The Steel Guitar Forum

I've always liked the creepy songs like
Ruby dont take your love to town, Psycho, the Rubber Room.
Any other lesser known song in this genre I should listen to?
Preferably filled with murder and insanity
Matt

How about "You`ll never leave Harlan Alive"?

Well there's that Randy Travis tune, 'Digging Up Bones'.

Johnny Paycheck's "Pardon Me, I've Got Someone to Kill" is pretty creepy.

Knoxville Girl.

Matt,
I have an album of just those kind of songs. It's on Capitol and is called Rebels and Outlaws, Music From The Wild Side Of Life. 72435-20014-2-2
1. Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young-Faron Young
2. Folsom Prison Blues-Johnny Cash
3. Big Iron-Marty Robbins
4. Branded Man- Merle Haggard
5. (Pardon Me) I've Got Someone To Kill-Johnny Paycheck
6. Evil Hearted Me- Dick Curless
7. Cocaine Blues-Hank Thompson
8. Downtown Poker Club- Tex Williams
9. Riot In Cell Block Number Nine-Wanda Jackson
10. Knoxville Girl-The Louvin Brothers
11. You Clobbered Me- Spade Cooley
12. Shootout At The Rocket Club- Dusty Chaps
13. Ain't Life Hell- Hank Cochran and Wille Nelson
14. Blood On The Saddle- Tex Ritter


Some good killer stuff right there.

The Cold Hard Facts Of Life - Porter Wagoner
Kiss The Children - Gram Parsons

"Counting Flowers on the Wall"

(been there, done that, got the straight jacket...)

"Wolverton Mountain" is my favorite...

"Miller's Cave" was always a good one too...(especially with the echo chamber effect at the end.)

The Last Letter
Farewell Party

I always thought Footsteps in the Snow was the creepiest song I know.

"You'll Recover In Time" is a Johnny Paycheck song about a guy in a mental institution who discovers his ex-wife has just been committed as well.
(Great playing by Lloyd Green!)

Paycheck had a few of 'em. Not just Pardon Me etc. as mentioned above, but also "(Like Me) You'll Recover in Time", with Lloyd Green's insistent banshee wail punctuation. Great stuff!

EDIT: Dang, Andy, you slipped it in there while I was typing!

Daryl Singletary's That Woman Sure Looks Good In Black" gives me chills every time I hear it.

BigB

Randy Rubbrnuts version of "If your phone doesn't ring, that'll be me".

Buenos Noches from a Lonely Room - Dwight Yoakum
Open Pit Mine - George Jones
Delia's Gone - Johnny Cash
21 Miles to Lake Charles Prison - Johnny Paycheck

Of course, the blues guys could easily keep up with the country guys on this kind of thing. How about 1954's "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" by Pat Hare, guitar player with James Cotton, Muddy Waters, and Mojo Buford? In fact, he actually shot his girlfriend in the early 60s and spent the rest of his life in prison.

I'm very fond of this genre too. Got especially interested when I worked for the Parole Board 20 some odd years ago.

I used to do a medley of Cold Hard Facts and Life To Go, a great song by Stonewall Jackson that both he and George Jones recorded.

I played on a whole record of PsychoBilly back in the 80's with T. Tex Edwards. He gave me an incredible tape of potential material for the record. Only 12 of the tunes made it on there, but some of those others where sick, twisted and lovely. They include I'm Going to Kill You by Wynn Stewart (sample romantic lyric - I'm gonna cut you up and put you in a box about half your size), Strangler in the Night, Delores, Lee Harvey Was A Friend of Mine and many other gems. I gotta break out that LP and see what else is on it.

Delores is real creepy. About a serial killer who keeps warning his wife not to go out at night 'cause there's a killer on the loose (him). She doesn't listen.

Of course, this is a time-honored sub-genre of folk music that goes back, way back. Barbara Allen may be the first example. Knoxville Girl is an update of Barbara Allen.

Oh, and Cold, Cold Hands by Johnny Bush about a guy who finds his dead wife in a wreck with her boyfriend. Hate when that happens.

Many thanks everyone!
I think there's enough gruesome material here to fill a couple of after gig late night drives home through the forest...
Cheers
Matt

On the album "Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke & the Outlaws" from around 1974 there's a tune called "Mama's Picture" which is about a guy who goes to a bar and meets a girl who he takes home and goes to bed with. He wakes up the next morning finding her dead in the hall. It seems she saw her mother's picture on the wall. The last line is "Looks like I met dear old daddy after all.............."

The song idea is a little strange but it's got some of the best fills on pedal steel you've ever heard, played by Robbie Springfield I believe.... JH in Va.

I can't remember who did it but there was a song called "Jill" about a girl being attacked, very creepy.
Richard

Who did that song,"Son don't go Near the Indians" years ago? Had some inbreeding in it, or something?

"I Hate Everything" & "Haven't You Heard (Daddy's Gone Crazy)" by George Strait.

Red Sovine cut a song about standing there looking at his wife of many years lying in her coffin. The title was something about the dress she was wearing.

Which brings to mind Larry Sparks' latest album, "The Last Suit You Wear". Haven't heard it, but I figure it might be about the same thing.

A few years ago a friend of mine put together a multiple CD collection of just such songs for private distribution, encompassing all musical genres, not just country. There's a lot of songs like that out there.

C#

www.calsharp.com

"Looks like I met dear old daddy after all.............."

Eeeeuuuuuuwwwww!!!
.

What are those things with big black wings?

Mike Shefrin wrote:... Randy Rubbrnuts version of "If your phone doesn't ring, that'll be me".

LOL!!!

A couple of my gloomy favorites are: "Bringing Mary Home," (the little ghost girl in the back seat), and "I Haven't Seen Mary in Years." (An old man stood by a grave side...))

Also, "Never Leave Harlan Alive," mentioned above. Powerful.

Dennis