masterwordsmith-unplugged

As a baby boomer who born in the 1960's and proud of it :-), I can think of no better period to experience my growing up years where music is concerned. I grew up with so many types of artistes such as Cliff Richard, The Herman Hermits, The Hollies, Glen Campbell, the Beatles of course, Tom Jones, Carpenters, Engelbert Humperdick etc etc....far too many to mention.

I am writing this post for an anonymous reader in Crankster's blog who mentioned "Patches" in his/her comment for one of her posts. That comment triggered my memory of the songs that were such an important part of my childhood.

Looking at the songs that were popular in that era, it seems that many including "Tell Laura I Love Her", "Tell Tommy I Miss Him" had the theme of teenage suicide. The teenage tragedy song, also known as a splatter platter, is a style of ballad popular between the late 1950s and the late 1960s that lamented the early deaths of teenagers, either sung from the viewpoint of the dead person's sweetheart, or sometimes from the viewpoint of the dead (or dying) person. I surfed the net and came across this website called Dead Teenagers and Melodrama which said:

One peculiar trend in popular music that came along in the early sixties was dead teenager music. These songs told the story of teenage love tragically cut short by the grim reaper. Now, while this type of song would seem to belong in the genre of melodrama rather than horror, they share many of the same themes that characterized horror music of the rock 'n' roll era. One was the connection of teenage romance with destruction. Love has the potential to be tragic, and even more of the case in the songs dealing with suicide, love brings about tragedy.

Notably, and it's made explicit in "Ebony Eyes," by the Everly Brothers, and "Tell Laura I Love Her," by Ray Peterson, death cuts short these romances prior to marriage. Therefore, these romances can remain in a state of eternal pre-sexual purity, once again upholding the prohibitions against sex at that time, similar to the prohibitions against sex in horror. In a way, death saves these loves from being defiled by carnality, but the alternative, death, is hardly a superior option, thus illustrating the social rules that govern behavior and thought and lead to destruction, to horror.

Of course, this trend was ripe for parody. The whole concept of these songs was more than a little ridiculous. The Cheers' "Black Denim Trousers and Motor Cycle Boots" (1956) preceded the trend of dead teenager music that really began with Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel" in 1960. Thus, the concept was humorous even before it was serious. Jimmy Cross' "I Want My Baby Back" takes the dead teenager song to the extreme by having the speaker exhume his dear departed girlfriend and live happily ever after with her corpse. On one hand, this negates the notion of eternal pre-sexual purity and, on the other, plunges the dead teenager song more fully into the horror genre with a suggestion of necrophilia. "Leader of the Laundromat," by the Detergents, parodied a specific song rather than the whole trend of music. Such parodies and answer songs were common in the rock 'n' roll era but now are moribund, with only "Weird Al" Yankovic continuing the tradition..

If such songs were recorded today, they would be denounced immediately! There was even a trend for car crash songs at THIS LINK!

Take a look at the following comments taken from THIS LINK.

The standard teen tragedy song detailed how half of a love match met his or her end. Railroad tracks were often involved. Speeding cars and motorcycles were big elements. "Tell Laura I Love Her" is a classic example. (Best line: "No one knows what happened that day / Or how his car overturned in flames..." Well, does it really matter HOW?) "Teen Angel" wins for the stupidest and most avoidable death -- if your car stalls on a railroad track, and you get out safe but run back for your boyfriend's class ring, well, any sympathy you're going to get is limited.

Sometimes the song had a supernatural element. Dickey Lee's "Laurie" tells of meeting a girl at a dance and later finding out she was dead the whole time -- the sweater he loaned her turns up neatly folded on her grave. (Very similar to the Vanishing Hitchhiker urban legend.)

Not all creepy death songs involved teens. One song that was frequently mentioned in your comments was Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey," where a man reminisces about his dead wife. Not really a teen death song, but a death song nonetheless. The song has been named to numerous "worst song" lists, and once you look at the lyrics, you can see why. In an earlier post, Deb E. says "My vote for worst lyric ever goes to this "gem" from the sappiest song ever written: 'She wrecked the car and she was sad / So afraid that I'd be mad / But what the heck.' " Others cite the opening lines, "See the tree, how big it's grown, but friend, it hasn't been too long it wasn't big." We get what you're going for, there, but there's no way to say that in a more elegant way?

Maybe the most famous death song of all time is Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun." (Best/worst line: "But the stars we could reach, were just starfish on the beach.") According to the song's Wikipedia entry, the song was done numerous times by other artists, including the Kingston Trio and the Beach Boys. Apparently Jacks' version meant to leave the cause of death -- be it suicide or natural causes -- vague. In the original version, by Jacque Brel, the singer is not only dying, his wife cheated on him. What a bummer.

One of the songs which I love most is "Patches" written by Barry Mann and Larry Kobler which was made famous by Dickie Lee in 1962.

PATCHES please CLICK HERE for the youtube video

Down by the river that flows by the coal yards.
Stands wooden houses with shutters torn down
There lives a girl everybody calls Patches
Patches my darling of Old Shanty town

We plan to marry when June brought the summer
I couldn't wait to make Patches my bride
Now I don't see how that ever can happen
My folks say No, and my heart breaks inside

Patches oh what can I do
I swear I'll always love you
But a girl from that place would just bring me disgrace
So my folks won't let me love you

Each night I cry as I think of that shanty
And pretty Patches there watching the door
She doesn't know that I can't come to see her
Patches must think that I love her no more

I hear a neighbor telling my father
He said a girl name of Patches was found
Floating face down in that dirty old river
That flows by the coal yards in Old Shanty Town

Patches oh what can I do
I swear I'll always love you
It may not be right But I'll join you tonight
Patches I'm coming to you...

Looking back, I know I loved these songs not because I lauded suicide but more so because I was overwhelmed by the sad tales, tragedy, class differences and also the lyrics which helped me to broaden my vocabulary.

Somehow, the music of the 60's, no matter how sad some may be, has that lingering feel in its melody line that tugs at your heart's strings. We seldom hear songs like this one anymore. Indeed, "Patches" is a song that is sweet but sorrowful, emotional and touching because teens who suffered from breakups due to parental objections would be likely to have a cathartic outburst when listening to this one. In sharp contrast would be the lyrics of contemporary songs which lack that depth of emotion - no wonder some are desensitized by now compared to sentimental ladies like yours truly...

In conclusion, do take a look at the following comment taken from THIS LINK:

But what was the reasoning behind these melodies of misery? Was there a morbid obsession with death, or what? Let's take a look at some of these songs and see what was going on.

The first tragedy song I know about is 1958's "Endless Sleep" by Jody Reynolds. It's a rainy dark night and Jody's baby somehow fell in the sea after they had a quarrel and he left her alone. He follows her footsteps to the shore, where not only does the sea mock him but he hears her voice telling him to join her! Jody wrote this song, which peaked at No. 5, but In his original version, the girl drowned. The record company persuaded him to record a happy ending and he saves her. "Endless Sleep" has been covered endlessly ever since. The spooky quality of it can only lead one to speculate that Jody was watching too many late night horror shows!

The 1959 "Romeo/Juliet tale" of Running Bear and Little White Dove went all the way to No. 1 for several weeks. It was recorded by Johnny Preston and written by J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, who unfortunately did not live to see it hit No. 1. The Big Bopper sang background vocals on the hit song along with future country superstar, George Jones. The lovers really do drown in "Running Bear." It is interesting to note that West Side Story first came out on Broadway in 1957 but whether that had any influence on the wave of star-crossed lovers that followed, I don't really know.

Car songs were all the rage in the early 1960s too, and some teen tragedy songs combined both. In Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel," the tragic heroine makes the ultimate sacrifice because she couldn't bear to lose her boyfriend's high school ring when the car was stalled on the railroad track.
"Tell Laura I Love Her" is a singularly maudlin song, plaintively wailed by Ray Peterson. It tells the story of Tommy who wants to give his gal, Laura, flowers and presents, "but most of all a wedding ring." He decides to win the money in a stock-car race with fatal results. Tommy does come back to the chapel where Laura prays and continues to send his love via third person messages even though she is right there! 1964's "Last Kiss" by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, was based upon a real car accident, and "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean told about a drag race that ended badly. The latter song was considered somewhat prophetic when two years later, Jan Berry was seriously injured in a car accident near the scene depicted in the song.

Class-conscious parents were the villains in Dickey Lee's 1962 hit "Patches." The singer laments his inability to run off to marry his poor girlfriend, because his parents believe "a girl from that place would just bring [him] disgrace." When a distraught Dickey (and Dickey can really sing distraught) hears that Patches jumped in the dirty river, he decides to follow suit. Class struggles also showed up in a couple of songs by The Four Seasons in 1964: "Dawn (Go Away)" and "Rag Doll" but there were no fatalities.

Now we come to 1964's "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las which we can call the trifecta of teen tragedy songs. It combines the snobby parents, who "were always putting him down (down, down) because he came from the wrong side of town," a motorcycle and the death of the title character. The Shangri-Las continued to deliver the melodrama with "Out in the Streets" (only the love dies); "Give Us Your Blessing" (another trifecta) and "I Can Never Go Home Anymore," (the parent dies!).

With the advent of the Beatles and the British Invasion, the tragedy songs with repressive parents and car crashes began to fade away, although Dickey Lee did come back in 1965 to date a ghost who was celebrating her birthday at the local dance in "Laurie (Strange Things Happen)."

Do leave a comment dear reader if you wish. I would love to hear your views.Thanks and have a lovely evening!

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For further reading:

1. Top 10 Teen Tragedy
Songs of the 50's and 60's

2. Jukebox Music of the '60s

3. Rock and Roll Tales of Tragedy

4. Teenage Tragedy Songs, Dirge Ballads or Splatter Platters