This Will End In Tears

The ultimate book for melancholic people who enjoy writing lists?
Adam Brent Houghtaling has written "This will end in tears. The miserabilist guide to music" (ItBooks 2012).

Artists are presented alphabetical, with a list of their most miserable tunes, we get essays on some songs and chapters on obvious miserable themes, like divorce songs and murder ballads.

Finally the 100 saddest songs are listed!

I´m really not a list person, and I am quite cool about not finding some of "my artists" here (John Cale, Kevin Ayers, Brian Eno), but I guess any list person will disagree with a lot the selections here!

Robert Wyatt got his own chapter, and this is his miserable list:

1. "Sea Song" - Rock Bottom (1974)
2. "Five Black Notes and One White Note" - Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975)
3. "Strange Fruit" - B-side, At Last I Am Free (1980)
4. "Shipbuilding" - Single (1982)
5. "Te Recuerdo Amanda" - Work In Progress EP (1984)
6. "The Sight of the Wind" - Dondestan (1991)
7. "Free Will and Testament" - Shleep (1997)
8. "Lullaby for Hamza" - Cuckooland (2003)
9. "Just As You Are" - Comicopera (2008)
10. "Laura" - ...For the Ghosts Within (2010)

Robert Wyatts "Shipbuilding" is also on the list of the saddest songs, and we all know he has done beautiful versions of "Strange Fruit" (Billie Holiday) and "Lush Life" (Billy Strayhorn), songs with their own essays in this sad book.

"The feel-bad book of the year"!"


And since Son House managed to get "Death letter" twice (!) on the list of the saddest among the sad songs, we let him end this blog post.