Most songs have music and lyrics that match – moody music gets sad lyrics; happy, uptempo music gets joyful lyrics. But there’s a small corner of songwriting heaven for good songs in which the music and words don’t match.
I’m particularly fond of the ‘happy music/sad lyrics’ combination (when it works). It’s a ‘laughing on the outside, crying on the inside’ kind of thing. The duality can be really effective and interesting.
A song I’ve always loved is Cat Stevens’ ‘Here Comes My Baby’. It was a hit back in its day, but now it’s probably more famous for being used in the great movie ‘Rushmore’, where its mood – ‘hiding the pain behind a jaunty smile’ – fits perfectly.
The melody and chords of ‘Here Comes My Baby’ are a variation on early-period Beatles songs – bouncy, lively, and fun. And when the song hits the Chorus, all sounds good:
Here Comes My Baby
Here she comes now
But what follows is not quite what the Chorus’s first lines ,and the music, lead you to expect:
And it comes as no surprise to me
With another guy
Here Comes My Baby
Here she comes now
Walkin’ with a love,
With a love that’s oh so fine
Never to be mine
No matter how I try
In other words, completely hopeless! I love this music-lyrics/happy-sad combination. (Listen to it here!) It’s the tension between appearance and reality that makes it work.
Other songs come to mind that use this ‘rousing music/dark lyric’ contrast very well, though in different ways: Born In The USA (Bruce Springsteen), San Francisco Bay Blues (traditional), Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant), You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon), Pumped Up Kicks (Foster The People) and, in a more comical vein, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (The Beatles).
Can you think of any other songs that pull this off?
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The great classic “More Than You Know” springs immediately to mind (one of the reasons I’ve always loved singing it). Yes, it’s wistful, but major — she loves him more than he knows, and then: “Oh how I’d cry/Oh how I’d sigh/If you got tired and said goodbye/More than I’d show/More than you’ll ever know.” Also “Tears of a Clown” — that jaunty little figure — though of course the title says it all….
Thanks, Galen. Good examples!
Love,
TC
To me, the ultimate example of this type of song is Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)”.
Ken,
Much as I love Alone Again – and I do – to me the music also feels melancholy… though nowhere near as dark as the lyric. Great song!
Thanks for writing,
Tony
My fave is ” Bitter ” by Annie Lennox … It a funky dance tune yet she is singing about hate and vengance and to top it off there is a coda in the middle where she keeps going up in register and then comes down again.
There are a couple more on ” Bare” like that as she recorded it after her divorce. Lol
Tres,
Annie, great singer and writer that she is, is good at having more than one layer going on. Thanks for pointing this out.
Best wishes,
Tony
I think Warren Zevon specialized in this kind of song, with “Werewolves of London” being the biggest hit. I also like “Excitable Boy.” On “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” the Beatles went from ‘I wanna hold your hand’ to ‘I wanna bash your skull in’.
In case you haven’t heard it, Yo La Tengo did a nice remake of “Here Comes My Baby” on their “Fakebook” album.
Chris,
You’re right; WZ was definitely a practitioner of this – it was part of his style.
I will look into the Yo La Tengo version!
Best wishes,
Tony
“This Love of Mine”
Thanks, Rob.
I’m familiar with the Sinatra ballad version which, though it has the twist of the lyric starting out sounding like a positive love song and turning out to be one of loss, seems to me to be more ‘sad music/sad lyric’ than ‘happy music/sad lyric’. Maybe there are uptempo versions which have a different effect?
Thanks for reading and commenting!
TC
“Saving all my love for you”. A beautiful love song; but the one she is saving all her love for is married to another!
Michael,
Thanks for your thoughts. Similarly to what I mentioned to Rob above, ‘Saving All My Love’ seems like it may have more of a lyric switch-up/surprise than a dichotomy between music and words.
Great to hear from you,
TC
Hey Ya is a good example, I think. The initial verses are quite sad. (The second half of the song, not so much.)
I recall Aimee Mann talked about this once. She specifically mentioned Alone Again Naturally as opening her eyes to the idea of using lighter music with heavy lyrics. Like that song I don’t think she goes for a 100% contrast between the two but she does have a lot of catchy songs that happen to be about codependency, despair, or addiction.
Enjoying your blog!
Thanks for reading and commenting, Matt!
I love Alone Again… You’re right; it’s not a total contrast. The music always felt very melancholy to me, even before I noticed the words. But the lyric is goes a lot darker than the music. It was a bit of a shock for such a big hit. Also, it feels very ‘ballady’ but isn’t really that slow – another contrast/paradox.
Best wishes,
Tony
Suzanne Vega’s “Luka” has this wonderful bouncy feel… and “They only hit until you cry”.
Right!
Thanks,
Tony
Its funny I cant find no song of any kind that when you read the lyrics they match what is song.Or missing words that are song but not contained in the lyrics.Many will come in my name,becareful and test all the spirits.