Pixies
A compressed, violent retelling of the biblical David and Bathsheba story, sung from something like David's own fevered…
adultery and guilt biblical allegory lust versus spiritual deadness
Grateful Dead
A breathless, tumbling account of flight and pursuit, delivered as up-tempo rock rather than confession. The narrator is caught…
flight and pursuit exhaustion turned exuberant surrender/pleading
Sturgill Simpson
A slow-moving meditation on mortality written as the title theme for a zombie comedy, Sturgill Simpson's song strips the genre's…
mortality and the afterlife modern alienation grief and memory
Willie Nelson
A wry, self-deprecating rebuttal to internet death hoaxes, built as a talking-blues shrug rather than a protest song. Willie…
mortality and aging celebrity death hoaxes touring life and work ethic
Boards of Canada
An instrumental piece built from wavering analog synths and a slow, hazy tempo, "Reach for the Dead" trades on Boards of…
memory and decay mortality childhood nostalgia
Curtis Mayfield
A eulogy and a warning delivered in the same breath, this song uses the death of a minor drug-trade casualty from the Superfly…
addiction and exploitation systemic racism/economic entrapment urban despair
Loudon Wainwright III
A novelty song built entirely around roadkill, this track finds Loudon Wainwright III turning a squashed skunk into an extended…
mortality played for laughs sensory disgust rural/highway Americana
Townes Van Zandt
This is a Rolling Stones cover (Jagger/Richards) performed live by Townes Van Zandt on Roadsongs, and in his hands the song's…
class resentment addiction and self-destruction romantic betrayal
Stiff Little Fingers
A brief, almost hallucinatory street encounter becomes an image for a particular kind of survivor's isolation. The song circles…
isolation amid crowds survival and haunting emotional numbness
Van Halen
A strutting party-rock throwaway built entirely around physical fixation, delivered with the band's trademark bravado and…
physical attraction sexual bravado hedonism
A funk-soul eulogy that uses one man's overdose as an indictment of the drug economy exploiting Black communities. Mayfield…
addiction and exploitation systemic racism and poverty the drug trade as institutional violence
Dead Kennedys
A vicious satire aimed at privileged, self-styled radical college kids who romanticize poverty and revolution from a safe…
class privilege and performative radicalism cultural tourism/appropriation authoritarianism and genocide
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings imagines a barroom conversation with Hank Williams Jr. about his late father, using it as a vehicle to reckon…
musical inheritance/legacy myth-making around dead legends fatherhood and absence
Uncle Tupelo
A grim, working-class dirge about exhaustion and dead ends, delivered in the voice of someone addressing a person on the verge…
industrial despair class fatigue futility versus endurance
Elvis Costello
A dead entertainer-priest narrates his own arrival in the afterlife, only to find God as an unimpressed, bored figure lounging…
religious satire performance and hypocrisy mortality
Hüsker Dü
A quiet, devastating account of finding a partner or friend dead from an overdose, sung by Grant Hart in a flat, stunned voice…
addiction and overdose grief and helplessness loss of innocence
Echo & the Bunnymen
A terse, image-dense track that pits mercenary greed and dead ideology against a stubborn, almost defiant insistence on love as…
greed vs. love disillusionment with authority/religion moral ambiguity
Grandaddy
A narrator processes the disappearance of someone close by insisting she isn't actually dead, just gone and hiding in plain…
disappearance and denial isolation unreliable information
John Prine
A song written in the voice of an elderly man cataloguing the small losses that have hollowed out his life: grown children…
aging and isolation loss of connection grief
Talk Talk
New Grass closes Laughing Stock as a hushed devotional, sung by a voice worn thin but grateful, addressing something like grace…
religious surrender exhaustion and renewal gratitude
Howlin’ Wolf
A blues narrator insists he doesn't believe in superstition while reciting a litany of folk omens with dead seriousness, letting…
superstition and folk belief denial versus behavior impending violence or death
Thom Yorke
A weary, profane sermon on futility dressed as a breakup or self-help pep talk gone sour. Thom Yorke catalogs failure, dead…
futility and resignation disposability of people failure to please others
Don McLean
Don McLean's tribute to Vincent van Gogh translates the painter's canvases into verse, using his imagery to build an argument…
artistic isolation mental illness and stigma posthumous recognition
Brandi Carlile
A straightforward love ballad built entirely around the metaphor of romantic devotion as paradise, tracing a relationship from a…
romantic devotion redemption from past struggle gratitude
Mean Street is a portrait of urban confinement rendered as both trap and identity, opening Fair Warning with a bleak,…
urban poverty desperation and survival belonging despite hardship
A working-class complaint dressed as a rock song, cataloguing the small daily indignities—hangovers, media noise, surveillance,…
disillusionment working-class fatigue media saturation
A hushed, paranoid elegy widely understood to be about the death of UK weapons inspector David Kelly, sung partly in the voice…
state power and expendability conspiracy and doubt surveillance/paranoia
Mariah Carey
A grief ballad built around unspoken regret and deferred reunion, where the singer addresses a dead loved one directly,…
grief and mourning regret over words left unsaid faith and the afterlife
Madonna
A buoyant early-80s dance-pop confection that turns a childhood wishing-star rhyme into an adult love song, celebrating…
infatuation luck and fate celestial imagery
Bruce Springsteen
Springsteen writes from inside the body of a firefighter climbing a burning tower on September 11, fusing physical labor,…
9/11 and collective trauma duty and physical sacrifice faith and doubt
Kate Bush
A mother buries her son, a young soldier killed in service, and the song moves between her grief at the funeral and a bitter…
class and limited opportunity maternal grief futility of war
James Blake
A duet-style love song built around a Spanish-language guest verse (performed by ROSALÍA) and Blake's English hook, the track…
romantic surrender devotion as dependency cosmic/religious imagery
Röyksopp
The lyrics supplied here do not match the actual song: Röyksopp's "Eple" is a well-known instrumental track from Melody A.M.…
mortality artistic camaraderie nostalgia
