Okay, in the spirit of the scary characters thread, what songs frightened you as a child?
I already mentioned “The Big Chair” by Tears for Fears, due to the soundbytes from the movie Sybil.
“Echoes” by Pink Floyd, from the album Meddle. I must’ve been 3 or 4 at the time. I shared a room with both my sisters, one 5 years older than me and the other 15 years older than me. You can imagine the delight of a teenage girl having to share her room with not one, but TWO younger sisters. When she wanted us to vacate “her” room, she would play “Echoes” for us. Just the sight of the album cover would send us screaming from the room.
“One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head. insert embarrassed chuckle here I liked this song, actually. Until the instrumental section. The flute (sounded like a flute anyway) always brought mental pictures of the half man / half goat thing that played the flute (I’ve been told many times what the creature actually is, but apparently I would rather block it out, because I never can remember.) I could see this thing, which to my preteen mind much resembled a demon, dancing around, playing the flute, and plotting my demise.
So now I’ve started my first thread. patting myself on the back
Easy for me: “D.O.A.” which describes an auto accident and the singer’s death.
Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare,” especially “Only Women Bleed” and “Cold Ethel.” Now that I’m older, I’m not scared by it, but I’m really impressed by A.C.'s songwriting. It takes talent to write couplets like “If I live to / 97 / You’ll still be waiting in refrigerator heaven / You’re cool / You’re nice / Cold Ethel You’re my Paradise”
“All the Young Girls Love Alice” and “This Song Has No Title” from Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” double-album. Not too scary, but rather disturbing images for a teen like me. Still a cool album, though.
Leader of the Pack scared me when I was little. I’m not sure WHY, aside from the fact that it was about a person dying in a motorcycle crash. I suppose that would be disturbing for a young child. And for some odd reason I associate it with haunted houses. No one said I was a normal child…
Hey, if I heard “D.O.A.” now, I’d break my neck to turn the damn radio off.
Just like I did every time that nightmare came on back in the day when it was new. I hate that song. I’ll never understand how it ever got to be popular. ::shivers::
I was scared by “Hotel California”. I thought it was about a horrible haunted hotel and that if you went there you’d never be able to leave and you’d turn into a ghost. Oddly, I also liked the song as a child even though it scared me.
I used to be scared of Helter Skelter by The Beatles. The first time I heard the song was in a documentary about the Manson murders. Every time I would hear the song on the radio, I would see bloody writing. But I was about three then.
Not just because the guys died in the songs pretty dramatically, but also I had relatives who worked on the railroad and in the coal mines (the mountains, just like where John Henry had to cut a path through), and my father used a hammer a lot.
Oh my God! That is too funny and coincidental! My best friend used to do the same thing when that theme song came on. When I was off work after having a baby, he’d come over to have a cup of coffee and would turn the channel when Perry Mason came on.
It was really hilarious considering he was in his late twenties at the time.
My younger brother and I would put Iron Man by Black Sabbath on the record player (yikes!) and chase my nephew around the house pretending to be a big iron monster. Yep, my nephew, now 25 still can’t laugh about that.
We were a good aunt and uncle to that only child, doncha think?
congrats on the thread, if you look in my profile, I’ve started some strange ones over time. Well, on the thread topic, anything by Michel Jackson scared the shit out of me.
The song that struck the most terror into my young heart was The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. This song was on the radio virtually every time my family went somewhere in the car, for months. My imagination would be busied with images of an innocent man swinging from the gallows, and a judge going home to his supper with bloodstained hands.
I think that it was Maxwell who did this song.
I have to agree with Hugh Jass about ‘American Pie’. I loved it, but the idea that it was a song about death sort of freaked me out.
OF course DOA. Then another one was “Careful With That Axe Eugenene”. The dude said that line and the beginning of the song and the rest the song was just slasher and terrifying screams. ::shudder::
No one said I was a normal child…