Who did this creepy spoken word piece?

January 20, 2007 5:56 AM

I need help finding creepy spoken word / song. I only remember snippets of it, but it is basically a creepy guy talking to a gal. In the lyrics are things rather like: "It's been so long since I've had a special friend"...and...."I'm warm, you'll see". Also...as I like creepy/weird spoken stuff...suggest some others!
posted by Wink Ricketts to media & arts (33 comments total)

Can't help you on Mr Creepy there, but Tom Waits does ome excellent spoken word - I recommend "What's He Building" from Mule Variations as a good starting point. He generally whacks a few in on every album.
posted by Jilder at 6:04 AM on January 20, 2007

You only need one: Frankestein Radio Controls by Francis E. Dec, Esq. (as recorded by a radio DJ)
posted by planetkyoto at 6:32 AM on January 20, 2007

Miranda July! A staple of the "creepy spoken word/song" scene. She wrote and directed the movie Me You and Everyone We Know, which was actually a charming almost sentimental film, different tone from her audio tracks. I remember doing acid and listening to one of her creepy goth-horror songs. She's scary until you remember she's just another strange overdramatic hipster chick.

Here's a track I found on an mp3 aggregator: Reno
posted by milkdropcoronet at 6:36 AM on January 20, 2007

I've long had a fascination with a creepy song we used to "sing" in elementary school called "Sifting in the Sand". It was an Ella Jenkins song that had a two kids speaking. The first kid would say
"I'm on your first step, sifting in the sand"
and the second kid would respond
"I'm in the kitchen with a potato in my hand".

Then the first kid would say he was on the "second step", and the other kid was still in the kitchen with the potato in hand. The first kid would get closer with each verse, and the second kid stayed in the kitchen but his voice would get more scared until final the first kid was in the kitchen! And the second kid was in the back yard with a potato in his hand. It was just weird.

You can listen to a clip here, track 114.
posted by kimdog at 6:42 AM on January 20, 2007

Don't recognise the song but 'Aisha' by Death in Vegas featuring Iggy Pop is rather excellent!
posted by TwoWordReview at 6:43 AM on January 20, 2007

I don't know the song, but I think a lot of the Golden Palominos' Dead Inside album with Nicole Blackman would fit the bill - particularly the first track, "Victim."
posted by Stacey at 6:55 AM on January 20, 2007

I don't know the song either, but I'd recommend the Nick Cave/Kylie Minogue (!) duet of "Where the Wild Roses Bloom." That is some creepy stuff.
posted by Jeanne at 7:11 AM on January 20, 2007

Sarah McLachlan's rather popular "Possession" is about a stalker. Creepy!
posted by NucleophilicAttack at 7:19 AM on January 20, 2007

Nick Cave does a few spoken word things (FWIW, I wouldn't count "Where The Wild Roses Grow" as spoken word). One of the best - and creepiest - is The Carny, (YouTube link), concerning itself with carnies, dwarves named Moses and Noah, mangy cats carnival freaks and a dead horse.
posted by bunglin jones at 7:23 AM on January 20, 2007

Check out Lydia Lunch, ecspecially Queen Of Siam (my favorite) but really, all of her work is haunting, indeed...... she has worked with the aforementioned Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Rowland Howard, and Jim Thirwell, as well as making some movies with Richard Kern......


Oh yeah, 13.13 is a great album, as well......
posted by peewinkle at 7:51 AM on January 20, 2007

After some of the William S. Burroughs stuff that was set to music, surely the creepiest spoken work/musical piece in the whole world was Godspeed You Black Emperor's "Dead Flag Blues." (It's on the album, uh, "F# A# (Infinity)").

Oh and hello, Bongwater! (As well as Ann Magnuson's genius solo "Luv Show," some sung, some spoken--the epic story of a nice girl gone horribly wrong first in Hollywood, then suburbia.)
posted by RJ Reynolds at 8:34 AM on January 20, 2007

Crispin Glover's spoken word stuff is pretty creepy... but if you're into that kinda thing, you gotta track down stuff by Steven Jesse Bernstein.
posted by ph00dz at 8:45 AM on January 20, 2007

Another suggestion and apology for being unable to solve the original question:
Algebra Suicide
posted by ktrey at 9:04 AM on January 20, 2007

"Rope of Weeds," Elysian Fields. Very little music, and women singing torchy songs about seagoing necrophiles is an instant hit.

Nick Cave really hits the mark for a lot of it. There's this Crispin Glover album ...
posted by adipocere at 9:20 AM on January 20, 2007

I'll suggest Buck 65 - known as a rapper but a lot of his stuff sounds like it would fit your interests. Also, same for Cannibal Ox. Of course there's Meryn Cadell.

But I have no answer to your question either.
posted by loiseau at 9:25 AM on January 20, 2007

Not always creepy (but he does it well), Joe Frank is good for weird spoken word stuff.
posted by dhammond at 10:50 AM on January 20, 2007

Air - How does it make you feel?
posted by Skyanth at 11:11 AM on January 20, 2007

I always liked Family Man from Black Flag. Video of the title track - Huh. Never saw that before. Seeing Rollins kind of ruined it. It's better on the album.
posted by ctmf at 11:53 AM on January 20, 2007

Sounds like you might enjoy anything by Xiu Xiu.
posted by Matt Oneiros at 12:16 PM on January 20, 2007

I can't help you with the song you are thinking of but you might enjoy the songs made by MetaFilter's starkeffect using mic in track recordings. You can listen to the creepiest one , called "14" on MeFi Music.
There was also a good FPP about it.

Seconding Lydia Lunch, lady scarface.
posted by bobobox at 1:22 PM on January 20, 2007

It's "Eros" by Rod McKuen.
posted by Zeedog at 2:53 PM on January 20, 2007

Thank you Zeedog for telling me. That is indeed it!

And thanks to the rest of you for many creepy suggestions. I'll be checking them all out!
posted by Wink Ricketts at 4:02 PM on January 20, 2007

I've always found Possum Kingdom by The Toadies to be pretty creepy... love that song. :)
posted by Andrhia at 7:13 PM on January 20, 2007

Looks like "Eros" is available on the iTunes Store. I'm going to go grab it. Thanks for the recommendation ... an interesting thread! :)
posted by WCityMike at 7:40 PM on January 20, 2007

Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" is super creepy and may or may not qualify as spoken word.
posted by tatiana wishbone at 7:53 PM on January 20, 2007

Tom Waits was the first thing I thought of as well. Watch her Dissapear is a good example. But the lyrics are only half the fun.

Perhaps Arab Strap would fit the bill as well. He does speak over music quite a lot and most of his songs directed towards a female. Though I might be off the mark as I haven't listened to him for a while.
posted by apfel at 8:49 PM on January 20, 2007

william shatner's stuff of the last few years is pretty kickass and largely spoken -- check out fear of pop, which was a ben folds project with an incredible shatner song on it called "in love" and the recent solo album "has been."

this is not a joke, it's truly great stuff regardless of what you think of shatner the persona.
posted by Hat Maui at 9:48 PM on January 20, 2007

Check out Rasputina, in particular their album Thanks for the Ether, which has some great spoken word pieces (give Nozzle, The Donner Party, and Kate Moss a listen).
posted by effigy at 10:03 PM on January 20, 2007

I find the lyrics to Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" very creepy. It sounds like a grown man has had some long established relationship with a girl while she was pre-pubescent (such as an uncle maybe?), and has noticed that she's not quite a little girl any more and wants to be the one to... introduce her to womanhood... or something.

Maybe there is a better, less creepy explanation, but it sounds so much like the prelude to that rape in the movie "Once were Warriors".
posted by -harlequin- at 10:33 PM on January 20, 2007

Devo, "Shrivel Up," on their first album.
posted by Mr. Justice at 4:46 AM on January 21, 2007

Some of Black Box Recorder's stuff (their first album, "England Made Me", especially) is quite creepy, albeit blackly funny. The songs are essentially spoken-word, with an impeccable cut-glass female English received pronunciation accent and restrained music, but the words are pretty dark. Try "Gift Horse" from their second album The Facts of Life ("they're digging up human remains in Notting Hill...").

Oh, and on Lemon Jelly's second album (Lost Horizons) there's a song called "Experiment Number 6", which is a doctor or someone describing a nasty-sounding experiment and the effects on the patient... I have no idea what it's doing on that album, given that their usual output involves sampled nursery rhymes and garden programme soundtracks, but it gave me the willies to the extent I had to give the album away.
posted by terrynutkins at 8:53 AM on January 21, 2007

Velvet Underground's "The Gift" (from White Light White Heat) might qualify. John Cale reading a pleasant sounding story over the patented VU drone. It gets creepier as it goes on.

Also, "The Devil is in the Details" by Boards of Canada comes to mind.
posted by anthom at 12:23 PM on January 22, 2007

Pretty Lord Sundance
posted by srs at 3:38 PM on January 22, 2007