THE SUICIDE SONG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 143, 18 June 1936, Page 10

THE SUICIDE SONG

Recent Ban by 8.8. C.

The re< ent banning by the 8.8. C. ol i< the Hungarian love song ‘'(•loom; ; . {Sunday” and rlu* event* winji iollow-ji ed that announcement is the ■>iibj« , ( t 1 I the following romni-iit by a writer in; the Daily li* raid”: “The week's gn at joke i> the la< l ! ; that the 8.8. t which is always ar ; ctiscd ol making th*- Sa’diath ’ (•loom;. Sunday/’ banned tor da; the Hun- , garian love-song ol that mini- . arid now ( has passed in on conditions that art ludicrous. “The number may Im played by an’ orchestra as a selection,” .-ays H:*-| 8.8. C ‘’The Engii-h version nay be i sung as a straight ballad. It must not • be sung with a dame band or in an; I , way burlesqued.’’ Now all this started because, on the -, Continent, the song is >aid to hav< I brought about *2O suit ides “Your song has < aired eighteen I ’ young men ami women, one old man I and one fitteen-\car-old child to com-1 mit suicide, and we believe there are | many others,” the Hungarian police j said to Raoul Scre-s. the compost i. and I Ladislas Javor. ihe author ot "Gloomy | Sunday.” “It seems to oe a deadly i poison to the mind oi anyone who is unhappy in love. We ask you to with-j draw the song from sale.” Soress told hov. , for years, he had; been a failure with his songs, and that | ano day he wrote some music which i nearly broke his heart wdh ns sadness. Javor, who bad just been turned! down by his sweetheart, met Seres*; ami went for a walk with him. St'iess; whistled the tun. to him Javor, over come wuh < i!ioiion, wrote the words. : That same evening they went to a restaurant ami asked the orchestra) leader to play tin music they had just writen. In a crowded room, the songi caught on immediately. Then came the siii< i'h s. People be I gan to jump into the riv. r or turn on: the gas or shoot themselves or take poison. The success oi th. writers was shortlived. They decided to withdraw the «ong, though poor and in need of the royalties fronf what promised to be the first real money-maker thev had ever written. Why it should b wois e than all those crooners which the 8.8. C. delih-

eratcly encourage and a'l the silly American numbers with which the air is made raucous, tuneless and bliglitlul, I do not know. The 8.8. C. allowed crooners 'o s*ii”Mis Otis Regrets,” which is ail about a coloured girl who shoots her lover and is lynched. When people are burped, other pcoplo • iiant. over them, ‘Da\s and moments (quickly fixing,’ 'aid on New Year’s Eve j they sing “A Few More Years Shall Roll.” i’arsoaic utterances ot the mo*t dole lul kind often warn us, on the air, ol i the urath that is to come. | For months music-hall auditive** j ’oared at Leslie Sarony’s screaming I burlesque, ■ \in't It (Hand to be Blooming Well Dead?” i And now ilq. 8.8. C., wliicli allowed artists to moan ‘ Stormy Weather” and “St. James’s Infirmary Blues,” now regards as sacrosanct; ’Thou there came a Sunday W hen you came to find me. lhey bore me to church 1 And I left you behind me ! My eyes could not see one I wanted to love me. i The earth and the flowers Are lor over above me. I The bell tolled for me and The wind whisp’red “Never.” ' Bui you 1 have loved i And I bless you fur ever.” | What is there particularly sacred about this? Surely the 8.8. C. has some little sense of humour! Or is it i that it is afraid of being thought irreligious because the name of the publisher is Chappell? i In many ways. I deeply admire Sir i John Reith. But, frankly, after this, he ought to spell his name Wreath. I I read yesterday that Sir John is to j play on the air the part of a butler. Surely, the part of an undertaker would be much more suitable. I mean, of course, that his is a great undertaking. No. “Gioomy Sunda.x,” the song, won’t drive me to suicide. Rather it should be the Gloomy Sunday which Sir John Reith enforces upon me on a day when, alter all 1 have to work for Monday’s paper.