Townsman Mac has suggested the following thread, which I think you’ll agree is worthy of our consideration:
Creepiest lyric ever. This came to me while listening to Blood and Chocolate, an album by a man who has written many a creepy lyric. The persona (or self portrait) Costello creates is one of the creepiest ever. I would save my favorite creepy lyric from that album for the thread, but as an example: E from Eels sings on the song “Going Fetal” (which is done in the tradition of ’50s dance crazes):
“Everyone is going fetal.
It’s the dance the kids all feel.
Just get done under your desk.
Feels like your momma’s nest, alright.”Which is hi-larious, but downright creepy.
I wonder in a head to head who the creepiest lyricist would be: Costello or Waits?
The long interview clip I’ve set at the top of this thread provides another example, one that Townsman Chickenfrank and I have had many a laugh over. Now let’s creep Mac out!
Wow, my very first thread! I went in a Rock Town boy and came out a Rock Town man!
I’ve got to head to bed, but I wanted to stir the creative juices a bit. I am interested in seeing if anyone else guesses the line I’m thinking of from “Blood and Chocolate.” It may not be the creepiest lyric ever, but it is one of the most well placed creepy lyrics ever.
– From Primal Scream’s “We’re Gonna Boogie”:
I’m the garbage man
I’m the garbage man
Sticky fingers in your trashcan
I’m the garbage man
– And from Gnarls Barkley’s “Necromancer”:
Without a care in the world I’m
Compassionate about killing her
Ahh to have my way with what’s
Left of the will in her.
Although I’m looking for specific lines in a song, I am also interested in any songs you think are creepy as a whole
“Run For Your Life” by The Beatles (especially because its a creepy way to end an album)
“Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Can” by Radiohead seems creepy to me
and “I Wanna Pick You Up” by the Beach Boys is F-ing CREEPY!
Mac, at first I figured the song you were thinking of was Pony Street, but then I remembered it’s not from Blood and Chocolate. As I read it the song is about intra-family sexual tension. The repeated references to “flogging a dead horse” are bad enough, and then there’s this bit:
Oh mother, oh mother, sometimes you are so mortifying
From the hole in your leopard skin tights I can tell you’ve been spying
But your generation confesses before it transgresses
Those super-8 movies of daddy in your disco dresses
As for lyrics on Blood and Chocolate, I always thought this one from I Hope You’re Happy Now was both hilarious and creepy:
He’s acting innocent and proud still you know what he’s after
Like a matador with his pork sword, while we all die of laughter
And certainly the entire lyric of I Want You is so creepy you can’t single out any particular bit.
My first thought was my favorite lyric from that album:
“Bare wires from the socket to the bed where you embrace that girl/
Did you ever think there’s far too many people in the world?”
Capt. Beefheart is always good for a creep-out:
Oh, when I see mommy, I feel like a mummy,
Gonna wrap her up
Every time I see her
Every time I see her
I wanna grab her
Pull her up to me til I look right through her
But she moves so fast that I can’t even see her
Her interest fades like breath on the mirror
Oh, when I see mommy, I feel like a mummy,
Gonna wrap her up
Gonna wrap her up
Next time I see her
Next time I see her
I’m gonna seize her
Then I’m gonna freeze her
It’s the only way
That I might get to see her
Gonna wrap her up
Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish is too long to quote in full, but it captures that ‘sex is pretty gross if you stop to think about it’ vibe:
http://www.beefheart.com/walker/lyrics/tmr/neonmeatedreamofanoctafish.htm
[See also Robyn Hitchcock]
I really like The Toadies for some reason, and Tyler was always one of my favorite songs by them. It still is, but I wonder why sometimes cuz it’s pretty sick.
I find a window in the kitchen And I let myself in
Rummage through the refrigerator Find myself a beer
I can’t believe I’m really here
And she’s lying in that bed
I can almost feel her touch
And her anxious breath
I stumble in the hallway
Outside the bedroom door
I hear her call out to me
I hear the fear in her voice
She pulls the covers tighter
I press against the door
I will be with her tonight
That’s pretty creepy, but I still like that song a lot.
I’ve got Randy Newman on the brain recently, so I of course think of “Suzanne.”
Pulp have some creepy songs: “Being Followed Home” might be the creepiest.
What’s the creepiest Steely Dan song? “Everyone’s Gone to the Movies”? “Josie”? “Cousin Dupree”?
“Go Away Little Girl”
Sung by Donny Osmond, it’s less creepy. But sung by Steve Lawrence or the Happenings, it’s VERY creepy.
Go away, little girl, go away, little girl;
I’m not supposed to be alone with you.
I know that your lips are sweet,
But our lips must never meet.
I belong to someone else and I must be true.
Oh, go away, little girl, go away, little girl;
It’s hurting me more each moment that you delay.
When you are near me like this,
You’re much too hard to resist.
So, go away, little girl, before I beg you to stay.
(Instrumental interlude)
When you are near me like this,
You’re much too hard to resist.
So, go away, little girl, before I beg you to stay.
I’ve always been creeped out by the last part of The White Album. Don’t know why, but side four is a creepfest for me.
Another Beatles lyric that used to make me wince: “Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye.” That’s just gross.
TB
I have to go back to the Gary Puckett well. Young Girl contains:
“My love for you is way out of line/You better run, girl” – is he about to change into a sexual werewolf?
“You led me to believe you’re old enough”
“Beneath your perfume and make-up, you’re just a baby in disguise/And though you know that it is wrong to be alone with me/That come on look is in your eyes” – I believe they call that projecting.
“So hurry home to your mama/I’m sure she wonders where you are/Get out of here/Before I have the time/To change my mind” – back to the uncontrollable sexual werewolf
Lady Willpower:
“I know you want to see me but you’re afraid/Of what I might have on my mind”
“Did no one ever tell you the facts of life/Well there’s so much you have to learn/And I would gladly teach you..”
And one more look at This Girl is a Woman Now:
“This girl tasted love, as tender as the gentle dawn/She cried a single tear, a teardrop that was sweet and warm/Our hearts told us we were right/And on that sweet and velvet night/A child had died, a woman had been born” – so very, very specific. And in the end, it’s “velvet” that puts it over the top.
Oats mentioned Steely Dan and Pulp, and Fagan and Cocker definitely traffic in intentionally creepy lyrics and are particularly good at creating these kinds of characters. “Everyone’s Gone To The Movies” has to be the stand-out for Steely Dan: “Come on, come on, soon you’ll be eighteen/I think you know what I mean/Don’t tell your mama/Your daddy or your mama/They’ll never know where you’ve been…Everyone’s gone to the movies, now we’re alone at last.”
For Pulp, I say “I Spy”, the whole thing really. Even though the narrator – a character put on, but Cocker does drop his own name – seems like a weasel full of shit (“You see, I spy for a living, and I specialize in revenge” is a great line), the entire thing gives off the creepy vibe of some guy rapidly losing track of fantasy and reality, the dark side of the downtrodden call to arms on Mis-Shapes.
I never find Steely Dan particularly creepy because Fagen so obviously has a wink in his eye with this stuff. I know the line in Everyone’s Gone to the Movies is “soon you will be eighteen,” but he drags that first syllable out long enough to make me wonder if he’s getting major pedophilia past the censors and he’s actually saying, “soon you will be a teen.” He’s pretty twisted, but he just doesn’t creep me out. His character in Janie Runaway is a pretty amazing dirtbag, too.
I agree with what 2K says regarding Fagan’s creepiness for cicks approach. Frequently, however, the music of Steely Dan really creeps me out. Similarly, David Gilmour, a guitarist I don’t really dislike, has been known to creep me out soley by the power of his guitar tone on solos.
I find the unself-consciously creepy lyrics of a Gary Puckett the creepiest of all. He’s not playing creepy. He IS creepy, and he seems not to be aware of how creepy he is. Or maybe he was told that showing his heart – even a heart of darkness – would be appealing to young women and little girls.
ahhh, a thread Chester the Molester would be proud of.
I totally forgot how creepy Steeley Dan could be. It is with a “wink in the eye” as 2000man put it, but it can still make me shiver.
I didn’t hear the lyric in Blood & Chocolate which creeps me out the most these days for a good while after I owned the album.
The song I was referencing earlier is “Next Time Round” which at first listen to me was a pretty straight forward jilted lover song, but then I started to pay attention to it.
Great opening lyric with “heart already down the stairs,” but his heart is sinking because apparently he’s been watching his former lover in her bedroom with her new beau (with the creased face comment, I believe he’s watching them in the beast with two backs formation) which is already a bit creepy for me. This is a song about a jilted stalker.
But the lyric I missed for the longest time is found with 1:39 left on the song. It is right after the bridge, the drums and guitar stop and Costello blurts out, “sometimes I name and number all the things you gave to me”
On its own, the phrase is only a little creepy, but the way it is placed into the song as almost an aside creeps me out.
Even though the music essentially stops for him to deliver this line, its so quick and without any bitterness to his voice, I just kept missing it. It comes off so nonchalant, like you’re not really supposed to hear it for what he’s actually saying.
“I’m complaining about my ex, and oh by the way I count and organize all of the things she gave me. I probably have them in a little shrine. No biggie, right?”
I think its intentionally placed in the song that way, and it is brilliantly creepy.
Scott Walker’s “The Electrician”
Although slightly vague lyrics, this song is about torture and the victom’s response. well, creepy might not be strong a enough adjective.
(shudder)
baby it’s slow
when lites go low
there’s no help no
baby it’s slow
when lites go low
there’s no help no
he’s drilling thru the SPIRITUS SANCTUS tonight
thru the dark hip falls screaming OH YOU MAMBOS
kill me and kill me and kill me
if I jerk- the handle
you’ll die in your dreams
if I jerk- the handle
jerk- the handle
you’ll thrill me and thrill me and thrill me
baby it’s slow
when lites go low
there’s no help no
I still say “Poor Napoleon” is a much creepier song.
Ray Davies’ Art Lover seems really creepy even though he defends it as describing his need for some kind of substitute for not seeing his daugher in the late 70s or something.
Sunday afternoon theres something special
Its just like another world.
Jogging in the park is my excuse
To look at all the little girls.
Im not a flasher in a rain coat,
Im not a dirty old man,
Im not gonna snatch you from your mother,
Im an art lover.
Come to daddy,
Ah, come to daddy,
Come to daddy.
Pretty little legs, I want to draw them,
Like a degas ballerina.
Pure white skin, like porcelain,
She’s a work of art and I should know
Im an art lover.
Come to daddy,
And I’ll give you some spangles.
Little girl don’t notice me
Watching as she innocently plays.
She can’t see me staring at her
Because I’m always wearing shades.
She feeds the ducks, looks at the flowers.
I follow her around for hours and hours.
I’d take her home, but that could never be,
She’s just a substitute
For what’s been taken from me.
Ah, come to daddy, come on.
Sunday afternoon can’t last forever,
Wish I could take you home.
So, come on, give us a smile
Before you vanish out of view.
I’ve learned to appreciate you
The way art lovers do,
And I only want to look at you.
I’m not sure what’s worse: if Davies’ story is true, those lyrics are so sad that the sincere sadness might outweigh the severe creepiness regardless of which way the “true” inspiration for that song swings.
I was just looking up Morphine on You Tube after reading the rock and jazz thread.
“Thursday” is a creepy song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_EU7e4T7gE&feature=related
as much for the instrumentation as for the lyrics.
Sorry for chiming in late on this thread, but the Costello theme of this thread made me think of his cover of Leon Payne’s “Psycho”. It’s probably the single creepiest song I’ve ever heard in my life (with his other creepy lyrics, I can see why he would cover it).
There’s also Sufjan Stevens’ “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” which always creeps me out whenever I hear it.
“love me while you can, before I’m an old man”
Simply because George was a teeny bopper, like a year before. Sometimes it creeps me out how quickly things changed.