M*A*S*H

During the hiatus of my blog I decided to pick up more records that are not hardcore/punk related. I want to broaden my musical horizon and instead of buying the same records over and over again, I want to have a more diverse collection. Having said that, I still have certain collections going, but overall I prioritise diversity over collecting. 

This song right here holds a special in my heart. M*A*S*H is my all-time favourite TV show and has probably shaped my moral views more than any work of art. I have watched the whole series at least a dozen times and it is my number one go-to TV show if I feel down. The TV show originated from a movie, which itself was an adaption of a book written by Richard Hooker. 

To be honest, I‘ve never read the novel and I only watched the movie once, maybe twice, but I love the TV show. The title track, Suicide is Painless, was written for the movie, and an instrumental version of the song was used for the opening and end credits of the TV show. The song itself is quite melancholic, which shouldn‘t come as a surprise considering the title. Director Robert Altmann told the composer that the theme song had to be called Suicide is Painless and asked for the stupidest lyrics imaginable, which is a great task to set for anyone, haha. Robert Altmann tried to write the lyrics himself, but felt he couldn‘t write anything stupid enough. So he gave his 15-year-old son the task and he came up with the lyrics within 5 minutes according to legend. I‘m pretty sure the lyrics wouldn‘t fly nowadays, but to be honest, I don’t think they‘re THAT bad. I definitely have hardcore records with worse lyrics. Another fun fact, Robert Altmann was paid $70,000 for directing the movie, while his son made a million dollars for co-writing the song - at least that‘s what Mr Altmann claimed. Not a bad paycheck for 5 minutes of work.