SUICIDE SONG

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1936, Page 8

SUICIDE SONG

HEARTBREAK TUNE BANNED A song which it is claimed, has led to the suicides of 16 disappointed lovers in Hungary, may now be banned at the request of the composer and lyricwriter. The words of the song, “Gloomiest Sunday,” were written by Laszlo Javor, a young poet, who declares that he was disappointed in love and for days was on the verge of suicide. Instead he banished his sorrow by writing his lyric, A series of tragedies resulted. For a time the tune was the most popular “hit” in the country. Then, in a small Budapest tavern, a young workman named John Boros wounded himself with a pistol after crooning the song to the accompaniment of a gipsy band. The words are as follows:

O gloomiest Sunday! I waited and waited, Hundred white blossoms drearily faded. Out went my dream-coach with fringes and bells. Without you it turned a sad story to tell . .. Since, love, all Sundays are dreary and sad.

; My tears are my wine and grief js my bread I i Ultimate Sunday! My love come and , see, Hundred white blossoms are strewn I upon me. A bier and a priest, wax candles aflame. Then gently we move thru’ the flowering lane... Once more to behold you my dead lids will sever. Don’t dread me, my darling, I bless you for ever, This last of all Sundays. .According to a farewell letter found in the wounded man’s pocket his sweetheart had quarrelled with him, and he could not bear the lonely Sundays he had to spend without her. Subsequently 16 people who had been jilted or otherwise disappinted in love committed suicide after listening to “Gloomiest Sunday.” As a result the composer, Rezse Seress, and Laszlo Javor have asked the Union of Hungarian Musicians, of which every band in the country belongs, to prohibit further performances of “Gloomiest Sunday” for the time being.