Suicide Demo for Kara Walker Lyrics

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About

Genius Annotation

African-American plastic artist Kara Walker and Destroyer mastermind Dan Bejar co-wrote this song from his 2011 album Kaputt. With many references to the life and work of American writer Ralph Ellison, the song also tells the story of a girl and her suicide in the context of racism in 20th-century America.

Walker and Bejar collaborated on the behest of Destroyer’s record label, Merge, in an effort to mix artists of different disciplines. Bejar reportedly knew little about Walker’s work or life, and composed the song after being inspired by some of Walker’s texts.

I like the idea of the song being about her, even though I know very little about her work, and even less about her as a person, and I don’t think it’s about her, any more than it’s about me.

The song’s opening is reminiscent of “Crockett’s Theme” from 80’s American television series Miami Vice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UmOY6ek_Y4&feature=kp

The title is a reference to avant NYC duo Suicide. Bejar told AV Club:

“The term of the title is that it just describes what the song was. Which is when I first recorded it, it sounded like maybe a shitty demo that the band Suicide might have done.”

Credits
Release Date
January 25, 2011
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