# Suicide songs -- preferably with impact



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Thanks to Stavrogin I came on the track of this thread: suicide songs. How much more important can music get?

A famous suicide song - translated in 100 languages - is Gloomy Sunday. Originally: Szomorú Vasárnap by the poor Hungarian pianist and composer Rezsõ Seress. I'm gratefully copying the complete Wikipedia-page on him. It doesn't get more tragic than in this life story:

Rezső Seress (Hungarian: [ˈrɛʒøː ˈʃɛrɛʃ]; 3 November 1899 - 11 January 1968) was a Hungarian pianist and composer. Some sources give his birth name as Rudolf ("Rudi") Spitzer.

Rezső Seress lived most of his life in poverty in Budapest, from where, being Jewish, he was taken to a labour camp by the Nazis during the Second World War. He survived the camp and after employment in the theatre and the circus, where he was a trapeze artist, he concentrated on songwriting and singing after an injury. Seress taught himself to play the piano with only one hand. He composed many songs, including Fizetek főúr (Waiter, bring me the bill), Én úgy szeretek részeg lenni (I love being drunk), and a song for the Hungarian Communist Party to commemorate the chain bridge crossing the river in Budapest, Újra a Lánchídon.

His most famous composition is Szomorú Vasárnap ("Gloomy Sunday"), written in 1933, which gained infamy as it became associated with a spate of suicides.

Seress felt a strong loyalty to Hungary, and one reason for his poverty while having a world-famous song was that he never wished to go to the USA to collect his royalties; instead, staying as pianist at the Kispipa restaurant in his home town. This restaurant had a pipe stove at the centre of its dining room, and was remarkably cold for a restaurant. The place was a favourite of prostitutes, musicians, Bohemian spirits and the Jewish working class.

As his fame began to wane, along with his loyalty to the communist party, Seress plunged into depression. Although surviving the Nazi forced labour in the Ukraine, his mother didn't, increasing the gloom in his world.

Seress committed suicide in Budapest in January 1968; he survived jumping out of a window, but later in the hospital choked himself to death with a wire. His obituary in the New York Times mentions the notorious reputation of "Gloomy Sunday":

"	Budapest, January 13.
Rezsoe Seress, whose dirge-like song hit, "Gloomy Sunday" was blamed for touching off a wave of suicides during the nineteen-thirties, has ended his own life as a suicide it was learned today. Authorities disclosed today that Mr. Seress jumped from a window of his small apartment here last Sunday, shortly after his 69th birthday.
The decade of the nineteen-thirties was marked by severe economic depression and the political upheaval that was to lead to World War II. The melancholy song written by Mr. Seress, with words by his friend, Ladislas Javor, a poet, declares at its climax, "My heart and I have decided to end it all." It was blamed for a sharp increase in suicides, and Hungarian officials finally prohibited it.
In America, where Paul Robeson introduced an English version, some radio stations and nightclubs forbade its performance. Mr. Seress complained that the success of "Gloomy Sunday" actually increased his unhappiness, because he knew he would never be able to write a second hit.

Anybody know of more in this vein?






And here is Paul Robeson's interpretation:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Very depressing thread


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## Guest (Apr 29, 2016)

Portishead
Deep Water

On the album Third.


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## Guest (Apr 29, 2016)

Does that lied by *Mahler*, "Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz" count? The Swiss soldier throws himself off the ramparts of Strasbourg as he gets too melancholic on hearing an alpine horn.


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## Guest (Apr 29, 2016)

TalkingHead said:


> Does that lied by *Mahler*, "Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz" count? The Swiss soldier throws himself off the ramparts of Strasbourg as he gets too melancholic on hearing an alpine horn.


Yodelling has that effect on me.


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## Guest (Apr 29, 2016)

And the Highland bagpipes on me !!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Perhaps the shortest is Tosca's: "O Scarpia, before God!" It made an mp act when she hit the ground!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Bill Withers - _Better Off Dead_. Ends with a gunshot so that's pretty conclusive.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Suicide? Frankie Teardrop!


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## majlis (Jul 24, 2005)

There's an incredible version by that goddess of Billy Hollyday. Absolutely extraordinary. IMO, one of her very best recordings.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

dogen said:


> Yodelling has that effect on me.


I know what you mean. But you're still around, so that doesn't count!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Pugg said:


> Very depressing thread


Here's one you can tap your foot to!


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

All very nice suicide songs you come up with, but Rezső Seress is still far ahead. He didn't write about it, he made people kill themselves through his music!


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## Guest (Apr 29, 2016)

And Mahler composed a song that describes a soldier throwing himself of the ramparts when hearing the "music" of an alpine horn. So we learn here, through the Mahler example, the notion of people killing themselves due to the melancholia produced by a specific instrument. Ergo, alpine horns (played everyday somewhere in Switzerland and possibly elsewhere for at least the last 3 centuries) provoke suicidal acts. QED.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Allright. Alpine horns are in also (and bagpipes) and the bad guys are the ones that play them. (Mahler is just the news reporter in this case).


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Casebearer said:


> Allright. Alpine horns are in also (and bagpipes) and the bad guys are the ones that play them. (Mahler is just the news reporter in this case).


You are alright I hope. 
Not planning anything stupid soon?


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Pugg said:


> You are alright I hope.
> Not planning anything stupid soon?


Pugg, come on. This is about the music I love, not about my personal life or plans at all. Don't be so straight and afraid of the gloomier side of life and music


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

This thread brings back a memory from 20 years ago. I couldn't sleep, so I turned on a radio station which plays incredibly boring versions of incredibly middle-of-the-road church songs. Around 1 a.m., this recording comes on with a woman singing, "I'm going home, I'm going home . . ." Standard longing-for-heaven stuff. Then she began elaborating, "This bitter hurt . . ." Well, this is departing from the usual. ". . . makes me want to end it all . . ." Now I'm wide awake. This isn't a hymn; it's a suicide note. Apparently the somnabulent DJ woke up about that time, because suddenly the song ended, and he threw on some George Beverly Shea. I've always wondered what that song was.


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

@OP: If I find myself feeling truly miserable, I try to stay away from Fauré's harp impromptu and third piano impromptu. 
A forum member recently mentioned a movie in which a character dies by intravenous morphine overdose, engulfed in a a state of sublime happiness. For some reason, that's what those two Fauré pieces make me think of. A light, overflowing happiness and the knowledge that it's almost all over.

Fauré - the closest I've ever been to opioids.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Casebearer said:


> Pugg, come on. This is about the music I love, not about my personal life or plans at all. Don't be so straight and afraid of the gloomier side of life and music


I forgot the


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

Theme from 'MASH' - 'Suicide is Painless' from 2:38 of the video.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Here's a happening, groovy suicide song with an up tempo 

Asia "Suspicion"

I don't know if the composer wrote it to let off that kind of steam in people that were drawn to it. I've never been suicidal and I actually found this song interesting to listen to a few times.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Remember Elton John's song "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself"? Although I think it is less about suicide and more about teenage angst, and it's pretty uptempo for a song about offing yourself, so it probably doesn't fit exactly into the OP's criteria.


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## Schubussy (Nov 2, 2012)




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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Pugg said:


> I forgot the


Ah! How easy we misinterpret!


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I googled for 'music induced suicide' and found a nice not-so-serieus blog on the correlation between country music and suicide.

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/12/05/country-music-and-suicide/

Some of the comments are fun to read also, for instance Beth:"I have been listening to country music (against my will) in the office I work in for about 3 weeks now and I have to say, these songs really do make me want to blow my brains all over the walls of this place." One Horatio Buckwalter states however "I do not believe this study is completely correct. I committed suicide, but I had never listen to any country music in my life."

Also somebody points out that suicide rates in China are high and suggests it might have something to do with Chinese music.

On another forum someone claims that any song in D minor can cause suicide.

And as Schubussy's post brings back to mind: Leonard Cohen is under strong suspicion.

So, apart from Gloomy Sunday, for which the case is very strong, we so far have five suspects for committing the same type of crime Rezső Seress did. I'll list them on a scale from specific to general:
1. Alpine horns (as Mahler reported the specific case of a Swiss soldier. But can he be trusted as a reporter?)
2. Leonard Cohen (he had the means, he made use of the opportunity, all we need is motif and cold cases that can be linked to listening to his music).
3. Bagpipes (at least we have a very specific profile of the murder weapon and a limited search area)
4. All music in D minor (we have no records in our database where and when this music was played and who might have been exposed to it. We're at a loss.)
5. Chinese music (it's like searching in a haystack; we don't have the expertise and the capacity on our force. We need to pay more attention to recruitment.)


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

The Replacements' The Ledge


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I was wondering. Is Gloomy Sunday in D minor?


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Progressive metal band, Pain of Salvation, on their last good release, had a song called "Rope Ends".

Great song with some pretty complex time changes. 

She is still young...

Another day of emptiness
This life is wearing her down
The room around her is a mess
Her children safe with her mom

She is still young but feeling old
Two children with different fathers
She sits on the bathroom floor alone
The shower chain broke
Her neck hurts

Then another night of emptiness to wear her down
Naked to the world she wraps her sadness in a gown
Her children fast asleep she sears the dark with glassy eyes
Choosing carefully among her husband's business ties

"Over!" she cries through rope ends and silk ties
Beautiful life escaping her young blue eyes
But life holds her hand, refusing to let go
Leaving her breathing on the floor

They're still asleep don't hear her cry
And she's still obsessed with rope ends
This time she picks a stronger tie
With Winnie the Pooh and friends

She is still young but feeling old
A child dying to be a mother
Now she hangs from the ceiling all alone
All pressure is falling from her

Seeing guilt has taught her guilt she's raised on disbelief
Merely twenty beautiful but with a taste for grief
She has learnt all that there is to know about hopelessness
Seeing that no effort in this world can stand her test

"Over!" she cries through rope ends and silk ties
Beautiful life escaping her young blue eyes
And Winnie is strong, would never let her fall
Prevents her from breathing till she's not there at all
But life holds her hands, refusing to let go
Leaving her breathing on the floor

Seeing guilt has taught her guilt she's raised on disbelief
Merely twenty beautiful but with a taste for grief
She has learnt all that there is to know about helplessness
Seeing that no caring in this world can ease her stress

Helpless she lies in rope ends and undies
Unseeing eyes fixating Eeyore's smile
"Over!" she cries as she's going unblind
Still in this life
Still in this troubled mind
The ceiling let go, the old house let her fall
Dropping her breathing to the hard cold floor
Hitting her head - a broken china soul
Red stains on porcelain and she's not there at all

Breathing she cries for rope ends and silk ties
Beautiful eyes Piglet stands shy behind
Broken she lies undead and unblind
Beautiful life
Beautiful crying young eyes
Blackened and bruised, learning how to see
Staring at her tooth - crimsoned ivory
Hours they pass this broken china soul
Red stains on porcelain
And she's not there at all...


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

I suppose this song qualifies indirectly, given that it's about trying to persuade another not to commit suicide. Joan Osborne - _Crazy Baby_. Here's a link to a live version on youtube (skip to about 1:15 to miss the tuning and banter with the audience). I loved this song the first time I heard it, about 20 years ago on the car radio on a road trip. To this day it remains one of my favorite rock songs ever. The lyrics are about as dark as things can get.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

It does. It's a beautiful song about depression and/or drug abuse. I like this version better for the sound (and lyrics).


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

there's a very famous one that has not been mentioned, Alfonsina y el mar


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

norman bates said:


> there's a very famous one that has not been mentioned, Alfonsina y el mar


That's a beautiful, profoundly sad song. Pure poetry, sung by one of Latin America's best (QEPD). Thanks for posting that.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Casebearer said:


> I was wondering. Is Gloomy Sunday in D minor?


In the first version you posted, at least, no. It's in C minor. The other one seems to be around F minor, although the pitch is somewhat off of A=440. There's probably a D minor version somewhere out there.

Pretty much all of the music in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movie was in D minor (because that's the key of Hollywood action music generally); do we have any recorded cases of suicide after watching that?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

_My Friend Foe_ by Maria McKee, from her album High Dive. A very cheerful-sounding song about suicide: "I gave up on blood today.....", "I gave up on hope today.....".


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Mahlerian said:


> In the first version you posted, at least, no. It's in C minor. The other one seems to be around F minor, although the pitch is somewhat off of A=440. There's probably a D minor version somewhere out there.
> 
> Pretty much all of the music in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movie was in D minor (because that's the key of Hollywood action music generally); *do we have any recorded cases of suicide after watching that?*


More likely after watching all the sequels.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Mahlerian said:


> In the first version you posted, at least, no. It's in C minor. The other one seems to be around F minor, although the pitch is somewhat off of A=440. There's probably a D minor version somewhere out there.
> 
> Pretty much all of the music in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movie was in D minor (because that's the key of Hollywood action music generally); do we have any recorded cases of suicide after watching that?


Thanks. There goes the theory of suicides induced by the key of D minor (see one of the previous post).

I would imagine the Pirates to be responsible for recorded cases of murder!


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

Casebearer said:


> It does. It's a beautiful song about depression and/or drug abuse. I like this version better for the sound (and lyrics).


Yes... as you probably know, that's the studio version of the song, from the album _Relish_. A stellar rock album.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Bluecrab said:


> Yes... as you probably know, that's the studio version of the song, from the album _Relish_. A stellar rock album.


You bet! Relish is one of my Top Ten Best Ever--an almost-perfect disk.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

norman bates said:


> there's a very famous one that has not been mentioned, Alfonsina y el mar


I wish I could understand the Spanish.


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

Casebearer said:


> I wish I could understand the Spanish.


Here you are... the English translation leaves something to be desired, but it does convey the essence of the poem.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Bluecrab said:


> Here you are... the English translation leaves something to be desired, but it does convey the essence of the poem.
> 
> View attachment 84414


Beautiful lyrics.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

A great song, but like much of The Smiths material I think its a little tongue in cheek.


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)




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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I'm quite familiar with the song because it was so effectively used in the movie soundtrack of The Man Who Cried with Johnny Depp.

Very sad about the life and death of Seress! Tragic. Still, there's more to the lyrics of Gloomy Sunday than people usually mention. At the end of the song he awakens to find that he'd been _dreaming_, and there was some measure of redemption or salvation in that, at least at the time. Nevertheless, the aura of gloominess still hovers over the song even after it's over, and it may somehow have been a portend of what was to happen to him later. It's a very unusual song, somehow very reminiscent of his tragic life.

Last two stanzas:

Dreaming, I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you asleep
In the deep of my heart here

Darling I hope
That my dream never haunted you
My heart is tellin' you
How much I wanted you

Gloomy Sunday


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Vronsky said:


>


'Closer' is one of the most depressing but beautiful albums I own. I adore it but I must be in the right mood to play it. 'Decades' is one of the saddest songs I know.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Rascal Flatts's "Why" is a moving song about the pain and confusion felt by those who knew someone who committed suicide.


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

Merl said:


> 'Closer' is one of the most depressing but beautiful albums I own. I adore it but I must be in the right mood to play it. 'Decades' is one of the saddest songs I know.


I completely agree. For the saddest song, I would choose The Eternal, one guy I know described the song as 'posthumous dream' (I think this would be the correct English translation of what he said). 24 hours is the most suicidal song on that album. Suicide marks are woven in every line of the song and everything is very related to Ian's last message.





I really like the echoing effects in Joy Division songs.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Larkenfield said:


> I'm quite familiar with the song because it was so effectively used in the movie soundtrack of The Man Who Cried with Johnny Depp.
> 
> Very sad about the life and death of Seress! Tragic. Still, there's more to the lyrics of Gloomy Sunday than people usually mention. At the end of the song he awakens to find that he'd been _dreaming_, and there was some measure of redemption or salvation in that, at least at the time. Nevertheless, the aura of gloominess still hovers over the song even after it's over, and it may somehow have been a portend of what was to happen to him later. It's a very unusual song, somehow very reminiscent of his tragic life.
> 
> ...


Thanks Larkenfield! Beautiful lines, but somehow these last two stanzas make it even more sad because it adds contrast as he's hoping his dreams didn't haunt his darling.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Sort of contrary but an interesting Waits song contemplating suicide, obviously this is more of a poetic expression of a certain frame of mind rather than being so direct but I'll drop it by anyway:


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Nice atmospheric song. You're not the first to take this approach to the subject. I think it deserves a thread of it's own.


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## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

I often listen to punk and metal and many, many songs in those genres are about feeling depressed and contemplating suicide... E.g. my favorite punk album is Black Flag's 'Damaged' which is all about depression and suicide. And soon metal was infused with punk so all metal bands starting singing about suicide too! One of those early 'cross over' bands is called Suicidal Tendencies (!) and my favorite album from this band, 'Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like ****...Déjà Vu' is all about depression and suicide. Finally I want to mention another great metal album, Life of Agony's 'River Runs Red', which is all about suicide too..


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## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

"I'm gonna find me a river, one that's cold as ice.
And when I find me that river, Lord I'm gonna pay the price, Oh Lord!
I'm goin' down in it three times, but Lord I'm only comin' up twice.
She's long gone, and now I'm lonesome blue."


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)




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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

By far the greatest version ever, by one of the most astounding vocalists in the history of music. Devastating.


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)




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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

AfterHours said:


> By far the greatest version ever, by one of the most astounding vocalists in the history of music. Devastating.


Sorry, Afterhours, I don't agree. It could have been a great version but the constant 'vibrato' in her voice and the strong echo turns me off. I'm also not sure l prefer an expressionist 'satanic' version over the more withheld original.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Casebearer said:


> Sorry, Afterhours, I don't agree. It could have been a great version but the constant 'vibrato' in her voice and the strong echo turns me off. I'm also not sure l prefer an expressionist 'satanic' version over the more withheld original.


It's far superior to the original because it actually gets across the depths of depression, pain and grief one would be in if they were suffering from such a state. The original is very good for its time, but does not actually express the full grip and toll such an emotional state would likely take on one.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

There are direct and indirect ways of expressing emotion. Both can be strong. The fact that many people at the time were thinking of or even driven to suicide by the song is the hardest evidence you can get for the emotional strengh of the original interpretation I think. It made does not express it that directly but it conveys the message very strongly and lets the listener fill it in with his own emotion.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Casebearer said:


> There are direct and indirect ways of expressing emotion. Both can be strong. The fact that many people at the time were thinking of or even driven to suicide by the song is the hardest evidence you can get for the emotional strengh of the original interpretation I think. It made does not express it that directly but it conveys the message very strongly and lets the listener fill it in with his own emotion.


Though the original clearly does convey a gentle and subtle sense of reserved pain and tragedy, and I think it is a well done song, I would have to disagree that it actually comes close to conveying the deep despair, stultifying pain and grief that one would be immersed in were they in such a suicidal state. I would argue the idea that the original made people suicidal is likely either (a) mostly exaggerated legend/myth; (b) such people who killed themselves were already quite suicidal anyway and it was the icing on the cake when they suddenly heard it on the radio; (c) both


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I agree with a, b and c but a nor b nor c have to be discussed in relation to Diamanda Galas.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)




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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

I see it was already posted.


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