# Run, Joey Run: or I Was a Teenage Death Song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185 "2001-11-08T14:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/1 "2001-11-08T14:27:39Z")
This morning the oldies station played **Run, Joey, Run** by David Geddes. For those of you unfamiliar with this ditty, basically its about a couple who want to get married, her father doesn’t like Joey, so Daddy plans to shoot the kid, but at the last second the girl jumps in front of the bullet. That got me thinking of other Teenage Death Songs. Off the top of my head: **Run, Joey, Run** - Girl dies by accidental gunshot **Last Kiss** - Girl dies in car vs. train accident **Wildfire** - Girl dies of exposure **Leader of the Pack** - Boy dies in motorcycle accident And I vaguely remember one about a plane crash. I think it was by the Everly Brothers, but I’m not sure. How many more Death Songs can you think of? ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/2 "2001-11-08T14:39:53Z")
The best one I know is the immortal “Patches” by Dickie Lee. The story: Nice kid falls in love with “Patches,” a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Dad tells kid he can’t see her anymore (“A girl from that place/would just bring us disgrace/So my dad says I can’t love you”). Patches, despondent, drowns herself and is found “floating face down in that dirty old river that flows through the middle of old shanty town.” In the last verse, the narrator/singer is preparing to commit suicide so that he can be with Patches. It’s a classic! ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/3 "2001-11-08T14:48:37Z")
_Teen Angel, can you hear me? Teen Angel, can you see me? Are you somewhere up above, and am I still your one true love?_ The car was stalled on the railroad tracks, and the couple gets out safely before the train hits them… but at the last second, the girl dives back into the car. Why? \*They said they found my high school ring, clutched in your fingers tight… \* Then there’s _Tell Laura I Love Her_, Ray Peterson’s 1960 classic about a kid who dies racing cars. Not really a **teen** death - but _Big John_ dies at the bottom of the mine saving all the other miners… _Ringo_ chooses to die instead of killing the sheriff that once saved his life… and in _Billy, Don’t Be a Hero_ Billy is a hero, dying to get the ammunition to the rest of the man. - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/4 "2001-11-08T14:55:29Z")
DOA – some sort of traffic accident (“we were flying low, and hit something in the road”) Running Bear – they dove into the water and swam to each other, but the current was too strong and they both drowned The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia – explaining the song would take as long as singing the song, but the guy was set up by the corrupt small town establishment and his little sister took revenge. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/5 "2001-11-08T14:57:45Z")
Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode To Billy Joe.” Almost answers that immortal musical question “Why did Billy Joe McAllister jump off the Tallahatchee Bridge?” It even spawned a Movie of the Week. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/6 "2001-11-08T15:00:49Z")
There was another “Patches” song by Clarence Carter about a kid who id twelve and his father dies so he has to work the fields to keep his family from starving. Here’s a sample lyric: _One day papa called me to his dyin bed Put his hands on my shoulders And in tears he said Patches, I’m depending on you son To pull the family through My son, it’s all left up to you_ The teen doesn’t actually die in this song. He suffers a fate worse than death as a sharecropper. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/7 "2001-11-08T15:01:10Z")
The airplane crash song was DOA by Bloodrock. It went “we were flying low, then we hit something in the air.” It was one of the worst hit songs ever. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/8 "2001-11-08T15:04:28Z")
On the Steve Goodman double CD (one live, one studio, forget the name) there’s a medley of “Dead Girl” songs he sings. He actually starts with _Born to be Wild_, not a DGS, but slips into _Leader of the Pack_, again not technically a DGS but there is death. Third up is _Tell Laura I Love Her_ with a final choice of _Strange Things Happen_, a truly odd number about a guy picking up a ghost at a dance. Incidently, all this is sung wearing a motorcycle helmet because no one in the audience had a cowboy hat. I thought the horse dies in _Wildfire_, not a girl. And why would a horse be spooked by a killer frost. Stupidest lyric of all times. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/9 "2001-11-08T15:12:27Z")
Not sure if it would qualify as a _teen death_ song, but R. Dean Taylor’s “Indiana Wants Me” could. Seems the singer is on the run from the police after killing somebody ("…if a man ever needed dying, he did") and is singing to his young wife/girlfriend while on the run ("…you, me, and our little baby…"). He is eventually surrounded by the Indiana police (megaphone repeating in the background: “This is the police. You are surrounded. Give yourself up.”). While we never find out exactly what happens, it’s easy to imagine that he’s decided to go down in a blaze of gunfire. Not exactly your standard teen death-from-car-crash song, but maybe it qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/10 "2001-11-08T15:14:41Z")
Jet Set Satellite, [The Best Way to Die](http://mfile.akamai.com/3196/rm/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/us_rm/4000/405451_1_02.ram?obj=v10601). Don’t know why I dig this song so much, but I do. ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/11 "2001-11-08T16:50:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Telemark \* > \*\*I thought the horse dies in _Wildfire_, not a girl. And why would a horse be spooked by a killer frost. Stupidest lyric of all times. \*\* No, the girl dies: "Oh they say she died one winter When there came a chilling frost And the pony she named Wildfire Busted down his stall In a blizzard he was lost She ran calling Wildfire " Damn, now I have that song running through my head. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/12 "2001-11-08T17:10:48Z")
Let’s not forget **Seasons in the Sun** by Terry Jacks (and recently – excruciatingly – covered by Westlife): _Goodbye my friends, it’s hard to die When all the birds are singing in the sky…_ I’m not quite sure what the singer is dying of, but he whines a lot first. And then there’s **Billy Don’t Be a Hero** by somebody or other, in which he goes off to war. What a loser. There are lots of non-teen death ones, like **Ruby** by Kenny Rogers (IIRC) – _Ruby, don’t take your love to town_ – and Tom Jones’s **Delilah** , but that’s a whole other genre. ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/13 "2001-11-08T17:17:59Z")
There’s always **Richard Marx’s** schmaltzfest _Hazard_ about a new boy in town who is accused of murdering a local girl. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/14 "2001-11-08T17:18:37Z")
Not to nitpick or anything (warning, nitpick ahead), but in **Run, Joey Run** wasn’t Julie pregnant? Hence the repeated: _Daddy please don’t. **It wasn’t his fault** He means so much to me. Daddy please don’t, we’re gonna get married Just you wait and see._ and _He says he’s gonna make you pay, for what we’ve done, he’s got a gun, so Run, Joey Run …_ ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/15 "2001-11-08T17:35:59Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by jr8_ > And then there’s Billy Don’t Be a Hero by somebody or other, in which he goes off to war. What a loser. And to cap it all off, “I heard she threw the letter away…” 😃 It was by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, incidentally. ---
**Author:** ![Scribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Scribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribe)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/16 "2001-11-08T17:41:08Z")
The british paperback Death Discs by Alan Clayson (Victor Gollancz, 1992) goes into a lot of these. One I heard recently was I Want My Baby Back by Jimmy Cross (circa 1965). He and his girlfiend have a head-on collision with another car. He’s coming to after the accident…“And theyah was my baby/and over theyuh was my baby/and over theyuh was my baby…” Song ends him digging up her coffin several months after the accident, and singing the last chorus inside it… (!) ---
**Author:** ![kaiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@kaiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaiju)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/17 "2001-11-08T18:03:40Z")
Dead Man’s Curve by Jan and Dean. And then one of them got into a brain-damaging, career-ending car accident. Didn’t they ever listen to their own music? ---
**Author:** ![Scribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Scribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribe)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/18 "2001-11-08T18:13:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Southpaw \* > **And I vaguely remember one about a plane crash. I think it was by the Everly Brothers, but I’m not sure.** I think you’re thinking of **Ebony Eyes** by the Everly Brothers. He’s waiting for her plane, and everyone waiting for it is asked to “report to the chapel” at once…presumably because, you know… ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/19 "2001-11-08T18:54:08Z")
We can’t forget that classic, “The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” by Julie Brown. _Debby’s smiling and waving her gun. Picking out cheerleaders one by one. Buffy pom pom just flew to bits. Mitsy’s head just did the splits. God, my best friend’s on a shooting spree. Stop it, Debby! You’re embarrassing me!_ Probably doesn’t get much airplay these days. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185/20 "2001-11-08T19:08:03Z")
As I mentioned elsewhere, **Teen Angel** is a _parody_ of a death rock song. At least, that was how it was originally written, though Mark Denning sang it straight. If we’re going to include other parodies, there’s Blotto’s [“My Baby’s the Star of a Driver’s Ed Movie.”]([http://blotto1.tripod.com/lyrics.html#My](http://blotto1.tripod.com/lyrics.html#My) Baby’s) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-joey-run-or-i-was-a-teenage-death-song/92185.md?page=2)