Vanity Sleeps

Friday song highlight #11: Schadenfreude (onto Through the Keyhole)

The Germans have such great words for things we don’t have in English. "Schadenfreude" is the experience of taking joy in someone else's misfortune.

I wrote this song about two very different moments where that feeling was "supposed" to show up. The first and third verses are about the celebration in the streets after the death of Bin Laden. No matter how you felt about him as an individual, it didn't sit right with me celebrating someone meeting a violent end, even if it was well-deserved.

The second verse is about seeing the obituary of someone from my past who had caused a lot of wreckage in my life. Two years prior, I might have felt a sense of "justice" or satisfaction that he was gone. But when I actually saw the obit, I realized I didn't feel anything about it. I guess that’s what finally moving on actually feels like. Not a celebration, just a hollow silence.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2jNh7KYxEjxGXnp2cO4c8w?si=abca4295de9449b2

They're singing in the streets
It's a kind of celebration
It don't sit right with me
I cannot help the thought
Two wrongs don't make a right, no matter how the math works
And Jesus weeps

I saw you last week
In the back of the paper
I hoped I'd never see
Your face or hear your name
You passed away so young, you left behind your dad and mom
And Jesus weeps
I don't feel a goddamn thing

I don't care for justice
When I think about what you've done
Maybe mercy's greater
Or maybe I've just moved on

I cannot believe
This elation I am hearing
There's a side we'll never see
A past we cannot know
Even my worst enemy still deserves his dignity
And Jesus weeps

Schadenfreude Vanity Sleeps · Through the Keyhole · Song · 2026