Human Developmental Psychology

Death and Popular Music

The concept of death , like love and anger , has served as thematic fodder for popular music as long as the form has been accompanied by lyrics . The great unknown that is death gives way to the all too palpable human feelings of loss , fear and sadness which surround it . A consideration of a few pertinent pop songs will demonstrate both the great nuance which is possible through music in terms of exploring cultural sentiment and will show human beings variously coping with mortality and its very difficult implications

p It is with this in mind that a consideration of Eric Clapton 's Tears in Heaven ' seems an appropriate point of initiation . The 1992 song is famously framed by a very real tragedy in which the guitarist , typically more renowned for his instrumental prowess than for his succinctness as a song-writer , mourns the loss of his young son Conner . At four years old , the child fell from the open window of a hotel , leaving the rock star and his wife to experience a parent 's worst nightmare . Clapton , a former heroin addict , found a more constructive way to endure the pain by composing his biggest hit . Tears ' capture the sentiment of painful loss with yielding accuracy . Indeed , the MTV Unplugged session from which the track would ultimately be made into a massively successful single featured Clapton in soft voice . A sharp contrast from the slickness of his typical singing , Clapton sings in what bs on gentle sobbing as he captures the idea of his son in a state of suspended age . He wonders if his son would recognize him in heaven almost implying that the extent of his pain was so great that even a reunion in the afterlife might not set it right . Such is the appropriate sentiment in the face of death so premature and so senseless

By direct contrast to the death which shadowed Clapton 's life so inappropriately , the sentiment in the mega-hit Dust in the Wind relates to the certainty that all men must perish . The very famous - and oft-lampooned - notion that `all we are is dust in the wind ' imposed the important idea about the human condition that we are all mortal and that we are all inexorably moving toward some unknown end . Though the Kansas song would be a huge hit in 1977 , making extensive radio play and today finding its way into popular reference in other media , it theless contends with the otherwise very serious thematic concept as to man 's relative insignificance . There is the implication that death makes each of us but a small and passing particle in an otherwise enormous and unceasing universe

Of course , this recognition of the inevitability of death is not to be taken as a voluntary approach . With Dust in the Wind ' there is an inherent acceptance . In Asleep ' by the Smiths , there is instead an explicit desire for death . Where Kansas copes with the uncertainty Smiths songwriter 's Morrisey and Johnny Marr seem to embrace the certainty of relief . Certainly , there is no reason in evidence to cause us to characterize either songwriter as suicidal , though Morrisey has structure much of his career around the premise of explore bleakness and human misery . But in this 1985 piano piece , the singer requests not to be disturbed as he sleeps , courting an end to his loneliness by drifting quietly into death . Without contextualization , this song only finds its narrator emotionally prepared for the release of the end . For the Smiths , this seems a therapeutic way of embracing that which one might otherwise fear without being consumed by it

Returning to the idea of loss as is expressed by the Clapton selection we turn to the consideration of Pearl Jam 's Last Kiss ' A cover recording based on the original by Wayne Cochran (1962 , Pearl Jam 's song would detail the tragic events of a freak car accident in which the male protagonist holds his dying girlfriend . A deceptively simple song it channels the experience of encountering the premature death of a loved one with disarming frankness . Based on a news story of some teens who are killed on a dangerous highway in Georgia , Last Kiss ' brings the regularity of death to the conversation . Here , a simple night out turns into a mortal tragedy , reinforcing the idea here that death is inherently unpredictable sometimes

Perhaps the most moving and remarkable song about death is the oft-unconsidered Black Peter ' by the Grateful Dead . The narrator in this case appears to be a man bound to his death bed . There does not appear to be anger or sadness in the narrator , only the real experiences of a man eclipsing from life . He describes the feeling of his friends coming to see him off , as well as the moments which draw out slowly and fearfully while he 's alone . Black Peter ' is a particularly suitable song from the compelling sentiment that it provides us , with the narrator stating in his disposition , See here how everything leads up to this day , and it 's just like any other day that 's ever been (Garcia /Hunter . The notion that each of us will pass on a day not unlike any other to the world at large reinforces the temporal nature of human life . And for the narrator , as Jerry Garcia 's anguished singing suggests , this is an emotionally compelling revelation

In general , the concept of death is one with which the artist must grapple if he wishes to better understand life ...