suicide is painless--classic or CLASSIC!!

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the theme from mash--would this have been the most massive hit EVAH if it hadn't been a movie theme song? what if stuart murdoch had written it? or stephen merritt?

either way, it could have been a SMASH HIT!

― , Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

inspired by the tv theme songs thread.

new deathly answerz

― , Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It is the greatest show ever.

The performance in the film is one of the most beautiful things I've seen.

― Keiko, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

but it *was* a hit wasn't it? it's on a SOLID GOLD HITS volume so it musta been.

― duane, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(yeah anyway, good song but)

― duane, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

man, i hate that show. but i do like the song. i saw currituck county perform this live (it's also on his first LP) and NO ONE KNEW WHAT IT WAS. i felt like i was 60 years old or something. "MASH. it's a show. from the 70s. an unfunny sitcom about war. really!"

― your null fame, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

hey who was the band who covered it (i like that song too) i think in the early or mid nineties. it wasn't bloody manic street preachers was it?

― elizabeth anne marjorie, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It was a #1 UK hit in 1980 and the Manics had a top ten hit with it in the early 90s. Isn't there's some heartrending story behind the original singer/ writer? Lovely melody, but an unedifying and creepy song.

― Graham C, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Wasn't it co-written by Robert Altman's son - and wasn't he the only Altman to make a buck out of the movie?

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

fair enough, since he's obviously the talented one *runs away quickly*

― mark s, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You can run but you can't hide...

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Robert Altman: C or D? (Me say C)

― Keith, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

A: Edgy alternative rock combos The Manic Street Preachers & the Royal Trux have both recorded versions of this sitcom death dirge.

Q: What is "Suicide is Painless (Theme from M*A*S*H)", Alex?

― fritz, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like the way how in the Manics version he just kind of makes up the words to one of the verses in this nonsensical fashion because he couldn't figure out what the real words were. Is it that hard to get a lyrics sheet?

― Ally, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I don't really like it. but that could just be the MASH association; I mean, I try to think of the song separately, but the show and the song are inextricably linked in my head. and I don't really like the show..

― Dan I., Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Wasn't the song was originally done by Bill Evans, the legendary jazz pianist. He died in a car accident back in the early 70's and the song is on the album "You Must Believe in Spring"

― Phill, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bill Evans certainly did a version of it on "You Must Believe In Spring" but he didn't die in a car crash in the early '70s - he died of liver failure in 1980. He was in his early fifties.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Song was written by Loudon Wainwright III, a great, but relatively unknown, American songwriter (known better in the UK) who actually appeared in a couple episodes of M*A*S*H as the guitar playing guy. I think the song was also sung by Spearchucker Jones in the movie, during the dentist's attempted suicide scene. I'm wondering who did the earliest recorded version of the song.

― morty, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Scratch that part about Wainwright writing the song, it was Johnny Mandel. The rest is true.

― morty, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

yeah it was the manic goat blowers who butchered that song.

― di, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bill Evans died of pneumonia (+ other complications of being a junkie) in 1980. You must be thinking of Scott Lafaro, his bass player who died earlier in the auto accident.

On an unrelated Bill Evans note, I heard that his son (Evan Evans, Bill was a sadistic bastard apparently) is planning to release some of his father's practice tapes from when he (Bill) was 12 years old. It must be very amusing.

― Jordan, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sorry, I somehow missed Marcello's post there.

― Jordan, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Q: Who was the band or Author of The song suicide is painless and where can i find a biography about him or them.

Thanks

― nick, Sunday, 12 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The conclusion of this thread: every single artist ever contributed to the writing of the song "Suicide is Painless" and then proceeded to die, multiple times.

― Ally, Sunday, 12 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

one month passes...

Suicide is Painless, in my opinion is a great song and, agin in my opinion; it fits the movie. It fits the movie because it is about the human spirit, in that it would be easier to give up than to tough it out. In the movie Hawkeye, Trapper,Duke, Hot Lips, Radar, Henry, Dago Red all of the characters are great examples.

― , Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

eighteen years pass...

RIP Johnny Mandel

https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/94378

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 3 July 2020 13:44 (three years ago) link

rest well to a fantastic composer.

here's ahmad jamal's funky smooth jazz reading of the tune.

and a fairly straightforward rendering by early 2000s twee duo lady & bird.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Friday, 3 July 2020 19:41 (three years ago) link

origin story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY5E-hMIuAU

― that's not my post, Friday, 3 July 2020 23:25 (three years ago) link

That's the goofiest YouTube thumbnail I've seen yet.

― pplains, Saturday, 4 July 2020 01:16 (three years ago) link

The Great UK Novelty

― the burrito that defined a generation, Saturday, 4 July 2020 01:19 (three years ago) link

really digging the altering accounts of how Bill Evans *really* died upthread

― I hear that sometimes Satan wants to defund police (Neanderthal), Saturday, 4 July 2020 05:36 (three years ago) link

he did have that huge beard through most of the seventies. what was he hiding under there???

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Saturday, 4 July 2020 05:43 (three years ago) link

The missing Nixon tape.

― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 4 July 2020 05:53 (three years ago) link

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