The season for suicide: A Halloween CD mix
to DIE for!
Sure, the "Monster Mash" and the "Purple People Eater" are
fun Halloween theme songs for the kiddies, but they're hardly a contribution to
the creepy crawling scaredness that makes for a properly morbid holiday. We can
do better.
For your Halloween listening pleasure, then, hunt
you down these two dozen plus songs for a lovely CD mix to share with people
you love. Maybe they'll take a frickin' hint...
"Gloomy Sunday" - Billie Holiday Numerous actual suicides are
associated with this song, including the songwriter.
"Ode to Billie Joe" - Bobbie Gentry This classic was the biggest
actual chart dominant hit single of the Summer of Love in 1967. The movie some
years later provided an interesting answer to Billie Joe's why.
"Auf Wiedershen"- Cheap Trick Truly one of the most beautifully cold
sentiments in the history of rock music, a kiss-off in many languages.
"Jeremy" - Pearl Jam I don't necessarily object to foolish teenagers
choosing to climb out of the gene pool. I just wish the dumbasses wouldn't
insist on taking others out with them.
"The House Carpenter" - Doc Watson Family This old Smithsonian
recording of an old folk standard tells the creepy tale of a woman lured away
from her husband and children by a sailor. Bitter and despondent away at sea,
she ends up calling down some kind of divine curse to sink the whole boat- her,
the sailor, and any other poor schmucks unfortunate enough to be on board.
"Richard Cory" - Them This is the only instance I know of Van Morrison
singing a Paul Simon song, and a particularly unfairly overlooked classic song
it is. The Simon and Garfunkel original rates a close second.
"I Hate Myself and Want to Die" - Nirvana
"Don't Fear the Reaper" - Blue Oyster Cult
"Suicide Is Painless (MASH theme)" - Kenny Primus
"The Letter" - Macy Gray This must be the most cheerful suicide note
ever.
"Love Will Tear Us Apart"- Joy Division The song does not specifically
describe a suicide, but it's generally taken as the lead singer's suicide note.
It's certainly morbid enough, even without the biographical detail.
"Sister Morphine" -
The Rolling Stones There are few recordings as utterly beautiful and yet
simultaneously totally pathetic as this story of a junkie's last fix.
"Suicide Solution" - Ozzy Osbourne I add this pick as a peace offering
to Ozzy, in the hope that he will thus see fit not to hex my next computer as he
apparently did when last I made the
error of speaking against him. Look, I'm even giving him the lucky #13 spot
on the CD. What more do you want, oh Dark Lord?
"Poor Jud Is Daid" - Oklahoma!
(1955 Film Soundtrack) Gordon McRae as Curly leads Rod Steiger's Jud Frye in
fantasizing about how upset everybody would be at his funeral if'n he hung
himself out in the smokehouse. The pure self-aggrandizement and self-pity of Rod
Steiger singing right along makes one of the funniest moments in movie history.
"Rock and Roll Suicide" - David Bowie Poor Ziggy Stardust. It's tough
being beautiful.
"So Like Candy" - Elvis Costello This song about a girlfriend's
suicide gets at a bit of the guilt often left for the loved ones. "What did
I do to make her go?"
"One Dyin' and a Buryin'" - Roger Miller Pretty sobering meditation
for someone usually associated with happy-go-lucky novelty songs.
"Three A.M." - Bill Anderson Between this and the Roger Miller and
Bobbie Gentry, it occurs that most country singers seem to prefer jumping in the
river as their suicide method of choice.
"Ode to Billie Joe" - Sinead O'Connor You might be surprised how
awesomely good this Bobbie Gentry cover came out, and how well the gloomy
mysticism translated into Sinead's Irish styling. Her version is distinctive
enough from the original classic as to merit a separate entry.
"Pictures From Life's Other Side" - Grandpa Jones Family I'm not sure
who wrote this bluegrass/folk standard, but Grandpa Jones acquits himself well
with these three tales of sad and untimely ends, including the unidentified
suicide of the last verse. Again, the country song suicide method of choice
involves jumping in the drink.
"Dear Sweet Filthy World" - Elvis Costello This suicide note turns
into a seemingly hallucinatory nightmare.
"Did She Jump or Was She Pushed" - Richard and Linda Thompson You say
"po-TA-to" I say "po-TAA-to"
"Suicide" - David Allan Coe
"Stan" - Eminem Tragic though it may be, Stan really did humanity a
favor by eliminating himself and his white trash seed from the gene pool.
"Shot Gun Blues" - Blues Brothers
"Fade to Black" - Metallica
"The Wall" - Johnny Cash From his album recorded live at Folsom
Prison, this is the story of a prisoner committing suicide by cop, or in
Johnny's words, "suey-cide."
"I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" - Elton John This comes from the
lovely Honky Chateau album.
"Parole Board" - Junior Brown A weepy ballad from a desperate prisoner
at the end of his rope hoping against hope for his release, or else he'll let
the good Lord take him home.
"A Day Without Me" - U2 One of my very favorite all time U2 songs
"Stuff Up the Cracks" - Frank Zappa This was the last song on Ruben
and the Jets, an album of doo wop parody. Zappa bitched repeatedly about the
negative effects of sappy, unrealistic pop love song lyrics. This recording
constitutes his harshest criticism of where that nonsense leaves you, with a
narrator about to snuff himself because his cheesy teenage romance didn't go
like they do on the radio.
"Don't Try Suicide" - Queen I suppose I should end with something
urging folks not to Do It, so as to prove that I am not insensitive.
Lyrics
