The Song That Could Kill You? | The Curse of Gloomy Sunday (Ep 215)

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very spooky hi everyone hi we just had two girls one ghost and um we just had an experience that is not paranormal but you know what we're just gonna blame it on the ghost because um we don't like to admit human error just kidding we do it's our fault um sorry specifically one person's faults and it is me no well we are a team so whatever you do I do vice versa

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luckily we weren't that far into the episode but uh we did realize that my audio was not recording but how appropriate is that because we are going on tour soon and we've

Upcoming live shows

entitled what is this a cursed one oh got it I was like where are we going and in that moment I felt a little bit cursed so yes yes for years we have said we are cursed but also for years we have been manifesting going live again Corinne you pointed out the other day that we the last time we were live was what 2019 2019 so years ago here we are again we're finally going live we have two shows in April April 14th we're gonna be in Portland Maine and April 26th we'll be in New Brunswick New Jersey my old neck of the woods kind of near my hometown and we're so excited the show theme so exciting is curses cursed ones us we are

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the cursed ones and yeah come see us I was I'm so excited because as exciting as I am as excited as I am to meet everyone and to do these live shows and black out and get off stage and be like what just happened I don't know I'm also very excited to explore Portland Maine because yes I've wanted to go for so long and it's kind of I feel like I'm gonna be on vacation I'm gonna be out on the East Coast for you well two and a half weeks I'm so excited to show you Portland too because yeah so two of my good friends tally and Taylor live up there and so I've gone plenty of times to visit them and see things and I freaking love that City so much they have they have one time Italian I did we went bar hopping but it wasn't bar hopping it was like we went to a kombucha then we went to like a Meadery there's donut tours there's the holy donut which I'm for sure bringing you to

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it's so good and on the way up we can also stop at in Portsmouth New Hampshire and I can show you the size in which is the very first topic we ever covered podcast so this is going to be so freaking fun oh I'm so excited I can't wait um what are the chances has Bigfoot ever been seen between Boston and Portland Maine you know I don't think so are we gonna be driving the path of Betty and Barney Hill no but we'll have to do that but what I think we will do is we'll probably end up driving at some point between the shows driving through the Bridgewater Triangle which Bigfoot has been seen in the hakamak swap okay so I think we're going for a swim yeah so if anyone hey guys all the Portland people were so excited to see you new bronze booktube we'll get to you in a second but the Portland people were so stoked to see you I feel like every

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single time we have ever hinted at wanting to do live shows or done live shows in the past everyone has asked to come to Portland Maine so we know it's a quick turnaround but we're finally there we manifested it and they were like here you can have it but you can have it in three weeks okay let's go let's do it we can get there and also I'm gonna take Ukraine I'm gonna drive you past my haunted house that I grew up in oh a demon house New Jersey it's your home state tour and it's very close to Branch where I grew up Branchburg New Jersey look at that maybe I'll take you on like a little tour where I went to elementary school where I went to middle school when I went to middle school in Hopewell and then I'll take you around my high school oh my gosh I love I know that this is like just it doesn't mean anything to anyone else but me but showing people my high school gives me so much joy like if I went back

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by myself yeah it's a little bit nostalgic but showing it to people I love I just get so excited even though I bet you're gonna be like cool Sabrina like I don't really know I'm gonna Vlog it and then I'm gonna start a YouTube channel for you and you're not gonna know about it and I'm just gonna secretly Vlog and cut together all of your like the Sabrina life of Sabrina I'll just be skipping between exciting things I'm like oh this is where I got a concussion this is where I slipped and fell on ice and I broke my tailbone this is where my sister and I got in a really big fight this is where my sister was possessed um yeah I'll just do all of that I want to see where your sister was possessed that's for sure you will so I guess this is a call to action for everybody else in the Portland Maine and New Brunswick New Jersey and surrounding areas please come to our please come to our shows yeah but also if you have any recommendations suggestions for places for us to go yes let us know because this is our haunted road trip that we always talk about wanting to go on we get to go on it's a mini version our live shows yes exactly and that is also

Patreon campfire stories

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to say I know that this is only two shows and they're on the East Coast we are really trying to hopefully get some more dates and more locations in the fall so please stay tuned that is in the manifestation process I picture it like a manufacturing warehouse I also just realized I feel like I'm yelling anyway I it's there's always an echo in the background because I scream what but I picture it like one of those cartoons and there's a little like animated figure going to do and they put this idea on the conveyor belt and then it goes into this like big very uh ominous type of machine and you see things circulating inside of it and then it comes out on the other side in like a nice little package that's what I'm picturing that's exactly what circulating experiencing it's like do

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you like this thing and if you say yes then I would assume our manufacturer will allow us to do and create more of those things if you say no we will fall into a pit of despair and cry and maybe die and haunt you no don't dying no dying and well maybe I can't promise there's no hauntings part but I do know that everybody else here is haunted which is going to be my segue into telling everyone if you haven't already heard our in-feed drop um or seen it on social media we're bringing campfire stories so excited April 4th yes which I don't know if that's before or after this episode comes out um yes campfire stories we have been promising whoa that we would bring it back in some way

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or form because we loved it so much and it was so fun to interact with everyone and hear your stories live so we're doing it April 4th we'll be back every Tuesday um at same as Campfire Story 5 PM Pacific 8 PM Eastern on patreon it's a patreon exclusive yes yes you can join it live on patreon you there's a chat so it's going to be very similar to Spotify live and then you can re-listen to it immediately afterwards so you don't have to wait a few weeks for the episode that you spoke on to come out it will just exist on our patreon feed yeah if you join our uh lowest tier is the doubles our insomniacs for three dollars a month and if you join at that tier or any of the tiers above depending on whatever perks you want you will have access to this so it's for everybody on patreon and we're so excited we're so excited

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um also what

Monthly Patreon live

speaking of patreon so you and I had discussed okay so for our sorry I'm so snotty so I'm going to be wiping my nose with my fingers this entire video and it's so gross and I apologize but you know it happens it is what it is um for our only Phantoms tier we usually not usually we always do a monthly live on there and sometimes we do but clubs sometimes we read spooky stories we play games we do crafts we we bake I don't know we cry I feel like that one we made cookies that won patreon live and it was in the midst of my trauma treatment which I was doing 12 hours of therapy a week and I was just like okay this is gonna be another therapy session make it 14 hours of therapy this week and I just am unloaded all of my

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emotional [ __ ] and then you and I cried because of how much we love each other yeah I cried a lot telling you that I loved you and then we were like if we need to rename this crying over cookies because that's what we're doing they're sometimes overwhelmed by our love for one another yeah sometimes the lives are silly and sometimes they're really emotional you know but we have a silly one coming up we have a silly one coming up we were super well Sprint you can you can talk about it and then I'm gonna surprise you with something oh well okay I think we're gonna be together for this right because I'm basically with you all of April [Laughter] you're moving in yes I've claimed you for like a good two and a half weeks yes claimed so we're gonna be together we're gonna do a patreon live and I feel like this has been in the Zeitgeist everyone has been talking about it the bot formulated stories and conversations so

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we are going to have the Bots create ghost stories and we are going to read them and have a good old laugh or maybe fear of the Bots taking over our jobs um I don't know so we're gonna read them on our patreon live in April should we pick a date do we know what the date is no but uh let's pick one right now so we can tell you want to yeah let's do it so we can tell everyone okay we're gonna do it April 16th at should we do 8 PM Eastern again yeah let's do it 5 p.m pacifically Eastern yeah I think I said Easter instead of Eastern but um Easter is also coming up Easter is also coming up and yeah so we're gonna go live on patreon and yep that's exciting okay but here's

Bigfoot the musical

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something else that's exciting here's a little preview of some of the things we'll be able to do on this video online so we got a email from Jordan monsell who if anyone follows us on social media you know Jordan because Jordan is such a talented artist and cartoonist and has made a bunch of uh artwork for us before juicy the Juicy Couture aliens from the Zimbabwe episode stuff like that uh and Jordan has his own spooky podcast too but he emailed us and he said so this is hilarious I just typed in to chat GPT write me a song sung by Bigfoot for the musical Bigfoot here's what the AI program wrote you and I are not singers but oh my gosh you take the chorus and I'm gonna take the verses okay are you ready do you have it um yes I'm ready okay I roam these Hills alone and free the Sasquatch king that's me you see but

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when the night falls and the stars shine bright I Howl at the Moon with all my might I'm Bigfoot the forest keeper the legend of the woods a True Believer I'm a mystery to all those who seek but I'm just a gentle giant not a freak I've been around for ages never been caught some think I'm just a myth a silly thought but I'm real I'm alive and I'm here to say I'm not going anywhere I'm here to stay I'm Bigfoot the four risk keeper the legend of the woods a True Believer I'm a mystery to all those who seek but I'm just a gentle giant not a freak not every not a freak he's not a freak I'm Not Afraid We're Off Script now I may be big and I may be strong but I have feelings too I'm not wrong I just want to live my life in peace and watch

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over the forest trees I'm Bigfoot the forest keeper the legend of the woods a True Believer I'm a mystery to all those who seek but I'm just a gentle giant not a freak so if you ever hear my call at night just remember I'm not here to fight I'm just a creature of the forests might and I'm here to make sure everything's all right that is amazing yeah I we need someone yes Korean you and I are not necessarily singers but we're not terrible we could we can put them together we need a producer someone who knows the music man I don't know someone who knows music and how to put things together to help us produce this because I I it's amazing who needs lin-manuel Miranda when you have chat which is also scary maybe we should have the thoughts right Bigfoot the musical and we'll just star in it

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man it was just yeah this is reminding me of like 2007 YouTube just like really slow production value just like the most silly corny Bigfoot the legend of the woods I feel like that's very Phantom of the Opera um it is that was good you could play Bigfoot I'll play the lover are you a soprano what's that is that meaning but the higher yeah and then because I'm an alto yeah I think I'm high oh that sounds like the beginning of that sea shanty that goes like oh I can't even get that loud but like

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we need you to distinguish now this is so good I feel like I can't it's gonna be Sabrina at Sea Sabrina's shanties You'll Play The Mermaid oh a mermaid with a really deep voice love me he's picturing like the captain being like cover your ears boys there's sirens in these Waters and then everyone's there's just like beautiful singing off that's not beautiful and I might suggest and then all of a sudden it's like one mermaid wow what was that okay I have a pitch Bigfoot sea shanties it's Bigfoot drying it's okay it's reverse Little Mermaid it's Bigfoot

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wanting to be a mermaid [Laughter] I love this this is so good I'm super into this I love it so much okay it's also reminding me of The House Bunny you know how yes that sorority in that one actress with her deeper voice she's like just gonna drop some logs off or drop some kids off at the pool just blow it off my logs like it's in Affairs right yeah I love her Sabrina how she remembers everyone's name wait you sounded just like her thank you this has been impression corner with Corinne I'm impersonating Bigfoot and sea shanties and you are Anna fairest

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I know I don't think I even introduced this Korean Sabrina hey um okay hi um I want you to speak the rest of this episode like that just me speaking weird things oh hello there I'm so sorry for putting you all through this hi we're gonna get into ghost stories stories okay in the rain this is like the most perfect atmosphere yeah it is and I think we had a lot of fun at the top of the show um I'm gonna bring us down oh great okay

Topic introduction

I'm gonna give trigger warning right now for suicide that is a theme throughout this entire episode so the trigger warning is at the top because it's gonna be the whole thing okay I also want to provide some credit to factscology.com I did use plenty of

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sources to supplement the research but they had a great amount of information so I leaned a bit more heavily in their Direction okay okay Sabrina what have I told you Korean music could kill you I think I'd believe it yeah I mean for many people listening maybe you're like okay I'm feeling a little bit confused maybe you're saying that's hogwash or perhaps you're saying like Sabrina that seems totally possible or maybe you heard us sing the Bigfoot song and you're like oh now I absolutely understand how music could kill you totally right there's just some haunting vibrational tones that just irk you the wrong way right and just suddenly you feel cursed and also it's one of those things too where I think we grew up hearing about like subliminal messages and songs and could these things be placed and so there's a lot that that conspiracy wise is could be scary about songs and the

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music industry itself is pretty superstitious and there's so many conspiracies like the music is it the Beatles are Stones it might be Stones where if you play the song backwards it has a demonic message yeah yeah I remember or was it was that Kurt Cobain I bet there were a bunch I think there's like Joan Jett has a cursed song or you know there's so many different different ones but there's a particular song that people thought perhaps maybe put people in a trance maybe attempted to steal their souls a bit planting ideas into their heads an idea to harm themselves and now knowing that that is a possibility would you really be tempted to listen to that song this is a question many people have asked themselves for decades because

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there's a song that does all of that its lyrics consume you and it makes you want to die this is the curse of gloomy sunday why do I feel like I've heard of this before here's the thing I think so many people have heard this song because it has been covered by hundreds of artists it is all over it's used in music soundtracks it's you've probably heard it and so is every rendition of it supposed like said to be cursed I think so there's a few that are I think more heavily cursed and we'll talk about it okay so this is both fact and Legend and we'll Identify some of the facts as we go I'm going to tell you mostly The Legend and then we'll break it down and figure out what what's real and what is lore

The lore of Gloomy Sunday

90 years ago in 1933

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which is crazy 90 years ago wow a Hungarian pianist in Paris and there's some discrepancies in the Lord some people say it's Budapest some people say Paris but there was this Hungarian musician composer pianist named resho chares and I know I butchered that Hungarian pronunciation but I'm just gonna call him Rochelle for the rest of the time he was experiencing a little bit of a life crisis he was super passionate about music and he wanted nothing more than to be a super successful musician he had composed so many different songs all of this sheet music and time and time again he would bring it to buyers and his music was just constantly rejected so he couldn't sell his songs and he started to begin to I guess second guess himself you know wonder if this maybe wasn't the right path for him I feel like you've been doing a lot of artists who have struggled that's been your theme lately oh yeah

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suggested Hilma of Clinton I don't know am I identifying with a struggling artist I don't know no I don't know I mean we I live you are just in a different way if I lived somewhere else I wouldn't be struggling you know like another country what would that have to do with anything money it's so expensive oh I live free okay but he was super passionate and that passion started to dwindle and even his girlfriend was starting to urge him to find something a little bit more stable you know like why don't you find a factory job why don't you find an office job why don't you do something a little bit more nine to five and he was I mean that caused a ton of pain for him he was super upset by that he was just it was hard to the thought of leaving music and that

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he believed in himself when it seemed like no one else did it felt super isolating and he began to question is everyone else right and I'm wrong can I not make my dream my dream am I not good enough that's super heartbreaking and that is exactly what's happening to him so he was in this super low place and sat there in silence at his piano looking out his window in contemplation when his hands began to flow over the piano they strung together notes of Anguish and deep pain in the song flowed out of him he wrote lyrics about the despair caused by War the sins people commit the blood on everyone's hands and he named the song and I'm going to butcher this pronunciation again but it's Berger Al vlognak oh oh okay days later he played the song for a publisher and this publisher was like I'm actually pretty impressed but this

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is super dark all the lyrics just speak of hopelessness like what the heck man this is so so depressing I'm in a passion I think people want to listen to this yeah yeah you have to have a little glimmer of hope in there right but he brought it to another publisher and that publisher was like I'll give this a chance this sounds this sounds good I think this could go somewhere so Rochelle finally had a song published for all of France to here or potentially if he wasn't in Paris hungry to hear later a Hungarian poet named went to Russia and asked if they could work together and update the lyrics and this is you know like within the first year that he had put out this song and so he was like yeah I mean sure like it it was successful but it wasn't you know a huge smashing hit like Rochelle really wanted so he was super open to a change

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in what the song was conveying and so this poet changed the song lyrics and morphed the song more into a song about a person who wants to die by suicide after their lover passes away sad Sunday a year after that so now just two years after Rochelle originally wrote the song he sold it with these new lyrics to A Hungarian singer pal kalmar who at the time was super popular like I am picturing this as he gave the this song to Billy eilish you know someone who love her thank you for putting it in that context totally yeah someone who is going to sing this song and everyone was going to like hear the pain hear the heartache really feel the lyrics by the way it was sung and they renamed this song Gloomy Sunday a year later it's translated to English

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and it's sung by other artists around the world being tweaked ever so slightly in the lyrics and then just a few years after that Billie Holiday she recorded a version of gloomy Sunday which is the most listened to version now oh okay maybe then likely that I've heard of her oh my God what was that Thunder I just didn't know wait that is so loud that star I'm did you see how much I choose because I had like I had a little I didn't Shake but I even had a little ping in my stomach because that came out through my speakers pretty loud this is Sabrina I'm worried for you can you not live in California I'm so scared it's gonna break off into the ocean and you're just gonna become I'm kind of down for that not to become a siren but I'm down for like living on an island island life baby oh I was thinking more like it's gonna sink you're gonna become Atlantis honestly Boston's sinking too so

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Boston here's the thing about Boston I don't understand what they're gonna do they keep building all of these new buildings but almost every single building is supposed to be underwater and flooded within the next 20 to 50 years I'm like are we just gonna create a giant ass 30 foot tall concrete barrier and everybody who once had Ocean View is now concrete view like what what's happening I don't know I don't know they got some things to figure out anywho anyway I'm gonna I feel like I'm gonna continue to be spooked by the Thunder I haven't heard thunder in L.A yeah maybe ever like ever yeah well how appropriate that we're speaking about a Gloomy Sunday dark song curse while yeah you get to hear all of this I know gloominess yeah

The song's dangerous impact

so Billie Holiday she recorded a version

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of this song that became super super popular a bunch of other famous singers were singing Rochelle's song and he finally achieved the success that he wanted but with this song a curse was born the song was soon nicknamed the Hungarian Suicide Song the song Spread in popularity across Europe and people sang the lyrics they felt the lyrics and some people died because of the lyrics this song became dangerous as the song grew so did the number of calls to the police people were dying by Suicide and it was because they listened to this song oh there was a live music performance just outside of Budapest and this song was sung and I'm I found some discrepancies in the lore here so I'm not sure if this is two people that were at the concert or if this was just two people who were listening nearby but two men had died

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via gunshot by Suicide while that was being performed and that same night this police received several other it's so sad I mean that's why I gave the morning at the top like it yeah about suicide and we're not really gonna be brought up here this is gonna be a dark dark story so that very night police receive numerous calls from all over finding people passed away in their homes often standing next to their gramophone which was a record player and others were found in the river drowned with wet sheet music still clutched in their hands oh my God thread was the song Gloomy Sunday and now the lines are blurred a bit between which deaths are factual here and which ones have been added to the legend of this cursed song but regardless some people very much did pass away in newspaper articles wrote about it and and basically proved it so as much as there might not be

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hundreds of people who died because of the song there were a few people that died while listening to the song or quoting this song so for a period of time authorities didn't quite make the connection as to why there was this increase in suicide so it's a few days after this concert and people the authorities were like oh oh my gosh there was such an influx of suicides what what the hell is happening but I will also remind everyone that this was during the time of the Great Depression and in Hungary specifically there was a bit of a fascist movement hence why the song was originally written about the war and despair in Hungary but still the authorities were a bit perplexed and Confused they weren't sir sure what was happening until they discovered the Catalyst while investigating the death of a Shoemaker named Joseph Keller next to Joseph's body was a note Joseph had quoted the song Gloomy Sunday in his suicide letter

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and then with those clear lyrics in front of them the police they start to look back from at the deaths from a few days before and all of those people laying dead next to their record players all of the deceased people in the river with music sheets on them and the time of deaths all lined up it was because the band in Budapest was playing Gloomy Sunday and people were playing those records and reading along to sheet music and taking in that song on that particular day Gloomy Sunday had been the last song these people heard do you have the lyrics are you going to share the lyrics with us okay I will okay because it's it's interesting like I feel as if we as a society you know everywhere in the world as as a earth we want to understand things that seem Indescribable or unexplainable and so it

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would be understandable how there'd be this like idea to latch on to and right people are dying something must be cursed it's easier than understanding and the pain the pain of your feeling and what they're going through yeah totally but in the legend after making this connection they quickly move to ban the song but this only made people want to listen more a crisp song I gotta hear this right you know it's the here's a button do not press well what if I press it yeah and so the song grew in popularity and so did the number of deaths and Legend says the numbers of death deaths Rose and Rose moving across Europe and into the United States claiming the lives of hundreds of people in Germany a Shoemaker died by Suicide and was found with the sheet music underneath her feet an 80 year old man played this song and leapt from his seven-story window

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a 14 year old girl drowned while gripping onto the sheet music in Rome an errand boy was passing by a man on the street who was asking for money and the man had been humming Gloomy Sunday the boy suddenly entered a trance gave the man all of his money and leapt into the river to his death in Michigan a 13 year old boy died by Suicide with the lyrics in his pocket in New York a student died via gunshot while listening to the song in London a woman downed a lethal amount of drugs while listening to the song and so then BBC in the UK banned the radio from playing the song and other cities followed suit I mean better safe than sorry right right totally like I can completely understand why they wouldn't want to do that and I did some of in some of the it's hard when it's Legend and lore added into to facts because sometimes it's right to differentiate between what's factual and

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what's not but um in many of the articles there was information alluding to the fact that basically it was banned from being played over the radio but the live performances weren't always necessarily banned so it was just more of like a broadcasting things at times but even that being said the The Legend says that BBC banned the radio from playing the song and other cities did too and that a lot of people and cities and states and provinces it kind of it depended on the area and some of them did ban it from being played at all ever but Banning these songs or trying to place restrictions on this song Only acted as a Band-Aid to the problem was the song encouraging people to end their lives or was this song sought out by those who were suffering in 1937 a man in Indianapolis paid a musician to play Gloomy Sunday at the

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bar that he was at the police were nearby and Legend goes they heard the music they rushed to the scene and stopped the performance and they found that this man who had paid the musician was seated there with a beer in front of him that he was drinking and that beer was a beer that he had poisoned so he had been trying to listen to the song while ending his life in the bar so then it sounds like not only does this curse exist or believe it cursed exists now people are listening to that song like it's it's hard to differentiate which thought comes first right exactly for lack of a better way to describe it because this is an awful way to to describe it but it feels like an Anthem for people who at that time were contemplating ending their lives and felt comfort in knowing that those feelings weren't

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like others felt them you know like it was a song that that clearly understood how they felt but it didn't stop them from feeling isolated it didn't give them that that yeah being like Oh well the artist and other people who listened to this song like maybe I'm not alone and said it it made them feel a little bit more comfortable and confident in their decision to leave this world yes it was horrible horrible

Lyrics and Billie Holiday

so all of these things start happening within the first few years of this song being shared it was you know it took two years for it to be a major hit and then within a very short amount of time within just a few years like there is just a high number of suicides and rumors about the song The Curse of gloomy Sunday and clearly the lyrics are striking a chord with people um but it is leading them to these terrible things but despite the number of deaths and the

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evidence of the song Maybe shouldn't be played at least at this time Billie Holiday recorded her version of the song and her version then became the most famous version of the song ever recovered ever recorded I'm going to read you the lyrics to the song right now okay the lyrics have morphed many times so you can find online some variations of the song uh and even Billie Holiday added some additional lyrics I'm gonna read her version because it's the version it's most listened to but if you do not want to listen listener whoever's all the Phantoms out there you can skip ahead about 60 seconds when I tell you in in a few moments um if you don't want to hear them but like I mentioned earlier so many artists have covered this song You've likely already heard it and you just didn't know uh it the last time I could see that it had a cover was in 2021 so all the way up until basically today

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children have covered it in their auditions and performances on X Factor orchestras have covered it in movie scenes so you might be listening to a movie score and have no clue that what is happening in the background is actually this cursed song singing to you and it's probably better that you don't know right and maybe it's maybe the older version that it was closer to the original that maybe I mean but Billy's Billy Holiday recorded I think it was only like five or six years after it was written um so a lot of people heard her version and this was still happening all of these suicides were happening even when she had recorded and published hers um okay many other artists like Ray Charles Etta James Sarah Mclaughlin Bjork have all recorded covers of the song so you've likely heard it you just don't know it maybe it's on your Moody Sunday playlist and you just didn't realize

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um so I don't think we need to be afraid of this song but I also appreciate when people have a good healthy superstition so I'm going to recite the lyrics now skip forward if you do not want to hear them right now Sunday is gloomy my hours are slumberless dearest the Shadows I live with our numblet dearest the Shadows I live with are numberless little white flowers will never awaken you not when the black coach of Sorrow has taken you angels have no thoughts of ever returning you would they be angry if I thought of joining you Gloomy Sunday gloomy is Sunday with shadows I spend it all my heart and I have decided to end it all soon there will be candles and prayers that are said I know let them not weep let them know that I'm glad to go death is no dream for in death I'm

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caressing you with the last breath of my soul I'll be blessing you Gloomy Sunday dreaming I was only dreaming I wake and I find you asleep in my deep of in the Deep of my heart here darling I hope that my dream never haunted you my heart is telling you how much I wanted you gloomy Sunday oh sad sad you know it's um I don't know if anyone saw my face in the middle of that when you're reading it as you're reading classical music started to play somewhere around me my neighbor is um listening to the radio or something but it was the timing was a bit that is so scary that sounds good oh God the soundtrack in in my uh home today

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for this I know thundering appropriate you're really feeling this though right now and I'm freezing oh man yeah well I'm sure a lot of people back in the day listening to this were feeling kind of similar things to you and noticing things around them that maybe felt like signs that this this was a good idea this is the way that they should go and it's not if you are someone who is thinking that we can assure you you are much better here with us so please and there are many resources yes and I'm going to say some of the resources at the end of this episode and Link okay thank you as well Perfect You're Not Alone you're not we love you you are not and if I hear that you've been thinking about something I don't want you to do I'm gonna visit you in your sleep and I'm gonna tickle your little toes you don't want that to give you a hug you've

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got to stay here

Fact vs fiction

by 1945 12 years after the initial creation of the song it was said that over 200 deaths worldwide were attributed to Gloomy Sunday it was the Gloomy Sunday song curse and the composer himself bresho acknowledged this he said quote I stand in the midst of this deadly success as an accused man this fatal Fame hurts me I cried all of the disappointments of my heart into the song and it seems that others with feelings like mine have found their own hurt in it eventually racho too fell victim to his own cursed song it is sad that he sought out his former lover but in his search for her he found that she had died when he found out after the fact after he had written the song yes yes so he went back looking years later looking for his lover and it was

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told to him that when she was found a piece of paper was found next to her and she had written Just Two Words Gloomy Sunday ah oh my gosh this is I don't even know it's Shakespearean level I know tragedy it is wow just after his 69th birthday Rochelle jumped from a window and passed away a terrible tragic curse but is it real this curse is unsurprisingly and hopefully maybe this is where we'll we'll get slightly a little bit of light coming to us here it's a little bit of a legend so there are a lot of facts in here that add to that you know Sabrina were like so Shakespearean you know there's there's still a lot of death there's still a lot of heartache and hardship and there's a lot of real world atrocities that were happening that aren't less than what is described in the lore

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but the lore was put together to basically create this curse you know but I'm going to tell you a little bit more about some of the facts so that we can swap those out for what I just told you okay so to start Rochelle he wasn't a struggling artist you know he wasn't someone who'd never sold any music before in fact he was pretty successful he was considered an expert composer magazines wrote about him he'd sold like 100 pieces of music at that point so he was he was totally successful he wasn't just like sitting on his hands being like I'm quitting it's clear people like an Underdog Story and so that that narrative was switched a little bit the song also was not banned I know I said this a little bit earlier but it basically wasn't really banned most places oh it was just discouraged from being played uh because there was so much Legend growing around it so they basically didn't want everyone to seek

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it out as a suicide cursed wrong because that's kind of and perpetuated yeah yeah exactly and also BBC they did place a band specifically on Billy Holliday's version because it was World War II and not wanting us they didn't and they did not want a song with such haunting lyrics to lower the morale of the troops and everyone who were experiencing a war a World War yeah yeah some of the people named who had died and I didn't include people's names earlier in the lower piece because I just I mean some of them are dead because those were a little bit more factual um for the most part when I was listening how people died I didn't want to say people's names because I didn't want to say an incorrect version of their death but there are newspaper articles that you can look at and some of the people are named um and the claims of them holding sheet music

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or with their Gloomy Sunday records set and their gramophones are mostly exaggerations however there were still a number of deaths and some of those people included that were tied to the Gloomy Sunday song so again it didn't necessarily come of gloomy Sunday but I think maybe because that was the lore around it some people sought it out and that was reported in the news and that only just perpetuated the story more and more and more right so did hundreds of people die while listening to the song no did some people yes rasho did die by Suicide but some 30 years later and as a Jewish man he had been forced by the Nazis into a concentration camp during World War II where he I mean we can I don't have to fill the course open to him yeah he lost the kidney while he was there too from being

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attacked oh my gosh he survived thank God the war ended and he was able to return home and when he did he found that his wife had married someone else so that broke his heart his home country of Hungary became a communist country and just everything started to kind of shatter in his world everything was feeling really heavy and dark and and he just didn't really know where his home was what felt like home anymore so he had experienced the war he'd experienced heartbreak he'd experienced the concentration camp and actually it said that that he first wrote was really about the concentration camp and his mom had also been in a concentration camp in Ukraine so luckily that song was kind of like him talking to her like the the constant and trying to process that

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trauma totally which is like this is the part where I'm like did we even need the lore of this song because the reality is just dark already yeah so dark yes it's not just that he found that his lover had passed like it is it is everything it's a million things stacked onto this guy so he did eventually reconcile with his wife but even so after all of these traumas that he went through he wasn't able to get himself out of this depression and he had multiple attempts throughout his life um and one of the very last ones he did jump from his balcony so that was factual but he survived the landing he broke bones but in his recovery while being treated at the hospital he died by taking the wire that was propping up his cast and fashioning it

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to prevent him from being able to breathe and he passed away not so I don't even have words it's so sad I know I told you yesterday I was like by the way what I'm doing tomorrow is super depressing but sometimes I just feel like I need to talk about it yeah and and I think also you know these thoughts are real and they're isolating and they're consuming and hopefully in talking about this people understand and know that they're not alone I've been there it's really really hard I I went to drama treatment like you know so I I get it and I just hope everyone knows we love you you are loved you are important okay so in 1997 the rumors of this song being cursed

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kind of resurfaced a little bit because Billy McKenzie covered the song and he too died by Suicide and apparently he had said and I have no idea if this is factual or not but apparently he said that severe nightmares came with listening to this song and this contributed even more to the Superstition and people began to believe that maybe the song Now included some subliminal messages too you know like that was the time 70s 80s 90s rock and roll and and everything like that that's the time when everyone's like are there messages being in our television commercials and our satanic Panic totally totally and so that I mean that kind of in one thing informed the other um and people started to wonder if if they would by listening to the song again would they be put into a trance that would lead them into the dark so while what happened is absolutely

Socio-political context

horrendous and many people lost their lives we also have to

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let this historical period inform us on that was not a sentence um we have to recognize what was going on in history at this point in time the song came out during the Great Depression people were in poverty they were experiencing famine many people lost everything we were coming off of a World War entering another suicide numbers across several nations were an all-time high already before this song ever came out Hungary specifically had one of the highest suicide rates in the world oh and at this time had the highest suicide rate in the world right so it existed before it existed before the release of this song did not change this statistic to quote the factsgology.com the author wrote in this article and I just think they they put it really nicely so I wasn't even gonna

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change what they wrote Gloomy Sunday did not cause the deaths but instead the song was easier to blame instead of the more complex socio-political factors that appeared unsolvable right and that is the curse of gloomy Sunday but I do want to end really quick yeah on a little bit more of a positive song and that is the artist's logic put out in anti-suicide song in 2017 named after the suicide prevention number in America so the song is called 1-800-273-8255 and following performances of his song the number of calls to the hotline increased by five percent and after his VMAs performance and his two 2018 Grammys performance suicide rates among 10 to 19 year olds dropped 5.5 percent so music is powerful and it can have a real positive impact and remember that when you're choosing

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the songs to listen to especially when you're feeling down yeah oh can do you have the lyrics for that song no but it goes like I don't wanna die today I Don't Wanna Die I just want to feel alive you know that one um no but everyone listened to it after this okay okay and if you or someone you know is contemplating suicide you can find help at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline call or text 988 if you are in the US and also please find our show notes below for additional resources like the number in the United Kingdom the Trevor Project Lifeline for people in the lgbtq plus community and a variety of other links that will show you where to go depending on your situation yeah there is support out there for you well and it's hard to

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to say Where Do We Go From Here Yeah where do we go I think it's a reminder that even when things feel cursed and and things feel paranormal when there's a curse and when there's something paranormal oftentimes we feel like it's never ending right where it's like right how will we survive this haunted house how will this hex ever be lifted stuff like that and this is just a reminder that bad things do happen in the world but there's a lot of good that comes after it and so you have to wait for tomorrow because tomorrow will come and it will be better and yes and speaking as people who have experienced or believed to have experienced curses we believe it's been lifted and then I'll speak you know I mentioned this briefly but speaking from my own experience I have been in some really really low places and while I'm still working on myself and

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continuing to grow and you know there are moments where I fall back into those lower moments I have seen a much Brighter Side of Things yeah I'm on the up and up on the up and down and yeah we totally understand that it's a it's a hard thing to hear and to believe when you're in that low place because you do feel like everyone's just saying this to me like they don't actually understand they're lying they're they don't it's inauthentic I know that what I feel to be true is is the best choice and it's it's just not it's your brain tricking you it's your brain yeah brain is very powerful um well thank you Corinne for giving resources and for sharing this it is despite how depressing and sad it is it's such a intriguing story and a very intriguing

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look into what we as a society do to try to explain things that seem so beyond our explanation or understand totally I also just wanted to cover it I think too because I'd seen it a few times on tick tock on YouTube on various clips that kind of use it as this sort of salacious click bait story like this song could kill you like you know and there's just so much more into it and I just feel I just felt like I had to actually do the research and tell people I think that's what was really going on thank you Karen I have a story from our

Listener story and outro

listener Joe and it is called ghost Club co-president Circa 1992. hi ladies the name is Joe long time listener first time emailer I have like you been into all things spooky from Early Childhood into my now 41st year finding your podcast makes me feel connected to my roots I want to use my age and

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experience to recommend a Disney live action movie from 1982 called The Watcher in the woods if you know you know maybe find it on YouTube Disney plus has not added it yet which is a travesty so onto my experience I was the co-president of our little ghost club with my then best friend inmate in late middle school early 90s definitely in homage to the Midnight Society in Are You Afraid of the Dark but pre The Craft when it came out it felt like our movie so we would light red and black candles and hold crystals journals and tell stories have seances listen to the wind for signs it was in the spring or summer so we would stay outside to avoid parents happening Upon Our creepy group we slowly indoctrinated many other like-minded friends into our club it ended up it was so cool yes I love this for you Joe and I wish

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you inducted us into the club uh well is it too late let's do now I don't know and we ended up with four total but we end up bringing in some negative energy when we invited Crystal name changed as our fourth because our conversations and rituals started to get dark we started complaining about bullies and bullying and Crystal called out a neighborhood bully she wished would get out of her life he was an older boy a friend of my brothers and he was really rough and emotionally abusive we were in the middle of a ritual one meeting and Crystal Pops in with something like I'm making a curse and sending it to the wind to make Billy green name also changed disappear from my life he is nothing to me he is dead to me we all stopped and stared at her and she looked at me with conviction and said she wasn't sorry for what she said I looked at my co-president and we quickly ended the meeting dispersing back to our homes I got a weird feeling about it when I

1:00:00

saw my brother but I never told anyone a feeling like I was used for something unnatural if that makes sense a very short time later my child mine would probably say the next day but I cannot confirm this my parents were talking to my brother about something and I came into the room and overheard that his friend Billy green had suddenly died my parents saw me catching the news and came to give me a hug and eventually they told us how he died it wasn't clear as it was told from a friend of the family who said it was a rare blood disease there would be no public funeral only a private immediate family one I called my best friend told her and I feel like we quickly hung up saying coincidence it had to be Etc I never told my brother or parents as I know it would be insensitive and dismissed outright I only wanted to give my brother support in his grief as the next opportunity to meet with the ghost Club I recall we sat in silence until Crystal

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came and we again repeated it had to be a coincidence just had to be she just sat there quiet then jumped up and said I'm done and left we disbanded as a group soon after that though after the craft came out my best friend and I were obsessed so we just stuck to the two of us lighting candles and burning herbs to stay safe we never talked about it with Crystal again she seemed okay and never reached back out about it or ever asked to hang out other than in bigger groups for sports and parties we all parted ways organically when we moved into High School in later years and even recently I've brought up my ghost Club to people when talking about my interests in all things spooky and even to this day even writing this now that long dormant feeling of feeling like I was being used by something comes back up I don't talk with my old best friend much but I always wonder about Crystal's inner mind and what more could have happened thanks for your service this podcast is

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so prolific and satisfying I will send a short ghost cat experience in the next email see you on the other side ladies Joe whoa I mean this feels like the craft it it totally is where it's like the group is split between people who are down to pull from the dark and wish poorly of others and do some real harm and those who were interested in Magic not for the power or the benefit of themselves but just to practice it and feel in tune and to do good things or fun things so holy crap they like truly lived it but this is so horrifying and it's so scary because it does make you think about the power of certain people in their words and what that can do and the wrong person pulls from the wrong energy and suddenly coincidence or not what if

1:03:00

what is that I don't know someone that's not Thunder that's someone like banging on a drum it's not a drum but I don't know what is happening today I don't know but yeah I mean it's it's just also spooky and horrific speaking of power of the brain and and words and just it's intention right this yeah Story I mean Crystal it sounds like had bad intention and we read a story recently where the grandmother was with the granddaughter and was so in awe and in love and was just like I could squeeze you and it made the baby sick because it was just this strong energy of love and and even though it was coming from like a good place it's it's the words it's the it's the power it's like there's something is listen you

1:04:00

have to be extremely specific it reminds me of that one teacher on Tick Tock Who challenged everyone to to basically with their words describe how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and she would basically find all the all the parts that they were missing so if you said like open up the container or like open up the sleeve of bread she would like grab the middle of the bread and like rip it open the plastic because she's like you weren't specific enough so you'd have to be like find the edge with the plastic tie undo the tie place the tie down on the counter go back to that same spot open up the plastic with your hands like pulling apart with like very specific and that's how it makes me feel with this where it's like you say I want someone out of my life I'm upset with them I hope something bad they get karma for what they did to me what if that is death because you didn't specify I just don't want to ever have

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to engage with this person right ugh yeah you never know who's listening what's listening and what they'll read between the lines that you have all the grace there's so much gray space you know I will say though Joe I hope that you don't take a pawn or take on any of that as guilt or your responsibility because you were young and they weren't your words it was someone else yeah and your intention was never to harm so I hope that that isn't something you continue to feel and live with let's take a lesson from the craft which is that person who wishes to do poorly on towards someone is going to do it whether you're in the room or not so exactly exactly yeah totally yeah well I at least have one must watch on my list and that is the Watcher in the woods because I have never yeah I've never heard of it

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okay let's watch it and talk about it okay perfect movie Movie Club ghost club book club Movie Club thank you everyone for joining us thank you Joe for sending us your story if you also have a paranormal encounter or a spooky story in any kind in any of any kind please email it to us at two girls one ghostpodcast gmail.com and then join us for campfire stories every Tuesday on patreon 5pm Pacific 8 PM Eastern and come to our live shows the link is in the show notes so check that out we really hope to see you yeah we do and we can't freaking wait thank you guys for all you've done to support us all the various ways that you've shown your love towards us we really appreciate it and we're absorbing it and we're trying to send it right back to you and we will see you on the other other

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s