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The Most Frightening Or Unnerving Song

When I was very small (about 3 years old) I was frightened of ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’. I think it was sung by Nancy Sinatra. I thought that a big pair of disembodied boots were going to trample all over me. I was also scared of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly tune. It was very haunting in my opinion.
 
But this genuinely disturbs me a little. It really should be used in a horror film:
 
When I was very small (about 3 years old) I was frightened of ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’. I think it was sung by Nancy Sinatra. I thought that a big pair of disembodied boots were going to trample all over me.
That was my favourite song when I was about 5 or 6.
My grandparents had come back from a holiday in Austria and they brought back a pair of walking boots (bovver boots). I marched all over the house wearing them with that music playing on the radio.
And... as I type this, that tune's on an advert on the telly.
 
That was my favourite song when I was about 5 or 6.
My grandparents had come back from a holiday in Austria and they brought back a pair of walking boots (bovver boots). I marched all over the house wearing them with that music playing on the radio.
And... as I type this, that tune's on an advert on the telly.

That’s a spooky coincidence lol.
 
When I was very small (about 3 years old) I was frightened of ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’. I think it was sung by Nancy Sinatra. I thought that a big pair of disembodied boots were going to trample all over me. I was also scared of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly tune. It was very haunting in my opinion.

Loved that song as a child! I was intrigued by the idea of the boots walking on their own.

It's actually humorous threat. When I was older I imagined the singer walking out on her cheating partner, who tries to stand in her way but she walks straight into him and then up his body like a stepladder in her magic boots, then right over his head and down his back and away.
 
It's actually humorous threat. When I was older I imagined the singer walking out on her cheating partner, who tries to stand in her way but she walks straight into him and then up his body like a stepladder in her magic boots, then right over his head and down his back and away.
Ha! I imagined the same thing!
 
When I was very small (about 3 years old) I was frightened of ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’. I think it was sung by Nancy Sinatra. I thought that a big pair of disembodied boots were going to trample all over me. I was also scared of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly tune. It was very haunting in my opinion.

That's brought back a very old (for me) mental image, with the disembodied boots stomping over someone to the beat of the double bass at the end of each chorus!
 
But why, It's a love song.

One of my favorites.
I always thought it was a song about a guy who won't accept it's over, or is just a creepy stalker...
 
Nights In White Satin creeped me out as a child, and still turns my stomach to this day...

When it was popular I was a child with a bit of a fascination for King Arthur and co., so I naturally misheard it as 'Knights in White Satin'.

Some knights were Crusaders who wore the white tunic with a red cross which might have been made of satin. Seemed a bit fragile for battle etc but perhaps the satin ones were for show and they had ones in tougher fabrics for fighting.

At some point I grasped the 'night' aspect and thought perhaps the knights chilled for a while before bedtime at their castles in white satin pyjamas. Writing letters they never meant to send. With people playing soothing violins in the background. I dunno.
 
I'm sure I've probably mentioned this before elsewhere on the forum (so I know you'll all groan) but...

... the Pink Panther theme tune. Especially the bit where it goes loud. I cannot bear to listen to that song.


And also... more of a general thing rather than one song in particular, but... when I'm enjoying an old 50s/60s British movie, I get very unnerved by trumpet music... you know, the sort of incidental music added for dramatic effect... I don't know why but if it's trumpet/trombone I find it very scary to listen to.
 
I'm sure I've probably mentioned this before elsewhere on the forum (so I know you'll all groan) but...

... the Pink Panther theme tune. Especially the bit where it goes loud. I cannot bear to listen to that song.


And also... more of a general thing rather than one song in particular, but... when I'm enjoying an old 50s/60s British movie, I get very unnerved by trumpet music... you know, the sort of incidental music added for dramatic effect... I don't know why but if it's trumpet/trombone I find it very scary to listen to.

On a similar note (see what I did there) you often hear a muted saxophone or summat* that starts up in fillums to tell us that the mood is about to become erotic. I really hate that, it's sooo sleazy.

*I'm sure we have a muso on hand who'll know!
 
When it was popular I was a child with a bit of a fascination for King Arthur and co., so I naturally misheard it as 'Knights in White Satin'.

Some knights were Crusaders who wore the white tunic with a red cross which might have been made of satin. Seemed a bit fragile for battle etc but perhaps the satin ones were for show and they had ones in tougher fabrics for fighting.

At some point I grasped the 'night' aspect and thought perhaps the knights chilled for a while before bedtime at their castles in white satin pyjamas. Writing letters they never meant to send. With people playing soothing violins in the background. I dunno.
I had the same thoughts!
Those knights, they were a bit decadent, eh!
 
That was my favourite song when I was about 5 or 6.
My grandparents had come back from a holiday in Austria and they brought back a pair of walking boots (bovver boots). I marched all over the house wearing them with that music playing on the radio.
And... as I type this, that tune's on an advert on the telly.

That was also my OH's favorite song at that age, too. Nancy Sinatra was his first crush.
 
I offer you:

One of my favourite albums. I knew all the songs before I ever heard Killer because a schoolfriend had access to it and would sing them to me at Break!

Dead Babies is about what happens when little kids aren't kept safe. A bit like the message of the Jimmy Savile campaign of around 1980.
Who'd've guessed, eh.
 
I had the same thoughts!
Those knights, they were a bit decadent, eh!

There was also The Prisoner with the living chess pieces. More knights, some of whom wore white satin and some black.
 
It's a saxophone for sexy love scenes, the muted trumpet goes "wah, wah, wah, waaaah", for when things go wrong. You can also use that for a love scene, but it won't be sexy.
That's what you think!
 
It's a saxophone for sexy love scenes, the muted trumpet goes "wah, wah, wah, waaaah", for when things go wrong. You can also use that for a love scene, but it won't be sexy.

:rollingw:

Thanks for that image!
 
I'm sure I've probably mentioned this before elsewhere on the forum (so I know you'll all groan) but...

... the Pink Panther theme tune. Especially the bit where it goes loud. I cannot bear to listen to that song.

I've just had a confused moment about this. We're watching "Children's Telly of the 70s/80s" video thingies on YouTube (most excellent I might add) and it showed a clip of a Pink Panther programme but it wasn't the scary theme tune of which I alluded to above. This one had lyrics along the lines of "there are lots of funny animals in all the world" and was accompanied by footage of a silver-coloured car.

I actually had a moment and wondered if the tune that scares me, was actually not Pink Panther after all and I've been labouring under a misapprehension all these years... but Mr Zebra says the one I'm thinking of is from the Pink Panther movie. Well there you go.

Lest you all thought I was scared of a children's tv show theme. As if.

I'm trusting Mr Zebra's judgement on this, by the way, cos for obvious reasons I ain't googling it.
 
Never having been a Queen or Mercury fan, I must have missed this song when it came out. So when I came across it as - weirdly- a part of an Advanced English language texttbook that I was required to teach, this was my first exposure to the song.

It could be taken as humorous enough until you remember (and the textbook reminded me of this fact) that it was written and performed when Mercury was in the full grip of his terminall illness - and so can be taken as more or less a bit of reportage.

So played it to a class - without myself having listened to it first. (Always a mistake!) Afterwards there was a chiiled silence which was broken by me saying: `Hmmm...well, that;s a bit disturbing, isn't it?` Nobody disagreed and we moved swiftly on.

One caveat: the piece is a bit less unsettling when experienced with its accompanying video, which - perhaps out of felt necessity- makes comedic light of it. That's why I'm sharing the lyrics only version:

 
Never having been a Queen or Mercury fan, I must have missed this song when it came out. So when I came across it as - weirdly- a part of an Advanced English language texttbook that I was required to teach, this was my first exposure to the song.

It could be taken as humorous enough until you remember (and the textbook reminded me of this fact) that it was written and performed when Mercury was in the full grip of his terminall illness - and so can be taken as more or less a bit of reportage.

So played it to a class - without myself having listened to it first. (Always a mistake!) Afterwards there was a chiiled silence which was broken by me saying: `Hmmm...well, that;s a bit disturbing, isn't it?` Nobody disagreed and we moved swiftly on.

One caveat: the piece is a bit less unsettling when experienced with its accompanying video, which - perhaps out of felt necessity- makes comedic light of it. That's why I'm sharing the lyrics only version:



Yes, the song was written by Freddie about his quickly-declining health (as I understand it) but typically they made 'light' of it in the video (filmed in Black and White to help disguise the reality of things, I believe).

One of those songs which sound bright enough, until you really listen.

"I'm knitting with only one needle"... one of my favourite song lyrics. :)


Fun fact: Freddie requested that there actually be 1001 daffodils in the video to go with the lyric. Dedication to art.
 
I'm not a religious man, but I've always found 'Gethsemane' from Jesus Christ Superstar (particularly the movie version sung by Ted Neeley) to be haunting in the extreme.
 
Never having been a Queen or Mercury fan, I must have missed this song when it came out. So when I came across it as - weirdly- a part of an Advanced English language texttbook that I was required to teach, this was my first exposure to the song.

It could be taken as humorous enough until you remember (and the textbook reminded me of this fact) that it was written and performed when Mercury was in the full grip of his terminall illness - and so can be taken as more or less a bit of reportage.

So played it to a class - without myself having listened to it first. (Always a mistake!) Afterwards there was a chiiled silence which was broken by me saying: `Hmmm...well, that;s a bit disturbing, isn't it?` Nobody disagreed and we moved swiftly on.

One caveat: the piece is a bit less unsettling when experienced with its accompanying video, which - perhaps out of felt necessity- makes comedic light of it. That's why I'm sharing the lyrics only version:


Yup, a great song. I'm a huge Queen fan. (Though their Sun City performance disappointed and angered me. I never bought any more of their work afterwards.)

Freddie's voice is absolutely beautiful on this track but it sounds thin, like it's barely coming from his throat. You can imagine him recording it sitting down. Robert Plant recorded Presence in a wheelchair after a car crash but you wouldn't know!
 
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH:

 
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