Flu jogs memory of songs about death

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 11, 2005 by Scott Iwasaki Deseret Morning News

I was sick a couple of weeks ago.

The flu is terrible; it makes you feel like you want to die.

As I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself and wishing I was healthy enough to ditch work and go hiking in Moab, I started thinking of songs about dying.

I went through the usual suspects -- Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die," Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young," Led Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying" and the Misfits' "Die, Die, Die, My Darling."

Then my mind wandered, as it often does, and I came up with Black Sabbath's "Die Young," Journey's "Dead or Alive" and the Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight."

As I explored this little fascination I was having with death, I began to think of songs that didn't necessarily contain the word "die" or "dying" but which alluded to something related to the separation of body and spirit.

For example, Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) the Reaper," Evanescence's "Hello," Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door," Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution" and Pink Floyd's "Great Gig in the Sky" passed through my mind.

Then came Jimi Hendrix's "I Don't Live Today" and the Doors' "The End," "The Unknown Soldier" and "Riders on the Storm."

Later, as a fever started making me goofy, Janis Joplin's "Buried Alive in the Blues" began spinning in my brain, and Eminem's " '97 Bonnie & Clyde" zipped in one ear and out the other.

Crosby Stills Nash & Young's "Ohio," Judas Priest's "Killing Machine," Kansas' "Lamplight Symphony," U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and the Beach Boys' "In My Room" also wreaked havoc in my skull.

Being a metalhead, it was only fitting that Metallica's "Creeping Death" brought me back to the songs with "death," "die," "dying" and "dead" in their titles. And then I thought of the band Megadeth -- just the band's name said it all to me.

Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive," Joy Division's "Dead Souls," Queen's "Death on Two Legs," Slayer's "Angel of Death" and "Die by the Sword" and Styx's "Not Dead Yet" were some of the last songs I thought of before sleep took me to the land of fevered dreams.

When I woke up I felt just as bad as I did before I slept. So I started the whole thing again. Only this time I thought of songs about headaches.

The Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," anyone?

E-mail: scott@desnews.com