Monday Morning Mixtape 042: Songs to Die To

Welcome to Monday Morning Mixtape, a PoYB Contributor-curated playlist of songs, made just for you at the start of each week.

"Songs to Die To"

Songs to be played in the moment of passing from this life to the next

chosen by Nate

Spotify

YouTube

"Fuuuuun" by Be Your Own Pet

from Be Your Own Pet, 2006

Fuuuuuck one week after ending things with a blurb about how I didn't think it was worth considering any decisions we might make if we're on our death bed, I am forced by the next mixtape to consider what I might be thinking about on my death bed. Here's what I'm thinking about if I'm on my death bed: that was fun. There were plenty of bad times; now's not the time for those. There were plenty of good times; let's talk about them. I know this is cliché, but I'm not usually in the business of thinking about my death. No point. When I'm dead, I won't care. Bottom line is I think maybe it would be fun to make y'all listen to Be Your Own Pet one last time.  —Joe


"Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away" by Stevie Wonder

from Fulfillingness' First Finale, 1974

I wish man. I wish. We were all built for purgatory. Purgatory on Your Birthday. Took this one literally. If heaven is a party where someone 5'2 explains to you how he thinks Stevie Wonder actually isn't blind just look at this clip bro, we all knew from the start we were born in hell. I assume heaven will be like Mario Kart Online with a bad connection. I spent all this time picking this guy and now he's in last place still he even got the bullet he has access to firearms. We Will All Pass with Access to Firearms. Ten Zillion Words. Ten Zillion Bullets. When We Pass I Pray We All Hit the Word Count.  —Brian

"Love Trinity" by Life Without Buildings

from Live at the Annandale Hotel, 2007

Energy is never created or destroyed, so maybe that's the place to hang your hope. That whatever makes up you joins with whatever makes up everything else, and your atoms will fall into the soil and seep into the water and feed whatever is left alive and parts of you will live on forever in parts of them, all of us on the long road to all becoming one thing, over and over again. Maybe that's the world without end. I hope I don't find out for a very long time.  —Nate

"Ride into the Sun" by the Velvet Underground

an outtake from 1969

Every day, I remind myself that I am going to die. Everyone I know and everyone I love is going to die, too. This isn't as morbid as it sounds. When you get used to the idea of death as part of life, it frees you in many ways. It helps you to stay grounded and enables you to structure your life.

Driving along the winding roads in Vermont this weekend, and one thing that stands out is the number of cemeteries that you pass. Small reminders of impermanence. You see this in Philly, too; walking in the city, every small place of worship has its own cemetery. On this drive, I was talking to my partner about how many people are removed from death. Many places are sanitized from the concept of death, so when it happens to someone we love, or to ourselves, we are unprepared to face this very normal and natural end.  No matter what your beliefs are—whether you believe in an afterlife or a complete end—your death will be one of the most important and transformational parts of your life. You need to be ready.

In the past five years, I've watched so many people die. I've helped care for their bodies, preparing them for what comes next. You learn a lot about life when you learn about death.  I've seen people who were ready for death, and those who weren't. The difference in the peace of their passage was profound.  —Gloria

"Sex and Dying in High Society" by X

from Los Angeles, 1980

"Hey pop, why are we listening to this punk rock song from 70 years ago while you're dying?"

"I'm dying, I can listen to whatever I want."

"But pop, there's no thematic relevance here. You were only in Los Angeles that one time for a Phillies/Dodgers game. X was probably your 163rd-favorite punk rock band. This is a mid-tier song off their admittedly great debut. What gives?"

"Well, see, it has the word 'dying' in it."

"But it's not about death. Don't you want songs about death to make this process feel, I dunno, important or whatever?"

"Jesus fucking christ, the iPod is on shuffle, okay? Just let me eat my final Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpet and listen to some music in peace."

   —Joe


"Snookered" by Dan Deacon

from Bromst, 2009

Sudden death is a motherfucker. It's theft, not of the deceased because, again, their problems are over, but for the ones left behind who are not able to say goodbye. It's the thief of joy, of experience, of closure. Sudden death can turn you into a zealot, a maniac, a street preacher, or a jailor.  —Nate


"Source Tags & Codes" by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

from Source Tags & Codes, 2002

The best joke about dying comes from (where else?) The Simpsons, specifically the episode where McBain's partner talks about being two days from retirement, seeing his daughter graduate from college, then sail around the world with his wife on his boat called "Liv-4-Ever." Then he get gunned down by Mendoza's henchman, who pulls a gun out of a turkey to shoot him. That's good business right there.  —Nate

"Staying Alive" by Cursive

from The Ugly Organ, 2003

As a body begins the dying process, a couple of things will happen depending on the conditions surrounding the death. One thing that happens in gradual death, rather than sudden death, is that sleep becomes different. Where it once restored energy, it charges the batteries less and less. Sleep also crosses a line into unconsciousness, which can stretch out for long periods of time, well past what would be considered restful sleep. When folks come out of this state, they usually have no feelings of illness or unwellness. To them, they were just sleeping soundly. To us, they were starting the process of kicking off from the shore.  —Nate

"Walk of Life" by Dire Straits

from Brothers in Arms, 1985

Pam shows me an Instagram account she follows (I don't follow any Instagram accounts but I have a burner account that I occasionally need to check a business's hours, and also have "saved" a couple ads that feature full nudity, if you're ever interested in seeing some Instagram pornography) that (oof sorry for that tangent, that's regrettable) features an ongoing bit in which they'll "change" the ending to a classic movie into a freeze-frame and "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen. E.g. instead of "Auld Lang Syne" singalongs at the end of It's a Wonderful Life, the video clip freeze-frames on George Bailey smiling and plays "Born to Run."

It's a good bit. It's also not an original bit. I know this because I was aware of a website at one point that did the same exact thing, and featured all sorts of edited video clips of movie endings, except the song they changed it to was "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits. That was also a good bit. But now the website that hosted all those videos is gone, lost in the sands of a rapidly crumbling internet. Did you know that eventually the internet is going to consist entirely of AI robots talking to one another? That's a shame, because those robots are gonna be missing out on a good bit about "Walk of Life."  —Joe


"welcome at azerty and qwerty's home" by In Love with a Ghost

from healing, 2017

(on YouTube but only as part of the whole album, so I couldn't add it!)

I don't want to remember the big moments, when I'm dying. I want to smile at the small moments. I don't really remember the big moments anyway, so thoroughly does the adrenaline wipe your brain of those memories, like it prevents the tape from hitting record. You ever notice that? I don't remember asking Pam to marry me. I know it happened, and there are pictures. But I was so nervous at the time that my brain was recording the memory. So it goes.

It's all good, because I have the small moments to keep me company. Like this weird-ass little track, only known because of Record Club, only known to my kids because they wanted me to play it because they saw the cover of it and were intrigued by the witch, and now this third track off the album healing is known as the "crazy kitty kat song" because Martha had a stuffed animal called "crazy kitty" who did a "crazy" dance when this song hit the minivan's speakers, and man, did we all laugh. We laughed so much, in this life, and had so much fun.  —Joe


"Don't Stop Living in the Red" by Andrew W.K.

from I Get Wet, 2001

Here's the way I explain it to myself when I'm sitting here at like 9 PM and missed my kids' bedtimes and am getting paid time and a half but wondering whether it's fucking worth it: we were $X in the black, which was comfortable, and then, in practically an instant this past summer, we were $X in the red, a complete $2X swing in a downward direction. And I've worked a lot in the time since, and we've clawed our way back to even, like $0X, which is good, but I wanna get back to $X in the black again, and feel this anxiety lift. It's not every night. It's like twice a week. I feel guilty but it could be worse. My kids won't remember this time in our lives. By 2026 I'll be home for bedtime every night. We're gonna be okay. These are the things I tell myself. And I hope I'll believe them when I'm on my death bed.  —Joe


"Flight of the Bumblebee," written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

in 1900

So...imagine....you are the damb bee....and you pulled your stinger out joinking it...now you gotta get back to the damb hive....you are sick, your stomach is full of honey and all youre thinking about is your perfect queen back home she is sick of your shit and stung up and then all of a sudden...you release...you let go....you let the honey flow from within, down all of your legs, however many legs...and you say thank you....thank you queen.....we have done it...We have found the song that does closure....it closures it....RIP to ME and the BEE.....Pee on Your Beedee....  —Brian

"life" by awakebutstillinbed

from what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people see you, 2018

I don't really know what she's saying in this song, or any of this band's songs, but that's not really the point, the point is the screaming, ain't it always, the point, the screaming, I love it, I love it in music and I love it in life, I love it when it is free and uninhibited, and the screaming is not a habit but an outlier, something that doesn't usually happen but here, in this moment, needs to happen, as a pressure valve, letting off steam, resetting, balancing, etc., you get it, just scream, it works.  —Joe


"The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack" by Liars

from Drum's Not Dead, 2006

The question of consciousness post-death has kept me up at night since I was a child. It frightened me when I was ten, and it frightens me now if I spend too much time thinking about it. Consciousness cannot comprehend non-consciousness, because how could it? The best case I can get my head around is that I don't know when I am asleep that I am sleeping, and that state will just continue going on forever. Even that gives me chills, the concept of an eternity. I suspect that I'll never realize time is passing because concepts like "time" will continue to be a concern for my non-extant form. Maybe that is the best way to think about it: all your problems are solved.  —Nate

"Pitter Patter Goes My Heart" by Broken Social Scene

from You Forgot It in People, 2002

I was in the room when a pet died seven or so years ago. It was a 20-plus-year-old cat. Cats, when they are at the end, usually try to hide and be in a quiet, private place. Mine was on the couch meowing and calling out, unable to really move around. Seemed like it was time. Took it to the vet on Girard Avenue, and once they realized what was going on, they took us out of the waiting room and into a private side room where I laid her on a table and pet her until she gave a big shuddering sigh and stopped breathing.  —Nate

"Revelation 420" by Algernon Cadwallader

from Trying Not to Have a Thought, 2025

Playing it fast and loose with answering religious questions in the home, like I got a good one the other day because a bible that part of the kids' book collection had a picture of a dinosaur, and the question was "did god create dinosaurs," and I gave what I thought was a decent and involved answer that definitely included the phrase "we believe in science in this house" at some point while also respecting the storytelling nature of religious teachings. I think I got another question about the bible at some point, I forget why I was trying explain Revelations, and, like, not really doing a good job at it, because the whole thing is kinda ridiculous, right? The end of the world symbolism bullshit tacked on here at the end of this book about god and jesus. Maybe it'll make more sense to me when I'm at the end of my life. See, this is what I was trying to say in that blurb last week. I can't know what I'll be thinking, and honestly it might be disrespectful to the self to attempt to guess. Just take it as it comes. Feel it when it gets here, and forget about it before that. Until then: stay angry, stay alert, make yourself heard, love truly.  —Joe

NEXT WEEK: "IT WAS A GRAVEYARD SMASH" — Songs featuring spooky monsters or the supernatural (chosen by Batts)