She's Not Dead

Hi ha cançons amb un rerefons inesperat i espectacular. Recordo la tornada de She’s Not Dead, dels anglesos Suede, un tema del seu primer disc –malauradament eclipsat pel tercer i megapopish àlbum, Coming Up, ja sense el coautor, guitarrista i pianista Bernard Butler–. No pretenc fer un panegíric de Suede, pioners del britpop i segons la meva humil opinió força més originals que la majoria de britbands, però sempre he pensat que She’s Not Dead és una bona cançó, d’arranjaments encertats, melodia original i lletra críptica i enigmàtica. És potser el tema que més he escoltat i, tenint en compte que tinc tots els seus discos, resulta curiós (almenys a mi; més enllà d'Animal Nitrate, Stay Together, Trash, Heroine, Beautiful Ones, Lost in TV o hits més o menys populars). Resulta que la lletra té un rerefons personal, i és que parla de la tieta del cantant, autor i lletrista, l’ambigu Brett Anderson. Ell mateix ho explica en un llibre:

«I was pretty young at the time. She had this lover and he was black and Hayward's Heath is a small town and in the early '80s I guess it was very taboo. And basically they committed joint suicide together. They drove a car into a garage and just turned the exhaust on and killed themselves.»

Quan descobreixes el motiu inspirador no pots evitar de lligar-ho amb el resultat musical que tant t’havia atret. Les desgràcies inspiren.

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She'll come to her end
Locked in a car somewhere
With exhaust in her hair,
What's she called?
I dunno,
She's fucking with a slip of a man
While the engine ran

And he said
"She's not dead, she's gone away, gone away" he said
He said
"She's not dead, just go away go away" he said

In the car he couldn't afford
They found his made up name
On her ankle chain,
So don't call,
Don't call her at home,
She's fucking with a slip of a man
While the engine ran

And he said
"She's not dead, she's gone away gone away" he said
He said
"She's not dead, she's gone away gone away" he said
"Just gone away gone away" he said
She's gone away to someone else's bed.