Ache

I had my first vaccine jab the other week. Very efficient operation, in and out in fifteen minutes and a bit, the majority of time being the fifteen minutes they make you wait after the shot to check that you don’t turn into rampaging flesh eating zombie or exhibit another less exciting side effect. Didn’t hurt either, I have had kisses worse [Grade 9 the girl had braces and my 10000 hours of practice was short by about 9999.6 hours. Anyway my top lip was damaged, a small amount of blood so I felt I should try for second base on the sympathy vote.]I won’t go further as a gentleman never tells although a lady might as there was some snickering and finger pointing the next school day]

So all was good till the morning after the shot when I woke up feeling like I had run two marathons before falling down a long flight of steel stairs. Now The Artist was only complaining of a sore arm from the jab and a bit of a headache but that doesn’t surprise me because she is outback tough. Even so later that day as I laid on the couch moaning in fevered pain she did go and lie down for twenty minutes so I presume she was feeling it too. The body aches were as bad as any I ever had, it even hurt to piss and chew. The next day was 50% better and the day after I was still a bit tired but otherwise fine. I want to make it clear I am saying all this and still fully recommending that everyone gets vaccinated. My reaction was stronger than any others I have heard about but still worth doing, essential really in my opinion.

At around the same time someone I know was ending a relationship and that person also described to me later that they were aching but it was of course a different kind of ache. Different but a deep pain never the less. The word ache is really evocative and it is hard to say without lowering your voice and introducing a whisper that indicates loss and/or pain.

Then I was listening to an interview where a singer described how he loves the songs that have the “ache”, songs about break up and loss or yearning or unrequited love. I am really happy about that because I love the sad songs too, from the Beach Boys wistful “Caroline No” to Morrissey and The Smiths melodrama “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loves Me” to the shimmer of The Cars “Bye Bye Love”. It is the song not the singer that counts.

So it got me thinking are there more songs about being happy, being in love or are there more songs about having the “ache?” And the really good ones, the crowd favourites how does the split go with them? So I did some research, not too crazy deep, this is not a PhD after all.

I researched Triple J's hottest 100 from its inception and checked the top 2 songs of every year. Did they have the ache or the bouncy smile or maybe neither? After all, not every song is about those emotions. Anyway this worked till about 2007 when the music began to change and I didn’t listen to Triple J anymore so some of the songs I did not know and had little interest in finding out. But up until then “ache” songs vastly outnumbered out and out happy songs. I will add that the majority of songs were not so simple to pick and a lot were just angry or vague in their meaning, plus a fair amount of introspection as well which you would expect as we were all teenagers once.

So in the end I looked at the 1991 Triple J all-time best and in number one is “Smells like Teen Spirit” which does the angry and second is Joy Division's “Love Will Tear Us Apart Again” which certainly fits the “ache”. So one for me.

Then I checked the 2009 All Time list and Nirvana was still Number one but number two was Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name Of”. So now we have two angry, and no “ache” but certainly no happy. But in 2020 the best of the decade list, sad songs rule with Tame Impala “The More I Know Better” and Gotye's “Ba Ba Black Sheep,” sorry I mean “Someone I used to Know”.

Still neither are real HEAVY ache songs like the amazing "The Last Goodbye" from Jeff Buckley, “It’s Too late” from Carole King, You Am I’s “Heavy Heart”, Nothing Compares 2 You from Prince via Sinead O Connor,  the under heard “Can We Still Be Friends” from Todd Rundgren or the gut wrenching agony of Nilsson’s “Without You”.

Nevertheless the “ache” won out and so it should because as Elton John sung “Sad songs say so much.” I mean listen to Pharrell Williams’s “Happy”, no doubt an earwormer of a song that makes you feel happy but it isn’t deep, it doesn’t analyse the emotion, and it doesn’t say much other than the word happy, a lot. Then in comparison read the lyrics of Carole King’s masterpiece [one of her many], even without the fantastic arrangement and performance there is analysis, confusion, regret, sadness, realisation and the “ache.” I will never tell somebody to go and be sad but eternal happiness is impossible anyway and in music if you want a deep experience and I would argue the best in songwriting, go and have a wallow in a little glumness.

Six more wonderfully “ache” songs across the rock genres

“How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” – Bee Gees – far better than all those happy disco tracks

“If You See Her Say Hello” – Bob Dylan

“She’s Gone” – Hall and Oates

“It Must Have Been Love” – Roxette

“Dive For Your Memory” - The Go Betweens

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn”- Poison