Saddest Song of '80s.....

'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore'

 

Speaking of Elton John songs, he sang Candle in the Wind at a concert as Ryan White, the teen boy with AIDS who had to fight to go to school, was dying and dedicated the song to him. Very emotional.

 

Re. "The Last American Virgin" Diane Franklin had a talent for walking away with those 80s' dorm movies. (She was hilarious as Monique, the French exchange student in "Better Off Dead.")

Most of my choices have already been named.

It's weird how the music from certain periods can bring things back and you experience what you listened to in a new way. I was working on a play about the NAMES project and was absolutely stuck. My characters weren't talking to me. The feelings weren't there. It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time and then...nothing.

I walked into my studio to get something and the radio was on. It was a rerun of an old "Prairie Home Companion" with Colin Hay as the featured guest.

I wasn't in a particularly emotional state at the moment, but hearing that song, which I'd probably heard a thousand times during the 80s', brought up a lot of memories. Holy shit, it was darker than I remembered. So were the 80s'.

I wrote the play and sent it on to Louisville.

 

That might be Men at Work's best song.

 

Oh man, I remember watching that movie for the first time and thinking "oh that's such a wrong move (poor dude, totally hosed)."

 

This one resonates if you grew up in the rural Midwest during the early 80s farm crisis:

 

As someone else mentioned, My Hometown definitely rates, but, really, they're all second place behind Fogelberg's Same Auld Lang Syne. THAT still brings tears to the eyes of this jaded 60something.

Also, I'm not sure if it's an 80's song or not, but Stevie Ray Vaughan's Life By the Drop always gets me feeling real emotional. Always.

 

Miami 2017 seems pretty funny now. And So it Goes is up there with I've loved These Days as his best sad songs.

 

I think the song took on a different meaning because of how it was used in the Breakfast Club, but Don't You (Forget About Me) is lyrically pretty sad.

 

It was probably the 90s already, but the most depressing album I remember was Soul Cages. Most of it was great, but Sting wrote it after his father died and it's a real downer.

 

If you are going to go 1980s depressing Bruce, "Highway Patrolman", "Shut Out the Light" and "Stolen Car" are far sadder.

The alternative version of "Stolen Car", which appears on Tracks, will make you want to slit your wrists. "I can remember how good I felt inside, when the preacher said “Son, you may kiss the bride”. But as I leaned over to touch her pretty lips, I felt it all slip away through my fingertips."

 

Perhaps the first music video to prominently feature a woman blowing her nose.