Rockwell: Somebody’s Watching Me
I’m just an average guy with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey hell I pay the price
But I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone
CHORUS:
I always feel that somebody’s watchin’ me
And I have no privacy
I always feel that somebody’s watchin’ me
Is it just a dream?
When I come home at night
I bolt the door real tight
People call me on the phone I’m trying to avoid
Well, can the people on TV see me or am I just paranoid
CHORUS
When I’m in the shower, I’m afraid to wash my hair
I might open my eyes and find someone standing there
People say I’m crazy, just a little touched
But maybe showers remind me of Psycho too much
That’s why…
I always feel like somebody’s watching me
Who’s playing tricks on me
I always feel like somebody’s watching me
Tell me it can’t be
I don’t know anymore
Are the neighbors watching me
Well is the mailman watching me
And I don’t feel safe anymore, oh what a mess
I wonder who’s watching me now?
Who?
The IRS?
I always feel like somebody’s watching me
Who’s playing tricks on me I always feel like somebody’s watching me
I can’t enjoy my tea!
Nobody’s mentioned the song that goes “I love him / I love him / and where he goes I’ll follow / I’ll follow / etc.”?
I heard that song in 4th grade and thought that woman had problems.
“You Can’t Change That” by Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
You can change your telephone number
You can change your address too
But you can’t stop me from loving you
No, You can’t change that
Creepy, no?
Chris W
Thought of another one: I’m Walking Behind You performed by Frank “The Chairman of the Board” Sinatra. Its about some dude who’s telling his ex-girlfriend on her wedding day that if things don’t work out, he’ll be right there to “catch” her.
Another, not entirely serious, stalking song: Melanie by ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic:
*She lived across the street on the fifteenth floor of the Gilmore building
I saw her in the shower reaching for some soap
I knew she had to be the girl for me
And to think I probably never would have found her
If I hadn’t bought that telescope
[…]
How can you ignore me when you know that I can’t live without you
I have to go through your garbage just to learn more about you
[…]
You weren’t impressed when I tattooed your name across my forehead
You wouldn’t listen when I promised to be true
I couldn’t stand it so I jumped out from the sixteenth story window
Right above you
Now I may be dead but I still love you*
Nobody’s mentioned Jennifer Holliday’s And I Am Telling You yet. The song gives me goosebumps when I hear it. Well, they could be explained by Ms. Holliday’s stirring vocals. But still, that much obsessiveness is downright scary.
The song that goes:
I’m gonna knock on your door, rap on your window pane.
Till you come back to me, that’s what I’m gonna do.
Was that Freda Payne or Aretha Franklin?
I always thought “Wicked Game” by Chris Issak was a stalker song. Kind of an ex-boyfriend who won’t leave you alone.
Similarly, here’s “Nothing’s Changed”
Let’s take a drive through the old town.
Back past the place where we meet.
Some things are hard to remember.
Some things you’ll never forget.
Let’s take a walk down your old street.
Who lives in your house today.
Let’s see if we can remember.
All of the vows that we made.
Kisses you gave me.
The vows you made me.
None of these things have changed.
Nothing’s changed, nothing’s changed.
If that isn’t bad enough, here’s “Don’t Make Me Dream about You”
I dream in daytime and night time,
I dream of love or romance.
It won’t be nice if they catch me,
But I can live with the chance.
Because I love you, because I want you.
I will win your love for me,
yeah I will win your love for me.
I see a theme to this album I haven’t noticed consciously before. I’m scared to look up the lyrics to “Wrong to love you” when I know it starts with “Little girl standin’ and I’m so alone.” Moral of story - Don’t date Chris Issak
“Who Do You Love” by Bo Diddley seems aimed at impressing the Intended Love Object with the fact that the singer is not to be denied:
I walk 47 miles of barbed wire
Use a cobra snake for a necktie
I got a brand new house on the roadside
Made out of rattlesnake hide
I got a brand new chimney made on top
Made out of human skulls
Now come on take a walk with me baby
And tell me, who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
I got a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind
Just 22 and I don’t mind dyin’
(Chorus)
Around the town I use a rattlesnake whip
Take it easy baby don’t you give me no lip
(Chorus)
Arlene took me by the hand
She said ooowee Bo, you know I understand
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
Who do you love?
And yes, Bo Diddley released his recording long before George Thorogood did (both versions are great).
And here I provide you with the English Translation of Du Riechst So Gut (You Smell So Good).
Insanity is only a narrow bridge
the banks are reason and desire
I chase you
the sunlight confuses the mind
a blind child that crawls forward
because it smells its mother
I find you
The track is fresh and on the bridge
drops the sweat, your warm blood
I don’t see you
I only smell you, I sense you
a predator that screams of hunger
I track you for miles by scent
You smell so good
you smell so good
I follow you
you smell so good
I find you
- so good
I chase you
you smell so good
I will have you soon
Now I have you
I wait until it is dark
then I take hold of your wet skin
don’t betray me
oh don’t you see the bridge is burning
stop screaming and don’t resist
because otherwise it will break apart
You smell so good
you smell so good
I follow you
you smell so good
I find you
- so good
I chase you
you smell so good
I will have you soon
You smell so good
you smell so good
I follow you
you smell so good
I find you
- so good
I touch you
you smell so good
now I have you
You smell so good
you smell so good
I follow you
And the video in fact features the band COLLECTIVELY stalking a lucky young gal who gets to be ravished and turned into a wolf.
Some girls are so lucky.
jarbaby
I think you’ve misinterpretted this one.
She’s not stalking him - she wants him to lie to her - to use her, and to pretend he still feels the same way. She doesn’t want to let go, but is begging him to stay, to lie, not trying to force him to.
It’s a little icky - glorifying her apparently low self-esteem - but not stalkerish.
I have two.
Ava Adore (I think thats the title) by Smashing Pumpkins
has a line somethin like " change your face to look more like me"
And an oldie but a goodie Night and Day by Cole Porter
Like the beat beat beat of the tom-tom
When the jungle shadows fall
Like the tick tick tock of the stately clock
As it stands against the wall
Like the drip drip drip of the raindrops
When the summer shower is through
So a voice within me keeps repeating you, you, you
Night and day, you are the one
Only you beneath the moon or under the sun
Whether near to me, or far
It’s no matter darling where you are
I think of you
Day and night, night and day, why is it so
That this longing for you follows wherever I go
In the roaring traffic’s boom
In the silence of my lonely room
I think of you
Day and night, night and day
Under the hide of me
There’s an oh such a hungry yearning burning inside of me
And this torment won’t be through
Until you let me spend my life making love to you
Day and night, night and day
Maybe the reason there are so many love song/stalking songs is that no one wants to hear about the nice stable balanced equal relationships. That’s dull! We want the stalking, the guy/girl who desires too much. We need the element of fear. So really, in terms of rock, when you hear a stalking song or a love song, it makes no difference which one. Just a theory.
Oh but I do have one more song:
Randy Souse Git by the Monkees.
Well, Depeche Mode has a few creepy tunes, like It’s No Good. the last verse has a nice spooky minor key harmony playing while he sings.
Also, Queen made a song called Sail Away Sweet Sister (To the sister I never had) which has a nice Hillbilly/Incest/Stalker thing going for it.
My favorite part of this song is where he sings:
If you’d just say the word,
I’m certain that our love could last forever
And ever
Or are you too dumb to realize that?
Violent Femmes Fool In The Full Moon is a classic.
Props to whoever mentioned Devo
More generally creepy songs in this Fathom thread.
I can’t find the lyrics to it, but In and Out of My Life by Onephatdiva (based on Fatboy Slim’s Right Here Right Now) fits the genre as well. And the video is pretty cool too.
“All Mine” by Portishead fits this category, i think. Some of the lyrics:
*Make no mistake
You shan’t escape
Tethered and tied
There’s nowhere to hide from me
All mine…
You have to be
Don’t resist
We shall exist
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
All mine
you have to be*
The way Beth Gibbons sings it makes it kind of creepy.
Zoggie, do you know the lyrics to “Overload”? Or can you quote some of them? I’m drawing a blank.
DMC, maybe I misunderstood, and it’s been 15 years since the few times I heard “Jeanny”, but I thought she was being stalked by someone other than the singer, and that he was trying to warn her, to no avail. I could be wrong, though.