“The Drugs Don’t Work” - The Verve
On second thought, no. Don’t listen to that one. I think I’m confusing it with something else, and it doesn’t fit the tone you’re looking for.
“Hell” - Squirrel Nut Zippers
“Ouija Board” - Morrissey (smart ass comments from beyond the grave!)
“Worms” - The Pogues
“Cadillac Ranch” - Bruce Springsteen (hey, we all gotta meet down at the Cadillac ranch)
“Man on the Moon” - R.E.M. (an atheist’s meditation on death ; truck stop instead of pearly gates)
And finally, not a song about death exactly, but “Girlfriend in a Coma” by The Smiths is a humorous look at a morbid subject.
Oh yeah, and…
“I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” - Hank Williams, Sr.
“Cemetary Gates” - The Smiths
“Honey”, by that sappy asshole who sang it and should have been strangled first. Bobby Goldsboro?
Benny the Bouncer, by Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Tom Lehrer is the piano playing PBS political commentator, yes? I never knew that man was so morbid. He makes marilyn manson look downright cheerful*
Combine that with other gems (masochism tango, Wehrner Von Braun, New Math) and we have a very twisted individual.
I also loved The Periodic Table.
*I actually think marilyn manson IS cheerful. He’s (?) like the Jerry Springer of rock, pretends to be sincere, but really is just faking it.
Does anyone know who wrote “Spontaneous Human Combustion?” I heard a local a capella band sing it but I don’t remember if they said who it was by.
Spontaneous human combustion
There goes another one
A human fire
A funeral pyre
An unexpected cremation
Suicide Chump by Frank Zappa of of You Are What You Is:
Gallows Pole by Led Zeppelin.
Some may disagree with me, but I think Ramble On is also about death.
Death on two legs - Queen
There’s a light that never goes out - Smiths
What, nobody’s mentioned “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag”?
It’s even timely if you update the lyrics.