Fortean Songs

[GingerTabby]

This is an enigmatic song - what's happening: a serial killer on a rampage? The return of Jesus on Earth?

I just assumed it was about a woman who has become unhinged after being abandoned by a lover and walks the streets of the town waiting in vain for him to return for her. Or maybe I'm taking too literal an interpretation.

 

[EnolaGaia]

I just assumed it was about a woman who has become unhinged after being abandoned by a lover and walks the streets of the town waiting in vain for him to return for her. Or maybe I'm taking too literal an interpretation.

That's the more or less standard interpretation, and the only one that ever made coherent sense to me.

I recall back in the 1970's there were some who tried to leverage the 'mansion in the sky' bit to reframe it as some sort of Christian-themed storyline. The music was readily accepted into a gospel context. However, the lyrics connoted enough secular / personal malaise (e.g., 'crazy', aged 41 and still called 'baby', actions unavoidably insinuating delusion) that it made the focal subject (person) seem desperate rather than devout, and hence nullified the song as something glorifying the Christian belief system.

I'd say it was akin to the less-than-exalting impression given by Leonard Cohen's Suzanne in stating Jesus eventually "knew for certain only drowning men could see him."

 

[MrRING]

That's the more or less standard interpretation, and the only one that ever made coherent sense to me.

I recall back in the 1970's there were some who tried to leverage the 'mansion in the sky' bit to reframe it as some sort of Christian-themed storyline. The music was readily accepted into a gospel context. However, the lyrics connoted enough secular / personal malaise (e.g., 'crazy', aged 41 and still called 'baby', actions unavoidably insinuating delusion) that it made the focal subject (person) seem desperate rather than devout, and hence nullified the song as something glorifying the Christian belief system.

I'd say it was akin to the less-than-exalting impression given by Leonard Cohen's Suzanne in stating Jesus eventually "knew for certain only drowning men could see him."

I guess I like the alternate theories best. There is a scene out of Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf that involved a deluded lady who is convinced that the manbeast is a suitor about to bring her love just before he kills her, and for me something like that is the weird undercurrent going on in the song...

 

[dreeness .]

This song was written to promote John Keel's book "Jadoo." The composer and performers are unknown.

John Keel is perhaps best known as the author of "The Mothman Prophecies".

"ghunt:


(edited to add)

From Anomalist Books:

http://www.anomalistbooks.com/book.cfm?id=73

_____________________

Someone, we know not who, once called Jadoo "the greatest book ever written on the black magic of the Orient." But we do know that there will never again be another book like it. Jadoo, a Hindi word meaning "Black Magic," captures a world that is now lost to us—the strange, dark, mysterious world that was once called the "Orient." This story of a real-life Indiana Jones of the 1950s named John Keel contains everything but a trip to Venus in a flying saucer--a subject our newsman/explorer would become famous for a decade later. In Egypt, the fearless Keel was cursed by a mummy and befriended members of a strange snake-charming cult. In Iraq, he played Russian roulette with a notorious desert bandit and lived among the Yezidi devil-worshippers. Later, in India, he was buried alive and discovered the secret of the Indian rope trick, which he then performed for incredulous reporters in New Delhi. And in a riveting finale, he chased the Abominable Snowman through the little known Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim before being unceremoniously booted out of Singapore for being "an undesirable alien."
____________________

 

[dreeness .]

sych:

There's a surprising number of songs with lyrics about insanity and incarceration in some sort of asylum, if you stop and think about it.

Just off the top of my head:

Ozzy's "Diary of a Madman"
Nazareth's "Suitable Case For Treatment"
Motorhead's "Funny Farm"
Blue Oyster Cult's "Great Sun Jester" (arguably)
Roger Miller's "I'm a Nut" (very nearly qualifies)

...and surely a great many more.

Oh and of course this thing:

not really a "funny" song at all, if you read the lyrics.

Disturbing...

 

[MrRING]

Just ran across this:

 

[Mythopoeika]

sych:

There's a surprising number of songs with lyrics about insanity and incarceration in some sort of asylum, if you stop and think about it.

Just off the top of my head:

Ozzy's "Diary of a Madman"
Nazareth's "Suitable Case For Treatment"
Motorhead's "Funny Farm"
Blue Oyster Cult's "Great Sun Jester" (arguably)
Roger Miller's "I'm a Nut" (very nearly qualifies)

...and surely a great many more.

Oh and of course this thing:

not really a "funny" song at all, if you read the lyrics.

Disturbing...

 

[dreeness .]

And the sequel...

 

[Mythopoeika]

Both songs are quite disturbing.

 

[GNC]

Wait a minute - They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Ha is sung (well, spoken) from a man who has been abandoned by his dog. So how could a dog record an answer song?

 

[Mythopoeika]

Wait a minute - They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Ha is sung (well, spoken) from a man who has been abandoned by his dog. So how could a dog record an answer song?

A Fortean, dog-headed woman?

 

[GNC]

A Fortean, dog-headed woman?

No wonder he went nuts.

 

[dreeness .]

A Fortean, dog-headed woman?

The widely accepted "dog" interpretation is a difficult fit for the lyrics.

"You laughed" --- Laughing dogs are few and far between.

"I cooked your food, I cleaned your house" --- Seems highly unlikely.

And, who would beg a dog not to leave?

 

[GNC]

I think you're missing the point that's it's a comedy song.

 

[escargot]

I think you're missing the point that's it's a comedy song.

Yup, my take on it is that it's a dog to whom he has become overly attached.

 

[GNC]

Yup, my take on it is that it's a dog to whom he has become overly attached.

They're not coming to take him away for nuthin'.

 

[MrRING]

Here's that old chestnut Love Potion #9:

And another version of the love potion formula, Kiss You by Cyndi Lauper!

 

[Gibbus Gibson]

The Fall have had quite a few numbers that would fit into this over the years. Here's an early one, recorded in a damp warehouse apparently.

 

[MrRING]

The song UFO by Jim Sullivan:

The weird theory: that he disappeared after being abducted by a UFO

 

[escargot]

Posted this elsewhere today - a song about a ghost by Stanley Holloway.

With her head tucked underneath her arm

 

[dr wu]

 

[dreeness .]

A song about spontaneous human combustion:

Spoiler

:mcoat:

 

[ramonmercado]

A song about spontaneous human combustion:

 

[dreeness .]

Mephisto - Walzer I

 

[Timble2]

A tribute to all those cheesy 50s Sci-Fi films....

 

[dreeness .]

 

[chicorea]

Great duo! Du coup I think that Crawford is way more terrifiyng than poor Nosferatu.

 

[chicorea]

This is a fortean song in more than one simple layer. My favorite is the realization that the excingly extraordinaire and the poisonous boring can happen in parallel and synchronous way.

 

[dr wu]

Spontaneous human combustion..? Really..?

 

[ramonmercado]

Spontaneous human combustion..? Really..?

I prefer it to Great Balls of Fire!