Gig #47: Suicidal

‘Given that music preference may be indicative of emotional vulnerability, could this notion be extended to suggest that music preference can be a diagnostic indicator of emotional disturbance? It has already been noted that a high incidence of adolescents with preference for heavy metal music are hospitalized for psychiatric problems. Furthermore, adolescents diagnosed with mood disorder tended to like rap, classic rock, hard rock, heavy metal and alternative music, while those with oppositional defiant disorders tended to prefer rap and some techno. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry already recommends psychiatric assessment for adolescents who show a preoccupation with music containing destructive themes such as suicide.

‘Exploring music preferences as a reflection of at-risk status is feasible and relevant to those working with adolescents, particularly as many adolescents (e.g. those at risk of suicide) are unlikely to seek out assistance when needed. Understanding the link between music preference and mental illness also has implications for treatment. Therapy may include discussions on the themes of adolescents’ preferred music and may be an indicator of progress or deterioration in mental state.

‘A research agenda is needed in order to clarify a number of key associations before any causal explanations can be established between the experience of music and positive or negative mental health. To date, no such study has attempted to link music preferences with mental illness diagnosis. Such questions include: whether vulnerable youth prefer music selections in particular genres; whether there is a dose response relationship; do vulnerable adolescents understand the lyrics and messages that these songs are representing or are they more focused on the music itself; does the music they listen to change how they feel and act, and are these changes positive or negative; do adolescents with mental health problems listen to substantially more music than the average adolescent, and in what contexts do they listen to their music? All the above questions need to compare young people with mental health problems with the normal population. If many of the above associations do exist in contemporary culture and are related to adverse outcomes, then ways to reduce the exposure to particular music genres need to be advanced.’ — Felicity Baker and William Bor, Can music preference indicate mental health status in young people?

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Lou Reed The Bed
‘Sometimes called the most depressing album ever made, “Berlin” is the story of Caroline and Jim, a lowlife couple in the title city — she is promiscuous, he beats her, and they both do lots of drugs — and the tragic dissolution of their relationship. The demimonde of drugs and sadomasochism glamorized in songs by the Velvet Underground, Reed’s visionary 1960s avant-rock band, is shown with miserable consequences, as in “The Bed,” when Caroline commits suicide and Jim remains bitterly numb: This is the place where she lay her head/ When she went to bed at night/ And this is the place where she cut her wrists/ That odd and fateful night/ And I said oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling’. — NYT

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King Krule Cementality
‘”See, the cement has never meant so much/ My hot head cools to the stone cold touch/ I look to settle my seat with the dust/ Brain, leave me be/ Can’t you see that these eyes are shut?” This song finds Krule considering the pros and cons of throwing himself out of a window. “It’s about killing myself,” he told The Guardian. “Becoming one with the cement.”‘ — collaged

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Lydia Lunch Gloomy Sunday
‘Dubbed the ‘Hungarian Suicide Song’, Gloomy Sunday appears to live up to its name. Written in 1933, the piece was written by Hungarian composer Rezso Seress. Seress committed suicide in 1968, first by jumping from his apartment window, surviving and later strangling himself with a wire in his hospital room. Over the years, supposedly, hundreds of love-lorn men and women have listened to Gloomy Sunday and decided to end their lives, often leaving suicide notes containing references and quoted lyrics from the song. Hardly surprising then that, during what could certainly be described as ‘our darkest hour’, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) banned the song from the airwaves during WWII.’ — humanities360.com

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Xasthur Suicide in Dark Serenity
‘If there’s any metal genre that’s written the book on songs about suicide, it’s depressive black metal. Xasthur, impossibly hailing from sunny Southern California, opens a particularly bleak vein with this track, which sounds literally like someone circling a drain. Xasthur re-recorded the track for the 2003 Suicide in Dark Serenity EP, but it sounds swaddled and anesthetized by comparison.’ — Invisible Oranges

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Guided by Voices My Impression Now
‘You told me you’d give your soul to the crowd/ You run to the edge of the warzone/ You’re finding out that it’s way too late/ To be happy around your friends/ You changed your head/ And made your bed/ Through time, circumstances and medicines/ You lied a lot/ Created a plot/ To escort you safely away/ My impression now/ My impression now/ Stand on the edge of the ledge/ Jump off cause nobody cares.’ — Robert Pollard

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Leonard Cohen Dress Rehearsal Rag
‘Songs of Love and Hate is Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s third album. It was mainly recorded in Columbia Studio A in Nashville from September 22–26, 1970. “Sing Another Song, Boys” was recorded at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 30, 1970. The album title is descriptive, outlining its main themes. The songs contain emotive language and are frankly personal; “Famous Blue Raincoat” ends with the line “Sincerely, L. Cohen”. With the exception of “Last Year’s Man”, Cohen has performed every song live. Because of its depressing content, he has played “Dress Rehearsal Rag” in concert on only two occasions, two years before Songs of Love and Hate.’ — collaged

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White Faces Nots
‘Milk ‘n’ Cookies actually sounded like the New York Dolls at times, but this group didn’t exactly want a fix with their kiss. (What did they want instead? Milk ‘n’ cookies!) Still, singer Justin Strauss is not without his elements of danger, and he’s got no time for homework. He’s devoted to his girlfriend, but maybe a bit too much: “I want love/I don’t want nothing else/If I can’t/I’m gonna kill myself” (after which the band dramatically cuts out and the guitarist lays down a savage gauntlet riff). New post-glam band White Faces pay tribute with a roughed up cover of M ‘n’ C’s brightest, bleakest song ‘Nots’.’ — collaged

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The Mountain Goats Shadow Song
‘if you get there before me, will you save me a seat?/ if you get there before me, would you save me a seat?/ but if i never get there at all,/ would you leave the seat empty?// if you get there before me, will you light us a fire?/ if you get there before me, will you light us a fire?/ but if i never show,/ will you watch the embers glow?/ would you keep the fire burning?// this is a song for you, in case i never make it through to where you are.// this is a song for you, in case i never make it through to where you are’. — John Darnielle

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Hatsune Miku Crime and Punishment
‘The song is about Miku who has a crush on someone who self harms. He wont notice her unless she self harms with him so she does. The guy finally asks her to die with him but she doesn’t because her love for him already died. I think the doll is playing the part of her crush.’ — Yabai Bunny

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The Replacements The Ledge
‘This is yet another song Paul Westerberg wrote about suicide. The band received a lot of flak because the song’s release was around the same time a group of new Jersey teens took part in a suicide pact. Westerberg angrily defended the song, stating that it wasn’t some cynical attempt to cash in on a tragedy, but more of an expression of empathy for the type of person that would consider such a desperate act. Suicide is one of his most frequent subjects and he has been treated for chronic depression in the past. The fading scream heard at the end of the song is one of the most chilling rock moments ever, as the listener realizes the subject of the song carried out his intentions.’ — Songfacts.com

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Elliott Smith Needle in the Hay
‘Not only is this song about suicide, it was used to soundtrack a suicide attempt. The song is probably most well-known for its appearance in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, during Luke Wilson’s suicide attempt scene. The song is made even sadder by Smith’s apparent suicide a few years later.’ — mademan.com

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Cheap Trick Oh Candy
‘From Cheap Trick’s legendary debut album entitled simply Cheap Trick. This was their first official single. The song was written by Rick Nielsen as was most of their early material. “Oh Candy” was inspired by Marshall Mintz, who was a photographer friend of the band who committed suicide. His nickname was “Candy” because of his initials MM – like M&Ms; candy.’ — Songfacts.com

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larva229 suicide song
‘hello again this is a song that has a hidden meaning witch i explain in the video’. — larva229

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The Faint Agenda Suicide
‘”Agenda Suicide” is the first single released from the album, Danse Macabre by The Faint. It was released only in the UK, February 26, 2002 on City Slang. The song is about the overwork of people to get “pretty little homes”. The music video, by animation studio MK12, shows bosses bullying employees, while they continue to work. It includes one employee who takes pills with coffee in the beginning of the day. Throughout the video it shows people in business suits throwing themselves in front of subway trains. At the end of the video, the main character throws himself into the path of a train, while others look down into the track where he jumped.The music video was banned from MTV.’ — collaged

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Loudon Wainwright III Suicide Song (Medley)
‘When you get the blues & you want shoot yourself in the head/ It’s alright, it’s alright…/ Go ahead!// Do the monkey, do the pony/ Do the slop, do the boogaloo twist/ Cut your throat, Cut your throat… Cut your wrist// When you tire of worldly toil/ Shuffle off this mortal coil/ Turn your body back to soil/ It’s OK, It’s OK// When you get hung up/ Hang yourself up by the neck/ What the hell, what the hell, what the heck’. — LWIII

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Bikini Kill R.I.P.
‘I can’t say everything about it/ In just one single song/ I can’t put how i feel in a package/ And sell it back to everyone/ But wait/ There’s another boy genius whose fucking gone/ I hope the food tastes better in heaven/ I know there’s lots of rad queer boys up there/ I hope everytime they talk to you/ They know that they’re lucky to be your friend’. — BK

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Neil Young Sleeps with Angels
‘Nick Kent: Sleeps With Angels seems deeply haunted by the spectre of Kurt Cobain and his sad end… Neil Young: Sleeps With Angels has a lot of overtones to it, from different situations that were described in it. A lot of sad scenes (pause), I’ve never really spoken about why I made that song. I don’t want to start now. NK: Has it anything to do with the similarity of Kurt Cobain’s death to Crazy Horse Danny Whitten’s death in 1972? They both looked so much alike… NY: I just don’t want to talk about that. That’s my decision. I’ve made a choice not to talk about it and I’m sticking to it.’ — MOJO Magazine

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p.s. Hey. ** Keaton, Hi. Confusion is a really weird thing. The best things are confusing, and so are the scary things. At least for me. Or at least that’s the filter I seem to fall back on. It was my survival instinct when I was a kid, and now it’s … I don’t know. I feel like my writing is distilled confusion. Maybe I am too. I don’t know. I’m so strange, but I mean well when I do my strange things. I’m always so surprised when anyone likes me. It’s confusing, ha ha. Wow, really nice, honoring sentence/take on my dead friends reading. I’m practicing. Thanks, man. ** James, Hi. What made 2000 your favorite year? That’s interesting. I always forget what happened what year. Oh, I tricked you, weird. I guess it was inadvertent and due to that post being a revamp. It was still old inside its spruced up shape or something. France wasn’t very enraged about the Houellebecq Goncourt thing. When you don’t live in France, it’s easy to take one or two foreign reporter’s hype as representative or something. Uh, no, I don’t think people getting emotionally attached to things is a bad thing. Maybe I even kind of really like that people do that and do it myself, I’m not sure. I admire people who can live with a minimal amount stuff. I think I do sometimes, but mostly I imagine doing that, and it seems really peaceful. ** Etc etc etc, Hey! Oh, cool, thank you a lot for the link to your piece! Awesome! I’ll read it during a rehearsal lull today. Everyone, writer and d.l. Etc etc etc has linked us up to a recent piece he wrote called ‘The Devil’ published in some curious fashion magazine Rimbaudishly entitled ‘Riot of Perfume’, and he’s great, so you should totally go read it and, hence, get some extra pleasure in your today, okay? Thanks re: the theater thing. We’ll see. The stage is way too big for the piece, but we’ll hopefully make it work. Mm, I think the only ‘Them’ thing online is a trailer for it. Maybe there’s a vid of the whole thing somewhere that requires a password. Sometimes that happens ‘cos it’s needed to sell pieces to venues. I’ll ask the manager guy today. Take care. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. Oh, that film is good? I was wondering. Cool, I assume it’ll get over here. Thanks. ** Steevee, You played drums in high school? Wow, that’s cool. Any video or audio evidence of that anywhere? No, I didn’t know that Nick Drake’s mom made music, much less that it has been released. I will definitely find a way to hear that. Fascinating. Thank you! ** Bill, Hi. When I originally saw ‘Existenz’ in the theater, I thought it was an example of Cronenberg relying way too heavily on his standard tropes, and I thought it was kind of self-cannibalizing and weak, but then I saw it again a few years later, and I liked it a lot. I guess that happens a lot with stuff by artists who work from their obsessions. ** MyNeighbourJohnTurtorro, Hi, man. Yeah, Zac, no ‘h’. He’s kind of not into there not being too much on the internet about him, so I’ll only say he’s an amazing, brilliant artist who works with visuals, and it’s a huge, inspiring thrill to collaborate with him, and, yeah, I hope he and I will continue collaborating for a long, long time. We performed ‘Ktl’ at Tramway. My weekend was good. I hope yours was at the very least very good. ** _Black_Acrylic, Great, man, about AGK going down extremely well. Great evidential pix. Everyone, go look at this year’s Yuck n Yum sponsored AGK in picture form, won’t you? It’s a nice thing to do. As would be listening to the AGK Ambience DJ set overlaid onto the event by Ben ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson aka _B_A himself. It’s here. Yeah, an alert when that video goes up on your site would be a boon. ** Marilyn Roxie, Hi, Marilyn! So awesome of you to come talk to the folks. It was such a great post. Thank you again so very much! ** Torn porter, Hi. I started reading Ratty’s thing and, yeah, it’s really super. I’m going to try to finish reading it today sometime when I get a rehearsal break. A bad way? Oh, sorry. I hope that freak-out burns itself out any second now. Interesting: ‘bodily cinema’. Hm, I think I get full-body effected by the most unlikely things, like Bresson films reduce me to a fully shaken form, but I don’t think that would happen to most people watching them. Intensely bleak, emotional films do it for me, but I think that effect is so particular to me that it wouldn’t make sense in a list or something. I don’t know. Let me think about the question. ** Bill Porter, Hi, Bill. I get you, yeah, about how Sting/The Police could have done that to you. I’m sure I have plenty of examples that I’m too embarrassed to remember. Erudite rock, yeah. I always think of this 80s band Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. Their songs were kind of like musical NPR book reviews or something. I’m excited about the workshop too! I didn’t end up reading on the train as hoped. Long story. But I will get to read the intended stuff while waiting around for the tech guys to do their stage dressing stuff today. Yeah, that was my voice in the ‘Them’ trailer. I perform in the piece, reading texts onstage throughout. I wish you could see ‘Them’ too, but I think these will be the last ever performances. You never know, but I think we’re done after this. ** Tender prey, Hey, Marc! Wow, it’s really, really, really good to see you! I’ve missed you! Aw, thanks a lot about the scrapbook pages. I see what you mean about ‘Period’. That’s interesting. It’s probably true, but it came through a different route, or through the influence of other mediums and works that might well have been more directly effected by the fairytale’s formal proposals. But, yeah, that makes sense. It’s interesting to try to work directly from the fairytale source. It feels really new, even if the result ends up relating to, say,’Period’, although I think it will read and feel very different, I don’t know. Gosh, really, it’s so good to see you! How are things with you? What have you been working on and doing? ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. I don’t remember what would have driven me crazy anymore, but you’re surely right since you know me like the back of your hand, except that I don’t think people know the backs and their hands very well at all, do they? I don’t know shit about mine. I would never pick them out in a police line up or anything. Cool, cool, cool about the Little Show stuff. ** Okay. I’m going to catch the tail end of my hotel’s free breakfast thing and then go to the theater. I think I was in a low mood when I made this gig, but I’m fine now, I think. I turn it over to you. See you tomorrow.