Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

O Death

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

O Death, also known as O, Death, Oh Death and Conversations with Death, is a traditional American folk song. In 2004, the Journal of Folklore Research asserted that "O, Death" is Lloyd Chandler's song "A Conversation with Death", which Chandler performed in the 1920s while preaching in Appalachia.

Contents

Recordings

Country blues banjo player Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs recorded the song in the late 1920s. A recording from the 1938 National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C. is on file with the Library of Congress. Various folk music artists included O, Death on musical collections throughout the 1970s and '80s. It is sung in the 1976 Barbara Kopple documentary Harlan County, USA.

Among the most famous recordings is Ralph Stanley's version in the 2000 Coen brothers film (and soundtrack album) O Brother, Where Art Thou?, for which Stanley won the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 2002. The soundtrack's producer, T-Bone Burnett, originally asked for a banjo rendition emulating Dock Boggs, but Stanley convinced him otherwise with an a cappella performance in the style of the Appalachian Primitive Baptist Universalist church. The song also appears in episode 7 of the second season of television series Fargo, inspired by another Coen brothers film of the same name. The version used in this episode was recorded by Shakey Graves with Monica Martin of PHOX.

O, Death has appeared twice in American television series Supernatural, both times in connection with the show's personification of Death, portrayed by Julian Richings. The 2010 episode "Two Minutes to Midnight" featured a version by Jen Titus; Lisa Berry performed the song in character as Billie in the 2015 episode "Form and Void".

Other versions

  • A Hill to Die Upon recorded an extreme metal variant with harpist Timbre on Holy Despair (2014).
  • Amy van Roekel, for the video game Until Dawn (2015).
  • Bitter End, on Illusions of Dominance (2015).
  • Camper Van Beethoven, with variant lyrics and melody.
  • Faun Fables, on a reissue of Early Song (2004).
  • Gangstagrass, on Broken Hearts and Stolen Money (2014).
  • John Cygan as protagonist Silas Greaves in the video game Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (2015).
  • Joshua Eustis (formerly of Telefon Tel Aviv), under the moniker "Sons of Magdalene" on Move to Pain (2014).
  • Kaleidoscope, on Side Trips (1967).
  • Rising Appalachia with a spoken word interlude by Theresa Davis, on Wider Circles (2015).
  • Sam Amidon, on All is Well (2008).
  • Vera Hall, as Death Have Mercy (1959)
  • Kate Mann, in Rattlesnake on the Road (2014).

    • Lyrics

    As a folk song, lyric variations of O, Death are common. Presented here are the lyrics sung by Ralph Stanley in his Grammy-winning performance in O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

    References

    O Death Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA