songs about loneliness

1. Wilco – How to Fight Loneliness

According to this song the best way to fight loneliness is by denial – smile all the time, lie to others and mostly to yourself, laugh at every joke and surround yourself with people. We are lonely by nature, but we found solace in the little things – a good company and even the daily routine. The truth is if you fake it all the time you’ll eventually believe it.

2. Elbow – The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver

Frustration, desperation and longing – this song got it all. I read an old interview with Guy Garvey, the band’s frontman, who told the story about his brother in law who had been to a pub and met a men who was a tower crane driver. He was very arrogant and proud about his occupation and couldn’t stop talking about how much money he made. By the end of the night and after a few more beers he confessed about his loneliness. His colleagues knew he was making more money than them and they have tried to avoid him. He had no friends on site and by the end of the day he was left alone.
In the song itself, the line “Gotta get out of TV” refers to Guy’s sister who found it difficult working on the TV industry and was very miserable and lonely as well.

3. John Frusciante – Song to Sing When I’m Lonely

John’s explanation about the influence for this song and the album in particular for was: “I guess most of these songs on Shadows Collide with People were mostly written out of some kind of unhappiness I suppose. In general I feel pretty happy to be alive and even when I write sad songs it seems like they come out of some clear state of mind that comes from basically thinking about myself and about things. In my life there has been so much extreme sadness, I’d say especially during the few years that I wasn’t in the band. Extreme loneliness or extreme sadness or just extreme complete disconnection from the world. Those emotions are still very much a part of me, and so I think when I write songs those things go into them.”

4. The Mountain Goats – Get Lonely

When Pitchfork’s journalist, Tom Breihan, introuduced himself to John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats singer and writer, their conversation was kinda weird. Danielle asked him if he has a girlfriend, and when he replied positively he received the following answer:
“I hope she leaves you. Then you’ll understand it” (regarding his latest album- “Get lonely”).
This anecdote may give a small taste of Darnielle’s world and perhaps his unique sense of humor.

5. Rodriguez – Cause

In this great documentary from Searching For Sugarman Rodriguez former producer is talking about this beautiful sad song:
“This absolutely a killer. One of the saddest songs that I’ve ever heard. It really makes me sad because it’s the last song that we recorded and that was the last song that Rodriguez ever recorder. What makes it even sadder was that the album was released in November 1971. We expected big things and it did absolutely nothing. And then two weeks before Christmas Sussex (the label) dropped him of the label. And the very first lines of the song as if premenision was:
‘And I lost my job two weeks before Christmas’ “