Sunday, September 07, 2008

Depressing Music

On PBS last night I saw Australian Pink Floyd. This is a tribute band which plays the music of Pink Floyd. They sound like Pink Floyd, and kind of look like them as well. In October they will be at Ruth Eckerd Hall playing, in it's entirety, the 1979 Pink Floyd album "The Wall".

I hope the suicide hotlines are well staffed that night, because "The Wall" is one of the most depressing pieces of music ever created. These are talented guys, so they can effectively transmit their miseries to the listening audience. An example:


Day after day, love turns grey
Like the skin of a dying man.
Night after night, we pretend its all right
But I have grown older and
You have grown colder and
Nothing is very much fun any more.
And I can feel one of my turns coming on.
I feel cold as a razor blade,
Tight as a tourniquet,
Dry as a funeral drum.

Now, doesn't that just cheer you up? This is a double album. There are four sides of this stuff. I do not own this piece of music. The last time I listened to it for an extended period of time was about 15 years ago and I was looking for the rat poison afterwards.

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