Just happened to us with - "Pumped Up Kicks"

the first one that came to my mind was that "paper planes" song from slumdog millionaire.

not really "dark" per se, but that Green Day song "good riddance" comes to mind. mainly because I graduated high school in 1999 and I can remember them playing that at our prom like five times.

U2 - one

bigboykin said:

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Not dark, but certainly much more cynical... I had never given a single thought to the lyrics in Blue's Traveler's Hook until recently even though I've probably heard it 100's of times since the 90's, and holy crap that's exactly what the song is about!

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I honestly only picked up bits and pieces of what he was saying in the lyrics and never gave it much thought, but I recently read an article about it (up to them intentionally using very formulaic arrangement in the music itself) and then reading the lyrics, it was a bit of a slap in the face to the whole industry that they put on heavy radio rotation for a long time that no one seemed to acknowledge.

Makes you feel like the music business sees everyone as schmucks, not that they're wrong.

Dan Auerbach's Malibu Man is a bit tongue-in-cheek music business stuff, but he wrote it about Rick Rubin in particular, and didn't try to hide it, it isn't really mean spirited, but does poke fun at stereotypes and Rubin embodies quite a few..

Bottlehead90 said:

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Ring Around the Rosie

I found out the back story after childhood

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Urban legend

So what do the lyrics refer to?

Quote:

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Since the 20th century, the rhyme has often been associated with the Great Plague which happened in England in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of the Black Death in England. Interpreters of the rhyme before the Second World War make no mention of this; by 1951, however, it seems to have become well established as an explanation for the form of the rhyme that had become standard in the United Kingdom.

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Quote:

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The origins and meanings of the game have long been unknown and subject to speculation. In 1898, A Dictionary of British Folklore contained the belief that an explanation of the game was of pagan origin, based on the Sheffield Glossary comparison of Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie. The theory states that it is in reference to Pagan myths and cited a passage which states, "Gifted children of fortune have the power to laugh roses, as Freyja wept gold." Believing the first instance to be indicative of Pagan beings of light.

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Queen's "Death on Two Legs" is similar to the Blue's Traveler mentioned above, about the music industry not a person:

You suck my blood like a leech
You break the law and you preach
Screw my brain till it hurts
You've taken all my money
And you want more

Misguided old mule with your pig headed rules
With your narrow minded cronies
Who are fools of the first division

Death on two legs
You're tearing me apart
Death on two legs
You've never had a heart of your own

Kill joy bad guy big talking small fry
You're just an old barrow boy
Have you found a new toy to replace me?
Can you face me?
But now you can kiss my ass goodbye

Feel good are you satisfied?
Do you feel like suicide?
(I think you should)
Is your conscience all right
Does it plague you at night?
Do you feel good feel good?

Semi-Charmed Life is another one that comes to mind immediately.

investorAg83 said:

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Big Al 1992 said:

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Just happened to us with - "Pumped Up Kicks"

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Better run, better run...faster than my bullets. Always seemed clear.

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IF you actually pay attention to the lyrics, yeah.

MooreTrucker said:

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investorAg83 said:

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Big Al 1992 said:

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Just happened to us with - "Pumped Up Kicks"

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Better run, better run...faster than my bullets. Always seemed clear.

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IF you actually pay attention to the lyrics, yeah.

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That song sounds like a happy modern-day Beach Boys.

IB4 Possum Kingdom

edit: 2 min after

Thrice - Artist in the Ambulance

Literally always thought the song was about a tour bus crash they were in and the medical staff that helped him.

Quote:

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Late night, brakes lock, hear the tires squeal
Red light, can't stop, so I spin the wheel
My world goes black before I
Feel an angel lift me up
And I open bloodshot eyes
Into fluorescent white
They flip the siren, hit the lights
Close the doors, and I am gone
Now I lay here owing my life
To a stranger, and I realize
That empty words are not enough
I'm left here with the question of just
What have I to show except
The promises I never kept?
I lie here shaking on this bed
Under the weight of my regrets
And I hope, that I will never let you down
And I know, that this can be more than just
Flashing lights and sounds
Look around and you'll see that at times
It feels like no one really cares
It gets me down, but I'm still gonna try to do
What's right, I know that there's a
Difference between sleight of hand
And giving everything you have
There's a line drawn in the sand
I'm working up the will to cross it
And I hope, that I will never let you down
And I know, that this can be more than just
Flashing lights and sounds
Rhetoric can't raise the dead, I'm sick of always
Talking, when there's no change
Rhetoric can't raise the dead, I'm sick of empty words
Let's lead, and not follow
Late night, brakes lock, hear the tires squeal
Red light, can't stop, so I spin the wheel
My world goes black before I
Feel an angel steal me from the
Greedy jaws of death and chance
And pull me in with steady hands
They've given me a second chance
The artist in the ambulance
And I hope, that I will never let you down
And I know, that this can be more than just
Flashing lights and sounds
Can we pick you off the ground?
More than flashing lights and sounds

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Turns out..

Quote:

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This song is directly inspired by a passage out of the book "Burn Collector" by Al Burian. In the liner notes of Vheissu, Dustin tells how Riley brought him the book and this passage struck them. It's about dealing with the feeling of the helplessness of an artist in the hands of an ambulance driver. A fictional situation used to draw a picture of regret, shame and realization.

Here's an excerpt from "Burn Collector":

"The question of the artist versus the ambulance driver, I've come to realize, isn't a simple question of how to live. It's a question, too, of how to promote living, how to stave off dying. The ambulance driver does it by simply entering the fray, plucking the wounded off the pavement and trying to sew them up. This is a noble thing. It's this nobility which makes the artist look bad, because how do you pluck the wounded off the pavement abstractly? How do you pluck yourself off the pavement? In order to live, in order justify living, we can't just fill the space of our lives with empty amusement, with pointless light and sound and words- we're going to have to try harder now.'

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F$&@ da Police

Duncan Idaho said:

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investorAg83 said:

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Big Al 1992 said:

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Just happened to us with - "Pumped Up Kicks"

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Better run, better run...faster than my bullets. Always seemed clear.

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Yeah op has to be trolling... Which is weird because this is a great topic for a thread.

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Only knew 5 words - da da da da with the pumped up kicks. Never paid attention.

Another one was Don't Fear the Reaper.

JRC0811 said:

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The M*A*S*H theme song - Suicide is Painless

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This. I just learned this within the last several months and was absolutely floored to hear this.

Another Day In Paradise

I remember Christopher Cross on Howard Stern years ago, talking about he sailing was about his troubled teen years. He had an adult who got him away from that by taking him sailing. Think Stern even reunited them on his show.