2 July 1980
Content warning: self-harm. This one needs a lot of context.
M*A*S*H the TV series was hugely popular in 1980. I have a vague childhood memory of it being on but I’ve never seen an episode of it. Ten years earlier, Robert Altman had made M*A*S*H the movie, a Palme d’Or-winning cynical comedy about US army medics behind the front line of a war in Asia. I’ve seen the movie but it obviously didn’t make an impact on me as I can’t recall much of it. (I prefer two of Altman’s subsequent films: McCabe & Mrs Miller, and The Long Goodbye.) The song that hits number one in the UK and Irish charts in 1980 was used in the movie, but only as an instrumental theme in the TV series. Apparently its actual title, ‘Suicide Is Painless’, was stipulated by Altman, and the rest of its lyrics were written by Altman’s son, at the time aged 14. My vague recollection of the movie tells me that the song title relates to a fake suicide attempt by one of the characters, so its whimsical air makes some kind of “sense” (and I use the term lightly) in that setting.
The song’s breezy Spanish guitar and sunny Beach Boys-style harmonies sound attractive enough, and the lilting melody by Johnny Mandel is certainly catchy. But I really have no idea why anyone would listen to that grim, tasteless title repeated several times as a chorus. If this was actually played on radio at the time as a chart hit, then the collective sense of humour in 1980 must have been very warped indeed.
