This subjective list, focusing more on lyrics than on music, is in no particular order.
1. "Hurt" - Nine Inch Nails
Covered by Johnny Cash, I get a shiver each time I hear this song so full of despair and pain with classic lines like "everyone I know goes away in the end."
The song has taken on added meaning as the last hit of Johnny Cash before he died, with a harrowing video made not long before Cash’s wife, June, died. The video went on to win a Grammy.
Best verse:
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hold
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
2. "World Destruction" by Time Zone
This song is much less well known but I used to request this to dance to while in high school. It's sung by Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon of Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited fame.
It’s got a good beat, you can dance to it and the lyrics name-drop Nostradamus, talk about third-world governments, brainwashing and other issues.
My favorite line: “Fascist, chauvinistic government fools.”
My favorite moment, when Bambaataa asks: “Who wants to be a president or king?” and Lydon shouts, “Me!”
This from the same guy who sang “God save the queen, the fascist regime” while leading the Sex Pistols.
3. "Family Snapshot" by Peter Gabriel
This song captivates and engages me every time I hear it and I've listened to it hundreds of times.
This is a song about an assassin waiting for the president to drive by so he can kill him:
The streets are lined with camera crews
Everywhere he goes is news
Today is different
Today is not the same
Today I make the action
Take snapshot into the light, snapshot into the light
I'm shooting into the light
The music speeds up as the moment of violence comes closer…
They're coming 'round the corner with the bikers at the front
I'm wiping the sweat from my eyes
-It's a matter of time
-It's a matter of will
And the governor's car is not far behind
He's not the one I've got in mind
And then the music slows down again at the key moment:
Holding my breath
Release the catch
And I let the bullet fly
The listener can imagine the visual slow motion as he shifts from his actions to possible causes of his distress:
All turned quiet-I have been here before
Lonely boy hiding behind the front door
Friends have all gone home
There's my toy gun on the floor
Come back Mum and Dad
You're growing apart
You know that I'm growing up sad
I need some attention
I shoot into the light
4. "I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - JELIEL³
Family Snapshot is not about a man killing the prez, it's about a boy killing his dad (metaphorically) because he's feeling abandoned by his parent's divorce. And when we find him behind the front door, it's like a fade in after he "wakes" from his fantasy/daydream/imaginative play.
And yes Peter Gabriel is a creative genius.
2 - JELIEL³
Oh and I forgot to mention. Great article!
3 - Baronius
My top five would have included a different Peter Gabriel song, also on Melt, "I Don't Remember". Very creepy, especially because I'm not sure what it's about. Same with some Violent Femmes and Warren Zevon. Just back away slowly and don't ask what the song means.
4 - uao
Excellent topic, Scott! Well written too, excellent article.
It's subjective; "Comfortably Numb" always "unsettled" me but never quite "disturbed" me.
I agree with Cash doing the Nine Inch Nails; Reznor could shock, but never like that, Cash's great exit trumps any rocker's so far, in my book.
Some more disturbing ones:
Marianne Faithful: As Tears Go By
(one of the sweetest voices in music re-recorded her biggest hit and sang it with a death rattle. She was still in her 30's at the time)
Billie Holliday: Strange Fruit
"Strange Fruit", about a lynching, was shocking in 1939 and sure sends chills up my spine now, too)
Peter Gabriel: Biko
Like the Gabriel song you nominated, Scott, I get the same chills from Biko, about a black South African during apartheid who "fell" out of a police station window.
Jimi Hendrix: Hey Joe
Remains the only rock classic about killing your wife.
Pink Floyd: Careful With That Axe Eugene
For violent psychodrama, this is my favorite because it is so abstract; only one line of lyric, the title, is uttered at a crescendo after a long build-up, followed by screams and an exploding jam. It's like Jack Nicholson chopping down the door in The Shining.
Great work, Scott.
5 - Scott Butki
Are you sure of that intepretation of the Family Snapshot song? I can see how that works but a link would be great.
Glad you guys liked the piece.
Thanks
I've been wanting to write this up for a few weeks but pledged I would wait until I finished my classes first. Finished my class earlier today:)
Yes, Biko is another great song. Gabriel seems to do disturbed well.
6 - Aaman
I'm trying to understand what you mean by disturbing. Death Metal might be disturbing to some, Mahler can be pretty disturbing, and of course, a lot of hip-hop/grunge has dystopian or anti-social themes
Good choice, though:)
7 - Matt Schafer
I would also have to add Polly by Pearl Jam. It's about the real abuction, rape and tourture of a 15 year old girl.
8 - Scott Butki
Oh, Polly is a good one.
Disturbing as in emotionally disruptive, making you feel uncomfortable.
Note I'm talking more about the lyrics than the music - so while country music disturbs me musically the lyrics don't bug me.
Although that reminds me of another also-ran I considered- Goodbye Earl by the Dixie Chicks.
9 - GoHah
These selections are both lyrically and musically disturbing to me:
"Shoot Out the Lights" Richard Thompson
"Desolation Row" Bob Dylan
"I Scare Myself" Dan Hicks
"I Want You" Elvis Costello
"Friction" Television
"Marquee Moon" Television
"Isolation" John Lennon
"Psycho Killer" Talking Heads
"Monkey Gone to Heaven" Pixies
"Singapore" Tom Waits
"I Found Out" John Lennon
"Tomorrow Never Knows"
"Darkness on the Edge of Town" Bruce Springsteen
10 - GoHah
About Polly mentioned in #7and 8: do you mean "Polly" by Nirvana on Nevermind? That's about a rape that I believe was fact-based. Did Pearl Jam also have a song by the same name--I admit I don't know all their songs, but just seemed kind of unlikely to me (both Seattle grunge bands, etc).
11 - GoHah
Apparently I know too many disturbing songs (which could explain a lot)--Here's an addendum to a previous list:
"Down By the Water" PJ Harvery
"Long Snake Moan" PJ Harvey
"Visions of Johanna" Bob Dylan
"Ballad of a Thin Man" Bob Dylan
"Jokerman" Bob Dylan
"Limp" Fiona Apple
"Powderfinger" Neil Young
"Big Tears" Elvis Costello
"Goon Squad" Elvis Costello
"7 And 7 Is" Love
"California Uber Alles" Dead Kennedys
12 - Kay Bell
Since Pearl Jam's been invoked, how about "Jeremy," which I believe preceded Columbine by quite a ways but captured the turbulent adolescent emotions (and classmate bullying) that produce such tragedies.
13 - Tan The Man
PJ Harvey can make some pretty disturbing tracks... great band, though.
14 - Eric Berlin
How about almost anything by Sonic Youth? Disturbing in that it wants to make me jump out a window!
15 - GoHah
"ODE TO BILLIE JOE" by Bobbi Gentry--here's something you don't see everyday:
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
"RUBY, DON'T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition--wheelchair-bound soldier back from the Vietnam War gets less than a welcome homecoming:
She's leaving now cause
I just heard the slamming of the door
The way I know I've heard it
Some 100 times before
And if I could move I'd get my gun
And put her in the ground
Oh Ruby
Don't take your love to town...
Oh Ruby for God's sake turn around
"ALONE AGAIN NATURALLY" by Gilbert O'Sullivan--and this is only the beginning of the song!:
In a little while from now,
If I'm not feeling any less sour
I promised myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower,
And climbing to the top,
Will throw myself off
In an effort to make it clear to who
Ever what it's like when your shattered
Left standing in the lurch, at a church
Where people 're saying,
"My God that's tough, she stood him up!
No point in us remaining.
May as well go home."
As I did on my own,
Alone again, naturally
Sex, Violence, Suicide, 3 AM in the Soul--now that'll dredge up some old disturbing songs that gave you chills as a child. I'll stop now.
16 - J. P. Spencer
I'd like to add the song "Candyman" by David Ackles, a nearly-forgotten songwriter of the late '60's and early '70's. The song is about a war amputee who decides to get even with society for losing his hand by opening up a candy store and slipping pornography to kids in their bags of candy.
Now THAT'S about as far as you can get from your typical popular song.
17 - Scott Butki
I was trying to remember thename of the song - I think it was by Metallica - about a guy with no arms or limbs.
That would have gone on my list had it been something I have listened to more than once.
Sonic Youth's music is annoying but the lyrics are usually more insiped than disturbing.
18 - Den Lloyd
Just for the record 'Polly' is a nirvana song, but still disturbing all the same, and the metallica song is 'one', which includes a fair few disturbing lyrics like these
"I’m waking up I can not see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god,wake me"
19 - JR
"Raining Blood" - Tori Amos
"Klavier" - Rammstein
"Heaven Tonight" - Cheap Trick
"Black Sabbath" - Type O Negative
"Hand of Doom" - Black Sabbath
"Lather" - Jefferson Airplane
"Child In Time" - Deep Purple
"The Wind Cries Mary" - Jimi Hendrix
"Daddy" - Korn
"Guyana" - Manowar
"Sister Morphine" - Rolling Stones
20 - Scott Butki
Jeremy is an excellent addition.
Thanks for the clarification on Polly.
Ah, yes, "One."
Thanks
21 - zingzing
from coil's "love's secret domain," a song just as musically disturbing as it is lyrically... disturbing... is "lyrically" a word? anyway:
Oh rose, thou art sick
Seduce.. let loose
The vision and the void
Blood sickle.. honey suck...
In little children's heavy heads
My dreams erupt while in my bed
Innocence is dripping red...
Give sanity a longer leash
Some of us have sharper teeth
In love's secret domain...
Oh rose, Thou art sick
The invisible worm
The vision and the void
The blood sickle cuts
And the honey sucks
hard to tell what this is about... but it certainly is violent and sexual and it just may be about children. sick, sick stuff.
22 - Glen Engel-Cox
I always viewed the story behind "Family Snapshot" as a young kid playing as if he's an assassin shooting the president, rather than the ending being a backflash to a real assassin's childhood. The child is certainly disturbed, however, and the ending reveals that he's calling out for help. I'm not sure I buy the metaphorically killing of the dad, per se, since there's no indication that he's particularly upset with his father (as opposed to being upset that both parents are growing apart).
All that said, there's room for Scott's interpretation to be sure.
To add to the list of disturbing songs, I'd put forward a number by Richard Thompson, including "Psycho Street," "I Feel So Good," or "Cold Kisses," which starts off:
Here I am in your room going through your stuff
Said you'd be gone five minutes, that's time enough
Here in your drawer there's lacy things
Old credit cards and beads and bangles and rings
Well I think I've found what I'm looking for
Hidden away at the back of the drawer
Here's the life that you led before
Nothing more disturbing that a boyfriend searching through your drawers while you step out, is there?
23 - Stephen V Funk
"John Wayne Gacy, Jr." from Sufjan Stevens' "Illinois(e)" creeps me out in a big way (maybe because it's such a damn beautiful song about so many awful things...)
24 - GoHah
More from Richard Thompson: the most disturbing and depressing song in the world--"THE END OF THE RAINBOW":
I feel for you, you little horror
Safe at your mother's breast
No lucky break for you around the corner
'Cause your father is a bully
And he thinks that you're a pest
And your sister she's no better than a whore.
Life seems so rosy in the cradle,
But I'll be a friend I'll tell you what's in store
There's nothing at the end of the rainbow.
There's nothing to grow up for anymore
25 - Shark
Shark's Most Disturbing Lyrics
1) God Bless America
2) More Than I Can Do -- by Steve Earle
(the greatest song ever written about a crazed murderous stalker!)
MORE THAN I CAN DO [Steve Earle]
I'm trying hard to let you go
But it's more than I can do
And every day or two
I wind up right back where I started
I'm trying not to let you know
That I'm still in love with you
I can't just sit home blue
Cause there ain't no rest for the brokenhearted
Just because you won't unlock your door
That don't mean you don't love me anymore
I'm never gonna let you go
No matter what you do
Because you know it's more than I can do
You told me that I got to stop
But it's more than I can do
And that ain't nothing new
Cause we both know I'm crazy about you
You said you're gonna call the cops
But I ain't gonna run
Because you're the only one
There ain't no way I could live without you
You left me just when I needed you
So I ain't even close to through with you (!!!)
I'm never gonna let you go
No matter what you do
Because you know it's more that I can do
==========
Get the feelin' some ungrateful bitch is about ta die?
heh.
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3) The Gun Song by the Hangdogs
...Second BEST song ever written about a crazed, murderous stalker...
THE GUN SONG [Hangdogs, Beware of Dog CD]
he was drunk depressed and crazy when he bought himself the gun
over the counter in some pawn shop on south main
one feel of that cold steel and he gratefully unwadded
the last fifty dollars to his name
he walked back to the subdivision, into the house
all excited to show her his new gun
she stopped packing right away when he put it to her head and told her
"the thing is, i still love you, hon."
see your reflection in the blue steel and it's too late to run
the romance was gone with that first bruise
see, cupid don't shoot arrows out the barrel of a gun
and love don't make the ten o'clock news
she waited till he passed out, then she dashed her cigarette out
in the crumpled pile of her old wedding gown
she thumbed a ride to fredericksburg got a car there at the hertz
and she stopped into a pawn shop west of town
he tracked her credit card to clovis just to tell her he still loved her
he found her waiting tables in some bar
she smiled, said "oh darlin," slid her hand beneath her apron
and she blew a hole right through that fucker's heart
CHORUS
they acquitted her on grounds of the gun in his cold hand
still she ain't smiled once since that bloody day
they UPSed back both the guns, inherited and owned
so she sold em in some pawn shop on south main
CHORUS
see, cupid don't shoot arrows out the barrel of a gun
and love don't make the ten o'clock news
=============