Were there any songs that they played on the radio that you were afraid of?
I always thought "Who Are You" by the Who was a little bit scary because of the part in the middle where there was this little strum and the song got quiet and then loud again.
Another scary song was "Go Home" by Stevie Wonder. I was 12 when this song was popular, but I still thought it was a little bit frightening. It had this scary "dunnnnn-dunnnnn" that repeated throughout most of the song. The song was evocative of visiting seemingly haunted roads late at night. For some reason, I also fondly associate the song with the strange technical problems that plagued a small local radio station.
Still does scare me, but the Reading Rainbow theme. I promise you there will not be a more unusual choice of any other poster.
Well these I'm not afraid of, but could be jarring to a first-time listener:
When "Say You, Say Me" goes from slow to fast
When Britney Spears yells "STOP" in the middle of "You Drive Me Crazy"
Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
Makes Santa act like Big Brother.
I heard this song on an oldies station while I was reading an old "House of Mystery" comic as a kid. It's a cool song, but to me it just sounds really menacing because of that juxtaposition. Basements and alleys and monsters and demons and all that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=necLdGpfgEs
Thriller had some scenes in the music video that were close enough to an actual horror movie when I was a kid that it kind of spooked me a little. Somebody's Watching Me had a lot of 1980s era fears wrapped up in the lyrics but the video is an acid trip even now.
Quote from: Big John on December 03, 2019, 11:34:52 PM
Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
Makes Santa act like Big Brother.
Isn't that the whole point of the Santa Claus tradition? Rewarding good behavior with presents, punishing bad behavior with naught but coal in the stocking, the ability to see you in order to know who is naughty and who is nice? It's a kid-appropriate way (for better or worse) of teaching children about God.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bornagainpagan.com%2Fcartoons%2F045-calvin-questions-god.jpg&hash=a451d3d94fa5729f52da7fdbf07d58445aeefaeb)
I don't recall ever having been scared of a song. But, some songs whose lyrics are kind of creepy:
The Police – Every Breath You Take
Frank Zappa – I'm the Slime
Quote from: kphoger on December 04, 2019, 12:19:54 PM
Quote from: Big John on December 03, 2019, 11:34:52 PM
Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
Makes Santa act like Big Brother.
Isn't that the whole point of the Santa Claus tradition? Rewarding good behavior with presents, punishing bad behavior with naught but coal in the stocking, the ability to see you in order to know who is naughty and who is nice? It's a kid-appropriate way (for better or worse) of teaching children about God.
I mean, if you work in a casino, that's just the surveillance department. But instead of coal you get passive-aggressive emails, and instead of presents, you get nothing.
QuoteThe Police – Every Breath You Take
And this is their theme song.
Quote from: kphoger on December 04, 2019, 12:21:11 PM
The Police – Every Breath You Take
I think I've ruined this song for at least a dozen ladies.
The creepy lyrics are why my favorite version is this minor key cover by Chase Holfelder.
No song scares me. I listen to bands with names like Cannibal Corpse (though not the early grindcore stuff), Decapitated, Death, and Gorefest.
All of those different "Happy Birthday" songs different party places or restaurants use. I always never knew what to expect with those as a kid, and I never cared for them. I wish they would just use the traditional song considering it is now (has been for a few years) in the public domain.
Black Sabbath the song. Especially the demo version with the lost third verse. I've only heard it a few times on the radio unless I was the DJ.
The background music for the Doctor Who episode Midnight. To this day I can't listen to it because it sets me on edge. It doesn't help that the episode itself is one of the scariest in the show.
Quote from: JoePCool14 on December 04, 2019, 10:25:30 PM
All of those different "Happy Birthday" songs different party places or restaurants use. I always never knew what to expect with those as a kid, and I never cared for them. I wish they would just use the traditional song considering it is now (has been for a few years) in the public domain.
Those restaurants probably consider their versions to be "tradition" now, since they've used them for so long. I could see customers who like their specialty versions of the song complaining if they suddenly switched.
Quote from: kphoger on December 04, 2019, 12:21:11 PM
I don't recall ever having been scared of a song. But, some songs whose lyrics are kind of creepy:
The Police — Every Breath You Take
Frank Zappa — I'm the Slime
Speaking of creepy songs...
"Gonna Get Close to You" by Queensryche
And, of course, "Creep" by Radiohead
When I was growing up, there was a Macaroni Grill restaurant that our family would go to sometimes. For a while, there was a music student who waited tables at the restaurant, and she would sing Happy Birthday in an operatic style with a beautiful voice. Much more enjoyable!
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 04, 2019, 10:54:47 PM
Black Sabbath the song. Especially the demo version with the lost third verse. I've only heard it a few times on the radio unless I was the DJ.
The Black Sabbath "Black Sabbath" or the Coven "Black Sabbath"? Coven was full into the satanism approach.
Quote from: kphoger on December 05, 2019, 01:29:56 PM
When I was growing up, there was a Macaroni Grill restaurant that our family would go to sometimes. For a while, there was a music student who waited tables at the restaurant, and she would sing Happy Birthday in an operatic style with a beautiful voice. Much more enjoyable!
Our college choir was on tour, and stopped at a pizza place for lunch. There was a kid's birthday party. When they sang Happy Birthday, we joined in - in 8 part harmony.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly freaked me out as a kid for some reason. Probably the wailing.
Quote from: Roadgeek Adam on December 05, 2019, 02:26:31 PM
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 04, 2019, 10:54:47 PM
Black Sabbath the song. Especially the demo version with the lost third verse. I've only heard it a few times on the radio unless I was the DJ.
The Black Sabbath "Black Sabbath" or the Coven "Black Sabbath"? Coven was full into the satanism approach.
eponymous Black Sabbath.
The Police – Every Breath You Take
The Stalker Song :paranoid:
Quote from: ClassicHasClass on December 05, 2019, 11:49:48 PM
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly freaked me out as a kid for some reason. Probably the wailing.
I know I've heard that song before, or at least part of it. Meanwhile, I tend to equate the phrase "The good, the bad, and the ugly" with this: https://twitter.com/MikeCatalana/status/1096232706617364480 (and for the ugly, I'd like to nominate my attempts to put this in a URL tag; no idea why that's not displaying as a normal URL, because that's what I pasted in :hmmm:).
Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, Aerosmith. Particularly the string section intro.
White Flag, Dido. In retrospect a very good song, but the melody was haunting as a kid.
Guiding Light theme song (1993-2001) because it meant the lighthouse logo of room was coming.
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 04, 2019, 10:54:47 PM
Black Sabbath the song. Especially the demo version with the lost third verse. I've only heard it a few times on the radio unless I was the DJ.
Never heard that. Got a link to a decent-sounding version anywhere?
EDIT: This one?
That's the one! The only commercial release I know of with that version was the late '90s Ozzy Osbourne greatest hits/rarities package The Ozzman Cometh.
Quote from: GCrites80s on December 09, 2019, 09:12:23 PM
That's the one! The only commercial release I know of with that version was the late '90s Ozzy Osbourne greatest hits/rarities package The Ozzman Cometh.
Is that like
The Nightman Cometh?
Not sure.
For me, it would be the Dragnet theme:
DUN-DA-DUN-DUN...
DUN-DA-DUN-DUN-DUNNNNNNNN!!!
A lot of Pink Floyd's Wall record because too much of it hit too close to home for my mental health issues.
Ditto with Van Der Graaf Generator's "Man-Erg", off their Pawn Hearts record.
Quote from: Henry on December 12, 2019, 10:23:41 AM
For me, it would be the Dragnet theme:
DUN-DA-DUN-DUN...
DUN-DA-DUN-DUN-DUNNNNNNNN!!!
If we're including instrumental themes; then one could include the
Jaws theme as well while watching the franchise films, especially for the first time.
Quote from: PHLBOS on December 12, 2019, 03:33:25 PM
Quote from: Henry on December 12, 2019, 10:23:41 AM
For me, it would be the Dragnet theme:
DUN-DA-DUN-DUN...
DUN-DA-DUN-DUN-DUNNNNNNNN!!!
If we're including instrumental themes; then one could include the Jaws theme as well while watching the franchise films, especially for the first time.
Oh yeah...totally forgot about that one.
Now that it's mentioned, I have that Ozzy "best of" set so I'd heard the demo of "Black Sabbath" before, but I guess I had never paid the extra verse any attention.
Truth be told, most modern music scares me because it's so bad. I can't remember the last new release I bought. Probably Metallica's "Hardwired to Self Destruct" or Sammy Hagar & The Circle's "At Your Service."
There's a couple YouTube pages where people post a montage of the entire top 100 songs each week from Billboard's Hot 100 chart. I don't think there's been a single good new song on the chart in months. The Christmas songs from the 1940s that re-chart every year are better than the new songs.
Good new songs don't chart. I thought "Crooked Teeth" by Papa Roach would be a #1 smash, but the song didn't even chart.
Quote from: bandit957 on December 13, 2019, 12:05:12 PM
There's a couple YouTube pages where people post a montage of the entire top 100 songs each week from Billboard's Hot 100 chart. I don't think there's been a single good new song on the chart in months. The Christmas songs from the 1940s that re-chart every year are better than the new songs.
Good new songs don't chart. I thought "Crooked Teeth" by Papa Roach would be a #1 smash, but the song didn't even chart.
If you expect a modern metal song to even enter the top 100, let alone hit #1, you're gonna have a bad time.
Given in the 80's metal bands couldn't put out #1 hits unless they were ballads. Probably the heaviest near #1 songs were "Dr. Feelgood" by Motley Crue or "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour, and even those hit just #6 and #13 respectively.
Quote from: bandit957 on December 13, 2019, 12:05:12 PM
The Christmas songs from the 1940s that re-chart every year are better than the new songs.
Especially since two of them are now in the top of the chart.
I'm afraid of any Justin Bieber "song" because my ears may melt right off my head. :)
I was afraid of Bia Bia Lil Jon because it was too bassy!
This song actually scared me a bit. I probably didn't hear it until I was 37 or 38. Too much strange timing and antagonized delivery I suppose.
https://youtu.be/iLns0512AD0
This song still scares me, to the extent that it can be called “music”:
AC/ DC Highway to Hell scares me cause it talks about being damned!
I never liked Hotel California by The Eagles, although I liked their other songs. The interludes in the song just sounded so sad and although the place was figurative, I always got this picture of some old hotel in the middle of nowhere and wondered if they ever got out. lol
Also somebody mentioned the Guiding Light theme. My mother used to watch The Young and the Restless, and as a little kid that theme was a bit scary. The beginning there's a piano theme that out of nowhere goes dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnn, along with the red Y&R was a bit scary for some reason to me.
Helter Skelter
American Pie is another one "this will be the day that I die"
Quote from: crt08 on January 01, 2020, 08:52:25 AM
I never liked Hotel California by The Eagles, although I liked their other songs. The interludes in the song just sounded so sad and although the place was figurative, I always got this picture of some old hotel in the middle of nowhere and wondered if they ever got out. lol
For some reason I always envisioned "the dark desert highway" as CA 190 East of US 395. I get that the "beast" is a metaphor for addiction but it's hard not to get the mental image of people attempting to use their "steely" eyes via some sort of telepathy trying to "stab" some monster in the basement of the Hotel California.
Quote from: crt08 on January 01, 2020, 08:52:25 AM
I never liked Hotel California by The Eagles, although I liked their other songs. The interludes in the song just sounded so sad and although the place was figurative, I always got this picture of some old hotel in the middle of nowhere and wondered if they ever got out. lol
When I hear
Hotel California, it always reminds me of the "I'm going in Mom. There's a vacancy" bit from the Firesign Theater's album
How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All.
Haydn's Surprise Symphony
Of course, with Hotel California, there really were creepy urban legends going around about the meaning of the song. I think those legends make the lyrics creepier, even if I know they aren't true.
Kenny G - Midnight Motion. Not the original, but the live version. It was the drop in volume, the profundity of the bass, the increase in tempo, and the obnoxious-to-my-four-year-old-ears revelry of the audience at the end that caused my childhood to become scarred.
Original: https://youtu.be/Uj4CzJyQSCI
Live: https://youtu.be/xwmHOLoCyHU
Mr Roboto by Styx was a bit scary to me as a kid, especially because the first time I heard it was at night on a camping trip in East TN. Nowadays I think that song is hilarious!
Quote from: TheGrassGuy on January 03, 2020, 02:39:48 PM
Haydn's Surprise Symphony
Depends on how loud it is. I've heard some versions that would send me into the ceiling if I wasn't paying attention, and others which were very smooth (yet, unsurprising :bigass: ).
"Dueling Banjos" while on a camping trip?
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 01, 2020, 04:33:49 PM
Quote from: crt08 on January 01, 2020, 08:52:25 AM
I never liked Hotel California by The Eagles, although I liked their other songs. The interludes in the song just sounded so sad and although the place was figurative, I always got this picture of some old hotel in the middle of nowhere and wondered if they ever got out. lol
For some reason I always envisioned "the dark desert highway" as CA 190 East of US 395. I get that the "beast" is a metaphor for addiction but it's hard not to get the mental image of people attempting to use their "steely" eyes via some sort of telepathy trying to "stab" some monster in the basement of the Hotel California.
Not the only song on the album that deals with drugs. "Life in the Fast Lane" is overtly about drugs and the excesses of the Hollywood lifestyle.
Sabre Dance by Aram Khachaturian
This song got mentioned upthread.
(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/83045982_203412230789460_6694279397848907776_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_ohc=39uOm77IofsAX-6CGjA&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=d2cfcea46a1591168225c3c515a42da3&oe=5EA977FF)
Mercy- Kanye West (I found out that the intro was really really dark so..)
My Heart Will Go On
A lot of MJ songs used to scare me, but strangely not Thriller
Earth Song (that key change was terrifying)
Money
Sunset Rider
Ghosts (ngl im still kinda scared of this)
Blood On The Dance Floor
Speed Demon
I can't say I'm afraid of any songs. The only ones that might qualify are those that make me cry because of a bad memory or something.
The Police's Every Breath You Take is nothing compared to Oingo Boingo's Little Girls. Silly comparison since neither song is based in reality. Still...
https://youtu.be/H2LQMElLoLs
It wasn't the song itself, but the music video for Madonna's "Take A Bow" has a shot where someones finger suddenly gets stabbed and it bleeds a bit. I was 5 when it first came out, and one of our family friends had MTV on and it showed up. It wigged me out enough that every time I heard the song (which usually happened at night, as I listened to the radio to go to sleep) I thought about it and got little-kid afraid of someone stabbing my finger.
The I-Beam music on Sesame Street! Scared me as a kid!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49FBci5D7Ik
Also as a kid, the ABC affiliate in Detroit had music they played on the news when showing the lottery numbers. Music sounded like something that previewed an alien invasion. 9:27 mark.
https://youtu.be/4VP62OfrlkQ?t=582
This creeped me out so much as a kid that even the music became mildly horrifying:
https://youtu.be/KUSwocntUMY
This iconic song; more specifically the video. When the "heat map" effect happens, he turns into a "rainbow." I was 5 when I first saw the video and thought
"Why is a rainbow so angry?"I was afraid of the backing vocals on Bonnie Raitt's Something to Talk About and Phil Collins' Something Happened on the Way to Heaven.
This next song, however takes the cake. Again I was 5/6 and I found her vocals grating. Today however, I love this song.
I know I said earlier I wasn't scared of any songs, but I realized one that irks me.
People have brought up "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. I was listening to the CD (as a passenger) and was involved in a pretty serious car accident that I thankfully walked out of unscathed. It wasn't that song, but the final track, "Murder by Numbers". If that comes on while driving it gets a skip.
Same with "Stacked Actors" by the Foo Fighters, since I nailed a deer that totaled my car 20-odd years ago when that song was on.
When Marilyn Manson was new, anything he did scared me. Of course, he has turned out to be a scary creep.
Quote from: keithvh on February 11, 2021, 01:09:40 AM
The I-Beam music on Sesame Street! Scared me as a kid!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49FBci5D7Ik
help I can't get this out of my head!
I remember seeing the I-beam segment on 'Sesame Street' when I was about 5, and I had no idea what it was. I didn't know it was a piece of metal back then. I used to think it was a giant dog bone that had been held over a fire or something.
Another scary sound was the sound that used to accompany an old radio announcement for Sohio or Boron. On some cold winter days - I'm talking really, really cold - the DJ would be talking, and all of a sudden you'd hear this creepy synth sound, and the DJ would do an announcement for Sohio and say, "You go or Sohio pays your tow."
It was sort of like the creepy sound in the TV Guide commercials in the '70s.
Quote from: kenarmy on February 12, 2021, 07:53:10 PM
Quote from: keithvh on February 11, 2021, 01:09:40 AM
The I-Beam music on Sesame Street! Scared me as a kid!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49FBci5D7Ik
help I can't get this out of my head!
Such a short section of I-beam, too.
I remember my father telling that it was hot and I always thought it was a challenge to keep that it mind.
Wrecking Ball (Hope you don't get killed!).
Pink Floyd's "On the run" always made me feel uneasy in a dark environment.
Red Rider's "Lunatic Fringe" starts out sounding like it belongs in a suspense thriller movie or something. Again, unsettling in a dark environment.
The Who's "Won't get fooled again" was another one that kinda freaked me out when I first heard it. The organ through the LFO filter was kinda creepy to me back then.
Pink Floyd: "Careful with that axe, Eugene!" Ummm yeah, not in a dark room, especially if you never heard the number before!
When I was five, I was freaked out by The Love Boat theme, because that stupid anchor scared me for about three weeks. It appeared to be falling on everyone, and I had a dream that the anchor was then walking through the hallway of my house, looking for its next victim.
https://youtu.be/AB7f26dGGzI
This might explain why I'm into cars.
But I don't think any song has really creeped me out since, except for occasional uncanny placement of music.
I do not like "Fly Like An Eagle" by Steve Miller Band. The electronic sounds in the song sound like a creepy old video game.
Justice - Stress
Not the song itself, but I found the video for Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun disturbing when I was a kid.
Quote from: bandit957 on February 13, 2021, 03:19:20 PM
Another scary sound was the sound that used to accompany an old radio announcement for Sohio or Boron. On some cold winter days - I'm talking really, really cold - the DJ would be talking, and all of a sudden you'd hear this creepy synth sound, and the DJ would do an announcement for Sohio and say, "You go or Sohio pays your tow."
It was sort of like the creepy sound in the TV Guide commercials in the '70s.
This one? Yeah I hated it too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVOJ2RqNYzg
Maneater by Hall and Oats scared me when I was young because I thought it was about a Venus fly trap eating people (men).
Quote from: ethanhopkin14 on May 26, 2021, 05:36:31 PM
Maneater by Hall and Oats scared me when I was young because I thought it was about a Venus fly trap eating people (men).
Haha, it seems like that one has scared many of us.
Quote from: capt.ron on February 14, 2021, 05:16:06 PM
Pink Floyd's "On the run" always made me feel uneasy in a dark environment.
Red Rider's "Lunatic Fringe" starts out sounding like it belongs in a suspense thriller movie or something. Again, unsettling in a dark environment.
The Who's "Won't get fooled again" was another one that kinda freaked me out when I first heard it. The organ through the LFO filter was kinda creepy to me back then.
Pink Floyd: "Careful with that axe, Eugene!" Ummm yeah, not in a dark room, especially if you never heard the number before!
pink floyd's 'one of these days' used to creep me out... the bassline at the beginning almost seems like some creature awakening and running.. after me.
course.. could have been the .... other actvities i was doing at the time, too..
Great song, but the music video for "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons really spooks me.
I forget who the sponsor was, but back in the early 1990s, there would be this loud disturbing music and a long blue graphic that would happen sometimes after a soap opera. I want to say it was Proctor and Gamble, but I don't know if they would sponsor soap operas.
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on May 27, 2021, 07:51:07 AM
pink floyd's 'one of these days' used to creep me out... the bassline at the beginning almost seems like some creature awakening and running.. after me.
course.. could have been the .... other actvities i was doing at the time, too..
I always picture the bass throbbing a set of power lines like the power lines are the bass strings.