Ball of Wax 39 Songs: Darryl Blood – Dead and Gone

There’s no theme to Ball of Wax 39, but there is an interesting thread of mortality, whether the fear or acceptance thereof, that has woven itself through a number of these songs, from “The Long Haul”‘s brooding meditation on illness to “Slim Skeleton”‘s goofy yet dead serious take on the indignity of demise. Ball of Wax die-hard Darryl Blood‘s latest contribution takes a fairly unsentimental approach to the idea of his own passing. For anyone who’s lost a loved one, the idea of what to do with all of their possessions can become overwhelming, and the act of doing it can be emotionally draining, to say the least. In this message to whoever survives him, Darryl basically says don’t worry about it. “When I’m dead and gone,” he sings, “Throw my clothes and tapes on the lawn.” The stuff is not important, he reminds us; it’s the memories and emotions that matter. If something is a burden, let it go. Still, I bet Slim Skeleton might’ve liked to hang on to a pair of pants and a Creedence tape.