Songs that creeped you out when you were a kid

[rowrrbazzle]

We had a tape of old songs that had “My Grandfather’s Clock”:

It rang an alarm in the dead of the night
An alarm that for years had been dumb
And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight
That his hour of departure had come
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime
As we silently stood by its side.

But it stopped - short,
Never to go again,
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering, tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering, tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopped - short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.

Here’s a similar thread, apparently lost in the Winter of Our Missed Content, but BoardReader still has it.
http://www.boardreader.com/scripts/texis.exe/viewthread?query=grandfather’s%20clock%20straightdope&ttype=&postid=3da0e25c190

[screech-owl]

*Originally posted by Sam Stone *
**That would be,

"My name is Michael,
I’ve got a nickel,…

Or something like that. I haven’t heard that song for at least 20 years, but it’s one of those songs that just sticks in your brain like a mutant form of musical peanut butter.

I -Think- it might have been B.J. Thomas that sang it… **

Nope. Even though B.J. sang for Lovers and Other Losers, it was Clint Holmes who recorded it.

Don’t click here if you don’t want to re-live all the maudlin lyrics.

Would someone please explain the “cowbell” joke being bandied about, where is it from, why is it funny? I have no idea what y’all are talking about.

[dinahmoe]

*Originally posted by jsc1953 *
About 30 seconds of furious brain-searching came up with the title: Timothy.

Or as Dave Barry calls it, “Yummy Yummy Yummy I’ve Got Tim in My Tummy”

[NDP]

Would someone please explain the “cowbell” joke being bandied about, where is it from, why is it funny? I have no idea what y’all are talking about.

It’s from a “Saturday Night Live” sketch (that, I believe, was spoofing VH1’s “Behind the Music”) where Christopher Walken plays the producer of BOC’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” His constant advice to the band is to add “more cowbell” to the song. Will Ferrell was the band member who was playing the cowbell.

[Walloon]

Having been taken to The Exorcist when I was 13, I’d have flashbacks whenever I heard the first notes of Tubular Bells, which became a Top 10 hit.

[Nurobath]

The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia and The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald both kind of creeped me out as a kid. Not sure why with Georgia but The Wreck I always found really depressing. The long titles may have had something to do with that as well.

There are also a couple of Klaus Schulz pieces that still freak me out a bit. The end of Bayreuth Returns on the Timewind album has this explosion sort of thing that’s really creepy and never fails to scare the hell out me. At about the 21 minute mark of P.T.O the music changes very abruptly and freaks me out all the time. Anyone ever hear either of these?

[MyFootsZZZ]

When I was a kid “Man Eater” and “Somebody’s Watching Me” gave me the willies.

(I don’t know if those are in fact the real name of those songs… they were 80’s tunes)

[WotNot]

Sparky’s Magic Piano – that piano’s voice gave me the shivers

[scott_evil]

Convoy - C.W. McCall - the CB portions were weird, and that androgynous voice that sang the chorus!!!

Calling Occupants (of Interplanetary Craft) - The Carpenters. Just weird.

[Ol_Gaffer]

Big John by Jimmy “I love sausage” Dean

I didn’t mind the fact that Big John dies down in the mine but I really hated that chorus:

Biiiiiig Joooohn
Biiiiiig Joooohn
Big Bad John

[jsc1953]

*Originally posted by rowrrbazzle *
**We had a tape of old songs that had “My Grandfather’s Clock”:
**

One of my favorite songs as a kid! But I never learned that verse; might not have been quite so beloved if I had.

[andymurph64]

I third the “In the year 2525”. It was the one I thought of before I clicked on the thread. Neat that others thought of it also.

[Velma]

The Theme song for * Mystery* on PBS. My parents used to watch it after I went to bed, but I could hear it from my room and I would put my pillow over my head. I hated that woman sighing, or moaning, or whatever the hell she was doing.

[SolGrundy]

Thanks to another thread, I now know the title of mine: Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. Gives me the heebie jeebies even now; can’t really explain why.

And to the person who said Ironman was creepy: it’s not as bad if you confuse the lyrics with “The Gingerbread Man” song, as my friend always does: “I am Ironman, you can try to catch me if you can.”

[Greywolf73]

The “In Search Of” theme music.
It still gives me the creeps.

[Koxinga]

*Originally posted by Velma *
*The Theme song for * Mystery on PBS. My parents used to watch it after I went to bed, but I could hear it from my room and I would put my pillow over my head. I hated that woman sighing, or moaning, or whatever the hell she was doing. **

You mean your mom?

[Degrassi_High_Dropout]

i used to be terrified of the theme music to “Dr Who”. I would jump up to change it in a cold sweat

[Winnie]

That song “Wildfire” (can’t remember the artist but goes “she ran calling wiiiiiiildfire”).

I was a very, very sensitive child and the though of some poor horse getting lost in the wilderness and the girl sobbing because she lost him was too much for me to bear. I couldn’t even listen to it.

[Velma]

*Originally posted by Doghouse Reilly *
**

You mean your mom? **

GAH! Thanks. Now I have that image to repress for the rest of the day.

my mom doesn’t do that.

[Koxinga]

*Originally posted by Degrassi High Dropout *
**i used to be terrified of the theme music to “Dr Who”. I would jump up to change it in a cold sweat **

My younger brother as well. But he didn’t have the option of switching it off, since I was watching it.