Press release(s) of the day: Deathsploitation

The check-out-my-tribute-to-some-dead-person-or-sad-event announcement is one of the most pathetic of all press-release standbys. I can’t tell you how many pitches for “A Song for Freedom” or “The Eagle’s Tear” I got in the months — years, actually — after 9/11. To be fair, these usually come from lone crazies and not from professional publicists. (Occasionally there’s not a huge difference between the two.)

Here’s the sacking of Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons:

today is a sad dae that we tried to make a bit less sad.
you see, gary gygax died.
if you don't know, gary gygax was instrumental in creating dungeons & dragons.

welp, sad and inspired, we made him a song.
here it is:
(thank you) Gary Gygax
(or also on our myspace.) [LINKS REDACTED]

we realize all too well the unfortunate truth is that too often, folks wait until someone has kicked the proverbial bucketcan before they say all the nice things they meant to say about them. that isn't reason enough not to, let it just serve as a collective reminder to us all that we should tell people that we like them and that we like what they do. before they die. people have tried to convince me otherwise, and i refuse to believe it. but if you miss the boat, make them a song.

so the story is good. you see, i was home, when my friend the big j broke the news of mister gygax's demise (and gave us the beautiful line 'there's no graph paper map where you've gone' - thanks big j). i immediately freaked out and picked up the ukulele that i am trying to learn how to play and started singing about him. in between lyrics about orcs, i fired off an e-mail to my group of friends, whom i was LITERALLY SCHEDULED TO PLAY d & d with on this very night. seriously. we're in the midst of a very serious campaign, looking for some dwarven artifacts. i'm a monk, which, as a class, totally rules...

And below, the touchingly brief eugoogoly for Brad Delp, lead singer of Boston:

Hi,

I wrote "All You Want" in memory of Boston lead singer Brad Delp. March 9 will mark the one-year anniversary of his untimely death.

The song is available as a free download to anyone who wants it: www.myspace.com/[REDACTED].

We rightfully celebrate the contributions of many departed rock legends. I think Brad deserves to be one of them.

There’s no graph paper where they’ve gone, indeed.