Inspired by the best/worst covers thread I relistened to the last song on Nirnana's
MTV Unplugged which is the cover of "Where did you sleep last night?" by Leadbelly. At the end Cobain screams as if he is suffering from terrible pain. The lyrics are:
My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows
Her husband, was a hard working man
Just about a mile from here
His head was found in a driving wheel
But his body never was found
I am not sure if Courtney really foresaw the 911 attacks but her husband Kurt definitely announced his suicide here I feel.
Second example Joy Division. There is a song on the third disc of the "Heart and Soul" box which I only had heard sung by Barney on New Order's "Substance" compilation before without paying too much attention to the lyrics. It is called "In a Lonely Place" and is the last song in the lyric worksheet so I guess it was the last song Ian Curtis wrote. The sound quality is quite bad. Ian sounds like he is singing in a church to his own funeral. He intones like in a gregorian chant. He does not sing the last stanza (whereas Barney did later on). The lyrics go:
Caressing the marble and stone,
Love that was special for one,
The waste in the fever I heat,
How I wish you were here with me now.
Body that curls in and dies,
And shares that awful daylight,
Warm like a dog round your feet,
How I wish you were here with me now.
Hangman looks round as he waits,
Cord stretches tight then it breaks,
Someday we will die in your dreams,
How I wish you were here with me now.
Do you know any other songs announcing death?
― alex in mainhattan, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Thanks Daniel for the illumination. I had one doubt about the two
songs which is strengthened by your link. Apparently the cover was
broadcast on MTV only after Cobain's suicide. All but one of the
other songs of the cd were broadcast December 16th, 1993. That means
that the foreboding song was only released after his death.
Same
thing for the Joy Division song. It has never been officially
released before Curtis death. I do not know if there were some
bootlegs of concerts or if they even played the song at
concerts.
That means that the record companies only released the songs when it
was already too late. When it fit "beautifully" with the tragic end.
That seems to be a little dishonest I feel. The songs were released
for the extra cash. At least the Nirvana one.
― alex in mainhattan, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Since I was just listening to it:
I didn't mean to take you up all your sweet time
I'll give it right back to you one of these days
I said, I didn't mean to take you up all your sweet time
I'll give it right back to you one of these days
And if I don't meet you no more in this world
Then I'll, I'll meet you in the next one
And don't be late, don't be late
-- comes to mind.
[Hendrix, "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)".]
― Phil, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Rolling Stones "Let It Bleed" album follwed by the murder at Altamont a week
later. That experience and that
album and the year that the free
concert was supposed to be a release from and a celebration into a new era,
completely destroyed the Beatles and Beach Boys era of innoncence. As one
critic put it, the lyrics "You can't always get what you want, but if you try
some times you just might get what you need" made the Beatles "All you
need is love" seem pretty ridiculous by comparison.
Of course, unlike Kurt,
the Rolling Stones didn't sing a song about something they were sure to
change later. But, hiring the Hell's Angels as security gaurds, paying them
with beer and dancing around in a devil's outfit to Sympathy For The Devil
wasn't the most innocent chain of events.
― Nude Spock, Thursday, 29 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)