You're Dead - Norma Tanega (1966)

by **Hobb** Tue 12 Nov 2019 - 13:57

The film and TV show 'What We Do in the Shadows' use this as their theme song. It sounds like a cool 'alt-rock' ditty from the early 2000s, so I was not expecting it to be a 1960s tune by a Panamanian-Filipino folksinger living in Greenwich - but it is exactly that.

The lyrics are gothy, and if you are like me, and spent to much time by yourself in the woods, you may find the song's cynical admonishments are blackly persuasive. That's what the song is trying to do, provoke you into returning to life by telling you to stay dead. Rebellion against life leads to goth, yet this gothy-folk tune song rebels against Undeath.

Don't sing if you want to live long
They have no use for your song
You're dead, you're dead, you're dead
You're dead and outta this world

And as a companion piece to gothy-folk from the 1960s:

Shall I tell you of the night
It was long ago
Late November and the snow
Just about to fall...