Because it’s one of those “stealth” songs that most people never realize are about suicide, Gilbert O’Sullivan Alone Again, Naturally:
…and the later part, that totally wrecks me…
Shit…I’m crying now. I lost mt Dad when I was 16, and my Mom 5 years ago and that part of the song fits my life so perfectly. I’ve never considered suicide though.
Gaffa, I expected you to cite “The Kick Inside”!
No love for BOC’s Don’t Fear the Reaper?
I have to leave a few things to the other Kate fans. But as big a Kate fan as I am, the situation in “The Kick Inside” (a woman committing suicide because she’s pregnant by her brother) doesn’t have anywhere near as much resonance to my own life as the song I quoted. Kate, at least early in her career, created most of her songs from the POV of a narrator, rather than explicitly from her own life. Gilbert O’Sullivan pulled “Alone Again, Naturally” from his own heart.
That’s about suicide? 'splain, por favor (?)
Simon & Garfunkel, “Richard Cory”
*…and they were grateful for his patronage
And they thanked him very much
So my mind is filled with wonder when the evening headlines read:
“Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head”
And I, I work in his factory
And I curse this life I’m leading and I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be, Oh I wish that I could be
Oh, I wish that I could be Richard Cory.*
Hmm… No James Taylor Fire and Rain yet?
When you said Loudon Wainwright III I thought you were going to mention Unrequited To The Nth Degree
Wallflowers, One Headlight.
"So long ago, I don’t remember when
That’s when they say I lost my only friend
Well they said she died easy of a broken heart disease . . .
“. . .she hit the end-it’s just her window ledge. . .”"
I’d go through the lyrics more thouroughly, but it appears that work has now blocked off “music appreciation” sites.
Bowie’s Rock and Roll Suicide
*Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth
You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette
The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget
Ohhh how how how, youre a rock n roll suicide
Youre too old to lose it, too young to choose it
And the clocks waits so patiently on your song
You walk past a cafe but you dont eat when youve lived too long
Oh, no, no, no, youre a rock n roll suicide*
And, of course, D.I.'s Richard Hung Himself
My first post is a song about suicide. Don’t get the wrong idea.
China Doll - Grateful Dead
I was just going to mention “China Doll”…
A beautiful, haunting and ethereal song, it was always a rare treat to hear it played live.
“Do It Yourself” and “When the Pin Hits the Shell” by the Drive By Truckers, both from their album, Decoration Day. Two takes by two songwriters in the band about a friend of the band who offed himself.
Assemblage 23, Disappoint (ignore the video–Youtube link is just for the song):
“Just one more time
For the sake of sanity
Tell me why
Explain the gravity
That drove you to this
That brought you to this place
That pushed you down
Into the soil’s embrace…”
Alan Parsons, “Oh Life (There Must Be More)”:
"In the dock the boats are harboured
Where the water’s cold and still
Oh life, she cries, I’ve lost the will
From the bridge she sees a lifetime
Being washed upon the shore
Oh life, she cries
There must be more…"
Don’t Fear The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Come on baby… Don’t fear the Reaper
Baby take my hand… Don’t fear the Reaper
We’ll be able to fly… Don’t fear the Reaper
Baby I’m your man…
Valentine is done
Here but now they’re gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity…
Romeo and Juliet
40,000 men and women everyday… Like Romeo and
Juliet
40,000 men and women everyday… Redefine
happiness
Another 40,000 coming everyday…We can be like
they are
I’ve wondered from time to time how many kids actually have killed themselves because of how this song romanticizes the idea.
I thought this was about vampires, not suicide.
All of a sudden, I don’t like it as much.
I’m not sure you can really count (Don’t Fear) The Reaper since the band has always maintained that the song is not supposed to be about suicide at all, but rather not fearing death.
From the wikipedia article for that song this is a quote from the song’s writer, Donald Roeser:
Of course you could argue that choosing Romeo and Juliet for this imagery was not necessary the best idea.
IMO this thread is not complete without a mention of Gloomy Sunday, otherwise known as the Hungarian Suicide Song due to the urban legends tying the listening of that song to hundreds of suicides, and the writer himself committing suicide.
Thanks, that reminded me of “Fourth of July” by Pete Droge.
But you turned to no one but a bullet and a gun,
and the bang blended in with the day
And I sit here and think, it still hurts me to think
of the sad songs we used to play.
Then the fourth of July
Is a good day to die
They’ll celebrate each year
Your independence from here…
This is my favorite MR song, unless you count their remix of Spaceman 3’s “Big City”.
This is what I came to mention. Since I have nothing else to add, one interesting thing I read recently in Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City was talking about Metallica, and how everyone (including myself) says they sold out between …And Justice For All and the black album, but he argues the biggest change for them occured between Kill 'em All and Ride the Lightening. Gotta say he might be right about that.