Only Happy When It Rains

It seems Only Happy When It Rains has been misunderstood. Primarily being taken far too literally, the song is not in fact, about being pleased with being depressed. I’d like to bring up a quote of Shirley herself describing the song:

"It's about the grunge attitude in America, which is a pretty morose attitude to have. We were being pretty tongue-in-cheek. But it's also a song about wanting love, but knowing that life will always get in the way, and of knowing that, and yet not being obliterated by that. It's a song for people that know what it's like to live on the dark side."

Take her translation however you feel is best. I personally understand it as a realistic but empowering perspective of acknowledging the difficulties in life. But rather than letting the tragedies we face bring us down, surviving the ordeal becomes an empowering experience, leaving us grinning where others would have broken down. The ‘happiness’ doesn’t come from the sadness itself, but in surviving it.

Garbage is all about having a pop sound but dark lyrics at the same time, so they kind of slip under your radar.. this song is about embracing your depression and revelling in it. This is a great song for whenever your're really, really down and feel like you're ready to just live with that. Or when things improve but seem dull, and you wonder if all the angst and stuff wasn't more interesting.

I think there's also that other side to it, which is like sarcastically and bitterly saying "do you think I want to be unhappy and depressed?!" when people say that depression is something you can just get out of by cheering up.

Sometimes I can totally relate to this. We're only happiest when our mood is at our zenith. For me my extreme is either ecstatic..or depressed beyond hell. And that high, in itself, completely shrouds our senses and overwhelms us. Also, when we go through shit, it's refreshing to see the rest of the world is suffering with us.

I think that this song is about people not being able to feel anything but depression, and ti be without it would be leaving their comfort zone, so basically they're ony compfortable feeling miserable, coz thats what theyre used to.

someone once told me that this song is about golden showers but i really dont think that it is. That persons a bit of a fuckwit!

I agree with ic_assasain about “embracing your depression”. I think that humans just create problems to be more interesting. We "advance" so that we won’t be bored and kill ourselves because we have nothing better to do. That’s why we aren’t primitive stone-age people anymore. That’s why we have shrinks and medications for problems that we’ve lived with and dealt with before. We are living in a society that is never comfortable where it is. It’s never accepting of its faults; it either overlooks them or constantly tries to fix them depending on the severity of the problem. And I think that this song touches on that.

I agree with SGMonkee, and what Lynoitus said makes sense. The song has always struck me as ironic and "tongue-in-cheek", not a song to romaticize depression, but it almost seems to be countering that. I think it's a strange phenomenon...kids thinking that it is "cool" to be depressed. It isn't cool, it's fucking awful..and it doesn't make you a better or necessarily more interesting person. All in all, I think it is a good song, albeit not one to be taken literally.

This song used to spook me. I was going through a rough patch last year and watched the movie 'the exorcisim of emily rose', I used to sleep with my ipod next to me. Until it started waking me up at 3:00 in the morning - playing this song. At first I thought nothing of it, but then I became skeptical of it when it happened a few times in a row (always playing the same song). Funny thing was.. It was always switched off and on hold. Weird eh?? BUT it's a good song!!!!

It's about taking pleasure from sadness. It's not like being happy. It brings you down every single time. A big part of depression is feeling guilty. For whatever reason, however ridiculous it seems. This leads to self hatred and everything entailed. There are many forms of self harm. You can cut your self,burn your skin or pull your hear. But it can also affect the inside. Sometimes, sadness is a drug. A Powerful addiction you can't live without. You wont enjoy it, but somehow, it gives you life. And the source is everywhere. A sad song, bad news or complicated relationships. Until pain becomes an obsession, something you sort of like, because deep down you believe you deserve it.

It's the story of my life...