The Song That Killed People

I have always found female ghosts in horror movies scarier than male ghosts!

I believe that anything that shakes our belief system or is opposite to it is scary to us.

For instance, most of us perceive women as beautiful, loving, caring, sympathetic, or an object to love.

So, when we see something just the opposite, like a woman scary, hateful, murderous, and only the opposite of beauty we get scared.

Then again, we are obsessed with finding an answer to everything. Horror movies that don’t resolve the haunting are usually scarier.

According to me, whatever changes our deep-rooted impression about one particular thing scares us. Again, if it is left unexplained, unresolved, or unanswered, it becomes scarier.

That’s when we drag the concept of supernatural and get away saying, “It’s unworldly!”

Here’s another thing that we love. It refreshes us, brightens up our day, and makes us happy again.

It’s MUSIC!

But again what if it does just the opposite?

It’s difficult to imagine a song so dark, depressing, and heart-breaking that it just nullifies the meaning of life and makes us want to die.

There’s one song like that, and it’s called “The Gloomy Sunday” or “The Hungarian Suicide Song“

People believe that this song is so haunting that it makes people kill themselves.

The haunting song

Songs give people hope and happiness through their rhythm and lyrics.

It’s true that most of our favorite songs are about heartbreaks, sadness, and tragedies. It makes us remember happy moments before the heartbreak or the tragedy.

They are mostly like sharing your sorrow.

So what does the Gloomy Sunday say?

Gloomy Sunday snatches away the hope. The lyrics are titled “Vége a világnak,” which means “The world is ending“

The Gloomy Sunday is all about the despair that is caused by war and about sins.

The song was composed by a Hungarian composer and pianist Rezső Seress. It was recorded in the year 1935.

Rezső Seress was Jewish and a self-taught pianist. He committed suicide in the year 1968. He tried killing himself by jumping out of the window but was saved somehow.

But, Seress had such strong determination to end his life that he choked himself with a wire in the hospital and killed himself!

Many believe that the song the Gloomy Sunday is so haunting that it took the life of its creator.

The English version

The Gloomy Sunday was recorded in English in the year 1936.

James Hal Kemp and Paul Robenson recorded the song in English in the same year.

James Hal Kemp died in an accident, just four years after he recorded the song.

The Gloomy Sunday was again recorded in an English version by a popular jazz singer, Billie Holiday in the year 1941. The lyrics of Lewis referred to it as suicide, and that’s when its record level described the song as The Hungarian suicide song.

Radio stations and networks stopped playing the song and wanted it banned. The BBC later banned even the Billie Holiday version.

According to the press reports in the United States and Hungary, it is believed that the Gloomy Sunday caused 19 suicides.

Is it haunting?

I don’t think so. However, it’s extremely depressing.

The Gloomy Sunday has the power of taking away the happiness out of someone.

Therefore, it’s not the song that makes people kill themselves; it’s the convincing power of the song. The song convinced people that life has no meaning.

Therefore, the myth is that the song made everyone who listened to it kill themselves.

In reality, the Gloomy Sunday didn’t claim all the lives.

The Gloomy Sunday was featured in many scenes in the popular movie directed by Steven Spielberg, Schindler’s List.

Although Hal Kemp died an unnatural death, Paul Robenson who recorded in English the same year died a natural death.

I’ll again come back to my point:

Whatever shakes our belief system, scares us.

Every beautiful thing like women, child, and music promotes hope in one way or the other. When they do just the opposite, they become dangerous.

Because just like these can convince you that there’s still hope; or at least they will talk about your miseries and give you a feeling that you are not alone.

Imagine, what if it convinces you that there’s no hope?

It takes away the meaning of life, and that kills people!

I leave it to you readers.

Tell me what do you think?

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