Death ain't nothin' new: from John Barleycorn to John Walker's blues -- Teenage wildlife: from sob to suicide -- Blood on the floor: murder, music and morality -- How does it feel?: death and the sixties -- Appetite for self destruction: oblivion songs -- Sweetness follows?: into the great beyond -- Gangsta gangsta: rap reclaims the murder song -- Sometimes it snows in April: the music of loss -- Who wants to live forever?: the fat lady's songbook -- The art of dying (slight return) -- Epilogue. To die for: the forty greatest death songs.