Kind of a Mess

Please, baby baby, please… There’s something wonderful about a song that just lays it all out there and just flat-out says, “OH LORD JESUS, PLEASE LOVE ME!!!!” That feeling is never fun while you’re in it, but a good Sad Bastard song that begs helps shoulder some of your heart’s burden.
Plus, they make for kick-ass karaoke songs.

Since I Fell for You – Lenny Welch
This is my drunk in a hotel tell bar jam.
I’ve never been drunk in a hotel bar, but I plan on being so one day and when I am, I will march over the local lounge singer, commandeer the mic and I will wail this out while lying across the piano and possibly showing my panties until they call security.
It will happen.

Cry for You – Jodeci
I had this on tape. TAPE. I’m old.

Layla – Derek and the Dominos
I’m gonna put a bold statement out there, and I might lose some people over it, but here goes:

This is the ONLY version of Layla that matters.

No…NO. I don’t wanna hear about the acoustic version that clogged the VH1 airwaves when they still played music (instead of shows about sad has-beens trying to get laid as much as possible under the pretense of finding love.)

THIS, ladies and the two gentlemen who read this, is the real version of Layla. The one full of passion and love and heartache and all that CANNOT be contained in an acoustic song. And anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong, wrong, WRONG…JETHRO.
(He also said that the guitar solo was better in Peter Frampton’s Do You Feel Like We Do. We might need counseling.)

At This Moment – Billy Vera and the Beaters
Despite the unfortunate band name, this has always been one of my favorites. Mostly because I had a wicked crush on Michael J. Fox in Family Ties and this was the love song for him and his girlfriend. Alex P. Keaton still remains the only Republican I’d marry.

Cry Baby – Janis Joplin
Do I even really need to say anything about this one?

Tired of Being Alone – Al Green
And I’ll leave you with King Al. He’s so tired of being alone. Why won’t you help him, girl, just as soon as you caaaaaaannnnn?

Anyone who denies a plea like that is just a cold-hearted woman.

I say folk, but I’m sure someone will correct me, but it’s close. I guess in a perfect world we’d have a better term for folk/rock/pop/blues-ish music…
However, in a perfect world, my mom would have realized that I was a massively mature 16 year old who deserved to go to Lilth Fair and Austin is NOT too far for me to go for a concert…. But it’s not perfect, is it, mom? IS IT?!?
But I’m fine. It’s fine…I’m over it. It’s fine….*sniff*

Train Song – Mindy Smith
I get the feeling that when he gets off that damn train, she’s gonna stab his a**.
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Nothing will set off Jethro and I faster than the other person jacking with the radio.  Jethro has a short attention span and likes to flip around or listen to talk radio.  I, on the other hand, will flip if I don’t like a song but generally will keep it on one station.  And that station is usually KRNB 105.7, smmmmoooooottttthhhhh R&B.  (You gotta say it all sexy like.)

He mocks me, but I love this damn station.  I listen to Steve Harvey in the morning and then I get my sexy on with Sean Andre on the drive home.  It’s my feel-good station and generally, baby-makin’ music is my feel-good music.  Even if it’s sad, “baby, baby, please COME BACK!” baby-makin’ music.

Can You Stand the Rain – Boyz II Men
Y’all know of my love for Boyz II Men. I know this is a New Edition song, but this one just breaks your heart.
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My father, a cranky Guyanese man we lovingly call the Tyrant, brought me up to appreciate good music. Well, more like he played good classic soul in the house on a regular basis and frequently told me my music sucked. (To be fair, it sort of did sometimes.) And so, because he blared Sam Cooke and Clarence Carter while mowing the lawn, the latter of which horrified my mom, I learned to listen to appreciate a lot of the greats. (Plus, playing “Strokin'” loud enough for the neighbors to hear and embarrass my mom? HI-LARIOUS.”)

So here are my favorite Sad Bastard classic soul songs. Hipsters think they have angsty pain music cornered, but these folks have been doing it and doing it better for years. And they don’t wear awful skinny jeans while doing it.

Little Anthony & The Imperials – Going Out of my Head
Oh, this one is one of those car songs that I get busted at the stop light with, belting out the lyrics and totally oblivious to the carful of teens staring in horror and amusement.
Suck it, kids. Me and Anthony, we got pain.

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Watch out, my darlings.  I’m gonna bring the party down a bit.

You know those songs that you hear and you’re like, “That’s my song!”  Not in the drunken “Ooo, girl, that’s my SONG!  Here, hold my purse…” but in the, “This describes everything perfectly RIGHT THIS MINUTE.”  Ever have some of those songs?  Here are some of mine.  Not currently applicable, but they always take me back..and apparently “back” is kind of a emo place.

[The links lead to videos off-site.  Embeds sometimes suck  and frankly I’m tired of dealing with them.  If someone knows how to do one of those embedded music player jukebox thingies, I will show you my boobies. Or bake you something or both.  Whatever, I’d be super grateful.] Read More

Oh, how I love cover songs.  Maybe it’s the feeling of the familiar made strange, maybe I appreciate an artist’s homage to the original, maybe I just fear change; but dear Lordy I love me some cover songs.

Good ones, of course.  The bad ones can die in a fire.

Here’s my list of Sad Bastard Songs: The Covers Edition.** Read More

Oh, dear God, I love sad bastard music.

That “draggin’ your heart on the ground, pain in my soul, so deep I might drown, dear baby PLEASE WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?!?!?” kind of music.

It speaks to my inner broken self; the one that, even when things are going well, will always go, “Well yeah…but you could still lose it all and be ALONG. FOR-EV-ER.”

My inner broken self is like an angry Eyeore. With piercings who pretends they are a cutter.

So here are some of my favorite Super Sad Bastard Songs.  (There was supposed to be a music player widget here, but me and Grooveshark are in a fight.)  I maybe might have listened to any or all of these songs a’la Bridget Jones; kinda drunk and alone in my pj’s, belting out the lyrics and hoping the neighbors didn’t hear.

I probably shouldn’t admit stuff like that.  But we’re all friends here.

Try not to listen all the way through, though. And afterwards, go get a muffin and a hug.  It’ll help. Read More