Fear of songs?

In the '60s and early '70s my parents had a band and they would rehearse songs in the basement after my Mother had written the lyrics out from a record or off air tape (over and over and over). Echoing up from down there I actually found some of these songs rather scary. Here are some that impacted my psyche rather negatively but which I can look back on semi-fondly now.

Down In The Boondocks (scariest song, but not so much the band rehearsal of it, Billy Joe Royal's voice was very weird to me, put me right off the entire basement as being those creepy 'boondocks' of the song).

Bad Moon Rising (yikes, never looked up at the moon the same way again).

Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash scared the holy bejabbers out of me a bit most of the time anyway, but this was visions of sheer hellfire).

Runaway (Del Shannon sounded like he was in real pain, my first taste of 'high lonesome'?)

Kaw-liga (jeez Hank, wooden Indians having feelings? weeeeeeird)

I'll see if I can dredge up more but those are the worst offenders. There was also a very morose and menacing Teddy Bears' Picnic record for our kiddie player, and There's A Place by the Beatles could make my fuzzy hairs stand up some too, though I love the song now.

Am I just a total freak or was anyone else ever spooked by some tunes?

 

not so much spooked, but I was appalled when I first heard Randy Newman's "Short People" as an eight year-old-who didn't yet understand satire.

As a child I was also spooked by certain album covers I'd see at K-Marts and Targets. Things like Houses of the Holy, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Uriah Heep's Abominog. On a different forum, a woman in Britain revealed that, as a child, she was frighted by Uriah Heep's Very Eavy Very Umble cover.

 

Odd, I was one of the shorter kids when that came out and everyone seemed to like it because it was so ridiculous.

 

D.O.A. by Bloodrock. Maybe because we traveled by car on vacation so much and it was in the car on a trip that I heard it. Nobody wants to hear a gruesome account of an accident whilst riding in the car in the highway.
I still can't listen to this day.
Because The Night by Patti Smith used to freak me out as a kid. Same scenario: riding in the car on a long trip at night, car radio glowing and this voice at once ethereal and gritty singing "desirous hunger is the fire I breathe/love is the banquet in which we feed" like she MEANT it, ya know?
So then I saw the album cover Wave and that cover and the song Frederick freaked me out too. I got over being freaked by Patti, learned to really appreciate her. But as kid....another story.

 

"Number 9, number 9, number 9..."

 

Revolution 9, and hearing other Beatles songs after reading up on the "Paul is Dead" myth when I was younger, they felt creepy for a while after that. Hearing the second side to the 1977 Suicide album made me jump, there's a bunch of unexpected moaning and screaming on the tracks "Girl" and "Frankie Teardrop".

 

The shrieking viola in "Heroin" used to scary the crap out of me when I was a kid. At least that's what my father told me.

I don't even remember hearing any Velvet Underground songs but I remember seeing the album cover.

 

The ending of Strawberry Fields Forever used to freak me out, even though it was the first pop single I ever bought with my own money.

 

I was young (six or seven) when I first heard Beatles songs like "Helter Skelter" and "Revolution 9," but for some reason the only one that scared me was "Come Together" because of the "shoot me!" sound effect.

The end of "Thriller" also scared me when I first heard it. A Dan Fogelberg album called Captured Angel also had a cover that I was scared to look at for a while.

 

This song and video made for some nightmare fodder when I was a kid growing up in the 80s.

 

I Am The Walrus was pretty disturbing when I heard it as a child.

 

Not really any rock music. There was classical music that scared me as a little kid.

 

Night On Bald Mountain perhaps? I think that was the piece used in Fantasia.

 

I Put A Spell On You by Screaming Jay Hawkins was scary but I'm pretty sure it was meant to be.

 

The middle section of CCR's "Suzie Q" with the creepy "aaaah's". As a kid, I would turn down the volume until I was certain it was past that part.

 

Listening to The Cure's Subway Song for the first time was quite scary. And it still is(especially with headphones).

 

Close to the Edit by Art of Noise used to creep me out as a kid for some reason. Also wholeheartedly agree with the 'Rockit' video.

 

Anything tinny or high pitched scared me when I was younger.

 

I was 5 when the "Paul Is Dead" rumor was rampant. Definitely had an effect upon me! I don't think I ever really listened to Revolution #9 until I was 16 or so! I still get a little uneasy with John's look in 1967 until he shaved off his Fu Manchu! Totally ridiculous, but hey..!

 

Oh no, nothing tinny, won't do, have to have something with a good woody sound. (Monty Python moment)

 

Maybe it's just me but I thought they looked cool with those mustaches...

 

Oh I think so too!
I think that era's dominance of the "Paul-Is-Dead" rumor is what scared me!

 

Another kiddie record that gave me the willies was Winkin' Blinkin' And Nod by The Big Three. Very trippy and cosmic too. Also, Go Tell Aunt Rhodie, probably the Springfields version.

 

Like many who have already posted, "Revolution No. 9" was scary to me as a young boy.

Also: "Nights in White Satin" - especially the spoken word part ("Breathe deep....")