And what was that really creepy Tom Petty song about the dead girl?
<brrrr>
Okay, one more and I'll stop.
Does anyone remember this one:
Casey would waltz with a strawberry blonde
And the band played on
He'd guide 'cross the floor with the girl he adored
And the band played on
But his brain was so loaded it nearly exploded
The poor girl shook with alarm
Casey would waltz with a strawberry blonde
And the band played on
What the heck is up with that creepy lyric?
xtc - all along the watchtower
the boomtown rats - i don't like mondays
tome waits - georgia lee
Tom Waits, A Little Rain always freaks me out especially the last verse:
She was 15 years old
And never seen the ocean
She climbed into a van
With a vagabond
And the last thing she said
Was, "I love you mom."
Freakiest song ever is As the World Dies, the Eyes of God Grow by Sebadoh.
I looked for a sound clip but couldn't find one. He plays with different tracks a lot in this song with overlaying lyrics. The sentences in parentheses are sung at the same time as the line above it. The longer the song goes the freakier it gets. It really is a scary song.
Descended from Emerson, into this life
Falling, falling, falling into my seventh life
My father rode a motorcycle naked in the rain
Mother, a flower girl, blonde and 18
Three long days in the Colorado jail
Seven months pregnant, on the western trail
She met El in San Francisco, so it goes
(She met El in San Francisco, yeah so it goes)
Elwyn was out of his head, speed up his nose
Mother met a second man, by chance
She remembered from a hometown high school dance
The night they got to fighting, man's arms, they let me fall
My head hit the concrete floor, I didn't move at all
My mom hysterical, thinking I was dead
She ran into the street, scared out of her head
I watched the stars in the heavens for a while
Then I came around for good, but not with a smile
Moved home to the valley where the hippies conspire
Even my grandma loved to get high
My father dosed liquid LSD
Fried his mind for years to come, look what it's done to me
The breakup ensued, I held my baby brother's hand
I held my baby brother's hand
The nights that followed, footsteps could be heard
(The nights that followed in the house, footsteps could be heard)
No one on the second floor âcept spirits I have learned
Mom and her best friend said, "It's time to go"
To Aroyo Hondo, New Mexico
Adobe huts, I recall every gathering adobe
I was hungry in the desert; I wanted to go home
Morning I awoke; I was all alone
(But I walked outside I realized)
No one but a ******* geek to share the dusty home
(No one was there; I thought I would die)
As I walked outside I realized
(Time stood still; I watched the dome)
No one was there; I thought I would die
(Then the bug came back, tears in my throat)
Time stood still as I watched the goat
(Next thing I knew I was in public school)
The nurse of a new bug came back; tears in my throat
(It wasn't much, but it followed the rules)
Next thing I knew I was in public school
(Sat alone; stood alone)
It wasn't much, but it followed the rules
(Tried my best to understand my broken home)
Sat alone; stood alone
(I got to watch my poor mother cry)
Tried to understand my broken home
(Empty, exposed to all she felt inside)
I got to watch my poor mother cry
(And then I hear these hippies philosophize)
Empty, exposed to all she felt inside
And hear these hippies philosophize
And dreaming of the commune in the sky
(Too many changing partners at different times
Brothers and sisters, don't get too close
And dreaming of the commune in the sky
And mother waves him goodbye, so I'm left here on my puzzle with nobody's help)
Boycott society, then the kids can't socialize
(My faith is my strength, living in hell)
We had a cat named "Hope" and soon it died
(Thinking about our locks too thin, wondering if I'm at all like him)
There were nervous breakdowns every day, numerous crises games
(Before the flood, before the flood, of blood, I'm dead serious, you just you wait)
Parents like to play, too many changing partners
(The Nazi Klan looked like 6)
At different times
(The plan is well underway)
Brothers and sisters, don't get too close
(Those who crossed me are cursed, will see fewer days)
Another routine goodbye
(You'll listen to me; let's kill in the street)
So I'm workin' on my puzzle with nobody's help
(You made a big mistake so just you fuckin', livin in hell, El)
My faith is my strength because I'm living in hell, thinkin' about hell,
Locked in the bin, wondering if I'm at all like him
Before the flood, before the flood of blood
I'm dead serious, so just you wait
The Manson Klan will look like saints
(The Nazi Klan will look like saints)
The plan's well underway, those who crossed me will see fewer days
(The plan's well underway, those who crossed me are cursed)
You're wastable to me; you're roadkill in the street
(Just you wait, you will see fewer days)
You're so wastable to me, like the roadkill in the street; you made a big mistake
(Satan)
So just you ******* wait
(Satan)
Blood on the walls; blood on the walls
(Satan; Satan)
Dear friends, goodbye, needlessly you **** with me; now you're gonna die
Blood on the walls; blood on the walls; blood on the walls; blood on the walls; blood on the walls; blood on the walls; blood on the walls; blood on the walls; blood on the walls; blood on the walls
(Satan; Satan; Satan; Satan)
Sting's "I'll Be Watching You." I used to love that cut and still do but when someone pointed out that it's the words of a stalker, it kinda creeped me out.
Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every single day
I'll be watching you.
yikes.
when I was really young, I remember being scared to death hearing my sister play this:
Georgia Gibbs; Golden Gate Quartet; The Ink Spots;
Made In The Shade; Wayne Newton; Louis Prima.
Now one time there lived an old man
With a very crooked nose
He lived inside a log hut
and they called him ol' man Mose
One dark and dreary morning I knocked upon his door
I didn't hear a single sound
so I ain't gonna do it no more.
'cos I believe ol' man, I believe ol' man
I believe ol' man, thatol' man Mose is dead.
I believe ol' man, I believe ol' man
I believe ol' man, that ol' man Mose is dead.
(Now you believe) Mose kicked the bucket
(You believe) Mose kicked the bucket
(You believe) Mose kicked the bucket
(You believe he's dead)
(You believe) Mose kicked the bucket
(You believe) Mose kicked the bucket
(You believe) Mose kicked the bucket
(You believe he's dead)
Now listen here,
I went round to the window
And I peeped in through the crack,
Inside there was an old man
Laying flat upon his back
I thought that he was sleeping
Head hung to the floor
He didn't make a single move
So I ain't gonna do it no more
'cos I found out ol' man, I found out ol' man
yeah, I found out ol' man, ol' man Mose is dead
('cos you found out) ol' man
(you found out) ol' man
(you found out) ol' man
(you found out he's dead)
(you found out) Mose kicked the bucket
(you found out) Mose kicked the bucket
(you found out) Mose kicked the bucket
(you found out he's dead)
(you found out) Mose kicked the bucket
(you found out) Mose kicked the bucket
(you found out) Mose kickin' up daisies
(you found out he's dead)
Old Man Mose is dead.
Hey boomer:
You left out, "He married the girl with the strawberry curl...." that makes it a little less strange.
The theme song to "The Exorcist" will make me leave the room. To this day, I can't hear that playing anywhere and sit still.
Tracy Chapman and Macy Gray both have quite a few songs that fall into that category for me. Great songs but creepy. Macy has the one about killing her boyfriends' boss, "a mean ol' bitch", and Tracy croons about the little guy who had to prove himself to his wife and his friends and winds up "six feet underground".
Farmerman and cav were talking about Tubular Bells and I wrote
I wrote:Oldfield has been doing the same kind of stuff. Last one I bought, a few years ago, was "Millenium Bells".
I'll be back with the Oldfield/satanic theme.
But I didn't, until now; this thread has popped-up again.
The Monsters of Circeo
In 1975, a group of young rich Roman Neofascists, Gianni Guido, Angelo
Izzo and Andrea Ghira, meet two working class girls, Donatella Colasanti and Rosaria Lopez and invite them to a party. They go to a villa in Circeo, in the outskirts of Rome, property of Ghira's family. There is no party. The girls are raped and viciously tortured for 36 hours, until they are presumed dead. The three boys put the girls in sacks and in the trunk of the car, and happily drive back to Rome. When the car is parked in front of Guido's house, Colasanti recovers conscience and cries for help. A cop arrives and rescues her. Rosaria Lopez is dead.
Guido is instantly captured. Izzo is caught the next day. Ghira escapes. The three are condemned to life in prison. Guido escapes from jail in 1981, and is recaptured in Buenos Aires, in 1983. Escapes again in 1985 and is caught in Panama, in 1994.
Why do they come into this music & lyrics thread. Because, according to Colasanti's testimony, all they played during the torture and the drive to Rome was Mike Oldfield's
Tubular Bells album.
fbaezer, how did we become so gruesome? I hate it..hate it..hate it..hate it. In doing a bit of a search I found this site, and was stunned.
http://www.leopoldandloeb.com/swoon.html
Often I wonder about Clarence Darrow, and what he must have thought. Don't believe there are any songs that accompany this horror.
Letty. I was a University student in Italy at the time, and the crime reflected some of the problems that country was living at the time.
Guido and Ghira were active Neofascists, Izzo was on parole for attempted rape (it seems he had a sort of an impotence problem). It was the time when Neofascist bands such as "Ordine Nero" planted bombs on trains (the Italicus massacre of 1974, and the Bologna station massacre of 1980), and we had the Red Brigades (the killers of Aldo Moro) on the other side.
Probably the three rich kids (aged 19, 20 and 22) perceived the working class girls were less than human (being women and proletarian), and acted upon them a "demonstation" of a what a "Superman" (in badly read Nietzchean) can do.
I believe the use of the music has more to do with a reiterative compulsion than with the content of the music itself. I guess they thought: "Humm, cool, the music of The Exorcist and similar stuff. It'll scare the sh¡t out of our victims! Cool!".
The crime was widely publicized and very politizised in both the left-right opposition and the feminist-male chauvinist opposition. When Izzo, Ghira & Guido were condemned, we danced in the streets (and I also had one nightmare about them).
fbaezer, I understand that impotence can drive men to abuse and harm. I must read your information more carefully. Just feeling caught up tonight.
I do understand how music can whip sick people into a frenzy. How very sad that beauty can be turned into a beast.
Esther by Phish. A little tip : not the song to be listening to while tripping on shrooms in Amsterdam.
ESTHER
It was late one fall night at a fairground near town
When Esther first saw the Armenian man
Who groveled toward her and stood by her side
With a bucket that swung in his hand
His grin stretched the folds of his pasty white cheeks
And his lips hurled a dollop of murk on the curb
And the lights from the rides showed a mischievous sparkle
That flashed in his hollow eyed stare
He said "Little girl, you can chop off my legs
And then peel off my socks if you want to.
But I'd rather you took this old puppet from me
That I hold in my pail as we speak."
And he stood looking down at the innocent girl
And she stared at the bucket bewildered
Til he lifted the doll for the young girl to see
And a giant smile grew on his face
She saw the doll's eyes and she couldn't resist
And she thanked the man quickly and ran to the church
And she burst through the door with puppet held high
And a hush filled the chapel, and the people looked mean
Esther tried in vain to pacify the mob
Quibble grew to spat, to wrangle, then to brawl
The frenzied congregation struggled desperately to fetch
The pretty puppet snugly nestled deep in Esther's leather sack
Through the window of the church a storm began to rage
And Esther knew the time had come to flee
She scurried down the aisle toward the doorway in the distance
And out into the rainstorm where she felt she would be free
But the wind was blowing harder
And her skirt began to billow
Until finally her feet began to lift
And she rose above the people and the houses
and the chimneys
And Esther and the doll were set adrift
Floating higher over the hills, and the valleys and treetops
they'd flutter and glide
Soaring and turning suspended on air
With the earth far below them they'd tumble
And dive through the clouds
And she began to plummet earthward till she
Landed in the nasty part of town
She glanced about the village sure to find the evil men
Who rob and pillage in the darkest hour of night
Nervously she fumbled for the pouch that held the
Puppet on her rump.
Feeling quite outnumbered Esther hid behind
A nearby pile of lumber, where she waited
Till the dawn
Cause it would have been a blunder to
Succumb to a hoodlum on the prowl
When the morning came, she wandered through the streets
Along the chilly lake that lay beside the town
At last a peaceful moment, but she thought she heard a sound
It was an angry mob of joggers coming up to knock her down
As Esther stood and shook her head
The joggers were approaching
And she knew she had no choice left but to swim
As the frosty water sank its bitter teeth into her hide
She tried to slide the heavy clothing from her skin
Naked now she made her way toward the shore
When suddenly she felt a tiny tugging at her toe.
And the puppet she'd forgotten wrapped its tiny
Little arms around her ankle and wouldn't let her go.
The waves seemed to open and swallow her whole
As the doll pulled her down through the eerie green deep
And the sound of the laughing old man filled her ears
As she drifted away to a tranquil
And motionless sleep.
My wife said "My Name is Luka", by Suzanne Vega is about a battered woman or child.
"Nah", I replied. But then I read the lyrics:
"My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes, I think you've seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
"I think it's because I'm clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it's because I'm crazy
I try not to act too proud
They only hit until you cry
And after that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
"Yes I think I'm okay
I walked into the door again
Well, if you ask that's what I'll say
And it's not your business anyway
I guess I'd like to be alone
With nothing broken, nothing thrown
Just don't ask me how I am
Just don't ask me how I am
Just don't ask me how I am".
I believe some one mentioned DOA. When I was little my older brother used to play that record and it horrified me. It gave me nightmares.
Now that I am older, believe it or not, “Singing in the Rain” sends a chill down my spine. Not because of the lyrics, but after seeing “Clockwork Orange”, I could never listen to that song without visualizing people being beaten and women being raped.
This Helen Reddy song always freaked me:
--------
You live your life in the songs you hear
on your rock and roll radio
and when a young girl doesn't have any friends
it's a really nice place to go
folks hoping you'd turn out cool
but they had to take you out of school
you're a little touched you know
angie baby
lovers appear in your room each night
as they whirl accross the floor
but they always seem to fade away
when your daddy taps on your door
angie girl are you alright?
tell the radio goodnight
all alone once more angie baby
Chorus
angie baby
you're a special lady
living in a world of make believe
well maybe
stopping at her house is a neighbour boy
with evil on his mind
cos he's been peeking in angies room
at the night through the window blind
I see your folks have gone away
won't you dance with me today
I'll show you how to have a good time
angie baby
( angie baby ) (angie baby )
when he walks in the room
he feels confused
like he walked into a play
and the music's so loud
it spins him around
till his soul has lost it's way
and as she turns the volume down
he's getting smaller with the sound
it seems to pull him off the ground
no more the radio is bound
never to be found
the headlines read that a boy disapeared
and everyone thinks he died
except a crazy girl with a secret lover
who keeps him satisfied
it's so nice to be insane
no one asked you to explain
radio by your side
angie baby
Chorus
angie baby
you're a special lady
living in a world of make believe
well maybe
well maybe
well maybe
well maybe
Great question.
There are many Leadbelly Songs that win the creepy award.
Robert Johnson's "Hellhound on My Trail," too.
Pink Floyd's "Careful With That Axe Eugene."
What's that Colin Newman (of Wire fame) song that Buffalo Bill is dancing naked to in "Silence of the Lambs"? Need I explain why that tune creeps me out?
Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Hear Voices" alternately creeps me out and cracks me up with laughter.
...and this one is chilling from The Beautiful South:
The Woman in the Wall
He was just a social drinker but social every night
He enjoyed a pint or two or three or four
She was just a silent thinker, silent every night
He'd enjoy the thought of killing her before
Well he was very rarely drunk but very rarely sober
And he didn't think the problem was his drink
But he only knew his problem when he knocked her over
And when the rotting flesh began to stink
Cry freedom for the woman in the wall
Cry freedom for she has no voice at all
I hear her cry all day, all night
I hear her voice from deep within the wall
Made a cross from knitting needles
Made a grave from hoover bags
Especially for the woman in the wall
She'd knitted him a jumper with dominoes on
So he wore it everyday in every week
Pretended to himself that she hadn't really gone
Pretended that he thought he beard her speak
Then at last it seemed that he was really winning
He felt that he had some sort of grip
But all of his new life was sent a-spinning
When the rotting wall began to drip
