4AM. A study in music.

Talliesin

Is 4 a.m. the most depressing time possible in a song?

I intend to compile the definitive study.

Leonard Cohen, "Famous Blue Raincoat": "Its four in the morning, the end of December."

REM, "E-Bow, The Letter": ("The bus ride, I went to write this, 4 AM
This letter.")

And the following bear their relationship to this time of night eponymously:

Faron Young, "It's Four in the Morning".
Lost Prophets, "4 AM Forever"
Our Lady Peace, "4AM".

Any more?
For that matter, any songs about being bright and cheerful at 4 a.m. (though obviously, they would have to be a secondary list).
Any rival times?

Doctor DooM

Talliesin wrote: »

Is 4 a.m. the most depressing time possible in a song?

I intend to compile the definitive study.

Leonard Cohen, "Famous Blue Raincoat": "Its four in the morning, the end of December."

REM, "E-Bow, The Letter": ("The bus ride, I went to write this, 4 AM
This letter.")

And the following bear their relationship to this time of night eponymously:

Faron Young, "It's Four in the Morning".
Lost Prophets, "4 AM Forever"
Our Lady Peace, "4AM".

Any more?
For that matter, any songs about being bright and cheerful at 4 a.m. (though obviously, they would have to be a secondary list).
Any rival times?

Someone has been watching ted.com!

Doctor DooM

To expand on that, there's a reason why people always use 4 am when they are trying to describe a horrible or magical time.

3am is late at night. 5 am is early morning. 4 am is a null zone which is not quite each (as I'm sure everyone here is well aware).

*Goes to find 4 am examples*

Talliesin

SDooM wrote: »

Someone has been watching ted.com!

If I wanted to watch something, I'd start watching television.

Web2.0 me bollix.

SDooM wrote: »

3am is late at night. 5 am is early morning. 4 am is a null zone which is not quite each (as I'm sure everyone here is well aware).

It's very much a low-point in the circadian rhythms of most. Why it's the time for secret police to knock on doors.

Crumble Froo

well, KLF have 3am eternal, which is defnitely a happy song, and suggesting that once it get's to 4... well, they just dont want it to get to 4. so it must be a good thing to be at 3am and a bad thing to be at 4am.

song that's come to my head is 11am by incubus, which has 11am as a bad time. it starts off '7am, garbage truck beeps as it backs up and i start my day thinking about what i've thrown away... ' and gets to 11am 'by now you would think that i would be up, but my bedsheets shamed to hear the choices i've made..' obviously a very unhappy time for him, but i think 4am is worse... keep some lyrics ticking over in mky head til ive remembered some more.

Dord

Have you ever heard the song 4 a.m. by Herbie Hancock? It's a cool tune. :cool:

Here it is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvH5NWNuegk

Dinxminx

Gwen Stefani - 4 In The Morning is another one...

Stay up till four In The morning & the tears are pouring
And I want to make it worth the fight
What have we been doing for all this time?

jor el

Crumble Froo wrote: »

well, KLF have 3am eternal, which is defnitely a happy song

That was just on the radio 10 minutes ago, freaky. Hadn't heard that in years. I miss the Ancients of Moo Moo and their happy tunes.

4AM is generally when the tiredness really hits you, and you're not quite getting your second wind going, usually around 5-6AM for that, when you're doing an all night drinking session. Songwriters have obviously noticed this trend.

Adam

I personally love Anna Nalick - Breathe (2AM). Beautiful woman, beautiful voice. And holder of one of my favourite quotes of all time: "Life's like an hourglass, glued to the table"

An acoustic version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAlWxZK-ps4

Crumble Froo

jor el wrote: »

That was just on the radio 10 minutes ago, freaky. Hadn't heard that in years. I miss the Ancients of Moo Moo and their happy tunes.

they did that song at the brit awards, opening act, aaaaaaaages ago, but did it with Extreme Noise Terror. my boyfreind absolutely loved it, all you have to do is mention '3am' and he'll start growling '3am ...eternal'.

cHaTbOx

Its the time before the sun rises .

The sun depicts hope and happiness .

It's always darkest before the sun rises is a well know saying and rarely does a sun rise before 5 (so 4 is the darkest hour).

A lot of songs have common sayings thoughts and such to relate to people.I use it a lot in how I write.

4 am is the point at which you have been in the dark longest before everything starts to get brighter, and this time leading into a morning full of sunshine can make a song of hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeNmEgIGG34

Another song with 4 am

watna

There's a David Gray song called 4:AM abou being awake that time of morning thinking and hearing burglar alarms around. It's on The EPs Album.

Loveless

Gemma Hayes has the "4:35AM" EP

"Driving so slow
Streets are empty as we go
Back over the canal
We've all had a long day and we're going home

We all got big tears in our sides
And the city salt doesn't help
But it sure cleans them out

In little coffee shops
And litter sidewalk cops
We're the only ones awake
We're the only ones that can't stop

Driving, so slow
Streets are empty as we go"

Loveless

and the Blue Nile have a song called 'Seven A.M.' on "Hats"..

"Where's the light that shines?
Out among the neon signs
Every single time I see you
You're mine and only mine"

Loveless

just did a quick search of my library..

Simon And Garfunkel - Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.
Jack Frost - Geneva 4 A.M.
Ash - 5 A.M. Eternal
The Constantines - 7 A.M.
Black Keys - 10 A.M. Automatic

Mexican Pets - M.D.M.A. In The A.M.
The Dudley Corporation - A.M.

raah!

A band called O.A.R. have a song called 3am. Teh opening lyrics go "it's 3am and I wanna go to beaaahed"

Earthhorse

Waiting, watching the clock,
It's 4 o'clock, it's got to stop,
Tell him, take no more,
She practices her speeches,
He opens the door, she rolls over,
Pretends to sleep as he looks her over...

Pearl Jam ~ Better Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN_Yh72YDvM

Nevyn

4 am

animan

Well 4am is the time most people die at. Dunno if that helps but just thought I'd throw it out there.

SuperGrover

Suggs - 4 AM

Terry turns he just cannot sleep
From the ceaseless noise out in the street
It's too hot and it's too late
There's nothing he can do but wait

Terry says, "I'm going nowhere fast"
Nobody hears, there's no one there
Julie wakes to find herself alone
Which comes as no surprise, no surprise
No surprise to be on her own

It's four in the morning, why don't you call me?
I'm sorry I hurt you, I still want you back
It's four in the morning

Terry says, "I'm going nowhere fast"
Nobody hears, there's no one there
Julie wakes to find herself alone
Which comes as no surprise, no surprise
No surprise to be on her own

It's four in the morning, why don't you call me?
I'm sorry I hurt you, I still want you back
It's four in the morning, why don't you call me?
I'm so tired of waiting, I still want you back
It's four in the morning

It's four in the morning, why don't you call me?
I'm sorry I hurt you, I still want you back
It's four in the morning, why don't you call me?
I'm so tired of waiting, I still want you back

It's four in the morning, why don't you call me?
I'm sorry I hurt you, I still want you back
Oh, it's four in the morning
It's four in the morning
It's four in the morning
It's four in the morning

shane86

Crumble Froo wrote: »

well, KLF have 3am eternal, which is defnitely a happy song, and suggesting that once it get's to 4... well, they just dont want it to get to 4. so it must be a good thing to be at 3am and a bad thing to be at 4am.

Not to mention Scooter- Nessaja. Still up at 3am in the company of their painted cow :pac:

pfft, hippes and rockers quit too early.

"Big beats hit streets see gangsters rollin,
And parties dont stop til 8 in the mornin" Ludacris

"and we be drinkin til 6 in the mornin...." Jay Z

"We got bitches in the livin room gettin it on,
And they aint leavin til 6 in the mornin..." Snoop


:pac: :pac: