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Noirish, Pulpish Standards and Substandards


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Please help TTK compile a list of pulpish, noirish, world-weary, ennui-laden standards and substandards. 

Musically, these tunes are likely to be downtempo, bluesy, and/or minor key.

Lyrically, they likely involve alcohol, coffee, or cigarettes; lost love; late nights; and general feelings of being a loser and feeling isolated within an urban environment. 

Most of the best examples will likely date from the 1940s or 50s, perhaps extending a decade into either direction.

The best examples may include occasional pulpish slang or Cain-esque, Chandler-esque language. 

If you can imagine music playing at an urban 1940s lunch counter at 4 am while a tough-talking waitress named Doris serves you bacon and eggs with black coffee, you are on the right track.

Here are some examples off the top of my head:

Black Coffee

No One Ever Tells You

Cry Me a River

Lonelyville

Detour Ahead

Blues in the Night

One For My Baby

Angel Eyes

Everything Happens to Me

All the Sad Young Men

It's not an exact science, and there will be tunes that offer more of this than others, but hopefully you get the idea. 

Thanks in advance, pal.

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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33 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most

That is especially good! From the same show as "All the Sad Young Men."

The entire "This Time of Year" album by June Christy, now that I think about it, is kind of a holiday version of the aesthetic I'm seeking. 

"Deep in a Dream" is a good one, as the entire lyric is centered around a burning cigarette.

"It Never Entered My Mind" - "...and order orange juice for one..."

"Lush Life."

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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"You Don't Know What Love Is"

"The Gentle Rain"

"A Day in the Life of a Fool" (The Brazilian writers could be downright morbid)

"How Insensitive"(The Brazilian writers could be downright morbid, so imagine you're in a Brazilian cafe listening to those last three)

We'll Be Together Again

"God Bless the Child"

"Stormy Weather" (When I was working at the trumpet player Mel Davis' club, he told me the one song I should never play is Stormy Weather!)

Lonely Town (Even Bernstein had the blues, even though he couldn't even follow the twelve bar form when he tried to play a blues at a club once!)

Some tunes don't even need lyrics to evoke that feeling, like Jim Hall's "All Across the City" and ON's Stolen Moments:"

"Any Place I Hang my Hat is Home"

Edited by sgcim
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8 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Don't know this!

Here are some of the lyrics:

"Pretty women, blue eyed or brown,

How they drive you crazy, how they bring you down.

Then they're all fat and happy, and you're a worn out bum.

Gim-me some Gim-me some!

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