# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/141 "2013-01-11T15:53:47Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I’d heard the title mentioned, but in the context of that mention, which was by Dave Barry IIRC, I thought it was a joke, not a real song. 😛 My mom had a 45 of this song! She used to play it a lot when I was a kid (she liked a lot of those old novelty songs.) ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/142 "2013-01-11T20:30:23Z")
_A Complicated Song_ by Weird Al. The last verse of the song is about how he’s been decapitated. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/143 "2013-01-13T00:41:17Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Bobby Bare’s “Dropkick Me, Jesus (Through the Goalposts of Life)” (written by Shel Silverstein): > > _A lowly benchwarmer I’m contented to be > Until the time that You have need of me > To put on the big scoreboard that shines from on high > The Great Super Bowl way up in the sky …_ If you allow this, than you have to allow Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”: When I die and they lay me to rest Gonna go to the place that’s the best When I lay me down to die Goin’ up to the Spirit in the sky But now the floodgates are open to songs about being prepared for heaven in general. Just these two songs have Silverstein and Greenbaum all over them. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/144 "2013-01-13T03:14:07Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Just these two songs have Silverstein and Greenbaum all over them. They ain’t makin’ Jews like Jesus anymore. ---
**Author:** ![EMCEE\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@EMCEE\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EMCEE_98)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/145 "2013-01-13T03:25:39Z")
_Veteran of the Psychic Wars_ by Blue Oyster Cult. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/146 "2013-01-13T04:51:10Z")
Well, there’s an old song called _Ethan Lang_. It’s basically _Green Green Grass of Home_, but the guy’s getting hung, and he’s much more pissed off. The last verse: So I bid my last farewell, last farewell. So I bid my last farewell, last farewell. So I bid my last farewell, And this story you can tell, How I cursed you as I fell, Dang your eyes! ---
**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 13, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/147 "2013-01-13T05:09:15Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Johnny Cash’s [“Sam Hall”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9p9FmKdMIQ) - funny as hell. 😃 > [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Well, there’s an old song called _Ethan Lang_. > … > How I cursed you as I fell, > Dang your eyes! Sounds like a version of the same song. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/148 "2013-01-13T05:27:27Z")
> [@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. Or _La Traviata_. I don’t know it well enough to list specific arias, but the OP brought to mind an interview where Montserrat Caballé explained that any time she’s done Mimí counts as a perfect demonstration of the fact that operatic singers are not cast by their looks, “I’ll be there, supposed to be dying of consumption (do _I_ look like I’m dying of consumption?), belting it out and thinking ‘yeah, I’m sure tuberculosis patients sing like this day in and day out’”. You know what, I think I’ll start an operatic offshoot… On the not classical end of things, “Green Hills of Tyrol”, but don’t ask me whose it is. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/149 "2013-01-13T09:23:41Z")
_Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport_ is sung by an old Australian stockman, lying, dying, and he gets himself up on one elbow and he turns to his mates who are gathered around him, and he says… well, almost all of the rest of the song. Until it is explained that we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde, and that’s it hanging on the shed. But still, that’s nearly the whole song. ---
**Author:** ![sohvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/150 "2013-01-13T14:31:21Z")
_The Show Must Go On_ by Queen was written and recorded with Freddie Mercury nearly too ill to sing. Both the real singer and the singer in the song are dying, although he didn’t die until a year after recording. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/151 "2013-01-13T16:17:24Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > How could we forget: > > _Always Look on the Bright Side of Life_ I came in here to say that. But I least checked to see if it was done (figuring it would have. Didn’t think it woule be this far down) Brian (and so is my wife) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/152 "2013-01-13T18:19:03Z")
> [@BrassyPhrase](#): > > “A Little Fall of Rain” from _Les Mis_. Eponine dies before the end of the duet. Also Fantine’s I Dreamed a Dream. As Forbidden Broadway put it: I dreamed a show in days gone by Where all the scenery looked so pretty I didn’t sing one song then die And all my costumes weren’t so gritty ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/153 "2013-01-14T06:25:33Z")
An obscure one, but a personal favourite: [Drowned, by the Bevis Frond](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKGdVUBczK8) Narrated from the perspective of someone who, amazingly enough, drowned. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/154 "2013-01-14T06:43:29Z")
[Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhk-DiPqhr8) by Barenaked Ladies. A first person, present tense description of the car accident that kills the singer. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/155 "2013-01-14T13:21:29Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > “[Where the Wild Roses Grow](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/nickcavethebadseeds/wherethewildrosesgrow.html)”, by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue, is a duet between a woman who was murdered and her murderer. Thanks, that’s a great song (I must admit I like laments, and it’s basically one). Not saying anything about the other songs mentioned in the thread, I listened only to this one because I only recently discovered Nick Cave (yes, I’m a bit late to the party) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362/156 "2013-01-14T16:56:19Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > [“Passage”](http://youtu.be/Z6MnoEC4mu4) - a devastating song by **Vienna Teng** from the POV of a woman who died in a car crash. > . This one is…really unsettling. I’m bookmarking this thread. Too many songs to listen to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-sung-by-the-dead-or-dying/646362.md?page=7)