It took me a little bit of creative searching, but I figured out what it was: The Shortest Story by Harry Chapin
:eek:
What, no mention of Johnny Dowd?
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:
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.
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.
It’s not rock, but there’s always I Hold Your Hand In Mine by Tom Lehrer.
The title is actually “Every Breath You Take”.
Followed by a round of high-pitched SQUEEEEEs. Don knew his audience.
This verse from “Birthday” by the Sugarcubes…
…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.
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.
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.
Whoops. Put me down as seconding your nomination then.
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*
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”
“Are You Old Enough?” by 70’s Kiwi cock-rockers Dragon still raises a shudder whenever I hear it. We sent them to Australia for a reason.
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.
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.
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
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.
And it gets worse from there.
Let’s add Elvis Costello’s “Less Than Zero”:
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.