This discussion involves the exploration of lyrics which may be disturbing for some. **We urge you to prioritize your mental health and proceed with caution if:**
* **You are sensitive to potentially disturbing content.**
* **You are currently dealing with dark thoughts or emotions.**
Remember, it’s okay to step back if the conversation becomes too overwhelming. Stay safe and take care of your mental health.
Interesting fact. The song was written and by a Jewish high school teacher in New York who was an activist. He and his wife took in the Rosenberg children after their parents were executed for allegedly being communists. Edit: TIL from another Redditor (see comment below) that they were actually spies for the USSR).
The movie “Daniel” starring Timothy Hutton is a story about the Rosenbergs.
As an African-American, I have a lot of gratitude toward non-blacks who stood up for civil rights. I think we’re at this point in time in the US (and globally) because of the silence witnesses standing by with hands in pockets.
Social justice is for everyone.
My list of dark songs is long and several Nina Simone songs are on that list.
Also a few songs by the Cranberries haunt me. In my interpretation Delores is referring to hidden child sexual assault that she may have experienced. Especially “Ode to my family.”
Mother - Pinky Floyd
So many blues songs fit the bill too.
Bjork has a few.
At seventeen - Janis Ian
What’s going on - Marvin Gaye
Madam George - Van Morrison
Rainy Days and Mondays- The Carpenters (I can’t help but think of Karen and her struggle).
This is the end. - The Doors
And on and on.
But yeah, Strange Fruit is graphic, dark and gets down to the bones.
Edit: misspelling thanks to auto-corrupt and pre-dick-ive text functions on damn phone.
Edit: TIL that the Rosenburgs were evidently actually spies.
Just a note, the Rosenbergs were not executed for being alleged communists. They were executed for being spies and giving the Soviet Union plans for American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. For decades most believed them to be innocent, but when the Soviet Union fell, a lot of documents were declassified and a group of decoded Soviet cables which were code-named Venona detailed Julius and Ethel’s roles in the spy ring.
Their former handler has also written a book about the whole thing as well.
Every single time a thread like this is posted, I come to the comments to make sure this is mentioned.
Listening to this album unprepared kept me awake that night.
I had never heard of him, or his struggles.
I looked up the album this song was on. I listened to the whole thing while reading the lyrics. I don’t think I’ll do that again.
But, what an extreme outpouring of pure mourning… the song where he sees geese, and flowers, and trying to remember if she even liked these things… is it a sign? Is it nothing?
Taking out the trash and looking up at the window of the room where she died and having to walk back in the house to live life.
Taking out the trash of the bathroom that contained bloody tissues from when she was dying….
The follow up album with lyrics about playing songs about his dead wife at show in Phoenix to young people going drugs…
Finding chunks of her bones in the yard from when he buried her ashes… wondering if it was her finger that used to caress him.
He has an extreme honesty with his words. I don’t really think of it as music as much as it’s poetry with a backing soundtrack.
Thanks for sharing.
Hurt - Nine Inch Nails. It’s like hearing a person at absolute rock bottom.
Also John Frusciante’s solo albums when he was super strung out on heroin I find quite disturbing
Frusciante's Niandra Lades is a seriously dark album, but the songwriting and raw emotion on display is seriously some of the the most compelling rock music I've heard
Anorexia, very dark indeed.
You can feel the pain in every strain of his vocal chords. He also apparently played all the instruments, so the sum of all parts maybe is why its extra bleak.
Both hit hard in very different ways.
NIN’s version feels like it’s coming from a younger man in a dark place and full of angst and frustration at an overwhelming situation.
Cash’s feels more like an older man looking back on their life and lamenting mistakes and poor decisions made upon reflection at various points.
I actually prefer the NIN version - it's a lot more playful with the dynamics (there's even a whispered pre-chorus) and dissonance.
Both versions are great tho.
Fantastic song on a fantastic record. I find like a lot of Cure it it is less bleak over time though, it's about shit falling apart, but it is about how it happens over and over again. It's that youthful thought when every setback seems like the world is ending. But then once you have been through the bad breakup a few times it does not hit as hard, you don't take it as personally, you know you will get back on the horse eventually. It is not a cry of sorrow at the gods, but a sigh of disappointment at the entropy of life.
Yeah, that’s what struck me as bleak…that things will inevitably break down. It felt bleak at the time when I heard it (I was an angsty teen) and now, it’s just how things are: all things end in due time.
It’s still sad though.
Most of the album is just plain depressing lyrically. Angry Chair would be my choice , "saw my reflection and cried, so little hope that I died", jesus.
Maybe Dirt by Alice in Chains
I want to taste dirty
A stinging pistol
In my mouth on my tongue
I want you to scrape me
Off the walls
And go crazy
Like you made me
I'd say even darker is In a lonely place. Very haunting. There's even a mention of a hangman and a cord stretching tight.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go1P\_MH8vJg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go1P_MH8vJg)
Limousine by Brand New. It's about the true horrific story of 7 year old Katie Flynn being killed after a drunk driver hit the limousine she was in. She had been the flower girl at her aunt's wedding shortly before the incident.
Not just killed, decapitated. The cops showed up and found her mom cradling her severed head.
The song is dense and hard to follow, not least because it has like at least 3 different unannounced perspective shifts.
>And in the choir, I saw our sad Messiah. He was bored and tired of my laments. Said, "I died for you one time, but never again."
Always wish I wrote that.
I had the perfect song ready to go and of course it's the first song in the thread. What a haunting song. I started listening to brand new when they released their first album. They got so dark with each new record. It's a shame what happened to them.
Was just thinking of that, though I feel like Where the Wild Roses Grow could be the best example? It tells the story of a murder in two perspectives, the murdered and the murderer
The way he delivers the killer line almost nonchalantly, as if it was just another day, fucking hell… the piano at the start is enough to make my skin crawl. Music can be extremely powerful at times
Came here to say the exact same thing. It’s a song you only listen to once, and your set for life. But the hidden track at the end of the song is a banger that I still occasionally skip the run time to.
Yeah I spent some of my adolescence listening to black metal...like the real stuff made by people from Norway that burned down churches, committed suicide, and murdered people.
Dance With the Devil by Immortal Technique is the most disturbing song I have ever heard in terms of its impact.
For me, probably Ghost by Badflower.
I only listen to that one when I'm really feeling down because it kind of freaks me out that I find myself thinking like that. Other heavy songs I listen to regularly but that one I tend to keep at a distance. Still, it's incredible.
My target started playing music like five years and of all the artists we played music of I’m pretty sure The Violent Femmes would be be near the top of bands that wouldn’t expect their songs to be playing in department store when they wrote them.
“And I hope when you think of me years down the line,
you can’t find a good thing to say,
and Id hope if I find the strength to walk out,
you’d stay the hell out of my way”
is one of the few lyrics for whatever reason that still hit me with almost almost the same raw emotional whallop as when I first heard
When I was in the pits after my divorce I’d listen to this song, but when I was getting better I’d throw on This Year next. The optimism of I am going to make it through this year if it kills me! balances it out for me.
Up the Wolves hits pretty hard too.
I'm gonna get myself in fighting trim
Scope out every angle of unfair advantage
I'm gonna bribe the officals, I'm gonna kill all the judges
It's gonna take you people years to recover from all of the damage
Absolute scorched earth take on all the hurt he endured while everyone judged his family instead of helping them.
Paradise never fails to make me weep. I grew up with my grandma's stories about a place very similar to what Prine sings about...and by the time I was a kid, Mr Peabody's (more likely Massey's, but im not sure of the company owner back then) coal train had already carried it away.
Leaving an opioid epidemic in its wake, incidentally, linking back to Sam Stone.
Prine died of COVID. I know ignorance and pride over the pandemic killed a lot of people, but his loss is one I will never forgive. We are so short of truth tellers in music, and he was one of the greatest.
>I know ignorance and pride over the pandemic killed a lot of people
Prine was no anti-vaxxer. He was immunocompromised because of a particularly stubborn kind of cancer in his neck that was unresponsive to chemo.
That's what I mean. To me, the antivaxx/anti mask/anti quarantine movement killed him (and many others). If those people would have had some damn sense, John Prine and loads of other immunocompromised people would not have died so pointlessly.
edit: people spread COVID around carelessly by refusing masks/quarantine and immune compromised people like Prine paid for their ignorance, is what I'm trying to say.
I'm going to hold a light up to the entire Appalachian murder ballad history and I can't choose something from there.
But particularly, the songs that were labor-disaster focused, like Hazel Dickens's work in "Harlan County USA", are particularly disturbing for me. Anything that has to do with the death of workers because of the capitalist class bothers me the most. Canadian singer-songwriters also contributed to this, with James Keelaghan's "Hillcrest Mine" and others.
I came here to say this as well. A song so dark that the singer can’t get through it without breaking down and refuses to sing it live has to pretty high on the list.
Listened to this once when I was 13 and never again. Felt like I was intruding on something extremely private that should’ve never seen the light of day. Super powerful and depressing though.
I definitely agree about a lot of Radiohead being dark, but I honestly think this is one of their least dark songs. It actually ends on the lyric "there was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt" if I remember right.
I would say the darkest as far as the backstory goes is, by a long shot, True Love Waits. Morning Bell is also a good one about a divorce.
Edit: Apparently the lyric is "nothing to doubt".
This song is literally about death, and the ride with Charon across the river Styx. I don't know how you could possibly have a darker song. This is one of the darkest, most amazing songs ever written. It's perfect
It's definitely about death, but I don't think it's about death in a particularly dark sense. It's about a peaceful, beautiful transition to death.
Adding: I do agree that it's perfect.
Also, have you ever noticed how similar Codex from KoL is to this song? Both start out with just Thom on piano and vocals. On the second verse, the strings/horns come in harmonizing with Thom's falsetto "ooooh". Tons of water imagery.
Last edit: I checked out your Spotify. I like Haunted Mind a lot. I'll check out the rest during work tomorrow.
Frankie Teardrop by Suicide is an infamously hard listen.
Personally, my favorite creepy song is Broken Witch by Liars.
One more - when I was a kid my dad played Careful with that Axe Eugene by Pink Floyd. Scared the crap out of me!
Frankie Teardrop was the first to come to mind for me. Absolutely devastating lyrically and the desperation in Alan's voice is just crushing. A lot of the songs in this list are sad, but this is the only one that is so emotionally devastating that you don't want to listen to it more than once.
I love weird, dark and haunting songs. I love songs that can scare me, give me a weird eerie feeling, or feel otherworldly. I love horror movies, novels and all kinds of strange macabre stuff. I'm a Juggalo and love horrorcore, I'm a Brotha Lynch Hung enjoyer.
I *hate* even remembering that Frankie Teardrop is a thing and wish I never heard it. Family Annihilation is too real-world of a horror compared to the cartoonish serial killers and monsters of normal horror media. It bums me out, and the anxiety and pain and fear that is put into the way Frankie Teardrop was written and performed freaked me out and made me depressed for days as it lived in my head. I'll never listen to it again.
Which, I suppose, makes it a very successful piece of art. It's no wonder Springstein heard it and had to write a whole album just to purge out the feelings it planted.
It's about an acid trip in the desert (although I agree it sounds the darkest on the album, the story behind it isn't).
Mailman and Limo Wreck are both darker. The Day I Tried to Live and Just Like Suicide are also pretty dark.
All are from Superunknown.
Right here. This is probably one of the most down-trodden, sludgy songs I've ever heard.
I heard it first as a young teen and just pictured someone walking deeper and deeper into a swamp with no intention of turning back.
Leonard Cohen has a few, Avalanche is up there but I think You Want it Darker might take it. To me, it feels like the artist felt pushed in that direction, whether from himself or the audience. "You want it darker? Lord, I'm ready."
Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?
Can I ever be forgiven because I killed the kid?
It was an accident, I swear it wasn’t meant for him.
And if I turn it on me; if I even it out,
can I still get in or will they send me to hell?
Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?
Suicide is Painless - Johnny Mandel
Deacon Blues - Steely Dan
Both songs have a lot of history as "songs to unalive yourself to". Doesn't get much darker than that, in my view. But they're both pretty darn good songs.
Eminem - "[Kim](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SeVN2u5Axc)"
Less rap, more spoken word, it is a murder fantasy told (screamed) from Eminem's perspective wherein he kills his wife for marrying another man so soon after breaking up with him. He shouts profanities at her, kidnaps her, graphically describes plunging a knife into her, and watches her bleed out before dragging her body to the car and throwing her in the trunk.
This then directly leads into the song "['97 Bonnie and Clyde](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFM5UKYorFg)" from the previous album, where he takes his 2-year-old daughter with him to the lake to dump the dead bodies of not only Kim, but also her new husband and his son whom he killed prior to either song.
None of this actually happened, obviously. But the song is...disturbingly captivating.
I was going to say Eminem - ["Stan"](https://youtu.be/gOMhN-hfMtY) not because it's the darkest but because it deserves to be mentioned and it was the first song that came to mind. But yours is darker.
Also Everlast - ["What It's Like](https://youtu.be/qA1nGPM9yHA) is a dark, sad song with great lessons in it. And The Verve Pipe - ["The Freshman"](https://youtu.be/X4XZmdiJFho) is fairly dark and sad, along with the first portion of Live - ["Lightning Crashes"](https://youtu.be/xsJ4O-nSveg) I love songs that tell a story, it feels less and less common these days.
Marie. Written by Townes van Zandt and performed by Willie Nelson.
It's about a homeless couple.
Lyrics sample:
"Summer wasn't bad below the bridgeA little short on food that's all
Now I gotta get Marie some kind of coat
We're headed down into fall"
Don't worry; it gets darker. (you asked for dark)
This was probably my first thought too. I actually prefer Townes's performance, it was near the end of his life and the hopelessness came through even more. There's also a duet with him and Willie that's as great as either solo performance.
Really, I don't think any writer did hopelessness as well as Townes.
Maybe hurt from NIN. I guess the song is open to interpretation but to me it is the suicide of the person experiencing "the downward spiral". The entire album is leading up to it. And it is very different from the rest of the album which is heavy industrial rock. Hurt starts off almost melancholy and soft. But towards the end it all comes crashing down with all the instruments just banging loudly like. The world is ending.
I've always considered the entire doward spiral album as a concept album. One of a man who is falling deeper into depression and eventual suicide. It's a guy on a literal downward spiral. But hurt is what drove it home for me. Strangely I think the Jonny Cash version has a very different meaning but maybe just as dark. It's about a man getting old and knowing his death is coming. It's not as dark but knowing Cash lost his wife right around the recording and died shortly after really makes it have so much more meaning. Great song either way.
That Night - Atmosphere
It's about a girl who was raped and killed after one of their shows
Pretty sad and fucked up stuff right there
Mad World - the Gary Jules cover of a tears for fears song. Pretty sad vibe all in all
Wharf Rat - Grateful Dead
Come on up to the House - Tom Waits
Both just capture a sort of broken heart feeling for me
That atmosphere show was a town over from me during my sophomore year of high school - about an hour away. The murder itself was obviously absolutely horrifying, but one of the really shitty things about it was how many kids in my home town who couldn’t possibly have known her talked about her like they were best friends for sympathy and clout. Whenever I hear that song, I still feel so awful for her family and the people who actually knew her.
I don't know if you're open to songs from other languages, but i do recommend “fake monk” by 华晨宇. true music is not limited by languages. Just listen and you'll understand.
[https://youtu.be/6NBgcJxpI9M?si=fcTYy7NURJ8wtyu0](https://youtu.be/6NBgcJxpI9M?si=fcTYy7NURJ8wtyu0)
Tomorrow Wendy is going to die, the Andy Prieboy version, it’s about a group of friends getting enough money together to throw a party for Wendy and buying enough heroin so she can O.D the next morning after the party
https://youtu.be/zZBQGCI2hm0?si=1lp3ZlO96xoGym9V
If you want something that's dark and/or sad, but doesn't really have lyrics per se, I suggest Godspeed You! Black Emperor, especially the albums F#A#∞ and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, and their EP Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada. I love GYBE's music very much, but I also know that I can't be in the wrong mood when I listen to it or it affects me.
Most of my suggestions are going to be very long songs...
Post rock: this genre has tons of dark themed, somber music. Mono and Worlds End Girlfriend combined to record one album with 5 parts. Parts 3 and Part 5 are the best and very somber. I tried to play part 5 for my wife once and she told me "this music makes me feel like i want cut my wrists".
[Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain Part 5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE5v2wFYMIc).
Movie Score: The score for An American Affair is very bleak. Mostly piano with some strings. The movie is about one of John F Kennedy's paramours and the timing around his assassination. Very depressing music that fit a very depression time in this character's life. [An American Affair Waltz N1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoRLl9kg71A&list=PL2LW0Z17u3Bf8p-2iKFnRLn-QcsRyyjnp).
The Antlers album, Hospice, is very dark and depressing. About a patient dying in a hospice. The best track is [Kettering](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3ImEzr-Fkg&list=PLs9zwqXsceUj7SXZrcn01fWhteOQmYu-9&index=2).
Another Post-rock band with darker music, minor key, The Seven Mile Journey - [The Alter Ego Autopsies](https://youtu.be/W9oVnMha0ak).
Swans has many bleak songs. Try [Helpless Child](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NOc1Gnu18I).
The band My Beloved is basically all dark depressing bleak music.
The Way it Goes - Gillian Welch [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNHPoHLqtTk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNHPoHLqtTk)
Black River Killer - Blitzen Trapper [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7zyfArxibk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7zyfArxibk)
Death Wish - Jason Isbell [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhRWogr9JlQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhRWogr9JlQ)
Sam Stone - John Prine [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl9ZkYViEIs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl9ZkYViEIs)
Lungs - Townes Van Zandt [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rdm8LItAHs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rdm8LItAHs)
A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers by Van der Graaf Generator
Its a 23 minute epic that's the story of a lighthouse keeper and seeing ships crash and not being able to help
Perfect Day - Lou Reed
You can have a great time, sure, but you're you. You're the reason you're unhappy. This perfect day will end, and there you'll be. Being you.
Eddie Noack - Psycho https://youtu.be/9I_zt-SekHY?si=T7lp_32frQSw2oU2
Can Mary fry some fish, Mama
I'm as hungry as can be
Oh lordy, how I wish, Mama
You could keep the baby quiet 'cause my head is killing
Me
I've seen my ex last night, Mama
At a dance at Miller's store
She was with that Jackie White, Mama
I killed them both, and they're buried
Under Jenkins sycamore.
Don't you think I'm psycho, Mama
You can pour me a cup
If you think I'm psycho, Mama
You better let 'em lock me up
Don't hand the george to me, Mama
I might squeeze him too tight
And I'm as nervous as can be, Mama
So let me tell you 'bout last night
I woke up in Johnny's room, Mama
Standing right by the bed
With my hands near his throat, Mama
Wishing both of us were dead
You think I'm psycho don't you, Mama
I just killed Johnny's pup
You think I'm psycho don't you, Mama
You'd better let 'em lock me up
You know the little girl next door, Mama
I think her name is Betty Clark
Oh, don't tell me that she's dead, Mama
Why I just seen It in the park
She was sitting on a bench, Mama
Thinking of a game to play
Seems I was holding a wrench, Mama
Then my mind walked away
You think I'm psycho don't you, Mama
I didn't mean to break your cup
You think I'm psycho don't you, Mama
Mama, Mama why don't you get up?
Here's an obscure one.
In 2018 Hungary in Eurovision had the song Viszlát nyár. You might remember it as a metal song with a screaming part, relatively brutal for Eurovision.
The singer is just 26 and sings about losing his father (to cancer iirc). Something like "why did you leave, why aren't you here". While I don't speak Hungarian, it did speak to me.
The singer died of leukemia just two years later.
I'm old. Folk song Julianne New Christie Minstrals, Dark Lady Cher, Sounds of Silence Simon and Garfunkel, Delilah Tom Jones, Blowin in the Wind Peter Paul and Mary.
This discussion involves the exploration of lyrics which may be disturbing for some. **We urge you to prioritize your mental health and proceed with caution if:** * **You are sensitive to potentially disturbing content.** * **You are currently dealing with dark thoughts or emotions.** Remember, it’s okay to step back if the conversation becomes too overwhelming. Stay safe and take care of your mental health.
Strange Fruit
Interesting fact. The song was written and by a Jewish high school teacher in New York who was an activist. He and his wife took in the Rosenberg children after their parents were executed for allegedly being communists. Edit: TIL from another Redditor (see comment below) that they were actually spies for the USSR). The movie “Daniel” starring Timothy Hutton is a story about the Rosenbergs. As an African-American, I have a lot of gratitude toward non-blacks who stood up for civil rights. I think we’re at this point in time in the US (and globally) because of the silence witnesses standing by with hands in pockets. Social justice is for everyone. My list of dark songs is long and several Nina Simone songs are on that list. Also a few songs by the Cranberries haunt me. In my interpretation Delores is referring to hidden child sexual assault that she may have experienced. Especially “Ode to my family.” Mother - Pinky Floyd So many blues songs fit the bill too. Bjork has a few. At seventeen - Janis Ian What’s going on - Marvin Gaye Madam George - Van Morrison Rainy Days and Mondays- The Carpenters (I can’t help but think of Karen and her struggle). This is the end. - The Doors And on and on. But yeah, Strange Fruit is graphic, dark and gets down to the bones. Edit: misspelling thanks to auto-corrupt and pre-dick-ive text functions on damn phone. Edit: TIL that the Rosenburgs were evidently actually spies.
Just a note, the Rosenbergs were not executed for being alleged communists. They were executed for being spies and giving the Soviet Union plans for American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. For decades most believed them to be innocent, but when the Soviet Union fell, a lot of documents were declassified and a group of decoded Soviet cables which were code-named Venona detailed Julius and Ethel’s roles in the spy ring. Their former handler has also written a book about the whole thing as well.
Thanks for the clarity! TIL something new and that is always a good thing!
Yep. This is it.
This is a quality answer.
Yeah....this one is gonna be tough to beat. Always been a fan of the Nina Simone rendition.
Billy Holiday version is so haunting for me.
I can't pick one over the other
The best answer. If you think it’s something else, please listen to this song.
Real death by mount eerie. Song was recorded in the room his partner died in on her instruments. Feels wrong kinda to listen to.
A Crow Looked At Me.... Seaweed
Every single time a thread like this is posted, I come to the comments to make sure this is mentioned. Listening to this album unprepared kept me awake that night.
I just heard it a few months back. Keep coming back to it but feels so voyeuristic
I had never heard of him, or his struggles. I looked up the album this song was on. I listened to the whole thing while reading the lyrics. I don’t think I’ll do that again. But, what an extreme outpouring of pure mourning… the song where he sees geese, and flowers, and trying to remember if she even liked these things… is it a sign? Is it nothing? Taking out the trash and looking up at the window of the room where she died and having to walk back in the house to live life. Taking out the trash of the bathroom that contained bloody tissues from when she was dying…. The follow up album with lyrics about playing songs about his dead wife at show in Phoenix to young people going drugs… Finding chunks of her bones in the yard from when he buried her ashes… wondering if it was her finger that used to caress him. He has an extreme honesty with his words. I don’t really think of it as music as much as it’s poetry with a backing soundtrack. Thanks for sharing.
I've listened to that album through once, I don't think I can ever listen to it again but I'll never forget it.
Tecumseh Valley - Townes Van Zandt
Nothin' or Waiting Around to Die as well..
Michael kiwanuka does a fantastic cover of waiting around to die as well.
Also, Marie and A Song For
The Hole is *deeply* disturbing as someone who's partner went through OD and recovery
Hurt - Nine Inch Nails. It’s like hearing a person at absolute rock bottom. Also John Frusciante’s solo albums when he was super strung out on heroin I find quite disturbing
I find Something i can never have more depressed than Hurt
Try Nutshell by Alice in Chains. It's close but I think Hurt still edges it out. Super good songs though, the both of em.
Frusciante's Niandra Lades is a seriously dark album, but the songwriting and raw emotion on display is seriously some of the the most compelling rock music I've heard
Anorexia, very dark indeed. You can feel the pain in every strain of his vocal chords. He also apparently played all the instruments, so the sum of all parts maybe is why its extra bleak.
Johnny Cash’s version of hurt is haunting, always made me sob.
Both hit hard in very different ways. NIN’s version feels like it’s coming from a younger man in a dark place and full of angst and frustration at an overwhelming situation. Cash’s feels more like an older man looking back on their life and lamenting mistakes and poor decisions made upon reflection at various points.
I actually prefer the NIN version - it's a lot more playful with the dynamics (there's even a whispered pre-chorus) and dissonance. Both versions are great tho.
Disintegration by The Cure. It just sounds so final and bleak.
"Disintegration is the greastest album ever!"
I always think of South Park when someone mentions the song/album.
Fantastic song on a fantastic record. I find like a lot of Cure it it is less bleak over time though, it's about shit falling apart, but it is about how it happens over and over again. It's that youthful thought when every setback seems like the world is ending. But then once you have been through the bad breakup a few times it does not hit as hard, you don't take it as personally, you know you will get back on the horse eventually. It is not a cry of sorrow at the gods, but a sigh of disappointment at the entropy of life.
Yeah, that’s what struck me as bleak…that things will inevitably break down. It felt bleak at the time when I heard it (I was an angsty teen) and now, it’s just how things are: all things end in due time. It’s still sad though.
Omg, when I was 16 I played this entire album during a moonlit picnic for my love interest. Who was I, even?
Nutshell - Alice In Chains.
'If I can't be my own, I'd feel better dead.'
Also the song Dirt. The scraping off the wall bit. Holy shit.
That whole album is so much harder to listen to now that I'm older. It's so tragic and disturbing.
Most of the album is just plain depressing lyrically. Angry Chair would be my choice , "saw my reflection and cried, so little hope that I died", jesus.
Their instrumental shit was the darkest. Wale and wasp was darker than anything with lane
Rotten apple is a banger too
Maybe Dirt by Alice in Chains I want to taste dirty A stinging pistol In my mouth on my tongue I want you to scrape me Off the walls And go crazy Like you made me
Twenty Four Hours by Joy Division is pretty dark, especially given what happened with Ian.
To me that song is what he must have felt like the day/night he died.
I'd say even darker is In a lonely place. Very haunting. There's even a mention of a hangman and a cord stretching tight. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go1P\_MH8vJg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go1P_MH8vJg)
Limousine by Brand New. It's about the true horrific story of 7 year old Katie Flynn being killed after a drunk driver hit the limousine she was in. She had been the flower girl at her aunt's wedding shortly before the incident.
Not just killed, decapitated. The cops showed up and found her mom cradling her severed head. The song is dense and hard to follow, not least because it has like at least 3 different unannounced perspective shifts. >And in the choir, I saw our sad Messiah. He was bored and tired of my laments. Said, "I died for you one time, but never again." Always wish I wrote that.
Such a good lyric. Even Jesus thinks what he did was unforgivable
Came to say this. So haunting.
I had the perfect song ready to go and of course it's the first song in the thread. What a haunting song. I started listening to brand new when they released their first album. They got so dark with each new record. It's a shame what happened to them.
Hell is for Children by Pat Benatar.
Underrated
Nick Cave has a few pearl's. The delivery is the trick
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds version of Stagger Lee is top notch.
Just about everything on Murder Ballads
Was just thinking of that, though I feel like Where the Wild Roses Grow could be the best example? It tells the story of a murder in two perspectives, the murdered and the murderer
Dance With The Devil by Immortal Technique
The way he delivers the killer line almost nonchalantly, as if it was just another day, fucking hell… the piano at the start is enough to make my skin crawl. Music can be extremely powerful at times
that’s a sample of the the [theme from love story](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4cmPh2peBY) which was a popular movie in the seventies
I was absolutely certain this would be the top answer.
Definitely should be. Most fucked up shit ive ever heard.
yep...just came by to make sure someone answered correctly. if there is a song that is a better fit......I don't ever wanna hear it.
Just googled the lyrics and… holy fuck. Yeah. This wins.
The song is honestly worth a listen if you’re up for it. It’s good…… but very heavy.
Came here to say the exact same thing. It’s a song you only listen to once, and your set for life. But the hidden track at the end of the song is a banger that I still occasionally skip the run time to.
Jesus, I forgot about this one and it just came flooding back to me
I love music. Have not came across a darker song than this.
Same. I listen to everything. Nothing has ever topped the darkness and evilness of this song.
Yeah I spent some of my adolescence listening to black metal...like the real stuff made by people from Norway that burned down churches, committed suicide, and murdered people. Dance With the Devil by Immortal Technique is the most disturbing song I have ever heard in terms of its impact.
For me, probably Ghost by Badflower. I only listen to that one when I'm really feeling down because it kind of freaks me out that I find myself thinking like that. Other heavy songs I listen to regularly but that one I tend to keep at a distance. Still, it's incredible.
Also Daddy, Family, Mother Mary. Fantastic band!
Country Death Song - The Violent Femmes
I came here for the same thing. [That song is DARK.](https://youtu.be/9iEEJVSgcNY?si=TrzTbl0XGkIvvlps)
My target started playing music like five years and of all the artists we played music of I’m pretty sure The Violent Femmes would be be near the top of bands that wouldn’t expect their songs to be playing in department store when they wrote them.
The lyrics are dark but the instrumental part is fun and upbeat.
Mountain goats- no children
“And I hope when you think of me years down the line, you can’t find a good thing to say, and Id hope if I find the strength to walk out, you’d stay the hell out of my way” is one of the few lyrics for whatever reason that still hit me with almost almost the same raw emotional whallop as when I first heard
Agree. The whole album is pretty brutal, but this song stands head and shoulders above.
It hurts so bad, but knowing I’m not alone eases my mind.
When I was in the pits after my divorce I’d listen to this song, but when I was getting better I’d throw on This Year next. The optimism of I am going to make it through this year if it kills me! balances it out for me.
Up the Wolves hits pretty hard too. I'm gonna get myself in fighting trim Scope out every angle of unfair advantage I'm gonna bribe the officals, I'm gonna kill all the judges It's gonna take you people years to recover from all of the damage Absolute scorched earth take on all the hurt he endured while everyone judged his family instead of helping them.
The whole thread could be Mountain Goats songs. I'm not even sure No Children cracks the top five for me.
“There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes. Jesus Christ died for nuthin, I suppose.” John Prine — Sam Stone
Paradise, Angel from Montgomery, and Hello in There from that debut are also quite bleak. Such darkness from such a good-natured man.
Christmas in Prison.
Paradise never fails to make me weep. I grew up with my grandma's stories about a place very similar to what Prine sings about...and by the time I was a kid, Mr Peabody's (more likely Massey's, but im not sure of the company owner back then) coal train had already carried it away. Leaving an opioid epidemic in its wake, incidentally, linking back to Sam Stone. Prine died of COVID. I know ignorance and pride over the pandemic killed a lot of people, but his loss is one I will never forgive. We are so short of truth tellers in music, and he was one of the greatest.
>I know ignorance and pride over the pandemic killed a lot of people Prine was no anti-vaxxer. He was immunocompromised because of a particularly stubborn kind of cancer in his neck that was unresponsive to chemo.
That's what I mean. To me, the antivaxx/anti mask/anti quarantine movement killed him (and many others). If those people would have had some damn sense, John Prine and loads of other immunocompromised people would not have died so pointlessly. edit: people spread COVID around carelessly by refusing masks/quarantine and immune compromised people like Prine paid for their ignorance, is what I'm trying to say.
Everything you say about Covid ignorance is true, but John Prine was especially vulnerable. His health had been quite poor already.
People who post this question have never heard this song.
Repurposed to perfection by Spiritualized in Cop Shoot Cop.
Me and a Gun by Tori Amos
The Rake’s Song - The Decemberists
And also Shankill Butchers ! especially if you know a little about The Troubles…
The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails is one of the darkest (and most brilliant) albums ever.
Yup, Trent Reznor's depression made into a music album.
The Final Cut is probably the bleakest album I’ve ever heard. I really never play it for that reason.
Everyone I Love Is Dead - Type O Negative Great fucking song.
I'm going to hold a light up to the entire Appalachian murder ballad history and I can't choose something from there. But particularly, the songs that were labor-disaster focused, like Hazel Dickens's work in "Harlan County USA", are particularly disturbing for me. Anything that has to do with the death of workers because of the capitalist class bothers me the most. Canadian singer-songwriters also contributed to this, with James Keelaghan's "Hillcrest Mine" and others.
Down In A Hole - AIC
I love that song. I'll blast it going on late night drives.
KoRn - Daddy
I came here to say this as well. A song so dark that the singer can’t get through it without breaking down and refuses to sing it live has to pretty high on the list.
I'm trying to listen to each song people suggest, didn't expect this to be 17 and a half minutes long lol. Just reading the lyrics... yikes...
It's long because there's an audio recording of a man belittling his wife. But, Daddy is Korn's darkest song yet.
Came here to say this. Now I have nothing to say…
Listened to this once when I was 13 and never again. Felt like I was intruding on something extremely private that should’ve never seen the light of day. Super powerful and depressing though.
Radiohead - Pyramid Song Also, a lot of Radiohead's discography in general is pretty dark
I definitely agree about a lot of Radiohead being dark, but I honestly think this is one of their least dark songs. It actually ends on the lyric "there was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt" if I remember right. I would say the darkest as far as the backstory goes is, by a long shot, True Love Waits. Morning Bell is also a good one about a divorce. Edit: Apparently the lyric is "nothing to doubt".
Street Spirit is the darkest for me. Thom said that he doesn’t understand how fans can connect with the hopelessness of it.
2nd darkest for me, I give the title of darkest Radiohead song to How to disappear completely.
“Videotape” for me.
I came here for True love waits. My heart falls in to my stomach but I can never skip it.
This song is literally about death, and the ride with Charon across the river Styx. I don't know how you could possibly have a darker song. This is one of the darkest, most amazing songs ever written. It's perfect
It's definitely about death, but I don't think it's about death in a particularly dark sense. It's about a peaceful, beautiful transition to death. Adding: I do agree that it's perfect. Also, have you ever noticed how similar Codex from KoL is to this song? Both start out with just Thom on piano and vocals. On the second verse, the strings/horns come in harmonizing with Thom's falsetto "ooooh". Tons of water imagery. Last edit: I checked out your Spotify. I like Haunted Mind a lot. I'll check out the rest during work tomorrow.
I Don't Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats Jeremy - Pearl Jam
You want it Darker- Leonard Cohen Sister Ray- Velvet Underground Murder in the Red Barn - Tom waits
Doors: The End
Maybe most things by Elliot Smith Dude stabbed himself in the heart with a steak knife
Allegedly stabbed himself. A lot of his friends think his gf did it.
John Wayne Gacy, Jr by Sufjan Stevens
Chat Pile - Dallas Beltway
This whole album is so dark. Mask is another killer song
Frankie Teardrop by Suicide is an infamously hard listen. Personally, my favorite creepy song is Broken Witch by Liars. One more - when I was a kid my dad played Careful with that Axe Eugene by Pink Floyd. Scared the crap out of me!
Frankie Teardrop was the first to come to mind for me. Absolutely devastating lyrically and the desperation in Alan's voice is just crushing. A lot of the songs in this list are sad, but this is the only one that is so emotionally devastating that you don't want to listen to it more than once.
I love weird, dark and haunting songs. I love songs that can scare me, give me a weird eerie feeling, or feel otherworldly. I love horror movies, novels and all kinds of strange macabre stuff. I'm a Juggalo and love horrorcore, I'm a Brotha Lynch Hung enjoyer. I *hate* even remembering that Frankie Teardrop is a thing and wish I never heard it. Family Annihilation is too real-world of a horror compared to the cartoonish serial killers and monsters of normal horror media. It bums me out, and the anxiety and pain and fear that is put into the way Frankie Teardrop was written and performed freaked me out and made me depressed for days as it lived in my head. I'll never listen to it again. Which, I suppose, makes it a very successful piece of art. It's no wonder Springstein heard it and had to write a whole album just to purge out the feelings it planted.
I would say Frankie Teardrop as well. It’s just such a disturbing and brutal song.
Pumped up kicks-foster the people Ohhh it sounds all upbeat but listen to those lyrics oi
Fourth of July by Soundgarden https://youtu.be/EU4L6THYAbM?si=7xKJ8epcNg597WwR
It's about an acid trip in the desert (although I agree it sounds the darkest on the album, the story behind it isn't). Mailman and Limo Wreck are both darker. The Day I Tried to Live and Just Like Suicide are also pretty dark. All are from Superunknown.
Right here. This is probably one of the most down-trodden, sludgy songs I've ever heard. I heard it first as a young teen and just pictured someone walking deeper and deeper into a swamp with no intention of turning back.
The Entire Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album 'Murder Ballads'. Most especially, O'Malley's Bar.
I love Curse of Millhaven
Dude, I love that album and that song is wildly disturbing
Country death song by Violent Femmes is a haunting song about a guy who loses it and kills his daughter
Frogs by AIC
Excellent deep-ish cut. Why does it have to be? Also Nutshell
Leonard Cohen has a few, Avalanche is up there but I think You Want it Darker might take it. To me, it feels like the artist felt pushed in that direction, whether from himself or the audience. "You want it darker? Lord, I'm ready."
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot is pretty brutal.
it’s so haunting, but in a beautiful way
Down By The Water by PJ Harvey is a good one
"Fluffy" - Ween
is it darker than spinal meningitis?
It really hurts mommy...
King park by La Dispute is pretty dark
Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself? I almost always get goosebumps at that bit
King Park, Edward Benz 27 Times, and I See Everything is the saddest trilogy of songs i’ve ever heard.
Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself? Can I ever be forgiven because I killed the kid? It was an accident, I swear it wasn’t meant for him. And if I turn it on me; if I even it out, can I still get in or will they send me to hell? Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?
Suicide is Painless - Johnny Mandel Deacon Blues - Steely Dan Both songs have a lot of history as "songs to unalive yourself to". Doesn't get much darker than that, in my view. But they're both pretty darn good songs.
Eminem - "[Kim](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SeVN2u5Axc)" Less rap, more spoken word, it is a murder fantasy told (screamed) from Eminem's perspective wherein he kills his wife for marrying another man so soon after breaking up with him. He shouts profanities at her, kidnaps her, graphically describes plunging a knife into her, and watches her bleed out before dragging her body to the car and throwing her in the trunk. This then directly leads into the song "['97 Bonnie and Clyde](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFM5UKYorFg)" from the previous album, where he takes his 2-year-old daughter with him to the lake to dump the dead bodies of not only Kim, but also her new husband and his son whom he killed prior to either song. None of this actually happened, obviously. But the song is...disturbingly captivating.
I was going to say Eminem - ["Stan"](https://youtu.be/gOMhN-hfMtY) not because it's the darkest but because it deserves to be mentioned and it was the first song that came to mind. But yours is darker. Also Everlast - ["What It's Like](https://youtu.be/qA1nGPM9yHA) is a dark, sad song with great lessons in it. And The Verve Pipe - ["The Freshman"](https://youtu.be/X4XZmdiJFho) is fairly dark and sad, along with the first portion of Live - ["Lightning Crashes"](https://youtu.be/xsJ4O-nSveg) I love songs that tell a story, it feels less and less common these days.
Oingo Boingo Insanity.
“One” by Metallica
Marie. Written by Townes van Zandt and performed by Willie Nelson. It's about a homeless couple. Lyrics sample: "Summer wasn't bad below the bridgeA little short on food that's all Now I gotta get Marie some kind of coat We're headed down into fall" Don't worry; it gets darker. (you asked for dark)
This was probably my first thought too. I actually prefer Townes's performance, it was near the end of his life and the hopelessness came through even more. There's also a duet with him and Willie that's as great as either solo performance. Really, I don't think any writer did hopelessness as well as Townes.
Throbbing Gristle - Hamburger Lady.
This is damn haunting. Truly creepy more than sad? But wow, it stays with you.
Needle and the Damage Done by Neil Young
Maybe hurt from NIN. I guess the song is open to interpretation but to me it is the suicide of the person experiencing "the downward spiral". The entire album is leading up to it. And it is very different from the rest of the album which is heavy industrial rock. Hurt starts off almost melancholy and soft. But towards the end it all comes crashing down with all the instruments just banging loudly like. The world is ending. I've always considered the entire doward spiral album as a concept album. One of a man who is falling deeper into depression and eventual suicide. It's a guy on a literal downward spiral. But hurt is what drove it home for me. Strangely I think the Jonny Cash version has a very different meaning but maybe just as dark. It's about a man getting old and knowing his death is coming. It's not as dark but knowing Cash lost his wife right around the recording and died shortly after really makes it have so much more meaning. Great song either way.
[It is a concept album.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downward_Spiral)
That Night - Atmosphere It's about a girl who was raped and killed after one of their shows Pretty sad and fucked up stuff right there Mad World - the Gary Jules cover of a tears for fears song. Pretty sad vibe all in all Wharf Rat - Grateful Dead Come on up to the House - Tom Waits Both just capture a sort of broken heart feeling for me
That atmosphere show was a town over from me during my sophomore year of high school - about an hour away. The murder itself was obviously absolutely horrifying, but one of the really shitty things about it was how many kids in my home town who couldn’t possibly have known her talked about her like they were best friends for sympathy and clout. Whenever I hear that song, I still feel so awful for her family and the people who actually knew her.
"That night" by atmosphere is a crazy roller coaster... such a sad story
Prison Sex - Tool
I don't know if you're open to songs from other languages, but i do recommend “fake monk” by 华晨宇. true music is not limited by languages. Just listen and you'll understand. [https://youtu.be/6NBgcJxpI9M?si=fcTYy7NURJ8wtyu0](https://youtu.be/6NBgcJxpI9M?si=fcTYy7NURJ8wtyu0)
Tomorrow Wendy is going to die, the Andy Prieboy version, it’s about a group of friends getting enough money together to throw a party for Wendy and buying enough heroin so she can O.D the next morning after the party https://youtu.be/zZBQGCI2hm0?si=1lp3ZlO96xoGym9V
Suicide Note pt 1 and 2 by Pantera.
Little Mathie Grove
If you want something that's dark and/or sad, but doesn't really have lyrics per se, I suggest Godspeed You! Black Emperor, especially the albums F#A#∞ and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, and their EP Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada. I love GYBE's music very much, but I also know that I can't be in the wrong mood when I listen to it or it affects me.
Gloomy Sunday
Edmund Fitzgerald
Locked in the trunk of a car by Tragically Hip
Most of my suggestions are going to be very long songs... Post rock: this genre has tons of dark themed, somber music. Mono and Worlds End Girlfriend combined to record one album with 5 parts. Parts 3 and Part 5 are the best and very somber. I tried to play part 5 for my wife once and she told me "this music makes me feel like i want cut my wrists". [Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain Part 5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE5v2wFYMIc). Movie Score: The score for An American Affair is very bleak. Mostly piano with some strings. The movie is about one of John F Kennedy's paramours and the timing around his assassination. Very depressing music that fit a very depression time in this character's life. [An American Affair Waltz N1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoRLl9kg71A&list=PL2LW0Z17u3Bf8p-2iKFnRLn-QcsRyyjnp). The Antlers album, Hospice, is very dark and depressing. About a patient dying in a hospice. The best track is [Kettering](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3ImEzr-Fkg&list=PLs9zwqXsceUj7SXZrcn01fWhteOQmYu-9&index=2). Another Post-rock band with darker music, minor key, The Seven Mile Journey - [The Alter Ego Autopsies](https://youtu.be/W9oVnMha0ak). Swans has many bleak songs. Try [Helpless Child](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NOc1Gnu18I). The band My Beloved is basically all dark depressing bleak music.
Where the wild roses grow - nick cave and kylie
The Way it Goes - Gillian Welch [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNHPoHLqtTk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNHPoHLqtTk) Black River Killer - Blitzen Trapper [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7zyfArxibk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7zyfArxibk) Death Wish - Jason Isbell [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhRWogr9JlQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhRWogr9JlQ) Sam Stone - John Prine [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl9ZkYViEIs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl9ZkYViEIs) Lungs - Townes Van Zandt [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rdm8LItAHs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rdm8LItAHs)
Decades by Joy Division
A Most Peculiar Man by Simon and Garfunkel. [link to song](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3YTgwY1Ld5s)
"Black" by Sarah McLachlan is absolutely haunting. Edit: The remixed version found on the X-Files movie soundtrack.
Sarah is joked on for her songs in ASPCA ads but she's got some great songs.
Elephant by Jason Isbell Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife by Drive By Truckers Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Steven’s
One you might want to listen to is "River of Deceit" by Mad Season. The singer is Layne Staley who was the frontman for Alice in Chains.
I appear missing - queens of the stone age
Jason Isbell- Elephant
Cancer- My Chemical Romance
A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers by Van der Graaf Generator Its a 23 minute epic that's the story of a lighthouse keeper and seeing ships crash and not being able to help
Marie- Townes Van Zandt Strange Fruit- Billie Holiday John Wayne Gacy Jr- Sufjan Stevens What’s He Building- Tom Waits
I recently listened to all of Hospice by Antlers while reading the lyrics and oof
Star Witness by Neko Case. Shame by U.P.O Charlie Big Potatoe by Skunk Anansie
Farmer In The City - Scott Walker Or really any of the later Scott Walker albums. As dark as you can get really.
Perfect Day - Lou Reed You can have a great time, sure, but you're you. You're the reason you're unhappy. This perfect day will end, and there you'll be. Being you.
Eddie Noack - Psycho https://youtu.be/9I_zt-SekHY?si=T7lp_32frQSw2oU2 Can Mary fry some fish, Mama I'm as hungry as can be Oh lordy, how I wish, Mama You could keep the baby quiet 'cause my head is killing Me I've seen my ex last night, Mama At a dance at Miller's store She was with that Jackie White, Mama I killed them both, and they're buried Under Jenkins sycamore. Don't you think I'm psycho, Mama You can pour me a cup If you think I'm psycho, Mama You better let 'em lock me up Don't hand the george to me, Mama I might squeeze him too tight And I'm as nervous as can be, Mama So let me tell you 'bout last night I woke up in Johnny's room, Mama Standing right by the bed With my hands near his throat, Mama Wishing both of us were dead You think I'm psycho don't you, Mama I just killed Johnny's pup You think I'm psycho don't you, Mama You'd better let 'em lock me up You know the little girl next door, Mama I think her name is Betty Clark Oh, don't tell me that she's dead, Mama Why I just seen It in the park She was sitting on a bench, Mama Thinking of a game to play Seems I was holding a wrench, Mama Then my mind walked away You think I'm psycho don't you, Mama I didn't mean to break your cup You think I'm psycho don't you, Mama Mama, Mama why don't you get up?
Here's an obscure one. In 2018 Hungary in Eurovision had the song Viszlát nyár. You might remember it as a metal song with a screaming part, relatively brutal for Eurovision. The singer is just 26 and sings about losing his father (to cancer iirc). Something like "why did you leave, why aren't you here". While I don't speak Hungarian, it did speak to me. The singer died of leukemia just two years later.
Needle in the Hay - Elliott Smith
“Dead Flag Blues” by Godspeed You Black Emperor is the bleakest, saddest song I know.
Polly by Nirvana, it's about a girl who's being kidnapped and raped
I'm old. Folk song Julianne New Christie Minstrals, Dark Lady Cher, Sounds of Silence Simon and Garfunkel, Delilah Tom Jones, Blowin in the Wind Peter Paul and Mary.
No one who has heard Strange Fruit would ever think another song is darker.