Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.rock
Titolo: La canzone più triste di tutti i tempi

Dalla rubrica "Ask Bizarre" del sito Bizarremag.com:
http://www.bizarremag.com/ask/rock.php
(più in basso parlano pure di Sun Ra)
Domanda di una lettrice:
"What is the name of the 'saddest song ever' that so many folks committed
suicide over? Who performed it? Is it still banned?"
Sarah Cutright
Risposta di Bizarre Magazine:
"The supposed 'saddest song in the world' is 'Gloomy Sunday', written by
Rezsô Seress in 1933 after the break-up of his own relationship.
Initially, he found it difficult to get the song published - one publisher
remarked: "There is a sort of terrible, compelling despair about it. I don't
think it would do anyone any good to hear a song like that" - but within a
week of its eventual release it became a bestseller. Seress contacted his ex
and made plans for a reunion but within 24 hours she had taken her own life
using poison. She was found with a piece of paper by her side that said
simply 'Gloomy Sunday'.
Since then the song has been linked to the suicides of more than 100 people,
many of them in Hungary, including two people who shot themselves while
listening to a band playing the tune. Indeed, after The New York Times ran
the headline 'Hundreds of Hungarians kill themselves under the influence of
a song' it became known as the Hungarian Suicide Song. The depressing
influence of the song spread to every country where it was played.
Other cases include the couple who drowned themselves in the Danube while
clutching the sheet music of 'Gloomy Sunday'. One man is reported to have
requested "the suicide song" in a nightclub, walked outside and blown his
brains out onto the pavement.
The influence of 'Gloomy Sunday' wasn't restricted to any particular age
group either. Among the suicides linked to the song were those of an
80-year-old man who jumped to his death from a seventh floor window and a
14-year-old girl who drowned herself while clutching a copy of the record.
The second-most-famous case was that of an Italian errand boy who passed a
beggar who was humming the tune of 'Gloomy Sunday'. Upon hearing it, he gave
the beggar all his money then jumped to his death from a nearby bridge.
He was only the second-most-famous case of suicide linked to the song
because the dubious honour of being the most famous must surely go to Seress
himself. He was nearly 70 when he threw himself from the window of his flat
in January 1968.
Several attempts were made to outlaw the song and temporary bans were in
place in certain states for short periods of time. The BBC banned the song
shortly after a policeman heard the record playing repeatedly from a nearby
apartment. Upon investigating, he found the body of a woman who had
overdosed on barbiturates. Rumours that the ban remains to this day are
unfounded. The BBC confirmed that in line with their policy of restricting
airplay for songs that may be insensitive at a particular time, the song was
blacklisted at one time, but the ban has long been lifted. In fact the song
was played on Radio 2 in 2002. No incidents of suicide were reported as a
result."
E non che ce l'avevamo su con Masini...
La canzone è stata in seguito coverizzata da Billie Holiday, Diamanda galas,
Lydia Lunch, Marc Almond, Christian Death, Associates, Bjork, Marianne
Faithfull, Serge Gainsbourg...
Adesso provo a scaricarmela a vedere se fa effetto, voi avete qualcosa di
peggio?
Saluti
BS

 peggio?
di peggio di gloomy?
io ho i miei due gloomy discs da un po' di tempo:
john lennox - plastic ono band
nico - desertshore
-- 
Così, lì mi disse mio padre: metti da parte paletta e secchiello, cindy, è
ora di diventare grandi.

 mi pare che la lunch 
pardon, la galas


 nico - desertshore
??
non mi sembra un disco cosi' come state descrivendo la canzone (che non
conosco). Direi piu' noir e solenne che triste.
NP In the garten... Popol Vuh

 john lennox - plastic ono band
Il fratello di Annie?  ;-)
Saluti
BS

 Faithfull, Serge Gainsbourg...
se non sbaglio sono della cricca pure elvis costello e sinead o'connor.
saluti dal limbo dei lurcatori

 c'è proprio un cambio di tonalità e melodia che, per me, rovina abbastanza.
leggenda vuole che la terza strofa sia stata aggiunta in
un secondo momento - dopo che nel '36 le autorita' ungheresi
bandirono la canzone per manifesta istigazione al suicidio.
ari-saluti dal limbo dei lurcatori

 pardon, la galas
La Galas l'ultima strofa dal vivo non non la fa mai.
Da segnalare una versione da suicidio incruento ma inesorabile dal Kronos
Quartet, sull'album Caravan
-- 
namastey,
Laszlo Kovacs
my nights were sour
spent with schopenhauer

 Quartet, sull'album Caravan
si, giusto. e pure quella di gitane demone
non e' da meno in quanto a funesta'.
vabbe', ora la smetto