Subject: Creepy songs From: kendall Date: 27 Aug 08 - 12:42 PM I don't know if this has ever been covered or not; if it has, I missed it. Anyway, yesterday, a song that I hadn't thought of in ages crossed my mind, and it's one of those that always gives me the shivers. THE MISTLETOE BOUGH. THE GRIESELY BRIDE is another. So, what gives you goose flesh?
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Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: lady penelope Date: 27 Aug 08 - 12:53 PM Fluffy bunny stuff.... |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Jayto Date: 27 Aug 08 - 12:55 PM I am interested in this thread I love creepy songs. I have to think about it though. I will post in a little while. ALONE AND FORSAKEN by Hank Williams always had a creepy feel to it to me for some reason. I'll get back to you on this one. |
Subject: Lyr Add: WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR From: topical tom Date: 27 Aug 08 - 01:03 PM WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR As recorded by The Dreadful Snakes on "Snakes Alive!" (1983)
CHORUS: Who's that knocking at my door?
Oh, this life that I'm living,
But the waters are oh so deep.
Oh, I've been down that pathway, |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: john f weldon Date: 27 Aug 08 - 01:08 PM I love creepy songs, too. Years ago, I listened to Ian Tyson singing GHOST LOVER about twenty times in a row and got so creeped out that I woke up quite ill.
John Roberts and Tony Barrand have lots, check out the "Dark Ships in the Forest" CD among others. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Cool Beans Date: 27 Aug 08 - 01:22 PM "LET THE EAGLE SOAR," sung by former U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft |
Subject: Lyr Add: BURKE AND HARE From: Jim Carroll Date: 27 Aug 08 - 01:23 PM Never fails to do it for me. Burke And Hare William Burke it is my name I stand condemned alone. I left my native Ireland In the county of Tyrone. And o'er to Scotland I did sail, Employment for to find; No thought of cruel murder Was then into my mind. At Edinburgh trade was slack, No work there could I find; And so I took the road again, To Glasgow was inclined; But stopping at the West-port To find refreshment there, 0 cursed be the evil hour I met with William Hare! With flattering words he greeted me And said good fortune smiled; lie treated me to food and drink And I was soon beguiled; He said:"There's riches to be had, And fortune's to be made, For atomists have need of us. So join me in that trade. Hare he kept a lodging-house Therein a man had died, His death went unreported And of burial was denied We put the dead man in a cart And through the streets did ride. And Robert Knox,the atomist, The dead man he did buy. To rob the new dug graves by night It was not our intent; To be taken by the nightwatch Or by spies was not our bent. The plan belonged to William Hare And so the plot was laid, He said that "murder's safer Than the resurrection trade." Two women they were in the plot The wife of William Hare, The other called McDougal, And travellers they did snare; They lured them to the lodging house And when they'd drunken deep, Hare and me, we smothered them As they lay fast asleep. At first in fear and dread I was But later grew more bold, In nine short months we killed fifteen And then their bodies sold. The doctors did not question us, But quickly paid our fee, The price they paid,it prospered us, Both William Hare and me. But soon our crimes they were found out In jail we were confined, And cruel guilt it tore my heart And much despairs my mind; And Hare, who first ensnared me And led me far astray Has turned King's evidence on me And sworn my life away Jim Carroll |
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MISTLETOE BOUGH (Thomas Haynes Bayly) From: kendall Date: 27 Aug 08 - 01:30 PM The mistletoe hung in the castle hall; The holly branch shone on the old oak wall. The Baron's retainers were blithe and gay, Keeping the Christmas holiday. The Baron beheld with a father's pride His beautiful child, Lord Lovell's bride. And she, with her bright eyes seemed to be The star of that goodly company. F G7 C Oh, the mistletoe bough. "I'm weary of dancing, now," she cried; "Here, tarry a moment, I'll hide, I'll hide, And, Lovell, be sure you're the first to trace The clue to my secret hiding place." Away she ran, and her friends began Each tower to search and each nook to scan. And young Lovell cried, "Oh, where do you hide? I'm lonesome without you, my own fair bride." Oh, the mistletoe bough. They sought her that night, they sought her next day, They sought her in vain when a week passed away. In the highest, the lowest, the loneliest spot, Young Lovell sought wildly, but found her not. The years passed by and their grief at last Was told as a sorrowful tale long past. When Lovell appeared, all the children cried, "See the old man weeps for his fairy bride." Oh, the mistletoe bough. At length, an old chest that had long lain hid Was found in the castle; they raised the lid. A skeleton form lay mouldering there In the bridal wreath of that lady fair. How sad was her fate when in sportive jest She hid from her lord in that old oak chest, It closed with a spring and a dreadful doom, And the bride lay sealed in a living tomb. Oh, the mistletoe bough. |
Subject: Lyr Add: THE WORKHOUSE BOY From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 27 Aug 08 - 01:54 PM How about this one that Tim Laycock sings: ^^ THE WORKHOUSE BOY. The cloth was laid in the Vorkhouse hall, The great-coats hung on the white-wash'd wall; The paupers all were blithe and gay, Keeping their Christmas holiday, When the Master he cried with a roguish leer, "You'll all get fat on your Christmas cheer!" When one by his looks did seem to say, "I'll have some more soup on this Christmas-day." Oh the poor Vorkhouse Boy, etc. At length, all on us to bed vos sent, The boy vos missing—in search ve vent: Ve sought him above, ve sought him below, Ve sought him vith faces of grief and woe; Ve sought him that hour, ve sought him that night; Ve sought him in fear, and ve sought him in fright, Ven a young pauper cried "I knows ve shall Get jolly vell vopt for losing our pal." Oh the poor Vorkhouse Boy, etc. Ve sought in each corner, each crevice ve knew; Ve sought in the yard, ve sought up the flue; Ve sought in each kettle, each saucepan, each pot, In the water-butt look'd, but found him not. And veeks roll'd on;—ve vere all of us told, That somebody said, he'd been burk'd and sold; Ven our master goes out, the Parishioners vild, Cry "There goes the cove that burk'd the poor child." Oh the poor Vorkhouse Boy, etc. At length the soup copper repairs did need, The Coppersmith came, and there he seed, A dollop of bones lay a grizzling there, In the leg of the breeches the poor boy did vear! To gain his fill the boy did stoop, And, dreadful to tell, he was boil'd in the soup! And ve all of us say, and ve say it sincere, That he was push'd in there by an overseer. Oh the poor Vorkhouse Boy, etc. (I found this version here.) |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Big Al Whittle Date: 27 Aug 08 - 01:58 PM CREEPY JOHN by Spider John Koerner - from the first moment I heard it I thought of the Boston Strangler murders. It had the real whiff of tabloid excitement and sensual enjoyment of a great murder case. I've no idea if those were the actual thoughts and feelings of SJK on the song. Nobody much mentions those artists these days. But they were important influences on me. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: lady penelope Date: 27 Aug 08 - 02:02 PM For sheer grizzlyness I love FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING MEN. |
Subject: Lyr Add: SCARECROW (corrections) From: ClaireBear Date: 27 Aug 08 - 02:22 PM Scarecrow, by Mal and Mike Waterson, which I'm going to take the liberty of reposting here as the version in the DT has some words wrong and some extra, odd line breaks. SCARECROW (Lal & Mike Waterson) As I walked out one summer's morn Saw a scarecrow tied to a pole in a field of corn His coat was black and his head was bare When the wind shook him the crows took up into the air Ah, but you'd lay me down and love me Ah, but you'd lay me down and love me if you could But you're only a bag of rags in an overall That the wind sways and the crows fly away and the corn grows tall As I walked out one winter's day Saw an old man hanging from a pole in a field of clay His coat was gone and his head hung low Till the wind flung it up, took a look, wrung his neck and let it go How would you lay me down and love me How would you lay me down and love me now? For you're only a bag of bones in an overall That the wind blows and the kids throw stones at the thing on the pole As I walked out one fine spring day Saw twelve jolly dons decked out in the blue and the gold so gay And to a stake they tied a child newborn Then the bells were rung and the songs were sung and they sowed their corn Now you can lay me down and love me Now you can lay me down and love me if you will Still you're only a bag of rags in an overall That the wind blew and the sun shone to and the corn grew tall As I walked out one summer's morn Saw a scarecrow tied to a pole in a field of corn ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright Leading Note Music) recorded by June Tabor on "Abyssinians" (1983) @death @plant filename[ SCARECRW MJ Second on my creepy list is Anne Lister's "SONG OF THE KNIFE," but I think it should be up to Anne whether it gets posted here. Perhaps I'll sing it to you when I see you next month, though. Claire |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Terry McDonald Date: 27 Aug 08 - 02:24 PM Not heard it in years but Paul Simon's 'A MOST PECULIAR MAN' always affected me and, now I think about it, I'm pretty certain that I've ever heard Simon sing it. It used to be sung in the mid-60s by a duo from Exeter, one of whom was called John Remsbury. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: curmudgeon Date: 27 Aug 08 - 02:51 PM Tead puts me in mind of "THE REAPER'S GHOST," a song I haven't done in a very long time. I'll try to get it disinterred from my mental graveyard before the next get-together - Tom |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: lefthanded guitar Date: 27 Aug 08 - 06:17 PM Didn't SALLY GO ROUND THE ROSES have a sort of spooky feel to it? |
Subject: Lyr Add: WHAT'S HE BUILDING (Tom Waits) From: bobad Date: 27 Aug 08 - 06:40 PM This Tom Waits song is pretty spooky: WHAT'S HE BUILDING? As recorded by Tom Waits on "Mule Variations" (1999) What's he building in there? What the hell is he building in there?
He has subscriptions to those magazines.
He took down the tire swing from the pepper tree.
What's he building in there?
Now what's that sound from under the door?
He has no friends but he gets a lot of mail. |
Subject: Lyr Add: ANGIE BABY (Alan O'Day - Helen Reddy) From: Cluin Date: 27 Aug 08 - 09:07 PM "Angie Baby" sung by Helen Reddy. c. 1974 ANGIE BABY written by Alan O'Day You live your life in the songs you hear o the rock and roll radio And when a young girl doesn't have any friends, that's a really nice place to go Folks hoping you'd turn out cool But they had to take you outta school You're a little touched, you know, Angie Baby Lovers appear in your room each night and they whirl you `cross the floor But they always seem to fade away when your daddy taps on your door "Angie girl, are you all right Tell the radio good-night" All alone once more, Angie Baby Angie Baby You're a special lady Living in a world of make-believe Well, maybe... Stopping at her house is a neighbor boy with evil on his mind 'Cause he's been peeking in Angie's room at night through her window blind "I see your folks have gone away Would you dance with me today? I'll show you how to have a good time, Angie Baby" When he walks in her room, he feels confused like he walked into a play And the music's so loud it spins him around `til his soul has lost its way And as she turns the volume down He's getting smaller with the sound It seems to pull him off the ground Toward the radio he's bound Never to be found... The headlines read that a boy disappeared and everyone thinks he died 'Cept a crazy girl with a secret lover who keeps her satisfied It's so nice to be insane No one asks you to explain Radio by your side, Angie Baby Angie Baby You're a special lady Living in a world of make-believe Well, maybe... Well, maybe... |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: irishrover Date: 27 Aug 08 - 09:49 PM The Kingston Trio's rendition of "WITH HER HEAD TUCKED UNDERNEATH HER ARM' (a.k.a. "Anne Boleyn") is somewhat creepy to me. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Phil Cooper Date: 27 Aug 08 - 11:26 PM Pat Sky's DIRGE TO LOVE GONE BY. Ray Fisher's rendition of the ballad where Willie's lover's ghost comes back and tears his body in three parts. Bob Pegg's MR. FOX. The list could go on... |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Elijah Browning Date: 28 Aug 08 - 12:14 AM Songs with ghosts in them. I don't mean songs about ghosts. Maybe some are about ghosts, but they don't have to be. I like songs with ghosts IN them. I remember the No Exit in Chicago, late night on a Thursday, second set, in the dead of winter when the blowing heater hung from the ceiling left you cold or baking depending on where you sat or when. Art Thieme sang songs, and I heard them, the ghosts, in the songs. Speaking, singing, out past the muffle of dirt and snow, time and entropy. Whether it was loving the best they could muster like "HOT BUTTERED RUM" or the frozen terror of black blood in the moonlight spilled by the "GRIESELY BRIDE", these songs had ghosts in them. I remember thinking of the songs written way past mortal bedtime, songs from the founding of the city, the state, the nation, that each writer was dead, gone, dust. Dust just like me, that for a few score of decades "got a chance to sit up and look around" to quote Woody via Mr. Thieme. Ghosts. A city that no longer is from which I am no longer from. Ghosts in the songs. I press play, and they come. Sorry. Not exactly the right response. Running with the muse tonight. My apologies. -E.B. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: cobber Date: 28 Aug 08 - 02:17 AM Creepy songs can be fun. I remember back in the 1950's at a boy scout camp learning "As you see the hearse go by" at night around the campfire. It was scary but delicious. As you see the hearse go by OOOHH aah ahh aahh Think you may be the next to die (More maniacal groans and laughter) They put you in a wooden box And cover you up with a heap of rocks All goes well for about a week Then your coffin begins to leak The worms go in and they come out They go in thin and they come out stout Pus oozes out like thick rich cream Your liver turns a ghastly green Your eyes fall in and your teeth fall out Your brains come trickling down your snout (Sniff) The moral of this story needs no explanation It's really much better to have a cremation Ah! What fun! |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: kendall Date: 28 Aug 08 - 06:57 AM LOST JIMMY WHELAN No, never no |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: fat B****rd Date: 28 Aug 08 - 07:07 AM THE LONG BLACK VEIL |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 28 Aug 08 - 07:10 AM Bread and Roses' rendition of MR FOX (from the album "Mr Fox's Garden") with its sudden cut off ending. You so want to know what happened next and at the same time, you so don't want to know. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,lox Date: 28 Aug 08 - 07:26 AM I saw a guy perform at an acoustic club once who unintentionally turned a pretty Bruce Springsteen ballad into the creepiest song imaginable. It concerned watching a woman as she went about her daily routine and was originally written to be affectionate and romantic, however the tuneless slightly catatonic manner of this guys performance made it seem as though it was written by some obsessive murderous stalker. In the right hands any song can be creepy. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 28 Aug 08 - 07:37 AM The way the prettiest tune can sound sinister on a musical box, especially as it slows down and stops. Nursery rhymes especially. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 28 Aug 08 - 08:49 AM Clint Eastwood's watch? |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Big Al Whittle Date: 28 Aug 08 - 09:38 AM Do you have to be a creepy person to sing a creepy song. Does anyone remeber that Sherlock Holmes film with Rondo Hatton as The Creeper - The Pearl of death. Boy! he was creepy! |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Melissa Date: 28 Aug 08 - 09:57 AM PIED PIPER and TEDDY BEARS' PICNIC have always creeped me out. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Jayto Date: 28 Aug 08 - 10:38 AM Bobad you beat me to the draw I was going to put WHAT'S HE BUILDING by Tom Waits as well. Check out the video on youtube it is great. RED RIGHT HAND by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is a great creepy non-folk song as well. I really love that song "you'll see him in your nightmares you'll see him in your dreams" "your just a microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan designed and directed by his red right hand" Man Nick Cave is great I love his writing. Another one is DO YOU LOVE ME by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "I met her on the night of fire and noise. Wild bells were ringing in wild skies. I knew from that moment on I'd love her until the day that I die. So I kissed her with a thousand tears. My lady of the various sorrows. Some begged some borrowed some stolen. Some kept safe for tomorrow." That is also one of my favorite band names of all time. The Bad Seeds man that is just too cool I wish I had thought of that one. I wish I could have written the majority of Nick Cave's songs as well. Johnny Cash did a real creepy song of Nick Cave's. THE MERCY SEAT is the name of it and it is GREAT. I actually like Johnny's version better than Nick Cave's but then again I kinda like Johnny's version of HURT better than Nine Inch Nails. Oh man, I hate to admit that one let's just keep that between us lol. I perform some of Nick Cave's songs in an Appalachian Folk style. I do a dark minor groove and change the melody some to fit. Most of it though I don't have to change much at all. Check out BROTHER MY CUP IS EMPTY oh man, I am blanking when the names come back to me I will put them up. Need Coffee! Cya JT |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: kendall Date: 28 Aug 08 - 11:06 AM It's odd how different songs affect different people. I haven't seen anything in this list to compare with the MISTLETOE BOUGH. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Jim Carroll Date: 28 Aug 08 - 11:48 AM There's a wonderful line in Martin McDonagh's 'The Beauty Queen of Linane' where the character says - "The Spinning wheel - bloody creepy song, that". Jim Carroll |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: oldhippie Date: 28 Aug 08 - 08:47 PM "WHAT'S HE BUILDING" really amounts to who's paranoid, the singer, not the character he's obsessed with watching. "Do you think I'm psycho, Mama....", now that's creepy. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz Date: 28 Aug 08 - 09:23 PM Hi Kids: Let us not forget... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGzRuARH3a0
[That's a dead link as of June 2018. I suppose we'll have to forget now.. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz Date: 28 Aug 08 - 09:34 PM Or, this song... THE SOUL EATER OMG, it's ME, what SHAMELESS self-promotion! And, I'm nice, a joy to be with, witty, charming, etc. etc., but, like Alfred Hitchcock, you can still be a fun guy (not fung wa, from Chinese Dim Sum, but you must try fun guy sometime) and do this stuff... bob |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Big Al Whittle Date: 29 Aug 08 - 02:19 AM Amazing stuff Bob. Have you writen about your work - somewhere. I'd love to read about how you work etc. al |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: alison Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:27 AM any of those "someone in the middle of nowhere gets saved from whatever fate by someone who we find out in the last verse died several weeks / months/ years ago" - this is all very vague - but there is another song somewhere in the DT about a blue man or tin man. Someone goes to an exotic location to see this "blue man" and ends up meeting a very nasty end. hopefully someone else will remember the title - its driving me nuts- but it certainly gave me "the willies" the first time I read it slainte alison |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Bryn Pugh Date: 29 Aug 08 - 04:21 AM THE SUFFOLK MIRACLE, or THE HOLLAND HANDKERCHIEF |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 29 Aug 08 - 07:55 AM "any of those "someone in the middle of nowhere gets saved from whatever fate by someone who we find out in the last verse died several weeks / months/ years ago" " That's not just folk songs:- it happened to my first father-in-law during WW2. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz Date: 29 Aug 08 - 09:50 AM Big Al: No, I haven't written anything. Pretty much stayed quiet about it. The song is a collaboration with Gideon "Moses Child" Cohen of Montreal via New York. He came over to my studio to help and set up the tekkie stuff since I was pretty much of a newbie. He installed and began experimenting with a program called REASON to get the drum parts. We then used "psycho piano" on one of the tracks using Cubase. Files were imported as Apple loops to get the bass parts. Gideon, to me is durn near close to genius level using these programs, aw, let's say genius... Most people like to build up tracks and add more and more..I work in the opposite way, like a sculptor or woodcarver, releasing the art from the block of raw material...I take away rather than add... Lyrics are my thing, and in order to tell you the truth of how I work gets into the realm of the psychic, which turns a lot of people off, but since you asked...Al, I basically go into a meditative state and RECEIVE the song. I sort of copy it down when it comes through. It comes in pieces and I whittle away at the words and maintain a "minimalist" viewpoint in that when you tell a story you don't need FULL lines. They can be pieces of thoughts, hooks, that intrigue the listener and from that comes a complete story. With the stuff I've done so far, it demands that the listener be intelligent and involved in the song. He/She has to think. And this stuff was created as an experiment to see if there is a market for this kind of music. Ya don't know till you try... It took about an hour for the words and story to come through as I was concentrating on the melody to pick up the words. I ask for guidance when I do this stuff... That's about it...Thanks for your interest. Hope it helps... bob |
Subject: Lyr Add: TURN AROUND (Carl Perkins) From: GUEST,cStu Date: 29 Aug 08 - 02:42 PM lox that's so true. So many 50s love songs are sung by a stalker character. My favourite is by Carl Perkins:
TURN AROUND
1. When you're all alone and blue
CHORUS: Turn around; I'll be waitin' behind you
2. Maybe God will make you see |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: fat B****rd Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:17 PM Come to think of it, A LYKE-WAKE DIRGE isn't much fun. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: kendall Date: 29 Aug 08 - 04:10 PM BRINGING MARY HOME is creepy. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Bill D Date: 29 Aug 08 - 06:22 PM Why, of course..ON THE AMAZON! or maybe MRS. RAVOON *grin* |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Suegorgeous Date: 29 Aug 08 - 07:41 PM THE WELL BELOW THE VALLEY |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Lonesome EJ Date: 30 Aug 08 - 05:09 PM THE LITTLE GIRL AND THE DREADFUL SNAKE is a song I find creepy and yet irresistible, especially when the singer runs to the aid of his fatally snake-bitten daughter and voices the line "the snake was watching us from close by". IMAGINARY TROUBLE, for some odd reason, raises the hackles on my neck. THE KNOXVILLE GIRL. Particularly because it is usually performed in an up-tempo way that makes the graphic description of the murder seem even more grotesque. THE FROZEN GIRL, with its air of doom, and the knowledge that the entire tragedy would be avoidable if the moronic sleigh-driver and Charlotte had enough sense to put a coat on her. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Cluin Date: 30 Aug 08 - 05:23 PM Every breath you take, Evetry move you make, Every cake you bake, I'll be watching you. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,lox Date: 30 Aug 08 - 05:27 PM Was just about to mention the well below the valley ... ... on the subject of my earlier post, the guy in question wasn't beng deliberately creepy ... ... he was just a creepy guy! |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Jay777 Date: 31 Aug 08 - 06:35 AM Terry McDonald mentioned Paul Simon's "A Most Peculiar Man". Paul sings it on The Paul Simon Song Book album, CBS, 1965, which remains one of my top ten best albums ever. Judith Piepe's sleeve notes about that track say: "Epitaph for a suicide, what a shame he's dead, but wasn't he a most peculiar man? A memorial to the face in the crowd, to you, to me,the face of the sound of silence". This album is well worth a listen. It includes beautiful, simple, versions of "The Sound of Silence" and "I am a Rock". Also, "A Church is Burning", about the KKK, and P. Kane's "The Side of a Hill", for which Piepe's notes say: "An anti-war song with a difference, it waves no tired flags at us but state simply: what is the life of a child worth?...A sad-gay lullaby for dead children and the dead consciences". Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" has "Side of a Hill" in the background. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: fat B****rd Date: 31 Aug 08 - 06:57 AM IN THE PINES or Black Girl as it is sometimes called. |
Subject: Lyr Add: THE LEGEND OF THE PALE-EYED COMPANION From: GUEST,DWR Date: 31 Aug 08 - 05:38 PM I posted this back in '99, revived it because of another Lawrence Hammond song in '02. In the intervening years, we have found that Lawrence Hammond is a Medical Doctor in the Pacific Northwest. ^^ His telling of this is sufficiently creepy. THE LEGEND OF THE PALE-EYED COMPANION (Lawrence Hammond Desert Jewel Songs BMI, 1972) as sung by Lawrence Hammond, Coyote's Dream, Takoma 1047, 1976 They say a New Mexico winter will drive old Satan from his home and the poor cowboy who's caught in the blizzard well he knows that he's never alone Cause the Devil's on the range in the winter His eyes are the color of snow And they call him the Pale-Eyed Companion He's got the shape of a wolf 'round his soul I ain't a man of superstition But there are things beneath the sky that can make a long-time cowboy lay down in the cold snow to die He feeds on the flames of your campfire to stoke up the fires of his soul And he'll creep up when the wind starts to howlin' Lord he'll leave you at the mercy of the cold Now a blizzard it caught me north of Clayton I had fifty head to go up to Raton The prairie dogs they froze down in their burrows and every step another steer was gone I ain't a man of superstition But there was something caught their eye that made them longhorns sure get edgy when I built me a fire for the night The blizzard it sang The cowbells they rang The note in the wind got so strange ... When I turned 'round in fright two eyes in the night put the winter right into my veins I drew out my rifle and I sighted I whispered a prayer to the skies But I found I could only stand and shiver In the light of his pale snowy eyes And them longhorns they'll die if you run them too fast in the high drifted snow But I saddled my pony and I drove them just as fast as any longhorn can go I ain't a man to run from danger Many's the time I've walked Boot Hill But the ghost of the Sangre de Christos never blinked as he closed for the kill I never have rightly remembered how I rode myself in from the range But I remember that trail boss a-swearin' as I left just twenty head on his hands I stayed drunk the rest of the winter Now they say that I'm touched by the moon But it's because there's a Pale-eyed Companion who waits for me outside the saloon Nobody wants a drunken cowboy But whiskey's warm and friends are cold Now they say I'm just tellin' stories 'Cause I rode them longhorns down in the snow . . . |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Herga Kitty Date: 31 Aug 08 - 06:54 PM Kevin McG - there's the Halliard's version of THE WORKHOUSE BOY, too. Tim Edwards singing CHILD OWLET gives me goosebumps, though. Kitty |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: alison Date: 01 Sep 08 - 02:27 AM Here's another one of those "dead guy gets you out of a fix" songs CAMOUFLAGE by Stan Ridgeway. [Lyrics] he was an awfully strange marine!! anyone remember the one about the blue faced tribesmen with the cans? its driving me nuts slainte alison |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Willa Date: 01 Sep 08 - 06:47 AM LAMBKIN |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Jayto Date: 01 Sep 08 - 01:22 PM Country singer Marty Brown had one on a CD back in the 80's called SHE'S GONE. I used to play with Marty some and his brother and I were good friends. Mike (his brother) told me that his Grandmother died and it really tore Marty up. Marty wrote it one night sitting by her grave. You can really sense the emotion in it and it is pretty creepy. It was released by MCA records and you can probably find it online. I haven't heard it for years so if you do find it and it is not as I remember, let me know. I remember back in the day though I thought it was really creepy. I loved it though. It was never released for airplay and to be truthful I can't believe Nashville would let him put it on a CD because it was in no way shape or form what commercial. Nashville is bad about killing anything that doesn't have a chance at airplay. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST Date: 01 Sep 08 - 01:45 PM What you said in your post is true McGrath. I have been sitting here singing nursery rhymes to myself very slowly and they do sound pretty damned creepy. Also, THE WALKER OF THE SNOW/The Shadow Hunter mentioned in a previous thread on this topic is quite spine-chilling! I have never actually heard this song though and do not know the tune. Amber |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: jacqui.c Date: 01 Sep 08 - 01:48 PM THE CROW ON THE CRADLE. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,redriveroldbroad Date: 13 Nov 08 - 10:00 AM re: SALLY GO ROUND THE ROSES - if memory serves me right, comes from an old English children's rhyme traced back to the plague or death in general and the origin of flowers at funerals to mask the smell in pre-embalming days - most children's rhymes when traced are pretty creepy just heard "you think I'm psycho mama" for the first time on the radio and am trying to find the writer and/or singer - yanked me right out of my coffee and the times online morning routine |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: the pom Date: 14 Nov 08 - 06:56 AM How about DELIA'S GONE by Johnny Cash Delia, Delia, Delia all my life If I hadn't have shot poor Delia I'd have taken her for my wife. REALLY? Then it goes something like:- first time I shot her, shot her in the leg Next time I shot her shot her in the head just to hear her beg...Gawd! |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle Date: 14 Nov 08 - 07:12 AM Biggest frissant I ever got from a folksong was in THE CRUEL MOTHER One day she walked by her father's hall And saw two bonny boys playing ball. 'Oh bonny boys if you had been mine I'd have dressed you all in silk so fine'. 'Oh bloody woman, we once were thine But we ne'er saw none of your silk so fine. All we saw was your penknife When you slit our throats and took our life' If it doesn't work on the page, get the recording of Lucy Stewart singing it. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Piers Plowman Date: 14 Nov 08 - 07:21 AM "'Oh bloody woman, we once were thine" That's no way to talk to your mother! |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,Captain Colin. Date: 14 Nov 08 - 07:52 AM "DEATH COME CREEPING" would take some beating for creepiness I reckon. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: CupOfTea Date: 14 Nov 08 - 11:11 AM The song that gives me the creeps the most intensely is Anne Lister's Song of the Knife. Part of the intensity comes from talking to Anne on a very hot day at Old Songs. As she told me how the song came to be written I went all over chilled in gooseflesh in startling contrast to the sullen mugginess of the day. Almost any ghost or revenant songs are creepy in my book, but who sings them and how they're sung can amp up or down the creepy factor. Cindy Mangsen has a goodly stock of creepy songs she does, but her matter-of-fact delivery keeps them from making your hair stand up - they take some time to sink in, and you need to be listening carefully. Her version of THE WALKER OF THE SNOW is like that for me, yet when she and Anne Hills do LOST JIMMY WHELAN it's just as prettily sung, but the harmonies create a creepier mood. Phil Cooper & Margaret Nelson (and later with Kate Early) have always done a good line in bloody murder & revenge ballads and can creep me out every time with DEATH OF YOUNG ANDREW or LORD ABORE AND MARY FLYNN, among dozens in their repertoire. Joanne in Cleveland |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,maple_leaf_boy Date: 14 Nov 08 - 09:21 PM I agree about "Mercy Seat". (At the end, when he says: "But I'm afraid I told a lie." and with the rising intensity of the Cash version. Throughout the lyrics, the narrator keeps saying that he told the truth, and at the end, he says he lied; and when you imagine about being in the chair. It's chilling.) I'd have to say that Lead Belly singing "Goodnight Irene" can be kind of creepy. He sings "I'll GET you in my dreams" rather than "I'll SEE you in my dreams" as many other singers would sing that phrase. It makes you wonder what he means by "Getting" her in his dreams. Get her as a lover? Get revenge on her? / Catch her? Get her as in understand her, like "Oh, I getcha."? Does anybody know why he says he'll "get" her? |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: topical tom Date: 14 Nov 08 - 09:39 PM One of the creepiest songs of all- "Bringing Mary Home" by Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: My guru always said Date: 15 Nov 08 - 03:55 AM JENNY GREENTEETH by Nicole Murray of Cloudstreet is a good one! I've sung it during a couple of power-cuts at Clubs and it worked so well that occasionally we turn the lights off when I sing it! |
Subject: Lyr Add: ALL OF MY LIFE (Steve Earle) From: Brian Peters Date: 15 Nov 08 - 07:06 AM Agree that 'The Well Below the Valley' is seriously creepy, not least because of the jaunty tune. I'll second 'Lamkin', too - it always used to scare me witless when I sang it. Has no-one mentioned 'LUCY WAN' yet? For a modern one, how about this from Steve Earle? It's followed on the disc by 'Over Yonder', a song about a man on Death Row which humanises the condemned killer. The combination of the two tracks really makes you think... ALL OF MY LIFE (Steve Earle) I guess I don't get out too much If it wasn't enough I hear all these voices Always tellin' me that I'm bad But it's all in my head - like all those scary noises chorus I've been waiting all of my life All of my life I've been waiting all of my life All of my life Some nights when I'm laying in bed Wish I was dead - and I know you'd never miss me But I know where you go when you dream Strange as that seems 'cause I never even kissed you chorus Everybody wants to be somebody's somethin' Ain't nobody wants to be blue Ain't nobody anywhere ever loved nothin' Half as much as I love you Somebody somewhere said "love is a prison" But no one really wants to be free I'd have to be crazy to ever think someone Could love a nobody like me I'm here alone in the dark But I know where you are 'Cause I can hear you breathin' Come a little closer you'll find You were meant to be mine 'Cause you're the only reason chorus |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: VirginiaTam Date: 15 Nov 08 - 08:06 AM In The Pines or Black Girl Is a brilliantly creepy song fatB****rd. Heard it performed at Blackmore (in exile) club by Lanfranc. I am going to seek that one out now. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: reggie miles Date: 15 Nov 08 - 11:49 AM Don't know if creepy is the right adjective to describe these two, The Devil and Grosssosity but it may be as close as I come in my writing attempts in that direction. Each of these can be found online to listen to as MP3s at my EZ Folk site. http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/143/music.php |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: John Hardly Date: 15 Nov 08 - 12:16 PM This gives me the creeps when I can finally stop laughing. [Another dead link! Please give us song titles, folks! I could have fixed the link if I had known what song was meant!--A Mudelf.] |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Mrs Scarecrow Date: 15 Nov 08 - 01:28 PM 'When you're in your beds at night Who knows where the scarecrow goes' |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Jayto Date: 15 Nov 08 - 02:46 PM All of my life by Steve Earle was actually written for the remake of the movie Psycho. Vince Vaughn played Norman Bates and it was released a while back now. So it being creepy is right on target. I agree lyrically it is creepy. I think What's he builing in there? by Tom Waits is creepy especially with that video. Someone said that Waits was the paranoid one and nothing was really up with his neighbor. To me that is the creepy part of it. It could happen to anyone. You are going about your daily business and some paranoid freak is convinced you are up to something and has acquired an obsession about what they think you are up to. That is creepy I think. Then again I have had stalkers. If you are lucky enough to never have one this song may not hit you the same way. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST,Volgadon Date: 16 Nov 08 - 08:37 AM Long Lankin. Shudders. |
Subject: Lyr Add: ANNIE (parody:Bob Kanefsky/Fred Small) From: oldhippie Date: 16 Nov 08 - 08:20 PM This parody of Fred Small's song by Bob Kanefsky fits the bill. ANNIE (parody) Annie's up at seven on a work day, Blinking at the sun, recently set. A quick check for mail from her terminal Hooked to the net. Writing esoteric kinds of software: Cross-compilers, decryption, and more. All the folks in the biz will tell you she's a wiz, But her co-workers whisper near her door, Saying, «Chorus:» What we gonna do about Annie? Pretty little thing, looking so petite, Shouldn't work through the night. She needs fresh air and sunlight. And when does she find time to eat ? Christmas comes with questions of families. How did they raise you, and where? Avoiding any question that would date her, She asks them why they care. Looking for some dinner in the City, An extra wisp of fog that no one heeds. Man or woman, what the heck. It's only a neck. Sixteen ounces — that's all she needs. Tell me, «Chorus» Never getting too close to a mirror. Never letting down too much of her hair. Nor allowing guests to see the bedroom furniture Hid in her lair. Annie walks in late to the Christmas party. Her friends tell her, looking disturbed, "You're so pale and so thin. Why not splurge and dig in? Why, the garlic bread's simply superb!" Thinking, «Chorus» Work that you love is hard to come by, And places where they let you work at night. So she grabs a couple morsels to be quietly Tucked out of sight. But at dawn, as she flaps toward her coffin, She glares back at the cold angry glow, And dreams of the day, many decades away, When the world will be ready to know. She'll tell them: Chorus: Don't you worry about Annie. She won't waste away to bone. If she stays out of the sun, She may live to be five hundred. Annie's stronger than you'd known. |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: GUEST Date: 01 May 09 - 03:08 PM I once did a version of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" from the Sound of Music in the style of Leonard Cohen in a folk club. That went down well, as you can imagine! |
Subject: RE: Creepy songs From: Gurney Date: 01 May 09 - 04:21 PM I gave my niece Tawney's 'Children's Songs from Devon and Cornwall' when she was little. The scream at the end of 'LADY ALL SKIN AND BONES'(?) so frightened her that she played it just once! |
Subject: Lyr Add: DEVIL'S HOOTENANNY From: lompocan Date: 01 May 09 - 04:26 PM I got these lyrics from youtube. I know nothing of the performer, but it was creepy enough for me to cut/paste the lyrics. Devil's Hootenanny I was walking through the snow When I saw a distant glow Of a farmhouse nestled down beneath the trees With a guitar on my back I thought it sure can't hurt to ask If I could stay the night And sing a pretty song for free I walked up to the house And then I knocked hard on the door That old dark piece of wood She fell right in there on the floor And as she did a fire burst out on all sides I wondered what the hell was going on inside Then the music that I heard It was bizarre, it was absurd Like no banjo fiddle bass I'd ever seen I stepped into a room of flames Shook my head and looked again It was the kind of company to make you scream It was a devil's hootenanny An old-time fire band A drunken whiskey choir singing Round me you understand And then they said, "We've been searching near and far For a thing like you to sing and play guitar" |
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