Another melodic, haunting, and equally captivating song, released earlier in the decade, was made famous as the opening theme to the smash hit TV show M*A*S*H. Performed by Jonny Mandel, and forever seared into the consciousness of many folks of a certain age, ‘Suicide is Painless’ was, to me at the time anyhow, just another brilliant track. As a teenager, the meaning of the term suicide was just lost within the hypnotic harmonies.
Decades later, via YouTube, I happened upon these gems again and fell immediately back in love with the magical Andrew Gold song. Yet on this occasion, I was more drawn to the simple, yet haunting chorus which simply consisted of a trio of, “Oh, what a lonely boy.” This time my context connected with the taboo subject…