Jump to content

Songs of Death


MuzikTyme

Recommended Posts

Hello, Songfactors!

I love music! (as if you haven't already noticed) lol

My question, though, is:

What is your favourite song concerning death?

Mine is the one that follows: (btw, it's Pink Floyd's rough draft for "Time")

Childhood's End ~ Pink Floyd

You shout in your sleep

Perhaps the price is just too steep?

Is your conscience at rest

If once put to the test?

You awake with a start

Just the beating of your heart?

Just one man beneath the sky,

Just two ears, just two eyes. . .

(solo)

You set sail across the sea

Long past thoughts and memories...

Childhood's end

Your fantasies

Merge with harsh realities!

And then as the sail is hoist,

You find your eyes are growing moist

All the fears never voiced, say you have to make your final choice!

(solo)

Who are you and who am I?

To say we know the reason why?

Some are born;

Some men die...

Beneath one infinite sky

There'll be war, there'll be peace

But everything one day will cease...

All the iron turned to rust;

All the proud men turned to dust!

And so all things time will mend

So this song will End...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dust in the Wind

Kansas

I close my eyes

Only for a moment and the moment's gone

All my dreams

Pass before my eyes, a curiosity

Dust in the wind

All they are is dust in the wind

Same old song

Just a drop of water in an endless sea

All we do

Crumbles to the ground

Though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

Ohh...

Now don't hang on

Nothin' lasts forever but the earth and sky

It slips away

And all your money won't another minute buy

Dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind (All we are is dust in the wind)

Dust in the wind (Everything is dust in the wind)

Everything is dust in the wind

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I, hopefully will be late to my own funeral.

But once I arrive, my eulogy will consist of this next song

The memories of a man in his old age

Are the deeds of a man in his prime...

You shuffle in gloom in the sickroom

And talk to yourself 'til you die!

Life is a short warm moment

And death is a long . . . cold rest!

You'll get your chance to try

In the twinkling of an eye:

Eighty years, with luck, or even less!

So all aboard for the American tour,

And maybe you'll make it to the top!

And mind how you go,

I can tell you 'cause I know

You may find it hard to get off!

(solo)

You are the angel of death

And I am the dead man's son!

And he died like a mole in a fox hole

And everyone is still on the run...

And who is the master of fox hounds?

And who said the hunt has begun?

And who calls the tune in the courtroom?

And who beats the funeral drum?

The memories of a man in his old age

Are the deeds of a man in his prime.

You shuffle in gloom in the sickroom

And talk to yourself 'til you die.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my favorites...

written by Reverend Gary Davis

but my favorite version is off Hot Tuna's first album (1970)

Death Don't Have No Mercy

Well now death don't have no mercy in this land

Well now death don't have no mercy in this land

He'll come to your house and he won't stay long

Look 'round the room one of your family will be gone

Death don't have no mercy in this land

Death will leave you standin' and cryin' in this land

Death will leave you standin' and cryin' in this land

He'll come to your house and he won't stay long

Look 'round the room one of your family will be gone

Death don't have no mercy in this land

Well death don't give you time to get ready in this land

Well death don't give you time to get ready in this land

He'll come to your house and he won't stay long

Look 'round the room one of your mama will be gone

Death don't have no mercy in this land

Well now death don't have no mercy in this land

Well now death don't have no mercy in this land

He'll come to your house and he won't stay long

Look 'round the room one of your family will be gone

Death don't have no mercy in this land

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tears in Heaven-Eric Clapton

(about the tragic death of Clapton's own son)

Would you know my name

if I saw you in heaven?

Would you feel the same

if I saw you in heaven?

I must be strong and carry on

'Cause I know I don't belong here in heaven...

Would you hold my hand

if I saw you in heaven?

Would you help me stand

if I saw you in heaven?

I'll find my way through night and day

'Cause I know I just can't stay here in heaven...

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees

Time can break your heart, have you begging please...

Beyond the door there's peace I'm sure

And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven...

Would you know my name

if I saw you in heaven?

Would you feel the same

if I saw you in heaven?

I must be strong and carry on

'Cause I know I don't belong here in heaven...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This has always been one of my favorites by Laura Nyro and Blood, Sweat and Tears:

And When I Die

And when I die and when I'm dead, dead and gone,

there'll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on.

I'm not scared of dying and I don't really care.

If it's peace you find in dying, well, then let the time be near.

If it's peace you find in dying, when dying time is here,

just bundle up my coffin cause it's cold way down there,

I hear that's it's cold way down there, yeah, crazy cold way down there.

And when I die and when I'm gone,

there'll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on.

My troubles are many, they're as deep as a well.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell.

Swear there ain't no heaven and pray there ain't no hell,

but I'll never know by living, only my dying will tell,

only my dying will tell, yeah, only my dying will tell.

And when I die and when I'm gone,

there'll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on.

Give me my freedom for as long as I be. All I ask of living is to have no chains on me.

All I ask of living is to have no chains on me,

and all I ask of dying is to go naturally, only want to go naturally.

Don't want to go by the devil, don't want to go by the demon,

don't want to go by Satan, don't want to die uneasy, just let me go naturally.

And when I die and when I'm gone, there'll be one child born, there'll be one child born.

When I die, there'll be one child born. When I die, there'll be one child born.

When I die, there'll be one child born. When I die, there'll be one child born.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

blindlemonjeffersongrave.jpg

the epitaph reads -

"September 1983 - December 1929

Lord, It's One Kind Favor I'll Ask Of You

See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"

from jazz.com...

"No one did more than Blind Lemon Jefferson to create a commercial market for traditional blues. The success of his Paramount releases from the 1920s inspired many other record labels to jump into this market, and created opportunities for numerous blues musicians to release their own 78s. But Lemon's work still stands out among the crowd these many years later. This is a dark and troubled song, and like many of the best blues of the era, it touches on subjects that rarely figure in popular music. Jefferson's guitar always surprises, moving inside and outside the typical 12-bar form. You don't hear many of Lemon's peculiar licks here; instead he maintains a ruminative groove. But toward the end he stops chording and delivers resounding low register tones that imitate the funereal tolling of church bells. There are flashier blues from the 1920s, but "See That My Grave is Kept Clean" is about as deep as blues can go. What a shame that Lemon's grave remained neglected and unmarked for so many years. But eventually people paid attention to the admonishment in the song title, and his gravesite is now a much visited (and well tended) monument to a towering blues artist."

Blind Lemon Jefferson - See That My Grave is Kept Clean

Well, there's one kind of favor I'll ask of you

Well, there's one kind of favor I'll ask of you

There's just one kind of favor I'll ask of you

You can see that my grave is kept clean

And there's two white horses following me

And there's two white horses following me

I got two white horses following me

Waiting on my burying ground

Did you ever hear that coffin' sound

Have you ever heard that coffin' sound

Did you ever hear that coffin' sound

Means another poor boy is under ground

Did you ever hear them church bells tone

Have you ever hear'd them church bells tone

Did you ever hear them church bells tone

Means another poor boy is dead and gone

Well, my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold

And, my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold

Well, my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold

Now I believe what the bible told

There's just one last favor I'll ask of you

And there's one last favor I'll ask of you

There's just one last favor I'll ask of you

See that my grave is kept clean

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Taj Mahal - You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond

off the Giant Step album

You're gonna need somebody on your bond child

You're gonna need somebody on your bond

When it's late 'round midnight and old man death comes slippin' into the room

You're gonna need somebody on your bond

You take Mary and Martha standin' up in the hillside

Mary explainin' to Martha, "Darlin', look at the river deep and the water wide"

Here comes ole Moses, faithful Moses carryin' big ole stones up the hill

Tellin' everybody they're gonna need somebody on their bond

Whoa, you take Maivus Staples and ole Corn Cheevers(?),

they got the good side on their bond

Oh I been listen to the music people ever since the day I was born

My momma raised me in a room across from the church by the tree,

and that sweet gospel music, oh how it used to comfort me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another favorite...

Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day

I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay

And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"

And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"

"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas

"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"

"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"

And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow

Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge

And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe

Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show

And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?

"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"

"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"

"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"

"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"

"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"

"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"

"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"

"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe

And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo

There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring

And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything

And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...