# Songs sung by the dead or dying **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362 "2013-01-07T17:17:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![midnight-dreary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@midnight-dreary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/midnight-dreary)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/81 "2013-01-08T04:38:57Z")
The Ravens - Tristiania [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZpIGBgevu0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZpIGBgevu0) > [@](#): > > Only ashes and bones remain > My hair is wet, my eyes are sore > > The past has been fed to the flames > I cannot breathe any more > > I try to stand on my feet, but I fall > I try to walk, but I crawl > Live as we knew it is over, and you are gone > I do not feel regret anymore > I sense a presence of birds > Encircling me > And I am gone Dying Sun - Before the dawn is. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJEDKLsoW0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJEDKLsoW0) > [@](#): > > By the powers vested in me > By the entity of choice > I pronounce myself dead > At 4:18 am > I am gathered here > To remember the disease within me Night Eternal - moonspell [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGwWH7eqpwA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGwWH7eqpwA) (well, it’s about the apocalypse, but everyone is dying, so… > [@](#): > > Come morning, chalice of dawn > To crown the Sufferer in their glory > Come for we are failing > Come for we are waiting > For we are trying to breathe > > [..] > Night eternal, our world is burning > Bride eternal, our world is dying Deeper Down - My dying bride [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFoA9vcolLI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFoA9vcolLI) > [@](#): > > Thrashing out at torment and pain > The maddened sea engulfs me > I let myself be swallowed up > The magnificent weight upon me > > […] > Deeper I go, deeper down > Didn’t think it could get any blacker > The cold bites, the pressure builds To Hell -Norther > [@](#): > > We’re going to Hell > God-awful traces of forgiveness and grace > We’re going to Hell > To finalize the plan altogether, hand in hand. > > We’re so alone > Searching for our souls > But where to go > To find the answers? Bloody Kisses - Type O negative > [@](#): > > With my blood I’ll find your love. > > You found the strength to end your life. > As you did – so shall I. > […] > > A crimson pool so warm & deep. > Lulls me to an endless sleep. > > Your hand in mine - I will be brave. > Take me from this earth. > > And end this night - this, the end of life. > > From the dark I feel your lips. > And I taste your bloody kiss. (Youtube wont load for me now, for some reason, but I’m sure if you type the title of the last two in, you’ll find them. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/82 "2013-01-08T04:53:31Z")
> [@edwards\_beard](#): > > Metallica - Ride The Lightning - a prisoner in the electric chair Other Metallica songs that fit the bill: _Wherever I May Roam_ (singer is a ghost, as revealed in the last verse) _Fade to Black_ (final lyrics imply suicide) _Trapped Under Ice_ (singer is… well, just like it says on the tin) [QUOTE=RobDog] Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jacks. [/QUOTE] As well as [the original](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h02pNUKInBo). ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/83 "2013-01-08T04:58:31Z")
[“The Bounty Hunter”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7AcEzOUkNY) by Mike Cross. ([Lyrics here.](http://www.911tabs.com/link/?255201)) Final lines: Now my muscles start to rust, my thoughts are growing cold, while Gabriel and Satan shoot craps for my soul. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/84 "2013-01-08T06:32:09Z")
[“Passage”](http://youtu.be/Z6MnoEC4mu4) - a devastating song by **Vienna Teng** from the POV of a woman who died in a car crash. Hap has a few, of course. [“Lay Me Down”](http://youtu.be/sF3nyqRTXjM) is from the POV of a woman being buried. [“Temporary and Eternal”](http://youtu.be/HSToMTvLpAw) has three dead characters: a narrator who is, I believe, an angel, and two recently-deceased elderly people who are looking back over their lives and regretting roads not taken. (here’s a [much more ethereal version](http://youtu.be/qL4LHADZ-L8) than that acoustic version) [“Ecto”](http://youtu.be/afj2r6ayAFU) is sung by a dying woman vowing to come back as a protective ghost. (there’s a story behind the monster, he’s a good guy. This is the first song I ever heard by her, 25 years ago, and I was instantly smitten, and said smittening is of course still strong as steel.) [“Find Me”](http://youtu.be/NlX-fj34n6Q) is about a woman who’s been in a shipwreck and has been floating at sea for days waiting for rescue that never comes. She’s minutes away from death and then sinks into the deep. [“Roy (Back From The Offworld)”](http://youtu.be/rpOjFeoyKyk) doesn’t quite qualify because it has a chorus, but most of the song is from the POV of Roy Batty, the replicant in Blade Runner, right before he dies. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/85 "2013-01-08T12:40:57Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > Note that I specifically ruled this song out in the OP. In general, I’m not looking for songs sung by people waiting to be executed… I guess the criterion would be that it should be physically impossible for the singer to be singing the song because they’re either dead or mortally wounded. Gah. And after much argufying, turns out I shouldn’t have included that darn song anyhow. :smack: Just leaves _Bat Out Of Hell_, then. In _The Dream of Gerontius_, the title character is on his deathbed all through the first act, and dead in the second - it’s just that we get to hear him singing along with his guardian angel (and some supporting characters) on the way to Judgement and then Purgatory. That’s probably the longest piece of singing that qualifies! ---
**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:** [January 8, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/86 "2013-01-08T13:07:29Z")
Alfred Williams’ “Would Hatton Cross Be An Improvement?” is about a ghost that is haunting a house in Hounslow, one of the perils of having the site of your death a few hundred years earlier be developed. Sadly it’s not up on his website for your listening pleasure, although it’s included in [this podcast](http://www.mitchbenn.com/podcasts/1254/the_mitch_benn_music_podcast_no_26_halloween_special.html) which is worth a listen all around. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/87 "2013-01-08T13:24:13Z")
No classical music fans at the SDMB? What about the famous Liebestod (“love death”) at the end of Wagner’s _Tristan und Isolde_? Of course, sticklers might argue that Isolde does not actually die as the opera ends, but that seems contrary to the Romeo-and-Juliet-like theme of the opera: lovers reunited in death. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/88 "2013-01-08T13:30:44Z")
Old and Wise - The Alan Parsons Project > [@](#): > > As far as my eyes can see > There are Shadows approaching me > And to those I left behind > I wanted you to Know > You’ve always shared my deepest thoughts > You follow where I go ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/89 "2013-01-08T13:49:13Z")
[When the night wind howls in the chimney cowls](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e0OtWYNfXo) Gilbert & Sullivan ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/90 "2013-01-08T14:17:55Z")
Tom Waits, ‘Green Grass’. A dead man singing to the lover who’s come to visit his grave. I’m not even gonna quote lyrics or I’ll well up. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/91 "2013-01-08T14:38:50Z")
From the musical, _1776_, a young army courier sings “Mama, Look Sharp.” Sung from a late friend’s point of view as his mother searches a Massachusetts field for her son’s body. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/92 "2013-01-08T14:45:59Z")
‘A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request’ by Steve Goodman ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/93 "2013-01-08T16:29:51Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > “The Man’s Too Strong”, by Dire Straits (on the _Brothers in Arms_ album), is told by a man who’s apparently about to be executed for war crimes. > [@Rain\_Soaked](#): > > Mark Knopfer: [Dream of the Drowned Submariner](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy5rnl_sx0Q) Hello!? How could anyone forget the epic haunting guitar of the song “Brothers in Arms”? “You Can Close Your Eyes” by James Taylor can be interpreted as a farewell before death. ---
**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:** [January 8, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/94 "2013-01-08T16:32:23Z")
**I Come and Stand At Every Door** by, well, a lot of people - The Byrds, Dylan, This Mortal Coil - is from the viewpoint of a seven-year-old killed at Hiroshiima. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/95 "2013-01-08T17:11:50Z")
**Ayreon** _[Tunnel of Light](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUqdvkMNn7Q)_ from the album Into the Electric Castle. Also _[Valley of the Queens](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiJft-VnxEg)_ from the same album. Storyline is that 8 people have been chosen from different eras and places in human history by a mysterious disembodied being. He brings them to a strange and dangerous place called the Electric Castle for reasons unknown. The Tunnel of Light is about the dying moments of the Highlander after he’s fatally wounded by the Barbarian after the strange being tells them one of them can not continue. Valley of the Queens is about the death of the Egyptian, who is convinced that she’s there as a test devised by her gods, and now she is returning home to them in disgrace and despair. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/96 "2013-01-08T17:19:21Z")
Led Zeppelin - In My Time of Dying (I’m sure it was an old blues song before Zeppelin covered/remade it.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/97 "2013-01-08T17:45:24Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Led Zeppelin - In My Time of Dying > (I’m sure it was an old blues song before Zeppelin covered/remade it.) With Dylan as the middleman (again!). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/98 "2013-01-08T18:21:22Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > No classical music fans at the SDMB? What about the famous Liebestod (“love death”) at the end of Wagner’s _Tristan und Isolde_? Of course, sticklers might argue that Isolde does not actually die as the opera ends, but that seems contrary to the Romeo-and-Juliet-like theme of the opera: lovers reunited in death. I was thinking of relevant opera arias, but there are more of them than there are operas. They need their own thread. So instead, I’ll mention _The Highest Judge of All,_" sung by Billy Bigelow after his death, in the musical “Carousel.” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/99 "2013-01-08T18:22:01Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > _Yes, they’ll all come to meet me, arms reaching, smiling sweetly._ Mama, papa, and Mary are going to greet him at the train if he’s being hung? > > How many convicts are shipped home _before_ they’re hung? Hanged. Hanged. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/100 "2013-01-08T18:40:18Z")
Blue Oyster Cult - Don’t fear the reaper [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AUO_5EALZoM/hqdefault.jpg "Don't Fear the Reaper- Blue Oyster Cult") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUO_5EALZoM) Johnny Cash - Hurt. This is unusual in the way it fits the bill, since the person singing it is dying rather than a character in the song. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22eIJDtKho) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362.md?page=6)