suicide is painless

Cover Versions of #1s – Suede and Manic Street Preachers

/ UK #1s blog / 6 Comments

In 1992, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the UK Singles Chart, the NME released ‘Ruby Trax’: an album of forty cover versions of number one singles. It featured acts as diverse as Billy Bragg, Dannii Minogue, and the Jesus and Mary Chain, and it is a wonder. And something I shall be mining for all my upcoming ‘Cover Versions of #1s…’ posts.

Starting with two covers by two of the early nineties’ biggest alternative bands. November 1992 saw British rock on the verge of a big shift. The following May, Blur would release the first of their Britpop trilogy, ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’, shortly after the arrival of the eponymous debut LP from Suede.

Suede had only released two singles when they contributed this cover of the Pretenders’ ‘Brass in Pocket’ to ‘Ruby Trax’, but they were already darlings of the music press. ‘The Best New Band in Britain’ according to Melody Maker upon the release of their first single (and, in hindsight, probably the very first ‘Britpop’ single) ‘The Drowners’.

Their cover of ‘Brass in Pocket’, is a slow-burn, adding a layer of menace that the more upbeat, seize-the-day feel of the original lacks. Brett Anderson’s voice, though, has persuasive charm like Chrissie Hynde, albeit the persuasive charm of someone begging you for drugs at a party (note also the subtle lyrics changes that add some early-nineties edge). This cover wasn’t released as a single, but was included on a 2018 re-issue of Suede’s debut album.

The only single released from ‘Ruby Trax’ was by perhaps the hottest band in Britain in 1992: Manic Street Preachers. Their take on ‘Suicide is Painless’, AKA the theme from ‘M*A*S*H’, became the band’s first Top 10 hit, peaking at #7.

I’m reluctant to ever claim a cover version as ‘better’ than an original – can you ‘better’ something that isn’t your original work? – but I will say that the Manics’ version sounds much more how I imagine a song titled ‘Suicide Is Painless’ should sound. Despite the sombre topic, the light arrangment and the choral voices of the original theme mean it can’t help sounding like a TV show theme. Which, I’ll admit, was probably the point.

In the Manics’ hands, overwrought lyrics like The game of life is hard to play, I’m gonna lose it anyway… hit home. Even the clunky title line Suicide is painless, It brings on many changes… works. Just about. Of course, knowing now the widely-believed fate of Richey Edwards adds a very sad edge to the Manics singing a song about suicide. Here though, Edwards joins the band in bringing the song to a garage rock crescendo.

I hope you enjoyed these two covers, especially if they’re new to you. If anything, it’s been nice to break up the relentless pop and dance of the year 2000’s chart-toppers for a moment… A very brief moment. I’ll feature some more covers from ‘Ruby Trax’ later in the year.

459. ‘Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)’, by The Mash

/ UK #1s blog / 12 Comments

This next #1 sounds like a blast from the past… Originally released in 1970, the theme from ‘M*A*S*H’ took a full decade to make the top of the charts…

Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide is Painless), by The Mash (their 1st and only #1)

3 weeks, 25th May – 15th June 1980

The why and wherefore of that we’ll get to in a bit. To the song first, though. It’s a simple enough, folksy ditty. It’s got a very late-sixties, post-Woodstock comedown feel to it. It’s also very melancholy. A song titled ‘Suicide Is Painless’ was always going to be a bit depressing…

Through early morning fog I see, Visions of the things to be, The pains that are withheld for me, I realise and I can see… The main thrust being that life is shit, and that suicide is always an option. By verse three, the ‘sword of time’ is piercing our skin, and everyone’s feeling thoroughly miserable. The singers, meanwhile, harmonise on the choruses like creepy Beach Boys.

I’m going to stick my neck out and say that this would never have been a hit had it not been associated with a huge film and TV franchise. It was the theme to the movie first, in 1970, and then the spin-off TV series between 1972 and ’83. I guess demand had built up over the years thanks to the show’s success, and this re-release sent it crashing up to the top of the charts.

The record is credited to ‘The Mash’, but in reality it was performed by some uncredited session singers who probably never received a belated dollar for their huge hit. One person who did make some money from it was Michael Altman, the fourteen-year-old son of the film’s director Robert. His dad allegedly requested ‘the stupidest lyric ever’, and the kid obliged in five minutes flat.

I think ‘stupidest lyric ever’ is a bit harsh, but the second you realise it was written by a moody teenager then lines like: The game of life is hard to play, I’m gonna lose it anyway… suddenly make complete sense. I think the dumbest bit of the whole song is actually the chorus: Suicide is painless, It brings on many changes… One of pop music’s great understatements there.

I wonder if there was any controversy at the time, either in 1970 or ten years later, around the theme of suicide in a #1 single, or TV theme, and the idea that it might be ‘painless’? It’d raise a few eyebrows nowadays for sure. Either way, it’s a song that’s been covered many a time. In the UK, the most notable has been The Manic Street Preachers’ version, which returned the tune to the Top 10 in 1992. It’s quite a haunting take on the song, too, given the Manics’ guitarist Richey Edwards’ still-unexplained disappearance a couple of years later.