We’ve covered breakup and depressing songs, so let’s complete the trilogy and kill ourselves to music.
The most obvious: Suicide is Painless, the theme to MAS*H
My favorite: Tom Paxton’s “Now That I’ve Taken My Life.” The only upbeat suicide song I know.
Now that I’ve taken my life, remembering the April air.
My hands in a cursory prayer, my eyes on the crowd outside.
The music is merry, the laughter is comfortably loud outside.
And the laughter I’m hearing is mine, now that I’ve taken my life.
It was a foolish life I know, ivory towered and quite out of touch.
It was a life that had to go, I guess I won’t miss it much.
My favorite’s an attempted suicide song: Girl of sixteen, whole life ahead of her Slashed her wrists, bored with life Didn’t succeed, thank the Lord For small mercies
Fighting back the tears, mother reads the note again Sixteen candles burn in her mind She takes the blame, it’s always the same She goes down on her knees and prays
I don’t want to start any blasphemous rumours But I think that God’s got a sick sense of humor And when I die I expect to find Him laughing
I wonder is anybody here
Or is this my private dream
I’m gonna pinch myself to see–
‘Cause it’s such a scary, scary, scary dream
I might as well jump, jump, jump
The water’s cold
I think I’m gonna jump, jump, jump
The water’s cold
Everybody jump, jump, jump
I’'ll freeze
My very soul
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin’ cotton and my brother was balin’ hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door “y’all remember to wipe your feet”
And then she said “I got some news this mornin’ from Choctaw Ridge”
“Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge”
Since my actual favorite, “Ode to Billy Joe” has already been mentioned (darn you, Lute Skywwatcher, darn you to heck!) I’ll say “Don’t try Suicide” by Queen is a catchy little number
“So you think it’s the easy way out?
Think you’re gonna slash your wrists
This time
Baby when you do it all you do is
Get on my tits”
Go on and get it over with then
Find you a bridge and take a jump
Just make sure you do it right the first time
'Cuz nothing’s worse than a suicide chump
I’ll go off, I’ll make myself scarce
Oh, come tomorrow
You won’t find me here
Because I don’t care to stay with the living
I don’t think I’ll remain with the living
And I don’t care to stay with the living
Loudon Wainwright III’s “Suicide Song” is another upbeat one:
When you get the blues and you wanna shoot yourself in the head.
It’s all right. It’s all right. Go ahead.
Do the flop, do the monkey, do the bop, do the boogaloo twist.
Cut your throat, cut your throat, cut your wrist.
When you’re tired of worldly toil, shuffle off this mortal coil,
Turn your body back to soil. It’s okay, it’s okay.
When you get hung up and you want to hang yourself up by the neck.
What the hell. What the hell. What the heck?
Just about anything by Joy Division, esp. as said lyrics were written by someone who was in fact suicidal. In particular the entire 2nd half of their album Closer would qualify.
I’ve always liked Metallica’s Fade to Black (lyrics)-- the line “Growing darkness taking dawn/I was me but now he’s gone” never fails to gives me chills.