Category: Jam Session
Hello everyone!
I'm trying to collect various eerie, disturbing and weird songs for my Halloween playlist. Perhaps any of you know a few of these songs? Please post their titles below so I can search and download them soon. Thanks for your help!
Oh wow, we just had a really long topic about this but I can't remember it's title. I think Hamburger Lady by Throbbing Gristle won the most disturbing contest.
Oh yeah, I remember now. Search the boards for Unusual Fears or something like that and you should see the topic. Toward the end is where we started talking about songs.
HTH
Thank you! I'll look it up now... And that song's been noted now. :-)
The topic is called " a strange fear--advice much appreciated"
Leather Nun had a song called90% burned, I think.
There's actually quite a bit of what proper types would call twisted and disturbing songs in the industrial / underground community. Consider Current 93, such albums as Swastikas for Noddy, or Crooked Crosses for a Nodding God, all of which have ancient celtic curses (real or probably imagined) and many other things.
Another one would be Ostia - The Death Of Pasolini by Coil, this being off their Horse Rotorvator album from 1987. Back when you got all this shit on cassette ... and kept it out of sight of moms and teachers.
Black Sabbath's title song, from their self-titled album. Also D.O.A. by Bloodrock.
I think one of the most disturbing songs of all time is Blood Rock's DOA Dead on Arrival. Very, very weird. It talks about a guy on a plane and he's dying of fatal wounds he sustained in a plane crash. At the end the music gets kinda creepy and it ens with ambulance sirens.
I like the single version better than the LP version. It's more to the point.
I hate that song. lol I was really loaded the first time I heard it. Very very trippy. lol
Death Walks Behind You, by Atomic Rooster.
eat the children by otep
They're coming to take me away (backwards version especially)
eat the children by otep
They're coming to take me away (backwards version especially)
Of Mist and Midnight Skies by Cradle of Filth.
Also, The Unhappy Ending/Lead Me On by Rick Springfield (1972). Creepy but also sad, so if you hate that combo of scared and sad, I wouldn't listen to it. And something ahead of its time, there's a rendition of a Lena Horn song about Frankie and Johnny. I think it was done in about 1950, and involved a tragic love triangle. I think you can find both of these on Youtube. And Hills of Shilo by the New Christy Minstrels, which can also be found there. (I actually forgot about They're Coming to Take Me Away the backward rendition; it did scare the piss out of me when I was about six.)
Any of those death rock songs from the late 50's/early 60's (E.G. Dead Man's Curve.)
Like what happened toward the end of Our Last Kiss. Eeeww!
Yay! Post number 666! I couldn't have chosen a better topic for this one.
The song on the good wife episode season 2 that the killer writes while in the mental hospital about killing women.
Black Number 1, from Type O Negative.
At first when I saw the topic about creepy songs I thought about a song I heard a few times around 1973 or 1974, where a guy and a little boy were singing a duet about hanging out in a playground. It was something like, "My name is Bobby, I got a nickel..." I think they were going back and forth, trading lines, but even back then it just sounded way too creepy for me, that plus it just wasn't the style of music I was into. Wonder if the guy who sung that way back when is wearing an ankle bracelet these days? Hahahahaha!
That was Playground in my Mind. It was in about 1973, and the lyrics went like: "My name is Michael, I've got a nickel, I've got a nickel shiny and blue," etc. Nothing freaky or sinister about it; just about a guy going back to his own childhood when times were simpler and better. So the little boy he was singing with was meant to be himself.
I did see part of that on Youtube, couldn't get all the way through it but yeah sounds like a guy wanting to be a kid again even just in his own head.
How about instrumental music? There are whole categories of music without lyrics that could be seen as disturbing if you're used to fairly standard pop music structure. Go find some Edgard Varese on Youtube, probably "Poeme Elektronique" and I probably mangled the French spelling on that, but some folks would if anything think it's a bunch of noise. Try finding some of his music for a conventional orchestra though, some of that 12-tone stuff can be considered disturbing just by the dissonance of the music. A lot of that would make great Halloween music. Heck, I played the "Oxygene" album by Jean-Michel Jarre once and one of the people who heard it thought it was devil worship music.
I have the complete works of Varese.
How about some of Frank Zappa's Orchestral works? Like A Perfect Stranger?
Or, I forget who does The Rites of Spring? I didn't find that one creepy but the Wife turned it off when the kids she cares for were getting scared of it.
That's Stravinsky, and yeah, I understand why some folks would turn it off, it's pretty dissonant. As for Zappa, Varese was one of his early influences so he probably used some of the same compositional etechniques. I'd say I'm quite a fan of Frank's music but the orchestral stuff is a bit hard to listen to, some of it at least. There are even some parts of Lumpy Gravy that'd disturb people just for the dissonant music, but there's some pretty melodic passages in that one, too.
Klaus Schulze - Dune
Cradle of Filth - Dinner at Deviant's Palace
the intro and otro to Breaking Benjamin's Phobia album, Resident Evil soundtrack music. there are two KoRn songs, Open Up or something, and Seen it All that are extremely dissonant. I don't remember what Open Up is about, but I remember dissonant wordless parts of it scaring the pee out of me when I first heard them.
Pink Floyd - Brain damage.
Every step you take, by the police--seriously. Listen to it and analyze the lyrics for what they are. You'll be disturbed otu of yrou mind--and the more disturbing fact is taht that song is so commonly used as a wedding song. No wonder divorce is such a common conclussion--if a song like that is interpretted as endearing. lol
damn typos--sorry.
And now, for something different altogether:
Abby Lincoln, Tryptich: Prayer/protest/piece.
Freaked me out when I first heard it in my jazz class my Freshman year of college. I couldnt' move from my desk after the class when it was time to leave--I literally couldn't get up from my desk. Listen to the whole thing adn listen to her screams. You'll see what I mean. Listen to it on headphones in teh middle of the night if you want' perminent insomnia
I first heard the River by Bruce in 1985 in college. Just the way he sang it and the plot of the song and how everything went bad. That mix of sad and scary all in one. Can't handle that.
Alright, it's time to school you all. I chalenge any one to:
1. Listen to this entire album the whole way through.
2. Outdo me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVhcjmffNxk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
If the video doesn't play in your region, then just search for Grand Opening And Closing by Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum, and you'll find the album. I wish you many disturbed sleepless nights.
While we're on the topic of albums that are strange and off and on creepy, what about Delirium Kordia? It was done by Fantomas, and its general theme is supposed to be coming awake during major surgery...as in, while paralyzed and unable to signal that you're awake. It's...odd, put it that way. It's one huge long track, and there are some parts where it's quiet and then gets really loud, so if you're spooked by sudden volume changes, you're gonna jump. I can listen to this all the way through, and as stated before I find it more strange than frightening, but one's mileage will vary.
Another strange one, not so scary exactly is "Hello Skinny". I misremember at the moment who did it though.
For something a lot more freakish, Wild Women with Steak Knives. I feel like I've mentioned that one before.
Delirium Kordia is a fantastic album. I love that you never expect where it's going to go, no matter how many times you listen to it. Also, cudos on mentioning something I haven't heard of before! I'll check it out :)
The Hello Skinny song is by The Residents.
And the Wild Women thing...it's bizarre. There's French chanting, there's weird vocal sampling, but like 95% of it is one woman using her voice in various ways. It's kind of over the top in places, but if you let your mind wander while listening, it can be kind of disturbing. Imagine something ritualistic, for instance.