That’s a remix of NIN’s “Closer”, if you are interested.
“Rehearsals for Retirement” and “No More Songs” by sixties folksinger Phil Ochs.
The songs themselves are haunting enough, and even more so when you know the story behind them. For those who do not know, Phil Ochs was one of the leading figures of the sixties folk/rock genre, often mentioned on the same lofty level as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and etc.
As the sixties turned into the seventies, Phil gradually became more depressed. Some of this may have had a biological basis (his father also suffered from similar mental problems) and some of it may have had to do with the pressures of stardom and continuing political struggles. He eventually (1976, IIRC) committed suicide.
The two songs mentioned above definitely reflect the anguish Phil Ochs was feeling in the later years of his life.
The “hitched” vocal mentioned upthread is present in both songs. You can really sense the sadness and hopelessness, and to me this certainly defines “haunting.”
Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” is also quite haunting. Each line seemingly sadder than the next, with one fragile thread of hopefulness “I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow” thrown into the mix. The line “I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children” is especially chilling when one thinks of Columbine and the other school shootings of recent years.
Every time I leave this thread, I think of another song. “Gloomy Sunday” by Billie Holiday.
Holy crap! When I started this thread, I thought it would maybe get a few posts and die a quick death. I never realized so many others had so many songs that “haunted” them too.
One that I can’t believe I forgot until so late in the game is of course Joy Division! Their music is the very definition of disturbing, haunting music. Of course, Ian Curtis was not a happy man (he committed suicide). Pretty much all of their songs haunt me (Atmosphere, She’s lost control). But the song of theirs that disturbs me the most (so much that I must have blocked it out, since I hadn’t thought of it until now) is Love will tear us apart. Flat music, lyrics sung in a manner devoid of emotion, but so desperate…
As long as you can tolerate her voice at its screechiest, Bjork’s version of “Gloomy Sunday” is quite haunting.
Radiohead - “How I Made My Millions”
Smashing Pumpkins - “Daydream”
The first thirteen seconds of The Beatles - “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”
Bjork - “Aurora”
Elliott - “Blessed By Your Own Ghost”
Mogwai - “Sine Wave”
Explosions In The Sky - “Greet Death”
zoogirl-excellent choice-Sally etc. But Earth Angel?
How about “Sleepwalk” by Santo & Johnny
White Rabbit-Jeff Airplane
Check out "The Bells’ by the Dominos-yeah it’s old, but about a dead girl & McPhatter’s crying is beyond belief.
guster - rainy day
ani difranco - grey
ben folds five - cigarette and brick
requiem for a dream from the lord of the rings trailer
bjork - new world from ‘dancer in the dark’
almost any radiohead song
billy joel - lullabye
moby - signs of love
Rush—Ghost Of A Chance
Eurythmics—This City Never Sleeps
Robert Palmer—Between Us
Peter Gabriel—Mercy Street and Of These, Hope
I’ll try to avoid repeating any that have been mentioned already, but there are so many that I might repeat a few.
Big Head Todd and the Monsters - Broken Hearted Savior
Blind Melon - No Rain
Bob Wills - Faded Love
Great White - Save All Your Love and The Angel Song
Kansas - Dust in the Wind
Queensryche - Is There Anybody Listening
Scorpions - Still Loving You
Ozzy - Changes and Goodbye to Romance and let’s throw See You on the Other Side in there for good measure.
I actually made a mood CD with these and other haunting songs. I call it my “wistful CD.”
A few that haven’t been mentioned yet:
“Come Together” – The Beatles. Lennon intoning “Shoot me”…
Many songs by The The (Matt Johnson), whose lyrics now appear prophetic in the wake of 9/11. But many of these songs are haunting for musical and lyrical reasons, aside from historical context, as well.
Much of the album Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. Not just for the usual musical reasons, but also for the tortured perfectionism and semi-existence of the band since.
Dylan’s The Basement Tapes.
The entire soundtrack to The Wicker Man. A superficially cheery pub sing-along, creepy Lydian-key instrumental bits, a children’s maypole song, a fertility song celebrating fire as a generative force, a true-blue siren’s song, and much more, all intimating a deadly serious end in the context of the movie’s plot.
“Russian Hill” – Jellyfish. Material longing for unattainable wealth, lushly orchestrated (those flutes!).
“Lonely Is as Lonely Does” and “From A Window” – The dB’s. Loneliness, alienation, minor keys, the tragedy of a great band that couldn’t even get their first two albums distributed in the U.S. in the '80’s and '90’s (although they’re currently available), yada yada yada.
“Alone Again Or” – Love [and covered to great effect by The Damned]. Loneliness in a minor key, with optional flamenco guitar.
“Big Day” – XTC. Thematically, because it’s about the narrator’s trepidations about marriage (his friend’s, actually), and musically, because of that weird inverted chord thing they’re playing.
“Lay Lady Lay” and “The Girl From the North Country” – Dylan, with Johnny Cash.
re. The Smith’s great “How Soon Is Now?” ('80’s classic, recently used for a luxury car ad)… part of the uncanny quality of this song is achieved through shimmery oscillation guitar effects, and, I think, certain production/recording effects (like, the way the instruments seem spatialized; I think it’s called spatial imagery)… can anyone with musical chops offer more detail on this?
Syd Barrett’s solo work (esp. The Madcap Laughs). From Pink Floyd to the mental ward… poor Syd!
Roky Erickson/The 13th Floor Elevators. Eerie, uncanny satanic psychedelic 60’s Texas garage rock, plus the accumulative tragedies of the band members in context – especially Roky’s long-term stays in mental hospitals for the criminally insane…
Just because an artist has died or suffered doesn’t necessarily impart a haunted quality or context to his work. I agree that the music of Joy Division is more haunting because Ian Curtis hanged himself (just prior to going on tour) and that the eerily similar drowning deaths of Tim Buckley and his son Jeff add a certain haunted context to their output – but this is assisted by the haunted aspects of their music (both musically and thematically) to begin with.
On the other hand, Barry White’s musical identity, as “The Maestro of Love,” was so life-affirming, upbeat, sensual (or is that sensuous?), and downright groovin’, that I’m not haunted by his music at all. Barry White proved to be mortal, but his music, for me, remains gloom-proof. “Ecstasy” is still about ecstasy, and I’m glad for that.
And remember when the frontman from INXS died from accidental auto-erotic asphixiation? Well, between the pop superficiality (and energized upbeat spirit) of the music of INXS, the frivolous celebrity of the frontman (to me, anyway), and the embarrassing, bizarre circumstances of his death, it didn’t do much to elevate or change my feelings about their music. He, and his band, simply didn’t have the gravitas to support a tragic subtextual spin on their music, before or after tragedy.
But artists like Joy Division, the Buckleys, Bob Dylan, and John Lennon dealt with serious themes (spirituality and religion, violence, war, love and loss, alienation, etc.) and often achieved a haunted quality in their work before, and aside from, any tragic context. Then, after something weird or tragic happens, that additional layer of meaning can become permanently fused with one’s interpretation of, or feelings about, their music.
You just earned 4,652,563 coolness points in my book.
My list –
The Liar - Ozzy
I Just Want You - Ozzy
Ghost Behind My Eyes - Ozzy
Aimee - Ozzy
The Weakness In Me - Joan Armatrading
The Weakness In Me - Melissa Etheridge
The Prison - Melissa Etheridge
Superman (It’s Not Easy) - Five For Fighting
Never Is A Promise - Fiona Apple
Broken Wings - Mr. Mister
Solitude - Black Sabbath
She’s Gone - Black Sabbath
Rupert Holmes - Key Largo
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Crazy - Patsy Cline
Thugs Mansion - Tupac Shakur
Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Nirvana
Delilah Blue - Joshua Kadison
Midnight Radio - Hedwig & The Angry Inch
Hemmorhage (In My Hands) - Fuel
Kentucky Rain - Elvis Presley
Last Good Day Of The Year - Cousteau
The Wind - PJ Harvey
Uh, sorry. It’s a ‘haunting music’ night and I just copied my playlist.
Dr D.
I added “Earth Angel” because I watched one of those kids horror shows (Goosebumbs?) that used it during a scene wherre a haunted hotrod slowly rose out of a pond, complete with driver. Ever since, the song totally creeps me out. Try listening to it on a car radio by a river with crickets chirping. Spooky!
Hey, Krisfer, you might want to check out “The Ballad of Casey Dese” by Shawn Phillips. It also mentions miscarriage and lightning.
Weird story to that song (Kinda Hijack) I first heard it at church camp, of all places, when I was about fourteen. One of the counsellers sang it at campfire a couple of times and it haunted me for years. I didn’t know the title or artist, just a few lines and the tune. About fifteen years later I mentioned it to someone I’d known since around the time I first heard it. Turns out he’d known it all along! So, I cruised the second hand shops for a few more years and finally scored a copy. A short time later I had a bunch of records swiped and that was one of them. A couple of months ago, a friend of mine decided to get rid of her records and asked me to come and take what I wanted. Lo and behold, there it was! It’s a really spooky song, all about how his friend died by lightning while chopping wood.
You might also add almost the whole of Gordon Lightfoots “The Way I Feel” album. Lots of minors and echos, very haunting.
Jerrybear
Great selection of “No More Songs” by Phil Ochs
In 1980, from Carly Simon’s “Come Upstairs” album there is a song - “The 3 of Us In the Dark”. If you can track this down it is well worth a listen. She does a fantastic sultry whisper for some of the lines such as “You called to me years ago”. It is really atmospheric, haunting and a bit spooky.
Nick Cave - The Mercy Seat
Throwing Muses - Delicate Cutters
Robert Johnson - Love in Vain
A few more:
“And So It Goes,” Billy Joel
“Old Friends,” Simon and Garfunkel
“Toy Matinee” and “Things She Said,” Toy Matinee
“Chelsea Monday” and “The Party,” Marillion
“Coronach,” Jethro Tull
Just wanted to add “The Lady in the Radiator Song.”
This is exactly how I feel now whenever I hear the full 17-minute version of Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. It is used near the end of another Hannibal Lecter movie, Manhunter .
Chris W
Several by Elton John, including “We All Fall in Love Sometimes”, “Goodbye”, and “Madman Across the Water”.
But I agree with Tracer: Bach’s D-minor is the all-time king. Here’s a sample for anyone who hasn’t heard it or isn’t sure what it is.
Nick Cave - As I Sat Sadly By Her Side
No Doubt - Don’t Speak
Various VNV Nation stuff
Gary Jules - Mad World (hell, both versions work)
Nina Simone - Ne Me Quitte Pas
And I’ll second all the Depeche Mode and Cure mentions.