3 Posthumous Releases That Hit Even Harder Following the Artist’s Death

Life is a fragile, fleeting thing, but music offers a pathway to immortality that many artists have taken without realizing it. Some of the most iconic cuts in popular music history were posthumous releases, meaning they came out after the artist died. The deaths of these great figures often imbue the tracks with greater poignancy and symbolism—almost as if the artists are offering their last words from beyond the grave.

Here are four posthumous releases that hit even harder given the circumstances around the artist’s death.

“Me And Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin

One of the most poignant examples of a posthumous release is Janis Joplin’s version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Me And Bobby McGee”. The cover came out on Pearl, which came out the year after Joplin died of an overdose in a California hotel room. Before her death, the song came across as a lonely wanderer song.

Following her death, this song suddenly gained a sense of peace and contentment that only moving into the next realm could provide. “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” is a sentiment that hits even harder in the face of death.

“Watching The Wheels” by John Lennon

John Lennon was shot and killed in front of his New York City apartment in December 1980. Although Lennon released the album with his second wife, Yoko Ono, before his death, the final single, “Watching The Wheels”, came out three months later. Within this context, the song almost feels like a final farewell.

Lennon would have had no way of knowing the fate that awaited him. But in hindsight, his lyrics sound like he’s saying goodbye to the merry-go-round of life. “People say I’m crazy doing what I’m doing / Well, they give me all kinds of warnings / to save me from ruin.”

“Waiting Around To Die” by Townes Van Zandt

Finally, Townes Van Zandt was the kind of singer-songwriter who seemed to flirt with death in every song. Indeed, there was a natural melancholy to his songwriting that viewed the darker sides of existence with straightforward realism. Unfortunately, he was underappreciated in his time, and his first major label debut was a posthumous release, A Far Cry From Dead, released by Arista Austin in 1999.

This album included a version of “Waiting Around To Die” that, within the context of his death, seemed like a message from beyond the grave. “Oh, his name’s codeine / He’s the nicest thing I’ve seen / Well, together we’re gonna wait around to die.”

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