‘Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought’
Percy Bysshe Shelley – ‘To A Skylark’.
Have you ever noticed the songs which form the soundtrack of our lives are most often a poetic blend of hope and melancholy?
Filled with emotion, they speak directly to your fragile self, piercing your protective armour with a vibrational bullet of raw and ugly truth to your heart.
They are a reminder that life is a sweet and sour gift – a tapestry of pain and joy, of sadness and inspiration, of hope and melancholy, of love and hatred.
Too often we move toward pleasure and move away from pain . . . yet it is in the moments we sit with our pain, embrace our sadness and joy as two sides of the same coin that life moves beyond the mundane and into the realm of the magical.
All of my favourite songs have one thing in common – they are a mix of hope and melancholy.
Like ‘Fast Car’ by Tracy Chapman.
This is the epitome of a hope and melancholy song.
With emotional gut punch lyrics and a sweet and sombre melody which says – ‘I want to get out, more than I’ve ever wanted anything, to escape this futile lot in life . . . yet I am crippled by deep and overwhelming paralysis’.
Below are the most powerful lyrics from this incredible song.
‘I had a feeling that I belonged, I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone’.
Tracy is speaking of a raw and painful truth in these words.
We all want to belong – to something special, something important, something higher than ourselves.
We all want our lives to matter – to ‘be someone’.
And we want this feeling to last.
And yet there is a good chance may never ‘be someone’ or feeling like we belong anywhere.
Other incredibly moving ‘hope and melancholy’ songs on my list include:
* ‘Hallelujuh’ by Leonard Cohen (Jeff Buckley’s version is particularly moving)
* ‘Sweet Disposition’ by The Temper Trap
* ‘I’m Coming Around’ by Faithless
* ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ by The Verve
* ‘Dreams’ by The Cranberries
* ‘We’ll Be Coming Back’ by Calvin Harris featuring Example
* ‘Seven Years’ by Lukas Graham
* ‘1979’ by The Smashing Pumpkins
* ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd
* ‘In The Living Years’ by Mike & The Mechanics
* ‘The Sound Of Silence’ by Simon & Garfunkel
* ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac
* ‘Daniel’ by Elton John
* ‘Cats In The Cradle’ by Cat Stevens
* ‘Romeo + Juliet’ by Radiohead (anything by Radiohead really)
As individuals, our deepest emotional investment is often into the feeling of HOPE.
Yet our hopes and dreams are often crushed by tragedy and failure.
There are no guarantees of success in this lifetime.
Ugly tragic things happen to the best of us.
And often the worst of us can get away with murder, rape and violence.
The sheer uncertainty of it all is enough to draw a stream of melancholy out of the happiest of souls.
And yet . . . unless we kill it ourselves – hope remains alive within us, until our very last breath . . . be it a roaring glow or a faint and tiny flicker.
Hope lights our way, it keeps us clawing tooth and nail through our darkest hours.
Like a hymn, a mantra or a prayer – songs of hope and melancholy are our courageous attempt to give voice to what is ineffable, beyond description.
They are the truest expression of the emotional rollercoaster we call human life.
What is your favourite song of hope and melancholy?
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