Goddamn the Sun / Weeping Song

When I first sought the "Goth" genre in my youth I came back disappointed. After a baptism in industrial acid via Skinny Puppy and NIN it was hard to scoff at post-punk rocking of Joy Division, the Cure, Bauhaus, Sister of Mercy. These were just 'rock bands' - how quaint could you get? Even worse were the American knockoffs of these bands. These days I've had such long and intimate relations with those first goth pioneers I find my initial rejection them quaint - a product of the arrogance and earnestness of youth - and over the summer I actually began digging through those piles of American imitators and found a few gems. And amongst those gems where two massive jewels: Goddamn the Sun & Weeping Song.

My initial rejection of 'goth-rock' might not have been so far off because there two songs are more folky than rock but in terms of content they are goth to the core. Goddamn the Sun is a testament to personal despair (and the title alone summarizes the heart of goth to me) and Weeping Song a somber ode of collective grief .

If you are in the proper mood they are devastating, but they sneak up on you. No rock assault by guitar armies, this is folk: simple powerful lyrics, touching human truths.


When, when we were young
We had no history
So nothing to lose
Meant we could choose
Choose what we wanted then
Without any fear
Or thought of revenge

But then you grew old
And I lost my ambition
So I gained an addiction
To drink and depression
(they are mine
My only true friends
And I'll keep them with me
Until the very end)

I'd choose not to remember
But I miss your arrogance
And I need your intelligence
And your hate for authority
But now you're gone
I read it today
They found you in Spain
Face down in the street
With a bottle in your hand
And a wild smile on your face
And a knife in your back
You died in a foreign land

And they found my letter
Rolled up in your pocket
Where I said I'd kill myself
If she left me again
So now she's gone
And you're both in my mind
I've got one thing to say
Before I am drunk again:

God damn the sun
God damn anyone
That says a kind word
God damn the light it shines
And this world it shows
God damn the sun





Go son, go down to the water
And see the women weeping there
Then go up into the mountains
The men, they are weeping too

Father, why are all the women weeping?
They are all weeping for their men
Then why are all the men there weeping?
They are weeping back at them

This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While all the men and women sleep
This is a weeping song
But I won't be weeping long

Father, why are all the children weeping?
They are merely crying son
O, are they merely crying, father?
Yes, true weeping is yet to come

This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While all the little children sleep
This is a weeping song
But I won't be weeping long

O father tell me, are you weeping?
Your face seems wet to touch
O then I'm so sorry, father
I never thought I hurt you so much

This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While we rock ourselves to sleep
This is a weeping song
But I won't be weeping long