Max's Musings

And When I Die

And When I Die

Some songs get on my soundtrack just because I like them. That's the case with this song. I probably first heard it late 1968 or early 1969 when I was a freshman at the Unviersity of Dubuque, so it also brings back memories of bell bottoms, psychedelic t-shirts, and love beads. Ah, the echoes of a mispent youth.

Laura Nyro wrote this song when she was seventeen and sold it to Peter, Paul, and Mary for $5000. They released it in 1966, but it was the 1968 cover by Blood, Sweat and Tears that propelled the song to fame. The BS&T version is quite different from the earlier versions, and I've linked both theirs and other versions below. Nyro was dating BS&T bassist Jim Fiedler at the time the band released the song.

The song has occassionally been used in TV dramas. It appeard in the final episode of season four of True Blood, also titled "And When I Die." In the episode "Better Off Dead" of Medium (season three, episode five), the song makes an appearance.

Laura Nyro had a significant career both as a solo artist and as a composer. Her compositions, in particular, influenced an array of famous pop singers, including such familiar names as Tori Amos, Joanie Mitchell, Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, and Elton John. John, in particular, said, "I idolized her. The soul, the passion, just the out and out audacity of the way her rhythmic and melody changes came was like nothing I've heard before." Those rhythmic and melodic changes certainly pulse through "And When I Die." Nyro was a committed feminist and animal rights activist. She died, at age 50, in 1997.

The lyrics are about accepting death as part of living. The verse

And when I die and when I'm gone
There'll be one child born
In this world, carry on, to carry on

invokes a connection to the great chain of being which we all share.

As I remarked above, the version of the song I heard back in the dorms is the one released by Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gxwutvlTw8

You can hear Laura Nyro singing the song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Jvry-y_Wg

Peter, Paul, and Mary did the first commercial release in 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeIQH7-ThA

Alison Krauss sings the song in her memorial album Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eomMDkLNss

Lyrics
https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/blood-sweat-tears/and-when-i-die