Could Be Happy"

: Most of what I remember makes me sure/I should have stopped you from walking out the door/You could Be happy, I hope you are/You make me happier than I had been by far


6. Death Cab For Cutie. "A Lack of Color"

: All the girls in every girlie magazine/Can't make me feel any less alone/I'm reaching for the phone/To call at 7:03/ And on your machine, I slur a plea/For you to come home/But I know it's too late/I should have given you a reason to stay

5. Cake. "End of the Movie"

: People you love/Will turn their backs on you/You'll lose your hair/Your teeth/Your knife will fall out of it's sheath/But you still don't like to leave before the end of the movie


4.  Ben Folds. "Song for the Dumped"

: So you wanted/ to take a break/Slow it down some and/Have some space/Well fuck you, too


3. Jeff Buckley. "Last Goodbye"

: This is our last goodbye/I hate to feel the love between us die/But it's over/Just hear this and then I'll go/You gave me more to live for/Then you'll ever know


2. Pearl Jam. "Black"

: I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a sun/In somebody else's sky, but why?/Why, why can't it be, why can't it be mine?


1. The Mountain Goats. "Woke Up New"

: And the world in it's cold way started coming alive/And I stood there like a business man waiting for the train/And I got ready for the future to arrive/And I sang/What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? - without you



It was particularly #7 - #3 that were hard to assemble. After hearing "Woke Up New" for the first time this past day and crying as much as I did - I knew that it was #1. It was able to bring out every sad feeling I was harboring. And Pearl Jam's "Black" will go down as one of the most depressing songs of our generation. It's the kind of song that leaves you lying in bed and no matter how much you shout, yell, and cry - the room won't stop spinning and life won't pause. #8-#10 I saw more as space fillers on the list, but don't count them out. They belong here. And I'd like to open the flood gates of discussion on these songs. I hope that you've found a new sound on here and that you may be able to get a nice, hard cry out of it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to know why "Fuck You Bitch" by Lloyd Thurman did not even crack the top ten?

gimpynerd said...

The thing about limits is they are never reached... Also, the closer you get to one the less noticeable the steps closer become. So noticeable, that from some perspectives it might not be moving at all.

gimpynerd said...

*so not noticeable or w/e -.-

misojc said...

did you know there is a live version of black that ends in a semi hopeful note ...

great song