{"id":8314,"date":"2011-09-14T12:59:46","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T16:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8314"},"modified":"2017-04-15T12:25:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T16:25:36","slug":"midweek-music-break-haunting-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/midweek-music-break-haunting-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Music Break: Haunting Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I noticed a few months back that The Missus and I have a favorite way to describe certain music. Haunting<\/em>, one of us will say, and the other will nod. A very haunting sound<\/em>. Haunting lyrics, aren’t they?<\/em> And so on.<\/p>\n

The ingredients which go into making a song\u00a0haunting<\/em>, vs. all the other ways it might be described? Beats me. (Meant to ask The Missus this morning but forgot. I’ll check with her later.)<\/p>\n

But I think there’s a dark(ish) sound, in the first place, maybe with some eerie instrumental hook — strings often seem to play a part — and the vocals might be artificially vibratoed. The dominant pitch needn’t be creepy-low; I think, for example, that some of Loreena McKennitt’s high-pitched quavering music might be called haunting<\/em>. (There’s one, “The Mystic’s Dream,” included at the foot of this post<\/a>.) Maybe it’s got something to do with minor keys or blue notes (possibilities I’d entertain more seriously if I had any idea what the terms, y’know, meant<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Anyway, here are a handful of examples from the oldies stack. The first is “Any Day Now” (1962), performed here by Chuck Jackson.<\/p>\n\n

Any Day Now<\/em><\/strong>
\n (by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard; performed by Chuck Jackson)<\/em><\/p>\n

Any day now I will hear you say “Goodbye my love”
\nAnd you’ll be on your way
\nThen my wild beautiful bird you will have flown oh
\nAny day now I’ll be all alone (whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa)<\/em><\/p>\n

Any day now when your restless eyes meet someone new
\nOh to my sad surprise
\nThen the blue shadows will fall all over town oh
\nAny day now love will let me down (whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa)<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh my wild beautiful bird you will have flown oh
\nAny day now I’ll be all alone<\/p>\n

I know I shouldn’t want to keep you
\nIf you don’t want to stay-ay
\nUntil you go forever
\nI’ll be holding on for dear life
\nHolding you this way
\nBegging you to stay<\/p>\n

Any day now when the clock strikes “Go”
\nYou’ll call it off
\nAnd then my tears will flow
\nThen the blue shadows will fall all over town oh
\nAny day now love will let me down ’cause you won’t be around<\/p>\n

Don’t fly away my beautiful bird
\nDon’t don’t fly away<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My second nominee du jour<\/em> would be Johnny Rivers’s “Poor Side of Town,” from 1966:<\/p>\n\n

Poor Side of Town<\/em><\/strong>
\n (Johnny Rivers)<\/em><\/p>\n

How can you tell me how much you miss me
\nWhen the last time I saw you, you wouldn’t even kiss me
\nThat rich guy you’ve been seein’
\nMust have put you down
\nSo welcome back baby
\nTo the poor side of town<\/p>\n

To him you were nothin’ but a little plaything
\nNot much more than an overnight fling
\nTo me you were the greatest thing this boy had ever found
\nAnd girl it’s hard to find nice things
\nOn the poor side of town<\/p>\n

I can’t blame you for tryin’
\nI’m tryin’ to make it too
\nI’ve got one little hang up baby
\nI just can’t make it without you<\/p>\n

So tell me, are you gonna stay now
\nWill you stand by me girl all the way now
\nWith you by my side
\nThey just can’t keep us down
\nTogether we can make it baby
\nFrom the poor side of town<\/p>\n

(So tell me how much you love me)<\/em>
\n (Come be near to me and say you need me now)<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, with you by my side
\nThis world can’t keep us down
\nTogether we can make it baby
\nFrom the poor side of town…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And finally — in a completely different vein — we’ve got Janis Ian’s big hit from 1975, “At Seventeen.” (Since this is pretty much just acoustic and vocals, I offer it as an example whose hauntingness derives from the lyrics and the performer’s voice rather than any studio effects.)<\/p>\n\n

At Seventeen<\/em><\/strong>
\n(Janis Ian)<\/em><\/p>\n

I learned the truth at seventeen
\nThat love was meant for beauty queens
\nand high school girls with clear skinned smiles
\nwho married young and then retired
\nThe valentines I never knew
\nThe Friday night charades of youth
\nwere spent on one more beautiful
\nAt seventeen I learned the truth<\/p>\n

And those of us with ravaged faces
\nlacking in the social graces
\ndesperately remained at home
\ninventing lovers on the phone
\nwho called to say Come dance with me<\/em>
\nand murmured vague obscenities
\nIt isn’t all it seems at seventeen<\/p>\n

A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
\nwhose name I never could pronounce
\nsaid Pity please the ones who serve<\/em>
\n They only get what they deserve<\/em>
\nThe rich relationed hometown queen
\nmarries into what she needs
\nwith a guarantee of company
\nand haven for the elderly<\/p>\n

Remember those who win the game
\nlose the love they sought to gain
\nin debentures of quality and dubious integrity
\nTheir small-town eyes will gape at you
\nin dull surprise when payment due
\nexceeds accounts received at seventeen<\/p>\n

[instrumental]<\/em><\/p>\n

To those of us who knew the pain
\nof valentines that never came
\nand those whose names were never called
\nwhen choosing sides for basketball
\nIt was long ago and far away
\nThe world was younger than today
\nwhen dreams were all they gave for free
\nto ugly duckling girls like me<\/p>\n

We all play the game, and when we dare
\nwe cheat ourselves at solitaire
\nInventing lovers on the phone
\nRepenting other lives unknown
\nthat call and say Come dance with me<\/em>
\nand murmur vague obscenities
\nat ugly girls like me, at seventeen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What songs haunt you? Is it just their subjects? What is it about their sound?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I noticed a few months back that The Missus and I have a favorite way to describe certain music. Haunting, one of us will say, and the other will nod. A very haunting sound. Haunting lyrics, aren’t they? And so on. The ingredients which go into making a song\u00a0haunting, vs. all the other ways it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,2252,74],"tags":[2581,2582,2583,2584,2585],"class_list":{"0":"post-8314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-themissus","7":"category-midweek-music-break","8":"category-music","9":"tag-haunting-songs","10":"tag-chuck-jackson","11":"tag-johnny-rivers","12":"tag-janis-ian","13":"tag-i-dont-understand-half-the-phrases-i-use-every-day","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-2a6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8314"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19175,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8314\/revisions\/19175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}