From the Archives: November Ain't Got No Happy Songs

 I originally posted this on my old blog on November 1st, 2011. Nostalgia is strong with me this morning, so I'm re-posting here on the new blog. I removed the video links from YouTube channels for copyright purposes. If you want to listen to any of the songs mentioned here, I'm pretty sure they're all available on your favorite streaming service. The gifs you see are new. 


And when October goes, the same old dream appears
And you are in my arms to share the happy years
I turn my head away to hide the helpless tears
Oh, how I hate to see October go
                                                       --Barry Manilow
                                                      "When October Goes"

November is a month of transition.  We are deep into autumn now and the fall colors are slowly giving way to the greyness that will come in December.  I feel bad for November, sometimes.  It has no identity of its own, really.  Thanksgiving obviously comes to mind when we think of November, but that's really just become a signpost that Christmas is coming. 

I am thankful that I don't shop on Black Friday.
Retail merchants already have their Christmas decorations out.  Halloween consumed October.  November is a middle child of our calendar.  It has many wonderous virtues, but they are subtle and easily overshadowed by the creepy anxiousness of October and the flashiness of December.  November stands in the corner, wanting to be noticed, but willing to let other months have the limelight. 

I think that's why there are no happy songs that use November in the title.  I've been doing exhaustive research (at least until my boss comes by) and I have yet to find a song about November that I would classify as an upper.  Most of the lyrics speak of despair, heartbreak, and the relentless march of time.  The weather is always bleak, the air is chilled.  And it is always raining or snowing.  If you followed the weather pattern of November songs, you might think that on October 31st, it is a beautiful, sunny, warm day filled with the vibrant colors of the season. Then, you wake up on November 1st and hell has frozen over outside your window.
October 31st
                                                 
                                                               November 1st
I quoted Barry Manilow's "When October Goes" at the beginning of this blog.  While it doesn't mention November by name, I can still hear November saying, "Thanks, Barry.  You've done me no favors.  You've set the stage for what a crappy month everyone is going to have.  Putz."

Chris Pureka has a song called "Song For November" that captures some of what I'm talking about.  I like the sound of the song, but they lyrics don't exactly encourage thoughts of holding hands and jumping into a pile of leaves--unless there's a bottomless pit under those leaves, which, let's face it, would be impossible.  You can't fill a bottomless pit with leaves.  And that's really depressing:

                                                       Blame me dear for any disaster
                                                      Oh how the kerosene ran dry
                                                      And we made our bed in that familiar graveyard
                                                      Between the sternum and the spine




Tom Waits is pretty cool cat and his oeuvre contains some very impressive songs.  His song, "November," contains the following passage:
                                                      November has tied me to an old dead tree
                                                      Get word to April to rescue me
                                                      November's cold chain
Tom doesn't speak highly at all of our 11th month, singing that it seems odd and that there are no prayers for it.  He finishes with:
                                                      Go away you rainsnout
                                                      Go away, go blow your brains out
                                                      November


No bottomless pit under those leaves now.  Just a pitchfork.
Not even the November sweeps can cheer me up

The Gorillaz record some fun stuff, right?  Not in November.  A group whose music I will not be purchasing on iTunes, The Gorillaz put together a dazzling, happening, groovy kinda tune called "November Has Come."  I could just dance and laugh all day listening to it.  Feeling down?  Got the blues?  Hey, it could always be worse:

                                                       If you happy and you know it
                                                       As you clap your hands to thick snot
                                                      Of a poet flowin'

I am the least hip person in any room at any time, but I think I know what he might be saying.  Unsure, however, I perused the very helpful comments section of the site where I found those lyrics and found this: "My guess is this song is another social commentary.  Stuff about guns and drugs and all kinds of crazy bad stuff."  Thank you for your insightful analysis, ManiacalLaughter.  I look forward to your dissertation.


Hey, that hip-hop stuff is great to play at parties!  Unless that party is in November and the artist of choice is Wyclef Jean performing "Gone Til November."  He sings about telling his girl not to cry because he'll be gone til November.  I guess when they get back they will listen to all the other November music and cry.

No discussion of dreary November songs would complete without "November Rain" by Guns N Roses.  The melancholy lyrics of this song are punctuated by Axl Rose's mournful vocals. 

                                                     So if you want to love me
                                                     Then darlin' don't refrain
                                                     Or I'll just end up walkin'
                                                     In the cold November rain


I don't know about you, but I've walked in the cold November rain when my heart was broken because some girl ripped my heart out of my chest and used it for a game of badminton.  It doesn't help.  In fact, I ended up with the flu, so I was sick AND heartbroken. 





I believe the award for The Most Ultimate Depressing November Song goes to Morrissey's "November Spawned A Monster."  Have you heard this song?? Don't let the upbeat tempo fool you, because it appears to be about a girl born (in November) with some form of physical deformity and how she is rejected:

                                                      Sleep on and dream of love
                                                      Because it's the closest you will get to love
                                                      Poor twisted child
                                                      So ugly, so ugly
                                                      Poor twisted child
                                                      Oh hug me, hug me
                                                      One November spawned a monster
                                                      In the shape of this child
                                                      Who later cried

I know there is a really obvious, cheap joke that I could level at an easy celebrity target now, but I frankly can't go on.  I'm going to crawl under my desk, huddle in the corner, and eat stale sourdough bread and sip gruel.  


                                                       I should be over it now, I know
                                                       It doesn't matter much
                                                       How old I grow
                                                      I hate to see October go

More Barry Manilow.  I am sobbing.

Happy All Saints Day, everyone.  Try to keep it together, ok?
                                                   
                                                       



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