04/08/2010

Gloomy Sunday


A song, on occasion, can become inextricably linked with a place, even though it is not actually written about anywhere in particular. On a personal level, this can happen all the time - you hear a song and are immediately reminded of a place and moment . It can also enter the general consciousness, with a song recalling a location despite whoever is delivering it.

The example here is Gloomy Sunday, sometimes known as the ‘saddest song in the world’ and forever associated with Hungary and Budapest, a link strengthened by the 1999 film of the same name, a cinematic version of the story of the song against a backdrop of Nazi-occupied Budapest. It suits the crumbling grandeur of the city ,in many ways similar to Vienna and Paris, though the pockmarks of bullets in many buildings are a reminder of a more turbulent recent past. The mood also fits with the supposedly legendary Hungarian pessimism. (What is a pessimist? A realistic optimist)

The song has had dozens and dozens of vocal and instrumental versions since it was written in the early 1930’s . The perhaps best known one was by Billie Holiday but other English language versions have been as diverse as Paul Robeson, Bjork, Marianne Faithfull, Elvis Costello , Marc Almond, Ray Charles, Sinead O’Connor, Acker Bilk, Rick Nelson, Heather Nova, Lydia Lunch and Sarah Brightman. However, partly because of the urban myths about Gloomy Sunday being responsible for a spate of suicides, the song itself has always been more important than its interpreters and has taken on a life of its own. Some of this is attributable to the success of American music publishers and record companies in originally marketing it as The Hungarian Suicide Song and releasing stories about those who had taken their lives after hearing it. It is also perhaps part of the long tradition of listeners trying to find magical powers or hidden messages in songs, with countless students damaging their records and styluses by trying to play their Beatles or Black Sabbath albums backwards. There is fact with some of the myths about Gloomy Sunday.It is true that the song was banned by the BBC - but then so was Joe Brown’s My Little Ukelele and the Cougar’s Saturday Nite at the Duckpond. It was also true that the song’s author committed suicide in 1968 - at the age of 78 and in poor health, a consequence of war -time experience in a German labour camp.

However ,what is more fascinating is how a song can change radically from its original source but retain its identity. The story of Gloomy Sunday is a particularly convoluted one. The original tune was composed by Rezso Seress (originally known as Rudi Spitzer), a self-taught pianist in Budapest who had written several songs now lost to history but with intriguing titles: Waiter, bring me the bill; Come On Dog Dimples; Hi, You Old Don Juan and I Like to be Drunk . He worked as resident pianist at a Budapest restaurant, Kispipa, then in the Jewish quarter on the Pest side, and played his new composition there, a melancholy melody in C-minor made even more mournful when played on the violin.

There is confusion about the original Hungarian lyrics. One view is that the first lyrics were by Seress–entitled The End of Love –and were about the decline of civilisation and threat of war, not unlike the general expression of pessimism by writers like Huxley and Wells at that time. It is possible, however, that these particular words were written later by Seress, during or after WW2. Whichever was true, the lyrics that became the ones known in Hungary were by the Hungarian poet Laszlo Javor, turning the piece into a morose and depressing lament of someone contemplating suicide after the death of their beloved. English translations of both these sets of lyrics can be seen at:


The transformation from the original was not yet complete. On reaching American music publishers, 2 separate pieces of English lyrics were then provided. One , by Desmond Carter, followed the sense of Javor’s Hungarian lyrics and was that used in the version done by Paul Robeson in 1935 and occasionally since.


However, the alternative set, by Sam Lewis (author of For All We Know), became the one generally known, popularised by Billie Holiday and used by most artists today. The words were fairly radically changed and, most significantly, an extra stanza was added to turn the whole thing into a dream, with a change of key in the melody to make the ending more uplifting.


This was presumably to make the song more palatable for public play on the radio and is a bit reminiscent of a college student in an English writing class extricating themselves from an improbably far-fetched story by ending it with   ‘so, it was only a dream…’.  However, in the right hands it can actually make it more haunting and blur dream and reality. 2 versions are given as links below, not particularly because they are the best but to give a sense of the alternate lyrics. The dramatic and ultra-dark interpretation by Diamonda Galas, once described as a mixture of Sylvia Plath and Maria Callas, goes back to the Paul Robeson version without the ‘dream’ ending and also uses a stark accompaniment of piano , the way it was composed. The other, by Sarah McLachlan, is the more common reading of it, with an evocative and haunting vocal over guitar background.

You can still find Kispipa, where Seress once played. Since those days, both Khrushchev and Ray Charles have dined there, aware of the song’s significance. The decor, posters, porcelain plates and menu - with literal English translations of dishes such as ‘crepes stuffed with brains’ - have remained unchanged for decades and the current pianist of 30 years or so residency there, sitting under a photograph of Seress, will play Gloomy Sunday if asked. The place itself, however didn’t seem gloomy at all. Like the song, the city - at the crossroads of east and west - has been constantly re-interpreted, from heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire through Stalinism and beyond, but kept its distinctiveness. Perhaps the best way of listening to Gloomy Sunday and conjuring up Budapest is through the melody alone, with piano and violin - melancholy, sentimental, richly resonant of past histories.


49 comments:

  1. Great column about an incredibly sad song Geoff. People have called this the saddest song ever written - I agree!

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  2. Thanks for the column Geoff, and the song links. I adore Bille Holiday's version and also Paul Robeson's, both recorded in the 1940s.

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  3. It's fascinating that there was an urban legend about this song being responsible for suicides...... I wonder how many people were supposed to have killed themselves because of it?

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  4. I think I read that there have been around 200 suicides worldwide inspired by the song.....

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  5. Are we sure it was just a myth though? I read that Javor wrote the song for a girlfriend who killed herself after its release and left a suicide note that just read "Gloomy Sunday".......

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  6. I really do think this is a urban legend. I'm sure that people are just seeing a coincidental relationship as a causal one. Hungary does have an oddly high suicide rate, but I seriously doubt that people killed themselves BECAUSE of the song.

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  7. I read that a suicidologist (is there really such a thing?) has argued that the song caused no suicides in the U.S. as people have claimed.

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  8. I think the BBC banned it during World War 2 because it was destroying morale....

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  9. I wonder if the Sam Lewis version, with the extra verse suggesting it was just a dream, actually makes more sense somehow. People are actually more likely to commit suicide on a Monday than other days of week. According to a British study of suicides in England and Wales between 1993 and 2002, the day of the week with the highest number of suicides is Monday. And in the US, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates are highest on Monday and Tuesday. If the song's narrator wakes up after dreaming of killing himself, it might be that he had the dream on a Sunday and now faces Monday, when the dream could become reality....!

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  10. Oooh, I've always wondered about this song - I heard it called the Hungarian Suicide Song and wanted to know more. THANKS Geoff!

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  11. This song called to mind Edward Hopper's painting Sunday, from 1926:

    http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/wp-content/uploads/hopper_sunday_1926.jpg

    The urban landscape is so desolate and even the sunlight is halfhearted. And as an aside, I love how Geoff's columns are so evocative that they inspire all these connections between music and the visual arts.

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  12. I think Garrick makes a really interesting point about Sundays not actually being that common for suicides. Also interesting is that while it's certainly true that even while national polls show people thinking that Sunday is the best day of the week, rather than the worse, painters and writers and musicians describe Sunday in gloomy ways - Twain, Edith Wharton, Hawthorne, Updike.....

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  13. In movie terms, the song and column made me think of the film It Always Rains on Sunday from 1947. A classic British film.

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  14. The governments of Poland and Czechoslovakia considered banning the song too. And it was banned in the Third Reich. Goebbels was particularly keen that it never be played.

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  15. Yes, I think Stendhal's autobiography talks about Sundays making him miserable. I feel like lots of writers focus on it, and I'm not sure anyone has ever tried to explain why.......

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  16. They play this melody - Billie Holiday's version - at the beginning of the film Schindler's List......

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  17. Maybe it's part of a gloomy Sunday genre. For example Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Come Down" - "there's something in a Sunday / That makes a body feel alone". And The Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" is all about Sundays being full of despair and full of "feelings I don't want to know."

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  18. Louis MacNeice's poem "Sunday Morning" is amazing on this theme of gloomy Sundays too:

    But listen, up the road, something gulps, the church spire
    Open its eight bells out, skulls' mouths which will not tire
    To tell how there is no music or movement which secures
    Escape from the weekday time. Which deadens and endures.

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  19. I do think that Laszlo Javor wrote this in Budapest first, in 1927, the lyrics at least.

    I am from Budapest and I associate the song with the cafe Geoff writes about and as well the bridge Lanchid - or Chain Bridge. It is one of the city's oldest bridges over the Danube (linking Buda and Pest). Here is where several young students climbed on Sundays and left a flower and a copy of the song before they jumped to death.

    This song and Strauss's Blue Danube waltz are the real Hungarian character. This song is the real Hungarian melancholia. It was Billie Holiday though who made it an American song as well.

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  20. Emily Dickinson hates Paradise in the poem "I never felt at Home" because "it's Sunday all the time / And recess never comes."

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  21. I went to Budapest once and heard a homeless man with some kind of homemade violin playing this on a street corner. It was one of the most moving things I ever saw.

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  22. William S. Burroughs calls the song in his journal "terrible schmaltz at its most false and tawdry". That was my impression of the song so I appreciated a different view in this column.

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  23. Brilliant posting Geoff! In case you or your readers are interested, here's a collection of versions of the song I posted myself:

    http://bigother.com/2010/07/18/gloomy-sunday/

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  24. Hello Geoff, I thought you might be interested in my version of this song:

    http://www.heathernova.com/start/menu/video/

    (click on "Gloomy Sunday" on the right side).

    x heather

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  25. Here's a photo I took of his tomb.....!

    http://images.suite101.com/1875869_com_seress1.jpg

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  26. This song is brilliant in part because the grim subject contrasts the flowery lyrics.

    I love the Bille Holiday version best. Her voice! It's a perfect match - so woeful and pained.

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  27. Far from the song causing misery, I really do think it REFLECTED Hungary's economic and political hardships during the 1930's - hence it resonated with Hungarians.

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  28. In the film The Kovak Box, the "Gloomy Sunday" myth is woven into the main character's fictional masterpiece and the movie's chilling intrigue plot involving mass suicides and depression.

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  29. Hey Heather-thanks for your link-its a great version.
    Thanks for photo, Simone-where is it? The birth date is different from that usually quoted, including in the cafe plaque. It would make him yonger when he died.

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  30. Still there are some more cheerful Sunday songs, Martha -Sunday Girl (Blondie), Easy like Sunday morning (Lionel Ritchie), Sunday will never be the same (Spanky and Our Gang)

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  31. Can we also just acknowledge how gorgeous Sarah McLachlan's version is that Geoff posted? She is my favourite female vocalist ever, what a beautiful version of the song. I have it playing on repeat today (with my husband warned to watch out for any sudden suicidal attempts....:)

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  32. Thanks Geoff. Great blog by the way! I voted in the blog prize too.

    x heather

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  33. Yes, that's a good point Geoff. But then there's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2, "Just Another Sunday" by Guns N Roses, "I Hate Your Guts on Sunday" by Screeching Weasel, "Sunday Sleep" by Blur, "Best Sunday Dress" by Hole, "Sunday's Slave" by Nick Cave, "Sunday is the Saddest Day" by Texas, and "A Sunday" by Jimmy Eat World. All VERY depressing:)

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  34. It is very very spooky in Hungarian - check it out!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Hbr6mQHV0

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  35. They play this song (the billie holiday version) at the store I work at and now has a completely new meaning. I had absolutely no idea that this song has been considered a suicide anthem.

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  36. Fascinating post…I have been interested in this song since I heard the Billie Holiday version as a child and it distressed me so much i have not listened to it since!

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  37. I think this post also points to different culture's approaches to death. My mother is Hungarian and would tell you that Hungarians are especially preoccupied with death and can at times seem very “gloomy” indeed to the outsider. Whether the legend of Gloomy Sunday is true or not, there is no debate that it captured the fascination of the country. There is something poignant and poetic about a song that drives people to their death, an explanation to the tragedy of suicide that can be so hard to understand.

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  38. Yes, it is very confusing. I have seen his birthdate listed as 1889 but his obituaries all say he was 69 when he died, which means he was born in 1899. But the headstone said 1901. It is in the beautiful Kerepesi cemetery in Budapest.

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  39. The plaque in Kispipa gives 1889 as the birth date, as does several other sources. The obit in the New York Times in 1968 gives his age as 69, though.
    Sunday isnt the only gloomy day in songs though, Martha! There's Rainy Days and Mondays, Manic Monday and I dont Like Mondays

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  40. Thanks Heather-I saw you had voted!

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  41. I have just listened to the Pal Kalmar version you gave a link to, Steve. Very eery. I think this was a big hit in Hungary at the time-1935ish.

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  42. I've just thought of the antidote to the gloomy Sunday songs, Martha--the Young Rascals' Groovin...on a Sunday afternoon!

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  43. 10 points for that Geoff but how about the Flaming Lips' "One Million Billionth Of A Millisecond On A Sunday Morning" which includes the line "This could be the sunrise or I could be wrong / cause sometimes what looks like the sunrise / Turns out to be an atom bomb". Or The Doors' "Blue Sunday." Or Stiff Little Fingers' "Bloody Sunday."

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  44. Wish I could find an original vinyl pressing of the Billie Holiday version, nearly impossible though (as it was pressed in 1941).

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  45. Very good! Theres also New Order's Blue Monday as well. But also Leona Naess's Sunny Sunday

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  46. True! But then there's

    Gary Numan - Black Sunday
    Mark Lanegan - Ugly Sunday
    Keith Urban - Raining on Sunday
    Joseph Arthur - Crying on Sunday
    Joan Baez - Birmingham Sunday
    Black Box Recorder - Hated Sunday
    The Bright Lights - The Problem with Sunday

    And of course the classic (!):

    Croatian Liberation Front - Dubrovnik Is Burning/ Sunday

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  47. Well, I cant beat that! (But will just mention Pleasant Valley Sunday-the Monkees/Loving You Sunday Morning-the Scorpions/ and Beautiful Sunday-Daniel Boone)..

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  48. You win, I have no more! But maybe we can call a draw and agree, at least, that there are a huge number of songs about Sunday!:)

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  49. Indeed-probably more than any other day for some reason

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