Is melancholy a mood or an emotion? Is it involuntary or an indulgence? Are there any similarities between misery and melancholy? Scholars say that the lines between them are blurred. Very helpful.
Let’s instead turn to more creative souls who seem to catch on what one poet was all about when he said,“MELENCOLIA transcends all wit” (yes spelt that way and in all caps). Gospel, soul, blues, folk … all show a complaint of souls overflowing with the bitterest anguish - “Like tears, they were a relief to aching hearts.”
The Portuguese have one word for all the pleasures of reflection and contemplation of things we love and long for, with hope adding a touch of sweetness that makes melancholy bearable. And more - fado. And who better to introduce us to the “joys of longing” than Amália Rodrigues, the Queen of Fado herself. In Lágrima, she tells her lover, “And if I knew that by dying/ You would have to cry for me/ Then just one tear from you/ Would bring a joy I would die for.” Incrível!
Rocked by the loss of a close friend, depression and addiction, James Taylorshows how much courage it takes to ride out his bad days publicly in Fire and Rain, a reflection marked more by contemplation than recollection.
Or maybe the simple act of saying goodbye to friends could set us off as Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention remind us of all those on the road in Farewell, Farewell.
Paul Simon contemplates a different sort of travel. “I live in fear that my love is so overpowering I’m afraid that I will disappear … The nearer the destination, the more the danger of Slip Slidin’ Away.”
How would you describe the life of a man who spends his one weekly off in bed till ten o’clock? Mickey Buckins & The New Breed paint this picture of quiet desperation in Reflections of Charles Brown and ask us “What a quiet life he’s had/ Don’t you think it’s very sad?”
John Prine takes us deeper into blues territory when he declares his dislike for all things – from broken toys to old love letters - that rob him of his childhoodSouvenirs. “Broken hearts and dirty windows/Make life difficult to see.”
Such contemplation of memory - of a person, place or event – can bring about the clouds, as the Queen of the Slide Guitar Bonnie Raitt details in I Gave My Love a Candle. And now that she’s moving down that “same lonesome road” all she can say is “Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye.”
New Orleans bluesman Snooks Eaglin has a similar affliction. He met his love when it was raining and it rained when he lost her. Now he says, “I Get The Blues When It Rains,” sharing the penchant all such minds have for linking weather and mood-swings. He’d really be miserable in Cherrapunji.
Blues icon BB King doesn’t have any such particular point. He has no money, his woman is cold-hearted and the whole world is just wrong. “Hard luck and trouble is my middle name, and I can’t shake it loose, these Chains and Things.”
It’s not just about loss as the promise of a fresh start is part of melancholy. Bon Scott and his mates in AC/DC raise just such hope with an honest re-appraisal of their lives. The answer is to Ride On. Scott’s demise soon after only adds to the poignancy.
But, a reader asked, can rap do melancholy? Hell Yeah! With a clip of George H W Bush providing a counterpoint rapper Paris sets his song amidst urban warfare and crime. Back in the day being bad was cool …”But nowadays it seems life just ain’t the same … It ain’t the same as the Days of Old.” Brutal.
From that iron blow to the velvet slash of Chitthi Aayi Hai. This tale of/from an expat starts suspiciously like a massive guilt trip. It says you haven’t written ... blah, blah. Then word by word, note by note Pankaj Udhas turns the theme inside out in a masterclass of mellifluous melancholy.
A sort of a respite comes at the end of this playlist when Amira Willighagen enters RR’s lists as the youngest performer with her singing of Puccini’s aria O Mio Babbino Caro. I’ll leave her introduction to André Rieu, who after the applause ends, just shakes his head in wonder and says: “Nine years old!” Quite. Or as we say at RR, super mega donds!
(Published in The Guardian musicblog Spet 3 2015)
Playlist A: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd311HlAmiPrgze2bdxrNJWdLUJtgRZ5g
Playlist B: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd311HlAmiPqJReCWkEChZu43E-p-SByp
