Not exactly the best choice of
song either, it doesn't mean what people sometimes think it does. "You Are My Sunshine" lyrics:
"But now you've left me and love another
You have shattered all of my dreams"
Gee. So cheerful. Not!
Another song that IMO is totally inappropriate for nursing homes, even though to my dismay I keep reading of people playing it for nursing home captive audiences like they think they're doing them some kind of favor, is "Goodnight Irene". Lyrics:
"Sometimes I have a great notion
To jump in to the river and drown"
In case that's not obvious enough, it's spelled out at the
Wikipedia page:
"Several verses refer explicitly to suicidal fantasies, ..."
So yeah, playing songs about
suicide and
loved ones leaving... Nursing home residents already have plenty of those kinds of depressing issues surrounding them daily. Why add to it with songs that have dismal lyrics.
IMO it would be far preferable to play music that gave people a little
break from all their troubles, instead of rubbing their noses in it more.
Then again, probably a good percentage of nursing home residents don't listen any more carefully to the words of such songs, than the rest of the population who continues to think of these songs are cheerful songs when they're actually not. Of course lots of people don't listen to *any* lyrics anyway, especially if the singers mumble, so maybe it's just as well that people aren't aware of the lyrics in some of these songs.
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