Suffering Jukebox
Silver Jews Lyrics

suffering jukebox in a happy town
You're over in the corner breaking down
They always seem to keep you way down low
The people in this town don't want to know

well I guess all that mad misery must make it seem to true to you
But money lights your world up, you're trapped what can you do?
You got Tennessee tendencies and chemical dependencies
You make the same old jokes and malaprops on cue

suffering jukebox such a sad machine
Your filled up with what other people need
Hardship, damnation and guilt
Make you wonder why you were even built

suffering jukebox in a happy town
You're over in the corner breaking down
They always seem to keep you way down low
The people in this town don't want to know

Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING

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Silver Jews was an American indie rock band from New York City. The band's earliest incarnation was the college band Ectoslavia, formed by future Pavement founders Bob Nastanovich, Stephen Malkmus and frontman David Berman at the University of Virginia in 1989. An exercise in joyous noise, the band disbanded after graduation and the three friends moved to New York to take up various jobs - Nastanovich, a bus driver, and Berman and Malkmus, art museum security guards. Read Full BioSilver Jews was an American indie rock band from New York City. The band's earliest incarnation was the college band Ectoslavia, formed by future Pavement founders Bob Nastanovich, Stephen Malkmus and frontman David Berman at the University of Virginia in 1989. An exercise in joyous noise, the band disbanded after graduation and the three friends moved to New York to take up various jobs - Nastanovich, a bus driver, and Berman and Malkmus, art museum security guards.

Pavement, a band started by Malkmus post-Ectoslavia, pre-New York, at this point began to gain attention. This attention resulted in a record deal and a constant inferiority plague placed upon the 'Joos with Berman totally at the forefront of the group. Misinformed music fans now saw the band as a side-project and, even worse, Berman as being not good enough to play with Pavement, many band members being shared between the two bands.

The connection to Malkmus and the now blossoming Pavement was not all negative, however. Drag City, then not the bastion of American folk music it is today, agreed to release the band's debut EPs which has led to a fruitful relationship (the label continues to release the band's records, right up to album number 7 in 2008, (Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea).

The Silver Jews in their later days primarily consisted of David and Cassie Berman who contributed most of the lyrics, and a changing cast of characters. They had numerous indie stars in a rotating line up, including Willie T. of Lambchop, and Brian Kotzer of Tim Chad and Sherry.

David Berman is also a poet and has been published in numerous poetry magazines and journals. He also has a book of poetry and rants entitled "Actual Air," which was released in 1999 and received favorable reviews from The New Yorker and GQ.

On the 22nd of January, 2009, David Berman announced on the Drag City messageboard that their show on the 31st of January in Tennessee would be their last. "Can't be like all the careerists doncha know. I'm forty two and I know what to do. I'm a writer, see? I always said we would stop before we got bad." After 10 years off, Berman reappeared in 2019 as Purple Mountains.

David Berman died from suicide on August 22, 2019 after a long battle with depression.

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01What Is Not But Could Be If3:09

02Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer1:54

03Suffering Jukebox4:21

PT4M21S

Silver Jews

04My Pillow Is the Threshold3:52

05Strange Victory, Strange Defeat2:44

06Open Field2:39

07San Francisco B.C.6:14

08Candy Jail2:30

09Party Barge2:54

10We Could Be Looking for the Same Thing3:30

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

Ari Molko

27w

Planes on the downtown skyline is a sight to see for some
It ought to make a few reputations in the cult of number one
While these seconds turn these minutes into hours of the day
All these doubles drive the dollars and the light of day away
suffering jukebox such a sad machine
Your filled up with what other people need
And they never seem to turn you up loud
There are a lot of chatterboxes in this crowd
suffering jukebox in a happy town
You're over in the corner breaking down
They always seem to keep you way down low
The people in this town don't want to know
well I guess all that mad misery must make it seem to true to you
But money lights your world up, you're trapped what can you do?
You got Tennessee tendencies and chemical dependencies
You make the same old jokes and malaprops on cue
suffering jukebox such a sad machine
Your filled up with what other people need
Hardship, damnation and guilt
Make you wonder why you were even built
suffering jukebox in a happy town
You're over in the corner breaking down
They always seem to keep you way down low
The people in this town don't want to know

All comments from YouTube:

Flipindistical Pictures

3y↑24

greatest lyricist of the southern region, I imagine. since Townes Van Zandt, a pure writer, very witty, ridiculously witty, very beautiful, very wise....I have been morning for three days, listening to DCb songs....very sad. God Bless!

Craig Harrison

2y↑1

Don’t be sad.

Loucas Stephens

3y↑2

Townes is my favorite poet!

Nobody Owens

2y↑10

My 11 years olds favourite song
We just had a row about it in car .I wanted van Etten .he wanted this
He won and it's a classic

Christina Crofoot

2y↑14

crackerjack poet
penned a tragic end
string of hearts
hanging on every word read

RIP Friend. Thank you for all you shared with us <3

Flipindistical Pictures

nice one

Sean L

2y↑5

I love the chorus.

168dp

2y↑3

That chorus is mesmerizing...

Michael Dixon

48w↑1

What a legend piece of art

Jorge Conrado

3y↑12

Great backin' vocals.

Ari Molko

27w

The Heart Of A Blackbird

3y↑5

I never even got this record. But now time for a discovery.

todd elco

10y↑5

very cool song!

Jack Mcgregor

14w

Though completely different I can’t help but compare Richey Edwards to to David Berman both were naturally talented wordsmiths, both struggled greatly with depression. Richey was much younger than David was when he committed suicide. To be honest no one really knows what happened to Richey because his body was never found, his car was found parked beside the Severn bridge and after years of hoping he’d just gone off somewhere and a search for him was aired many times on television and radio, he was finally pronounced dead some years after his disappearance and the narrative most believe is that he threw himself into the river Severn from the bridge, a huge fall. By some strange quirk his body was washed out to sea and never found. Seems unbelievable to me and I was such a fan of his input to the band The Manic Street Preachers that I wanted so much to believe he had cleverly managed to escape the spotlight and was perhaps living under an assumed name somewhere in South America or even Australia. I have dual citizenship with Australia and it’s unlikely he went there or got in there. They have the toughest customs and immigration in the world in my opinion and I’ve traveled very extensively. Another thing is that the last work produced by both of them is like an extended suicide note on an album in songs. They had very different styles. The Manic Street Preachers are still on the go and I saw them live not that long ago. They are a very different band now, they’ve become anodyne and safe. With Richey they were edgy and political, their songs had real substance and very intelligent lyrics that quoted some of history’s best known writers, murderers and political thinkers. After he died the band made an album using some lyrics that were left over from Richey and called the album “Everything Must Go” the not so subtle point being that Richeys gone, we’re sad he’s dead but now we don’t need to write such dark material. The last album made with Richey was influenced very heavily by Richey and was called the Holy Bible, although it wasn’t grunge it has a sound I’ve never heard replicated, it came out the same year as In Utero by Nirvana. After I’d listened to ‘The Holy Bible” a few times there was no doubt in my mind that Richey was in a bad way. There were pictures released in the music press of Richey carving 4real into his arm after some young and cynically naive writer asked Richey if his lyrics were for real. When he looked up he saw there was blood every where and that Richey was holding his arm and the statement 4real was visible deeply cut into his arm, they weren’t little timid scratches they were deep angry incisions done with the intent of showing this stupid reporter how real Richey was. He was taken to the Emergency room and although he was losing blood he insisted that everyone be treated before him because he knew he had done this to himself. The kind of guy he was he felt things very deeply. His last days were spent in a hotel room with a friend called Vivienne, the rest of the band didn’t really know her. She was a mega fan and enthralled by Richey. By now Richey was anorexic, not eating, he’d shaved his head and was wearing the kind of Pyjamas that Holocaust survivors wore. It was the morning after Vivienne left that Richey left the hotel and withdrew £700 from an ATM and disappeared. I’ve gone on way too much about Richey. I just feel that David was also a soul who really empathised with the suffering of others and that he found the history and present of humanity on earth appalling. Richey was a heavy drinker, a smoker and an anorexic, alcoholism and heavy smoking follow the exact same pathology as drug addiction which David was known for, anorexia is also similar in its pathology, it starts with compulsion and ends up with an addiction to the results you are seeing and a feeling of triumph when you are frenzied with hunger but still do not eat. It’s a hardcore lifestyle just like drug addiction. David also left an album that was a bit autobiographical and was like an album of songs that comprised a suicide note. He died by hanging which is an act of someone who truly wanted to die not a cry for help that went accidentally wrong and ended up in death. My brother who I was extremely close to died by hanging. People used to ask me “are you not angry that your brother took his own life, it was a pretty selfish thing to do”. I’d always get angry with such people. I’d say, could you hang yourself? And of course they’d reply ‘no I enjoy living and death by hanging must be a prolonged and awful way to die’. Then I’d say to them “My brother wasn’t a stupid man, he was highly educated and a high ranking member of Greenpeace Australia. He knew suicide by hanging would be horrible but he did it because he had become so misanthropic, so disgusted by the greed and violence of the world. He had started to work with Amnesty International as well and he told me he had read stuff and seen photographs of things no one should have to see. I asked him why he looked at them and he said “because it’s not about how I feel, it’s about being a witness against the evil in this world and having the courage to confront them in a staunch but open manner, always wanting to be open to dialogue”. All of this plus his failing marriage and some other stuff made him take such drastic action. It must have taken courage to do it. If that’s how much he didn’t want to be a part of this world then who am I to dare be angry with him. I miss him, I lost a part of myself that day. Songs, scents and a photograph that I haven’t seen in years can bring back that all consuming grief from time to time. The world can be a very hard road to travel for some people. Especially creative souls like Richey, David and Kurt Cobain. I know at least they aren’t suffering now