Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Printable Version +- TalkHorror - Horror Talk For All Horror Fans (http://talkhorror.com/boards) +-- Forum: Are You Scared? (http://talkhorror.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?fid=6) +--- Forum: The Camp Fire & Welcome To The Strange (http://talkhorror.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?fid=28) +--- Thread: Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) (/showthread.php?tid=646)

Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Friday The 13th - 03-05-2009 Gloomy Sunday - The notorious "Hungarian Suicide Song". Was written in 1933. Its melody and original lyrics were the creation of Rezső Seress, a self-taught pianist and composer born in Hungary in 1899. The crushing hopelessness and bitter despair which characterised the two stanza penned by Seress were superseded by the more mournful, melancholic verses of Hungarian poet László Jávor. When the song came to public attention it quickly earned its reputation as a 'suicide song'. Reports from Hungary alleged individuals had taken their lives after listening to the haunting melody, or that the lyrics had been left with their last letters. The popularity of Gloomy Sunday increased greatly through its interpretation by Billie Holiday (1941). In an attempt to alleviate the pessemistic tone a third stanza was added to this version, giving the song a dreamy twist, yet still the suicide reputation remained. Gloomy Sunday was banned from the playlists of major radio broadcasters around the world. The B.B.C. deemed it too depressing for the airwaves. Despite all such bans, Gloomy Sunday continued to be recorded and sold. People continued to buy the recordings; some committed suicide. Rezső Seress jumped to his death from his flat in 1968. ----- In December, 1932, a down and out Hungarian named Reszo Seress was trying to make a living as a songwriter in Paris, but kept failing miserably. All of his compositions failed to impress the music publishers of France, but Seress carried on chasing his dream nevertheless. He was determined to become an internationally famous songwriter. His girlfriend had constant rows with him over the insecurity of his ambitious life. She urged him to get a full-time 9 to 5 job, but Seress was uncompromising. He told her he was to be a songwriter or a hobo, and that was that. One afternoon, things finally came to a head. Seress and his fiancée had a fierce row over his utter failure as a composer, and the couple parted with angry words. On the day after the row - which happened to be a Sunday - Seress sat at the piano in his apartment, gazing morosely through the window at the Parisian skyline. Outside, storm-clouds gathered in the grey sky, and soon the heavy rain began to pelt down. "What a gloomy Sunday" Seress said to himself as he played about on the piano's ivories, and quite suddenly, his hands began to play a strange melancholy melody that seemed to encapsulate the downhearted way he was feeling over his quarrel with his girl and the state of the dispiriting weather. "Yes, Gloomy Sunday! That will be the title of my new song" muttered Seress, excitedly, and he grabbed a pencil and wrote the notes down on an old postcard. Thirty minutes later he had completed the song. Seress sent his composition off to a music publisher and waited for acceptance with a lot more hope than he usually had in his heart. A few days later, the song-sheet was returned with a rejection note stapled to it that stated: "Gloomy Sunday has a weird but highly depressing melody and rhythm, and we are sorry to say that we cannot use it." The song was sent off again to another publisher, and this time it was accepted. The music publisher told Seress that his song would soon be distributed to all the major cities of the world. The young Hungarian was ecstatic. But a few months after Gloomy Sunday was printed, there were a spate of strange occurrences that were allegedly sparked off by the new song. In Berlin, a young man requested a band to play Gloomy Sunday, and after the number was performed, the man went home and blasted himself in the head with a revolver after complaining to relatives that he felt severely depressed by the melody of a new song which he couldn't get out of his head. That song was Gloomy Sunday. A week later in the same city, a young female shop assistant was found hanging from a rope in her flat. Police who investigated the suicide found a copy of the sheet-music to Gloomy Sunday in the dead girl's bedroom. Two days after that tragedy, a young secretary in New York gassed herself, and in a suicide note she requested Gloomy Sunday to be played at her funeral. Weeks later, another New Yorker, aged 82, jumped to his death from the window of his seventh-story apartment after playing the 'deadly' song on his piano. Around the same time, a teenager in Rome who had heard the unlucky tune jumped off a bridge to his death. The newspapers of the world were quick to report other deaths associated with Seress' song. One newspaper covered the case of a woman in North London who had been playing a 78 recording of Gloomy Sunday at full volume, infuriating and frightening her neighbors, who had read of the fatalities supposedly caused by the tune. The stylus finally became trapped in a groove, and the same piece of the song played over and over. The neighbors hammered on the woman's door but there was no answer, so they forced the door open - only to find the woman dead in her chair from an overdose of barbiturates. As the months went by, a steady stream of bizarre and disturbing deaths that were alleged to be connected to Gloomy Sunday persuaded the chiefs at the BBC to ban the seemingly accursed song from the airwaves. Back in France, Rizzo Seress, the man who had composed the controversial song, was also to experience the adverse effects of his creation. He wrote to his ex-fiancée, pleading for a reconciliation. But several days later came the most awful, shocking news. Seress learned from the police that his sweetheart had poisoned herself. And by her side, a copy of the sheet music to Gloomy Sunday was found. At the end of the 1930s, when the world was plunged into the war against Hitler, Seress' inauspicious song was quickly forgotten in the global turmoil, but the sheet-music to the dreaded song is still available (on the Net too) to those who are curious to know if the morbid melody can still exert its deadly influence... Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - LokiZee - 03-05-2009 Damn, that's crazy stuff. I had to check out the lyrics, which I will post below, but I sure he hell am not listening to it. I'm prone to bouts of depression, but then again, who isn't these days? I think I might be sad...................Weird. s z o m o r ú v a s á r n a p -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- r e z s ő s e r e s s l y r i c s Ősz van és peregnek a sárgult levelek Meghalt a földön az emberi szeretet Bánatos könnyekkel zokog az öszi szél Szívem már új tavaszt nem vár és nem remél Hiába sírok és hiába szenvedek Szívtelen rosszak és kapzsik az emberek... Meghalt a szeretet! Vége a világnak, vége a reménynek Városok pusztulnak, srapnelek zenélnek Emberek vérétől piros a tarka rét Halottak fekszenek az úton szerteszét Még egyszer elmondom csendben az imámat: Uram, az emberek gyarlók és hibáznak... Vége a világnak! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LITERAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION: It is autumn and the leaves are falling All love has died on earth The wind is weeping with sorrowful tears My heart will never hope for a new spring again My tears and my sorrows are all in vain People are heartless, greedy and wicked... Love has died! The world has come to its end, hope has ceased to have a meaning Cities are being wiped out, shrapnel is making music Meadows are coloured red with human blood There are dead people on the streets everywhere I will say another quiet prayer: People are sinners, Lord, they make mistakes... The world has ended! Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Friday The 13th - 03-05-2009 I listened to it Version with & without the lyrics. But you shouldn't if your suicidal. Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Friday The 13th - 03-05-2009 Full Lyrics 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 Sunday is gloomy with shadows I spend it all My heart and I have decided to end it all Soon there'll be flowers 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 Dear Darling I hope that my dream never haunted you My heart is telling you how much I wanted you Gloomy Sunday Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Bojangles - 03-05-2009 Now that is some interesting stuff. It is a weird song to listen to.. I mean, it had no effect on me, but I do see how it could effect some. Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Friday The 13th - 03-05-2009 I thought the song was beautiful. Kinda sad aswell. But I wouldn't recommend someone else to listen to it. Especially if your depressed... Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Bojangles - 03-05-2009 It probably could effect people. It's in a foreign language, though. Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Friday The 13th - 03-05-2009 Well, The original song is. But you can listen to - Billy Holidays Version, Bjork's Version, or Sarah Mclachlan's Version. Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - LokiZee - 03-12-2009 Hell, listening to Bjork would make me suicidal!!!!! Sorry if yer a fan Friday! Gloomy Sunday (True Story/Song) - Friday The 13th - 03-13-2009 Nah don't worry Loki, I hate Bjork! But I do like the Sarah McLaughlin - version.