The Accidental Terrorist: Scary Songs Which Aren’t Meant To Be Scary

John Mayer’s “Be Good to Your Daughters,” or whatever it’s called, is pretty messed up. It’s a bad song anyway, but the line about “boys you can break, find out how much they can take” is quite disturbing. I also found “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” kind of scary when I was a kid, but I kind of think psychedelic music is SUPPOSED to be sort of spooky, so maybe that doesn’t count.
Nathan DeHoff, Williamstown, NJ

My example is David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”; I love the song, but there’s always a sort of moment of dread I find in the song when Major Tom’s stranded. It actually really bothered me as a kid—but it still kinda is a little bit of “eeek” even now. I even find the music a little eerie, even though it’s not really. . . explicitly so, if you know what I mean. There’s just something about it.
Matt Keeley, Popshifter

Middle of fall, 1988 or so: I’ve just gone bowling with my family. My mom’s husband turns the radio on and I lean my face against the windowpane. “Time of the Season” by The Zombies glides out of the speakers. Gnarled tree branches obscure the streetlights. Past the highway precipice, house lights let off a jack o’ lantern orange glow. I close my eyes and savor the feeling of goosebumps springing up and down my arms. Later on, I learn that “Time of the Season” came from the Zombies’ last album and served as a kind of epitaph for their career.

The weekend before Halloween, 1999: My boyfriend and I have donned silly costumes and gooey clown white to attend a concert as silent movie stars. As we step into a cab headed for the train, a familiar 11-note guitar riff insinuates itself from the car speakers. The cab barrels down the street as “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones fills the car. The light is dim. When my boyfriend takes my hand and strokes my upper arm, I feel startled rather than reassured. His lips brush my ear. “This is good Halloween music,” he observes.
Chelsea Spear, Popshifter

“Elusive Butterfly” by Bob Lind: an incredibly bizarre song with mind-boggling lyrics that really paint a horrific image. . . but yet is all about the search for love (I think?) Here are a couple of gonzo examples of what to expect from this one-of-a-kind ditty:

“You might wake up some morning. . . to the sound of something moving past your window in the wind. And if you’re quick enough to rise, you’ll catch a fleeting glimpse of someone’s fading shadow.”
“You might have seen me running. . . through the long-abandoned ruins of the dreams you left behind. If you remember something there, that glided past you followed close by heavy breathing'”

This song has been covered by a wide array of various performers, most notably Aretha Franklin, Cher, The Four Tops, Glen Campbell, and even Florence Henderson on an episode of The Muppet Show.

My favorite interpretation is by jazz artist, Carmen McRae, whose rich and classic voice crooning the strange and melodramatic lyrics leave the listener with a heady and often eerie experience.
Eric Weber, Popshifter

Photo © cosmojon

The Beatles, “Eleanor Rigby”: As a child I sat alone in the basement listening to records. Every time this song came on I got the creeps. Only recently did I figure out that it must have been a combination of the Father McKenzie, the grave imagery and the line about Eleanor keeping “a face in a jar by the door.”
Noreen Sobczyk, Popshifter

No song can send shivers down my spine like Double’s “The Captain of Her Heart.” In the summer of 1986, my dad rented a beach house for our family vacation. My parents were going through a rough patch and spent most of the vacation locked in their room arguing. We didn’t have cable at home, so my sister Sarah and I spent most of the time catching up on all the videos on MTV and VH1. To this day, whenever I hear “Break Out” by Swing Out Sister while I’m walking through the grocery store, I have to call my sister and tell her I’m listening to “our song.” Boy, did we love that video! But if I hear the piano lead-in to the chorus of “Captain of Her Heart” (even the muzak version!), I get the instant heebie-jeebies! I don’t know if it’s just because it makes me recall a bummer of a summer and my parents’ arguments, or if it’s the song itself, but it’s my biggest musical creep-out! Oooh, that piano lead-in. . .

I would also like to give an honorable mention to Paul Revere & the Raiders’ “Indian Reservation,” which seemed to always play as I was drifting off to sleep listening to my clock radio when I was a child. It always totally freaked me out and is probably the reason why I was irrationally anti-PR&tR for so long—that changed when I bought Hard ‘N’ Heavy (With Marshmallow) several years ago!
Mandy Mullins, Popshifter

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