# Creepiest rock song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943 "2008-12-12T22:12:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/81 "2008-12-13T13:32:07Z")
> [@neutron\_star](#): > > There’s also some '70s song about a dying baby, the title and artist of which escapes me, that is infinitely creepy. Anyone know what I’m talking about? All I remember was that the song was pretty short - less than two minutes. It took me a little bit of creative searching, but I figured out what it was: The Shortest Story by Harry Chapin > [@](#): > > It is my seventh day, I taste the hunger and I > cry; my brother and sister cling to Mama’s side. > She squeezes her breast, but it has nothing to > provide; someone weeps, I fall asleep. > > It is twenty days today, Mama does not hold me > anymore; I open my mouth but I am too weak to cry. > Above me a bird slowly crawls across the sky; why > is there nothing now to do but die? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/82 "2008-12-13T15:19:58Z")
What, no mention of [Johnny Dowd](http://www.johnnydowd.com/)? > [@Hope You Don't Mind](#): > > I think about you every day > I hope you don’t mind > I dream about you every night > I hope you don’t mind And then there’s the song about how he was drunk and high and got in a car wreck that left his girlfriend in a coma for years and how he won’t touch another woman; “no woman’s flesh but hers”… Or his take on a marriage: > [@Bad Memories](#): > > Beauty crawls like a hog out of the mud > You can’t make love without spilling some blood > My wrecked eyeballs squint suspiciously > From a bad seed comes a crooked tree > Memories squawk like buzzards in my head > The won’t fly away til they’ve been fed > The preachers cast a real violent cast > Til death do ye part for better or worse ---
**Author:** ![Diane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/83 "2008-12-13T16:05:27Z")
I feel kind of embarrassed admitting this, but that old song about "They’re coming to take me away, ha ha, to the funny farm. . . " used to scare the shit out of me when I was a little kid, especially when the singing speeds up. I heard it again a few months ago and it still had the same affect. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/84 "2008-12-13T16:31:33Z")
Please don’t post an entire set of lyrics. Just post a few lines and link to the rest. Usually a stanza is about right (four to six lines–something like that). I know that our edits can really butcher what you’re trying to get across with your post, but we’re also trying to respect the rights of the copyright holders. So, please limit the lyrics you post and plan accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/85 "2008-12-13T16:35:33Z")
It’s not rock, but there’s always _I Hold Your Hand In Mine_ by Tom Lehrer. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/86 "2008-12-13T16:50:20Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > I humbly submit [Sting: I’ll be watching you](http://sting.lyrics-text.com/i-ll-be-watching-you-lyrics.html) > > snip > It’s like the stalkers theme song. The title is actually “Every Breath You Take”. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/87 "2008-12-13T16:51:59Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Particularly a live version I used to have where he said, “I’m just mad about fourteen-year-old girls, they’re mad about me.” Followed by a round of high-pitched SQUEEEEEs. Don knew his audience. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/88 "2008-12-13T17:10:04Z")
This verse from “Birthday” by the Sugarcubes… > [@](#): > > Today is a birthday > They’re smoking cigars, > He’s got a chain of flowers, > And sows a bird in her knickers, …might not be so creepy if it wasn’t established in the beginning of the song that the girl is **five years old**! In interviews, Bjork has confirmed that it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like, and that it’s something she saw in a somewhat neutral light. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/89 "2008-12-13T17:10:32Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > I have always had a bit of a problem with “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”. > > To whit: (I love that archaic English shit! :D) > > I have always understood that “the lights went out” meant the guy was executed. (As in the way the lights used to do dim in those old B&W gangster films when the con would ride “Ol Sparky”). > > So to me it doesn’t make any sense to follow that with, “That’s the night they hung an innocent man.” > > But I might be confusing the metaphor? > > Anyone? > > Thanks > > Q I don’t think ‘‘the lights went out’’ is supposed to be a literal reference to execution. I have always interpreted it as an idiom that translates to, ‘‘a miscarriage of justice.’’ I’m not Southern, but I imagine the lights could theoretically go out anywhere there is corruption that results in a miscarriage of justice… it evokes the image of blindness, of people looking the other way. Hence the reason that the judge in the town has bloodstains on his hands. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/90 "2008-12-13T17:15:55Z")
I always thought Aerosmith’s\*\* Janie’s Got a Gun\*\* was extremely disturbing material for a rock song. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/91 "2008-12-13T17:32:02Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I always thought Aerosmith’s\*\* Janie’s Got a Gun\*\* was extremely disturbing material for a rock song. Aerosmith has a vast array of disturbing songs. In most cases I am so excited about the music I don’t care. But I usually skip that song. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/92 "2008-12-13T17:33:42Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > **The Tao’s Revenge** and **Quasimodum** : you read the OP but didn’t scroll as far as post #2? Whoops. Put me down as seconding your nomination then. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/93 "2008-12-13T18:08:06Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > It’s not rock, but there’s always _I Hold Your Hand In Mine_ by Tom Lehrer. If you’re going to drag in Lehrer, I’ll see your song and raise you one: \*“One day when she had nothing to do, Sing rickety-tickety-tin, One day when she had nothing to do, She cut her baby brother in two, And served him up as an Irish stew, And invited the neighbors in, -bors in, Invited the neighbors in.” The Irish Ballad\* ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_In_Black)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/94 "2008-12-13T19:11:02Z")
Fourteen by The Vandals “But I can’t make love to you because you’re fourteen Just a peck on the cheek as I’m counting the weeks go by (why? why?) We can’t make love together” ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/95 "2008-12-13T19:51:52Z")
[“Are You Old Enough?”](http://www.hotlyrics.net/lyrics/D/Dragon/Are_You_Old_Enough.html) by 70’s Kiwi cock-rockers Dragon still raises a shudder whenever I hear it. We sent them to Australia for a reason. ---
**Author:** ![TheVioletCreep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@TheVioletCreep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheVioletCreep)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/96 "2008-12-13T19:52:43Z")
Tom Waits - What’s He Building In There? More of a spoken word poem, to sound and music. No creepy topic here, just curiosity. Go listen. You’ll never be the same. Delivery is fantastic and chilling. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/97 "2008-12-13T19:59:41Z")
> [@Diane](#): > > I feel kind of embarrassed admitting this, but that old song about "They’re coming to take me away, ha ha, to the funny farm. . . " used to scare the shit out of me when I was a little kid, especially when the singing speeds up. I heard it again a few months ago and it still had the same affect. I’ve heard it a total of one time in my life, in 1984. I can still remember it pretty well, though I just thought it was funny, not creepy. ---
**Author:** ![PetW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@PetW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PetW)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/98 "2008-12-13T20:04:01Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > **The Toadies, Possum Kingdom** - named after a park in their hometown, it’s a guy telling a girl how she be beautiful forever - because he is trying to lure her behind the boathouse to kill her, so she’ll be young in everyone’s memory…_Do you want to die? Do you want to die? And I promise you, I will treat you well, my sweet angel - so help me Jesus_…squicks me out every time… The Toadies have some creepier songs than that! Tyler is a good one - starts out sounding like a love song until you realize that he’s actually kidnapping her. Even better is “Jigsaw Girl,” which again is sung very sweetly. The first four lines: Give me your hand and I will hold it forever On my nightstand in a box with your love letters I love you dear, and I know we will not be parted I’ll keep you near, scattered around my apartment ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/99 "2008-12-13T22:04:53Z")
> [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](#): > > Fourteen by The Vandals > > “But I can’t make love to you > because you’re fourteen > Just a peck on the cheek as I’m counting the weeks go by (why? why?) > We can’t make love together” To be fair, unlike several other musicians in this thread, he seems to be resisting the teenager! Gotta take what you can get, y’know. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943/100 "2008-12-14T00:46:36Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > How about Warren Zevon’s excitable boy > > > [@](#): > > > > Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best > > Excitable boy, they all said > > And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest > > Excitable boy, they all said And it gets worse from there. Let’s add Elvis Costello’s “Less Than Zero”: > [@](#): > > Oswald and his sister are doing it again. > They’ve got the finest home movies that you have ever seen. > They’ve got a thousand variations, every service with a smile. > They’re gonna take a little break, and they’ll be back after a while. > Well I hear that South America is coming into style. Incidentally, I think a distinction should be made between songs that are deliberately meant to be creepy and those that inadvertently turned out that way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepiest-rock-song/476943.md?page=6)