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Creepiest song ever?
- Thread starter bholder
- Start date
You have it backwards; Hasil was a true original, cranking out primitive, psychotic, lo-fi records as a one-man band in the 50’s and 60’s, perfect example of savant outsider art. When Lux and Ivy started up The Cramps in the mid-70’s, he served as a template and inspiration. To that they added trashy surf, 60’s garage and fuzz, horror and outer space rock to create what became known as Psychobilly. The Chups are just another in a long line of bands over the decades chasing after that.
Meh, define 'creepy'
From my fave album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Murder Ballads:
Nick Cave is what he is and he is creepy. In a William Faulkner meets Franz Kafka sort of a way.
But he treads a well trodden road since he used to be creepy in front of the worlds tightest train wreck they called the Birthday Party.
Here’s another slightly off tune, famously covered by Elvis Costello; just wait for the last line...
Hasil's creepy one man band inspired one of my all time faves >
"Oh baby I see you on my TV set
Yeah baby I see you on my TV set
I cut your head off and put it in my TV set
I use your eyeballs for knobs on my TV set
I watch TV
I watch TV
Since I put you in my TV set
Oh baby I hear you on my radio
Yeah baby I hear you on my radio
You know I flip flip flip for my radio
You're going drip drip drip on my radio
AM radio
PM radio
Since I tuned you inside my radio... Like this!
Oh baby I see you in my Frigidaire
Yeah baby I see you in my Frigidaire
Behind the mayonnaise, way in the back
I'm gonna see you tonight for a midnight snack
But though it's cold
You won't get old
'Cause you're well preserved in my Frigidaire
Yahhhhhhh....
Oh baby look so good in my crib at night
Yeah baby look so good in my crib at night
I could give you a million hugs
You look so good all covered up in bugs
Oh, I missed some there
Under your chair
But that's all right, I'll sweep you under the rug... ah ha ha!
Oh baby I see you on my TV set
Yeah baby I see you on my TV set
I cut your head off and put it in my TV set
I use your eyeballs for knobs on my TV set
I watch TV
I watch TV
Since I seen you I've been so obsessed"
I wasn’t saying Messer Chups was a creator or inventor of the sound. I just said that song reminded me of them. It’s a genre that clearly has a long history that predates them. They’re pretty darn good at what they do though. I don’t usually care for bands like them, but they’ve got something good going on. Definitely a dash of creepy in many of their tracks.
I dig surf, and creepy is way more tubular than the Beach Boys style
Helluva harmonizing those Boys do, tho!
devnulljp
Supporting Member
Victor by Alex Lifeson is a pretty creepy tale about madness, jealousy and murder (Based on the poem by WH Auden)
Nick Cave's whole Murder ballads album, but especially Song of Joy
Nick Cave's whole Murder ballads album, but especially Song of Joy
I posted that one on the last page.
My fave album of theirs overall, I do believe
How about some lyrics, shall we?
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
from Murder Ballads
Song of Joy:
"Have mercy on me, sir
Allow me to impose on you
I have no place to stay
And my bones are cold right through
I will tell you a story
Of a man and his family
And I swear that it is true
Ten years ago I met a girl named Joy
She was a sweet and happy thing
Her eyes were bright blue jewels
And we were married in the spring
I had no idea what happiness a little love could bring
Or what life had in store
But all things move toward their end
All things move toward their end
On that you can be sure
Then one morning I awoke to find her weeping
And for many days to follow
She grew so sad and lonely
Became Joy in name only
Within her breast there launched an unnamed sorrow
And a dark and grim force set sail
Farewell happy fields
Where joy forever dwells
Hail horrors hail
Was it an act of contrition or some awful premonition
As if she saw into the heart of her final blood-soaked night
Those lunatic eyes, that hungry kitchen knife
Ah, I see sir, that I have your attention!
Well, could it be?
How often have I asked that question
Well, then in quick succession
We had babies, one, two, three
We called them Hilda, Hattie and Holly
They were their mother's children
Their eyes were bright blue jewels
And they were quiet as a mouse
There was no laughter in the house
No, not for Hilda, Hattie or Holly
"No wonder", people said, "Poor mother Joy's so melancholy"
Well, one night there came a visitor to our little home
I was visiting a sick friend
I was a doctor then
Joy and the girls were on their own, yeah
Joy had been bound with electrical tape
In her mouth a gag
She'd been stabbed repeatedly
And stuffed into a sleeping bag
In their very cots my girls were robbed of their lives
Method of murder much the same as my wife's
Method of murder much the same as my wife's
It was midnight when I arrived home
Said to the police on the telephone
Someone's taken four innocent lives
They never caught the man
He's still on the loose
It seems he has done many, many more
Quotes John Milton on the walls in the victim's blood
The police are investigating at tremendous cost
In my house he wrote "His red right hand"
That, I'm told is from Paradise Lost
The wind round here gets wicked cold
But my story is nearly told
I fear the morning will bring quite a frost
So I've left my home
I drift from land to land
I am upon your step and you are a family man
Outside the vultures wheel
The wolves howl, the serpents hiss
And to extend this small favor, friend
Would be the sum of earthly bliss
Do you reckon me a friend?
The sun to me is dark
And silent as the moon
Do you, sir, have a room?
Are you beckoning me in? (Hit it)"
There are a few that I did as covers in bands over the years that had disturbing lyrics made even more so by the relative innocence of the genres. We're talking AM radio and such from the early '70's. Here are a few that stuck in my mind as creepy:
Ticking - Elton John from "Caribou" 1974. Sounds like a current news broadcast.
Don't Take Me Alive - Steely Dan from "The Royal Scam" 1976. See above.
If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right) Luther Ingram. 1972, Barbara Mandrell, others. Who knew marital infidelity could be so wrong/right?
Me And Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul. 1972. See above.
Lola - The Kinks. 1970. Mild by today's standards, I guess.
Hey Joe - Original by The Leaves in 1966, everybody else has done it since then. Most famous version by Jimi Hendrix in 1967. Hey, Pal, did you think of stopping a murder?
Ticking - Elton John from "Caribou" 1974. Sounds like a current news broadcast.
Don't Take Me Alive - Steely Dan from "The Royal Scam" 1976. See above.
If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right) Luther Ingram. 1972, Barbara Mandrell, others. Who knew marital infidelity could be so wrong/right?
Me And Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul. 1972. See above.
Lola - The Kinks. 1970. Mild by today's standards, I guess.
Hey Joe - Original by The Leaves in 1966, everybody else has done it since then. Most famous version by Jimi Hendrix in 1967. Hey, Pal, did you think of stopping a murder?
Oh yeah, good one. Carmina Burana / Oh Fortuna is also pretty creepy.
Creepy songs with creepy videos:
at 0:43... that must be the creepiest recorder flute sound ever...
Creepiest acid house tune ever. This tune in a dark club, throbbing very loud... I was completely freaked out the first time I heard it. The creepiness starts just at the middle of the song.
I find the second half unsettling, beautiful and epic at the same time. I adore Tschaikowski.
