Mixtape: The Most Melancholy Songs in the World, Like, Ever

Editor's note, 07/23/2007: Hey team -- If you want to read the next installment of this list, click here. Danke!

Y'all. I have a cold and my stomach hurts. And there's some sort of powder-like dust on the ground that I refuse to believe is actually snow. AND I have a magazine going to print today, so I have to be here at the office, waiting, in all my runny-nosed grumpy glory. What better way to pass the time than to make a list of melancholy songs? Let's get this party started:

(These are in no particular order, BTW. Also? I'm not going to bother putting quotation marks around the song titles because that is a pain in the ass. Yes, I know, it's not correct citation. But get off me.)

* Last Goodbye -- Jeff Buckley
* Seasick, Yet Still Docked -- Moz
* Asleep -- The Smiths
* She's Leaving Home -- The Beatles
* Eleanor Rigby -- The Beatles
I think it's the strings part that gets me. If you have a copy of the Anthology 2, you can hear the strings only on track 21. It sounds like a rainy day. In a cemetary. When you're hungover.

* It's Too Late -- Carole King
* Alone Again, Naturally -- Gilbert O'Sullivan
* Everybody Here Wants You -- Jeff Buckley
When I was in Paris, the summer after all this went down, I remember sitting around the hotel, watching MTV Europe, or whatever, and I swear to Baby Jesus that this song had a video. I recall something about TV monitors, an Asian woman, and a cafe? Anyone know?

* Dry the Rain -- The Beta Band
* Hillside -- Arnold
* On and On -- Longpigs
* She Just Wept -- Starsailor
* One -- U2
* Walk to the Water -- U2
Buddha, Kona, Beau, and I went to Cincinnati to see DJ Shadow (Jeru the Damaja opened). We didn't even know that DJ Shadow was who he was because he came on stage immediately after Jeru finished, and he didn't turn off the house lights, so most people were thinking he was just some guy warming up the crowd. It wasn't until he started playing "Midnight in a Perfect World" that we started going, "Hey! Isn't that...?" And by then he was done. Just left the stage without a word. Most people missed him altogether. What a dick. Anyway, since the show was over early, we decided to drive back to Columbus. On the way we stopped at a Waffle House. Now, for you folks out there who don't know from Waffle House, all you need to know is that a house specialty--hash browns--comes in the following ways: smothered, covered, diced, and chunked. Sometimes all at once. ANYWAY, Waffle Houses have jukeboxes. They usually have stuff like Merle Haggard or that little guy, Paul Williams, who used to guest star on The Love Boat, or the Pointer Sisters. But this jukebox must have been maintained by the kids who worked there: It had the Pixies, Violent Femmes, the Cure, and U2. What really blew my mind was that U2's "Walk to the Water" was a selection. I'd never heard that song until Matthew, a huge U2 fan, put it on a mixtape for me a year earlier. I shoveled in my quarters and played it. For whatever reason, at that time, in that place, when it came on I just started bawling. I felt like such an asshole. The guys were like, "WTF, mate?" (Someday I'll tell the Matthew story. Just have to run it by a lawyer first. And that's not to titillate you; it's so's I don't get sued.)

* Letters to Elise – The Cure
* Little Digger – Liz Phair
* Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinead O'Connor's version
* Success Has Made a Failure of our Home – Sinead O'Connor
* Sometimes It Snows in April -- Prince
* Would? – Alice in Chains
* Your Ghost – Kristin Hersh
* The Needle and the Damage Done – Neil Young
* Blue and Wonder – Richard Buckner
See if you can find a live version of this. I don't know where I got it or where it was recorded, but it's pretty amazing.

* You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' – The Righteous Brothers
* Waltz #2 (XO) – Elliott Smith

Whew, doggie! That's enough for today. I just got my proofs back, so I have to get cracking. Feel free to add to the list…