ADD: Gloomy Sunday (Infamous Suicide Song)(Seress)

Subject: RE: ADD: Gloomy Sunday (Infamous Suicide Song)(Seress)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 04:23 AM

So now you know just how far Australia is behind...

Subject: RE: ADD: Gloomy Sunday (Infamous Suicide Song)(Seress)
From: michaelr
Date: 23 Mar 11 - 11:39 AM

Wasn't there a feature film made about the song's composer?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gloomy Sunday (Infamous Suicide Song)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 23 Mar 11 - 12:45 AM

Funny coincidence, this song came up just last night on the TV program QI. The episode probably aired in the UK in 2004, but Australia's a few years behind. None of the panelists had ever heard of the song or its history. Stephen Fry said the BBC ban on the song had only been lifted in 2002.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gloomy Sunday (Infamous Suicide Song)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 01:35 PM

On 08-June 10, I posted "Lyr. Add: Gloomy Sunday (original) Rezso Seress." Thread 130042.
Posts included a literal translation of the original, as well as the completely different version sung by Billie Holiday.

Gloomy Sunday Seress

An interesting song with an interesting history.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gloomy Sunday (Infamous Suicide Song)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 11:38 AM

Nice versions on YouTube by Emilie Autumn as well.

Subject: Lyr Add: Gloomy Sunday (Infamous Suicide Song)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 08:05 AM

Gloomy Sunday
is a song composed by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress in 1933, as Vége a világnak (End of the world)[, with alternate Szomorú vasárnap (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈsomoruː ˈvɒʃaːrnɒp]) (Sad Sunday) lyrics written by László Jávor. The original lyrics depicted a war-stricken Hungary and a silent prayer to God. Jávor's lyrics are a mourning to a lost lover and a pledge to commit suicide to meet said lover again in the afterlife.[


Quite an interesting chunk of folklore attached to this song...


There are two English-language versions of the lyrics. The first, by Desmond Carter, was used in the 1935 Paul Robeson recording and a few others. Most English-language recordings have used the Sam Lewis lyrics made famous in Billie Holiday's 1941 recording. That recording added a third verse, not in the original Hungarian song, indicating that the singer was only dreaming about her lover's death.

Lyrics: sam   m   lewis

recording artists include:

    * Hal Kemp & his Orchestra #
    * Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra #
    * Artie Shaw & his Orchestra #
    * Billie Holiday
    * Lydia Lunch #
    * Elvis Costello & the Attractions
    * The Associates
    * Marianne Faithfull
    * Carol Kidd
    * Sinéad O'Connor
    * Gitane Demone #
    * Sarah McLachlan
    * Björk
    * Heather Nova
Quite an interesting chunk of folklore attached to this song...
    * Sarah Brightman

---

GLOOMY SUNDAY
Songwriter:

Sunday is gloomy, my hours are slumberless
Dearest the shadows I live with are numberless
Little white flowers will never awaken you
Not where the black coach of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thought of ever returning you
Would they be angry if I thought of joining you?

Gloomy Sunday

Gloomy is Sunday, with shadows I spend it all
My heart and I have decided to end it all
Soon there'll be candles and prayers that are sad I know
Let them not weep let them know that I'm glad to go
Death is no dream for in death I'm caressing you
With the last breath of my soul I'll be blessing you

Gloomy Sunday

Dreaming, I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you asleep in the deep of my heart, here
Darling, I hope that my dream never haunted you
My heart is telling you how much I wanted you

Gloomy Sunday

Gloomy Sunday (Wikipedia)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gloomy Sunday (original) Rezso Seress
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 06:01 PM

Sam M. Lewis, who re-wrote the lyrics of the Hungarian original (1936), was born in New York (1885-1959). He wrote numerous songs, many in collaboration. He was a charter member of ASCAP (1914).
Other songs include- For All We Know, I'm Sitting on Top of the World, Has Anybody Seen My Gal?, I Kiss Your Hand, Madame. With Joe Young, he wrote many hits, including In a Little Spanish Town, Street of Dreams, etc.

NOT the Sam M. Lewis, who wrote with Walter Donaldson "How 'Ya Gonna Keep Them Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)."

Subject: Lyr Add: GLOOMY SUNDAY (from Billie Holiday)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 05:36 PM

GLOOMY SUNDAY
as sung by Billie Holiday.

Sunday is gloomy,
My hours are slumberless;
Dearest, the shadows I live with are numberless,
Little white flowers will never awaken you,
Not where the black coach of sorrow has taken you.
Angels have no thought of ever returning you;
Would they be angry if I thought of joining you?
Gloomy Sunday.

Gloomy is Sunday, with shadows I spend it all,
My heart and I have decided to end it all.
Soon there'll be candles and prayers that are sad, I know,
Let them not weep; let them know that I'm glad to go.
Death is no dream for in death I'm caressing you,
With the last breath of my soul I'll be blessing you-
Gloomy Sunday.

Dreaming, I was only dreaming;
I wake and find you asleep
In the deep of my heart, dear.

Darling, I hope that my dream never haunted you,
My heart is telling you how much I wanted you-
Gloomy Sunday.

Copyright Chappell & Co.

Subject: Lyr Add: Gloomy Sunday (original) Rezso Seress
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 05:22 PM

The original lyrics are completely unlike the Billie Holiday-S. M. Lewis lyrics so often heard a few years back.

Here is the literal translation of the original by Rezso Seress, lyricist and pianist, which is a lament about the horrors of modern culture, not a personal one about death of a woman and the suicidal intentions of her lover.

GLOOMY SUNDAY
(translation by Rezso Seress)

It is autumn and the yellow leaves are whirling,
All human affection has died on earth.
The autumn wind sobs with bitter tears,
My heart is without hope for a new spring:
Heartlessly evil and greedy are people;
Love is dead!
It is the end of the world,
The end of hope.
Cities are destroyed, shrapnel makes music,
The mottled meadow is red with human blood;
Dead bodies lie over the road;
Once more I will say quietly the prayer:
Lord, people are fallible and they make mistakes.
The world is finished.

Javor Laszlo also wrote a lyric, personalizing the song. Literal translation:

Sunday is gloomy, with a hundred white flowers,
I waited for you, my dear, with a prayer;
One Sunday morning, chasing after my dreams,
My sorrow's carriage came back to me without you,
Since then my Sunday's are always sad;
Tears are my only drink, sorrow my bread...
Gloomy Sunday.

On the last Sunday, my darling, please come away with me,
There will be a priest, a coffin, a mourning sheet;
Flowers await you, flowers and a coffin.
Under the blossoming trees it will be my last journey,
My eyes will be open, so I can see you for the last time.
Don't fear my eyes, even in death I bless you...
The last Sunday.

It was these last lyrics that were re-written by Sam M. Lewis for the hit record by Billie Holiday (and others). Lyrics in next post.

http://disappearingbudapest.blogspot.com/2010/01/gloomy-sunday.html

Original Hungarian lyrics also in this website.