The "Dead Man's Cake" blogs, issue #7
"Dead Man's Cake" is the title track (track 4) from my 2012 CD "Dead Man's Cake" . It describes the tragic event of my mother Judy's suicide, but unlike track 3, " Judy's Mind ", the song Dead Man's Cake presents a different sort of perspective. The basic facts are that my mother, Judith Friedman Barrows, who, like my father, wrote for Hollywood television shows in the 1960s, on the night of August 19th, 1970, drove to Mt. Sinai Cemetery in North Hollywood where her father was buried, and committed suicide by taking an overdose of pills. "Dead Man's Cake" is a metaphor for the pills, but it's also a metaphor for suicide generally. I wrote the piece as a cautionary tale against suicide. The chorus of the song says, "Don't you eat that Dead Man's Cake. If you're thinking about taking your life, don't do it." (Incidentally, if you are thinking about it, I say, don't do it. Instead...