Let’s Talk About Death, Baby!

It’s Valentine’s Day, and I am wearing my undies on the outside as a conversation starter for a Wayside Chapel Valentines Day Fundraiser. 

Since I needed to get the conversation started, I decided to show myself some love and head to the gym. I love Barre class, even though it burns my butt, and today, to show myself even more love, I did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine.

I forgot my earbuds (like every time, which isn’t often, because I don’t really like using the machines). This turned out to be a good thing because it let me fall into a rhythm without distractions. After 17 minutes of striding away “Let’s talk about death, baby” pops into my head — to the tune of Let's Talk About Sex Baby by Salt n Pepa.

I should explain why this would happen…

The Origins of Let’s Talk About Death, Baby

Lately, I’ve been working on putting Cark It Café on my website and applying for a creative grant, so all these thoughts have been swirling in my head again. Back in 2021, when I studied to be a Death Doula, I couldn’t stop hearing “Let’s Talk About Death, Baby” on repeat in my mind.

I even started rewriting the lyrics: “Let’s talk about death, baby, let’s talk about our destiny”. Determined to make it a song, I downloaded the original lyrics, set up atable with the original text on one side and my new lyrics on the other, and even asked a fellow clowning student—who’s a musician—if he’d help me compose it. Then, I had a thought: “If I’ve come up with this, surely someone else has too?” So, I did some searching and found that, sure enough, an Aussie group in Tassie had already done it!

I didn’t find it on their socials but through Dulong Futures on the Sunshine Coast, who focus on sustainability and sustainable funerals. The masterminds were the Community Coffin Club, an initiative of Care Beyond Cure Inc (in Tassie). They were granted permission by Herbie Azor in 2015 to adapt the song. It was made to celebrate 3.5 years of the Community Coffin Club and to welcome in 2020—doing what they do best: talking about death!

Watch the video  - Happy earworm!

I ended up using their song at the beginning of my very first online Cark It Café Session.

A Serendipitous Gym Moment

Back to the gym… At around 17 minutes in, the song popped into my head, and suddenly these lyrics came out: “Let’s talk about death, baby, let’s talk about you and me, let’s talk about all the things we don’t know about our dying journey, let’s talk about death.”

I grabbed my phone and recorded it.

Then, I moved to the rowing machine for five minutes. Within a minute of recording those lyrics, guess what song plays on the gym radio? “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby!” I was like, “What?! How serendipitous is that?!” I laughed out loud. The other people in the gym just kept doing their own thing, oblivious to my revelation. 

But I had to share this with someone. A lady got up from the cycling machine, and I told her what had happened. She smiled politely, didn’t skip a beat, didn’t pull a weird face when I told her I’d just made-up new lyrics for “Let’s Talk About Death, Baby”. She simply said, “That is serendipitous”, and walked away.

So, is the universe telling me to make up my own lyrics? Maybe. But honestly, I kind of love the one that’s already out there, and I don’t need to add another thing to my to-do/want-to-do list!