TLDR: While there’s no rap records in this lineup, these scary songs capture terror through truth, distortion, and atmosphere rather than volume.
As plastic skeletons enter the shops, pumpkin spice flavourings spread through coffee houses like Japanese knot-weed and jumpers are dug out of drawers, music fans’ playlists also begin to shift, with “spooky sounds” replacing “sunshine mixes.” And, just as Christmas means endless repeats of Mistletoe & Wine and Fairytale of New York, the arrival of autumn means Thriller and the Monster Mash.
But while such songs might be described as “spoopy” (internet slang describing cute, comical, or silly versions of typically spooky subject matter), they’re not exactly unsettling. So, this Halloween, if you want to put the “k” back in “spooky”, these are the tracks for you.
Listen if you dare …
1. Rubber Ring by The Smiths (1987)
The majority of Rubber Ring isn’t in the least bit spooky. But towards the outro, a female voice appears under Morrissey’s vocal, repeating the line: “You are sleeping, you do not want to believe.”
The sample was taken from the flexi-disc accompaniment to the book Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead (1971) by Latvian psychologist Konstantin Raudive. The book put forward a theory that deceased communicators appear to send messages and images via computers, radios, televisions and other electronic devices.
The voice we hear is a real-time English translation of the alleged ghost voice of Raudive’s mentor Gephardt Frye, speaking in Swedish and German. And it makes me shiver every time I hear it.
2. Come to Daddy by Aphex Twin (1997)
Even if we exclude the infamously terrifying music video, Come to Daddy warrants its place in this list.
With nerve-shredding instrumentation, jump-scare screams and lyrics which alternate between threatening to “eat your soul” and inviting us to “come to Daddy (or Mummy)”, this song is the aural equivalent of watching a horror film between your fingers.
If we do include the video, which involves severely twisted creatures emerging from a TV set to terrorize grannies on a housing estate, it’d be tough to argue against it being the most disturbing of them all.
Proceed with caution: this is nightmare fuel.
3. A Psychopath by Lisa Germano (1994)
Inspired by Lisa Germano’s own experience of being stalked, A Psychopath subjects the listener to a feeling of violation. It captures the sense of someone entering your sacred space without being invited, and without you having the ability to do anything about it.
Complete with a real 911 call from a Houston rape crisis centre, the song even spooked Germano herself. She was so disturbed by her own creation that she had to leave her apartment and sleep at a friend’s the night it was mixed.
There is a disturbing, delicate beauty to the song’s production and performance. And this juxtaposition with the subject matter of the lyrics creates something truly unsettling.
4. Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday (1939)
Sometimes, the truth is more unsettling than anything we could make up. That’s definitely the case with Strange Fruit.
The song originated after New York high school teacher Abel Meeropol saw a “gruesome photograph taken in the 1930s of two Black men hanged from tree branches by their necks, surrounded by white men in fancy clothes” and felt compelled to react.
Initially writing his response as a poem, Meeropol soon decided to rework the words into lyrics, add music and create the song we all know today.
The song was designed to instil horror and disgust in the listener in an attempt to change the complacency toward the abuse of Black people. Holiday’s stunningly emotive vocal brings an anguish to the lyrics that makes it a truly unforgettable, haunting listening experience.
5. Angel of Death by Slayer (1986)
In thrash metal tradition, the vocal for Angel of Death is a largely unintelligible roar. It’s set against a super-fast (and super-impressive) backing of 16th note guitar riffs and double bass drumming. It’s hard not to find yourself, if not headbanging, at least nodding along to the infectious sound of the thing.
But look up the lyrics and you’ll realize you’ve been enjoying a song with disturbing lyrics. Angel of Death graphically describes the human experiments carried out at Auschwitz under the command of Nazi physician Josef Mengele.
If that creeping unease was the intention of songwriter Jeff Hanneman, then it’s very much job done. But I suspects it was probably just a case of delivering what’s expected in a genre whose fans not only adore but require an abrasive and bloodthirsty mix of music and lyrics.
Written by Glenn Fosbraey, Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
