SOUNDTRACK: TALKING HEADS-“Psycho Killer” (1977).
A lot of the music I listen to is weird and probably creepy to other people, but I don’t necessarily think of songs as appropriate for Halloween or not. So for this year’s Ghost Box stories, I consulted an “expert”: The Esquire list of Halloween songs you’ll play all year long. The list has 45 songs–most of which I do not like. So I picked 11 of them to post about.
Of all the songs on this list, this is possibly the one that most people are familiar with. I mean, it’s been played on the radio for over thirty years.
Musically the song is not scary at all. The bass is pretty straightforward and instantly recognizable. It’s really catchy too. The guitars are cool jagged/new wave licks.
Really it comes down to the lyrics and vocal delivery.
David Byrne has a unique delivery style to be sure, although somehow I find his delivery doesn’t really sell the “psycho killer” nature of this song all that well. Perhaps it’s deceptively psycho.
Indeed, everything in this song is implied rather than explicit.
Lyrically the song could be pretty creepy. Except that really the lyrics are just good manners
You start a conversation you can’t even finish it
You’re talking a lot, but you’re not saying anything
When I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed
Say something once, why say it again?…
We are vain and we are blind
I hate people when they’re not polite
Perhaps that’s what creates a psycho killer after all.
There’s an acoustic version (available as a B-side and now on the 2005 bonus tracks) which features slightly different lyrics and a cello that is rather menacing at times. It’s slightly more creepy.
Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi
[READ: October 21, 2019] “It Only Comes Out At Night”
Just in time for Halloween, from the people who brought me The Short Story Advent Calendar and The Ghost Box. and Ghost Box II. comes Ghost Box III.
This is once again a nifty little box (with a magnetic opening and a ribbon) which contains 11 stories for Halloween. It is lovingly described thusly:
Oh god, it’s right behind me, isn’t it? There’s no use trying to run from Ghost Box III, the terrifying conclusion to our series of limited-edition horror box sets edited and introduced by Patton Oswalt.
There is no explicit “order” to these books; however, I’m going to read in the order they were stacked.
Dennis Etchison also had a story in the first Ghost Box.
I rather enjoyed the timelessness of this story. I didn’t read when it was written before reading it and aside from one or two small details at the end of the story it could have been written at any time in the last sixty years.
The story starts with an explanation of how to get from San Bernadino to points east. You must cross the Mojave Desert. But there is no relief–it is relentlessly hot: (more…)
I Just Read About That... 