By centerstrain
Loads of individuals have accused songs of spurring family members to commit suicide: Bands like Judas Priest and Marilyn Manson can attest to that. However there’s one track in a category of its personal. Written in 1933 and coated greater than 70 instances, Rezső Seress and László Jávor’s "Gloomy Sunday" has allegedly been linked to greater than 100 suicides because it hit the gramophones in 1935. Impressed by this superb city legend, Stuff They Do not Need You to Know’s very personal Ben Bowlin wrote a radio play, initially for the Atlanta Fringe Audio Pageant, known as "See You Subsequent Time." This eerie and unsettling story explores what the world would possibly appear to be if "Gloomy Sunday" actually did encourage one thing darkish inside each individual.
For a bit of background, Rezső Seress was a Hungarian composer who was dwelling in Paris in 1933 making an attempt to make it as a songwriter. Not each model of the official story is in settlement: Some say Seress’s fiancée left him for being a deadbeat musician, and he wrote the track for her. Different tales say that lyricist and poet László Jávor was the heartbroken one, and requested Seress to compose the rating for a poem he wrote about his ex.
Nonetheless it occurred, collectively the 2 created "Gloomy Sunday" and tried to promote it. It wasn’t straightforward. One potential writer responded that "there’s a horrible compelling despair about it … I do not assume it could do anybody any good to listen to a track like that." However ultimately it was recorded by Hungarian pop singer Pál Kalmár and was well-received. It regarded like Seress and Jávor had lastly had successful track, melancholy because it was.
However then, in 1935, a shoemaker killed himself in Budapest, and supposedly quoted the lyrics to "Gloomy Sunday" in his suicide observe. One other story claims that both Jávor or Seress’s estranged fiancée killed herself with poison, leaving solely two phrases in her suicide observe: "Gloomy Sunday." Two males additionally supposedly shot themselves after listening to a band play it.
Hungary supposedly banned the track from being performed, however the suicides did not cease. In Vienna, a girl drowned herself clutching the sheet music. In London, one other girl overdosed on barbiturates whereas listening to the track on repeat. As soon as, a person requested the track at a membership, then walked outdoors whereas the track performed and shot himself within the head. A lot later, in 1968, Seress himself dedicated suicide by leaping out a window, additional proof — to some — of the track’s unusual energy.
It is attainable that the instances, relatively than the tune, impressed many of those suicides: Through the Nice Melancholy, suicide charges had been at an all-time excessive, and it could possibly be that "Gloomy Sunday" merely appeared like the suitable observe, so to talk, to exit on. Hungary particularly has at all times had one of many highest suicide charges on the planet. However the sheer variety of deaths linked to the "Hungarian suicide track" retains the city fable alive, even sparking scientific investigation. And regardless of its status, the track continues to be common; Billie Vacation’s model stays essentially the most definitive, with different covers from Sarah Vaughn, Bjork, Elvis Costello and Sinead O’Connor.
And now, the Hungarian suicide track has impressed this ominous audio play from Ben Bowlin, that includes the voice abilities of a number of others at HowStuffWorks, together with Noel Brown, Matt Frederick and FoodStuff’s Lauren Vogelbaum. So take a hearken to one thing totally different from Stuff They Do not Need You To Know: See You Subsequent Time. Do not contact that dial: It simply would possibly contact again.
