Most haunting song ever

[LadyTevar]

Twa Corbies
A Traditional song in the vernacular, sung as a dirge.

As I was walking all alane
I heard twa corbies makin' mane
And one ontae the other did say
Where will we gang and dine the day
Where will we gang and dine the day

In ahind yon oul fail dyke
I ken there lies a new slain knight
An naeone kens that he lies there
But his hawk and hound and his lady fair
His hawk and hound and his lady fair

His hawk is tae the hunting gane
His hound to fetch a wild fowl hane
His lady's taken another mate
So we may make our dinner sweet
We may make our dinner sweet

And you can sit on his white breast bone
And I'll pick out his bonny blue e'en
And with a lock of his yellow hair
We'll theek our nest when it grows bare
We'll theek our nest when it grows bare

And many's a man fighting makes mane
But naeone kens where he has gane
Through his white bones when they lie bare
The wind shall blow forever mare
The wind shall blow forever mare

[J]

We heard this one while doing some stereo shopping earlier this week. Sarah McLachlan contributes vocals on the chorus and there's just a darkness to the way her voice blends with Greg Keelor's.


What Is This Love
Blue Rodeo

What is this love
That I leave behind
How can I turn
From the tears in your eyes
What is this world
Where we always pretend
That it is worth it
Worth it in the end

What is this life we share
That I just throw away
Is this love
That causes so much pain
What is the promise
That I leave behind
Why can't I
Just lie beside you again

What's going on
How'd it get so wrong
What's going on
How'd it get so wrong

What is this dream
That I'll never find
What is this prayer
That's stealing my mind
What is this deal
That I've made with fate
And I wonder
If I have left it too late

What's going on
How'd it get so wrong
What's going on
How'd it get so wrong

[Shroom Man 777]

I'm very partial to In the House - In a Heartbeat, also known as the 28 Days Later Song.

[Civil War Man]

I'd nominate The Green Fields of France, by the Dropkick Murphys. Basically a song lamenting all the senseless death during World War I.

The Green Fields of France

Oh how do you do, young Willy McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done
And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in 1916
Well I hope you died quick
And I hope you died clean
Or Willy McBride, was is it slow and obscene

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916
To that loyal heart you're forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane
In an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

The sun shining down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation were butchered and damned

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And I can't help but wonder oh Willy McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause
Did you really believe that this war would end wars
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing and dying it was all done in vain
Oh Willy McBride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And though the way they play it really isn't all that dark, there is The Fields of Athenry, which is about an Irish man who is exiled to Australia because he stole food in order to feed his family during the potato famine.

The Fields of Athenry

By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young girl calling
Michael, they have taken you away
For you stole Trevelyn's corn
So the young might see the morn
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young man calling
Nothing matters, Mary when you're free
Against the famine and the Crown
I rebelled, they cut me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

By a lonely harbor wall
She watched the last star falling
As that prison ship sailed out against the sky
Sure she'll wait and hope and pray
For her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely ‘round the fields of Athenry

It's so lonely ‘round the fields of Athenry

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

[Kanastrous]

Well, Well, Well by Peter, Paul and Mary

Well, Well, Well, Who's that callin'?
Well, Well, Well, Hold my hand.
Well, Well, Well, Night is a-fallin',
Spirit is a-movin' all over this land.

Lord told Noah, Build him an ark,
Build it out of hickory bark.
Old ark a-movin', and the water start to climb,
God send a fire, not a flood next time.

Well, Well, Well, Who's that callin'?
Well, Well, Well, Hold my hand.
Well, Well, Well, Night is a-fallin',
Spirit is a-movin' all over this land.

God said fire comin' judgement day,
He said all mankind gonna pass away.
Brothers and sisters don't you know?
You're gonna reap just what you sow.

Well, Well, Well, Who's that callin'?
Well, Well, Well, Hold my hand.
Well, Well, Well, Night is a-fallin',
Spirit is a-movin' all over this land.

World's not waitin' for the Lord's command,
Buildin' a fire that'll sweep the land.
Thunder out of heaven, comin' Gabriel's call;
And the sea's gonna boil and the sky's gonna fall.

Well, Well, Well, Who's that callin'?
Well, Well, Well, Hold my hand.
Well, Well, Well, Night is a-fallin',
Spirit is a-movin' all over this land.

Well, well, well.


Y'all can keep the gutless pap of theirs that's mostly what people remember; the old-time-religion stuff from "Album" gives me the chills. And, occasionally, the creeps.

[Drewcifer]

The second movement from Vivaldi's Gloria (RV 589) has always haunted me.

"Et in terra pax"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrhpwGLR4DA

The most chilling performance I've heard of this piece is on the soundtrack from the movie Runaway Train.

[Enigma]

I agree with the ST version of the Amazing Grace. I also find Enya's "Boadicea(?)" to be haunting even though there are no lyrics. Another song I find haunting is Henry Martin by Figgy Duff.

There were three brothers in merry Scotland,
In merry Scotland there were three
And they did cast lots which of them should go, should go, should go,
And turn robber all on the salt sea.

The lot it fell upon Henry Martin,
The youngest of all of the three
That he should turn robber all on the salt sea, the salt sea, the salt sea,
For to maintain his two brothers and he.

Now they had not been sailing but a long winter's night
And part of a short winter's day,
When he spied a stout lofty ship � ,
Come a-bibbing down on them straightway.

"Hello, hello," cried Henry Martin,
"What makes you sail so nigh?"
"O, I'm a rich merchant ship bound for fair London Town,
And if you please, we shall quickly pass by."

"Oh no, oh no," cried Henry Martin,
"This thing it never could be.
For I have turned robber all on the salt sea,
For to maintain my two brothers and me."

"Come lower your topsail and brail up your mizzen,
And bring your ship under my lee,
Or I will give to you a full cannon ball,
And all your bodies drown in the salt sea."

"Oh no, we won't lower our lofty topsail,
Nor bring our ship under your lee,
And you'll not take from us our rich merchant goods,
No, nor point our bold guns to the sea."

And broadside, and broadside, and at it they went,
For fully two hours or three,
Until Henry Martin gave them the death shot,
And straight to the bottom went she.

Bad news, bad news, to old England came,
Bad news to fair London town,
There's been a rich vessel and she's cast away,
And all of her merry men drowned.

[NomAnor15]

Not a song in the sense of what other people have posted, but one that "haunts" me is the theme from The Godfather. Second goes to The Highwayman, as sung by Phil Ochs.

[Broomstick]

It's not creepy, but the first time I ever heard Pachelbel's Canon in D it totally blew my mind, and I can still listen to it endlessly. Maybe it doesn't do it for everyone, but it just gets deep into me.

[Lord Pounder]

Annie Lennox is in my opinion right up there in terms of most haunting songs, her cover of Whiter Shade of Pale and Love Song For A Vampire are fantastic examples. Also right up there and I'm suprised it hasn't been mentioned Blink 182's I Miss You.

[phred]

"Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, and "Mad World" by either Tears for Fears, or whoever did the remake a couple years back. they always get to me.

[Kanastrous]

That was Gary Jules doing "Mad World."

Great stuff.

[Metatwaddle]

The second movement from Vivaldi's Gloria (RV 589) has always haunted me.

"Et in terra pax"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrhpwGLR4DA

The most chilling performance I've heard of this piece is on the soundtrack from the movie Runaway Train.

I remember singing Vivaldi's Gloria once. I think that movement may have been my favorite, though the whole thing's lovely. I also remember that one of the weird things about singing it was that I had to watch everyone else carefully to make sure I wasn't taking my catch-breaths at the same time as anyone. Seriously, the phrases are so long... it's gorgeous.

"Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, and "Mad World" by either Tears for Fears, or whoever did the remake a couple years back. they always get to me.

Have you ever heard the Johnny Cash version of "Hurt"? He's very understated about it, and the instrumentation is minimalistic too. The result is fucking terrifying - much scarier than NIN's version.

There's one Chopin etude in C-sharp minor- I think it's Opus 25, No. 7 that really gets me for some reason. I've heard it described as a duet between a cello and a flute, except it's a solo piano song. Even the Nocturnes aren't quite that haunting (although the one in E minor is close).

But frankly, I think Strange Fruit is the most eerie of all because of the subject matter. It's not just about death. There are plenty of songs about death and lost hope and the people left behind. And there are plenty of songs that "sound" vaguely haunting. But Strange Fruit is about a more specific and disturbing trend, carried out by "civilized" people in times of "peace" way too recently.

[The Yosemite Bear]

well Strange Fruit has some very disturbing lyrics, and I love that song.

[2000AD]

For 'haunting' as in 'spooky ghosts haunting us, wooOOOooOOOO' you can't beat The Danse Macabre

[tim31]

I'm not posting all the lyrics, but further to the nomination of 'Green fields of France' I offer a sample from 'And the band played Waltzing Matilda', about the ANZAC efforts at Gallipoli.

But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

That stanza always brings to mind the christmas day ceasefire in France, which breaks my heart to think about. And then of course:

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question

[Mobius]

Frankie Teardrop by Suicide

Frankie teardrop
Twenty year old Frankie
He's married he's got a kid
And he's working in a factory

He's working from seven to five
He's just trying to survive
well lets hear it for Frankie
Frankie Frankie

Well Frankie cant make it
Coz things are just too hard
Frankie cant make neough money
Frankie cant buy enough food

And Frankie's getting evicted
Oh let's hear it for Frankie
Oh Frankie Frankie
Oh Frankie Frankie

Frankie is so desperate
He's gonna kill his wife and kids
Frankie's gonna kill his kid
Frankie picked up a gun

Pointed at the six month old in the crib
Oh Frankie
(scream)
Frankie looked at his wife

Shot her
(screams)
"Oh what have I done?"
Let's hear it for Frankie

Frankie teardrop
Frankie put the gun to his head
(screams)
Frankie's dead

(screams)

Frankie's lying in hell
(screams)

We're all Frankies
We're all lying in hell
(screams)

and another very haunting song for me Island of Heather Nova (well most works of Heather Nova are pretty haunting

There are parts of me hell never know,
My wild horses and my river beds,
And in my throat voices hell never hear.
He pulls at me like a cherry tree,
And I can still move, but I dont speak about it.
Pretend Im crazy, pretend Im dead.
Hes to scared to hit me now, hell bring flowers istead.

I need an island, somewhere to sink a stone
I need an island, somewhere to bury you,
Somewhere to go.

And the dogwoods shimmer in october sun,
oh sweet thing he sings to me,
youre the only one.

I need an island, somewhere to sink a stone
I need an island, somewhere to bury you, somewhere
I need an island, somewhere to sink a stone
I need an island, somewhere to bury you, somewhere to go.

And I dont know why I cant tell my sister,
He spat in my face again, and I dont want to die here.
You know that dream when your feet wont move,
You want to come but your body wont let you.
He steals it from me.he steals it from me.
It shines like sweat, like jewels,
Like something that has died to soon.
He fucks with the beauty.
A kiss, a kick, a kiss, a kick, a kiss kiss kick.
He steals it from me.
Its out of my hands again.

I need an island, somewhere to sink a stone
I need an island, somewhere to bury you,
Somewhere to go, to go...

[YT300000]

The Windmills of Your Mind, as sung by Noel Harrison in that delightful Norman Jewison film. Incidentally, it won the 1969 Oscar for best song.

[Durandal]

That was Gary Jules doing "Mad World."

Great stuff.

Interestingly enough, I just started playing it in iTunes, clicked on AMP and found this thread. I was just going to post it.

It was originally a Tears for Fears song, the band that also did the original "Shout". They seem to have a habit of writing great lyrics and turning them into ridiculous-sounding songs. Both Disturbed's cover of "Shout" and Gary Jules' cover of "Mad World" are far and away better than the originals. And when "Mad World" was featured in a Gears of War commercial (one of the best videogame commercials I've ever seen), its popularity on iTunes skyrocketed.

"Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails, and "Mad World" by either Tears for Fears, or whoever did the remake a couple years back. they always get to me.

I'd recommend checking out Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt". After hearing it, Trent Reznor said, "I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore…"

Also, check out Black Lab's song "This Night" on the album "Passion Leaves a Trace". Amazing song.

There are things I have done
There's a place I have gone
There's a beast and I let it run
Now it's running my way

There are things I regret
Cause you can't forgive
You can't forget
There's a gift that you send
You sent it my way

[ Chorus: ]
So take this night
Wrap it around me like a sheet
I know I'm not forgiven
But I need a place to sleep
So take this night
And lay me down on the street
I know I'm not forgiven
But I hope that I'll be
given some peace

There's a game that I play
There are rules I had to break
There's mistakes that I've made
But I've made them my way

Chorus

Some peace
Some peace

Both "This Night" and Johnny Cash's "Hurt" were featured in promos for The Shield on FX, which is how I originally came across them. They were perfect in both cases.

[Drewcifer]

Cash's Hurt alone can make me emotional; add the video and I still often cry.

What's truly amazing about the video is that is was thrown together at the last minute due to Cash's failing health...

Many music videos tend to be about escape and illusion — the illusion of fame, wealth, sex, glamour and fantasy. The video for Johnny Cash's "Hurt" isn't about any of those things. It deals with a theme not so common in music videos: reality.

In the short history of music videos, few have had the emotional heft and visual impact of the clip shot by director Mark Romanek in the Tennessee home of the ailing country legend.

"This [concept] is completely and utterly alien to what videos are supposed to be," Romanek said. "Videos are supposed to be eye candy — hip and cool and all about youth and energy. This one is about someone [moving] toward the twilight of his career, this powerful, legendary figure who is dealing with issues and emotions you're not used to encountering in videos."

The video for the cover of the Nine Inch Nails ballad from last year's American Recordings IV: The Man Comes Around features a morose-looking Cash singing the lines "What have I become, my sweetest friend?/ Everyone I know goes away in the end," before fatalistically promising to leave behind his "empire of dirt."

A montage of moving, dimly lit images of a weathered Cash playing piano and guitar in his memorabilia-stuffed home is mixed with glimpses of the flood-damaged House of Cash museum and archival footage of the country legend as a young man. Romanek, who has directed videos for Madonna, Beck and Audioslave, as well as last year's film "One Hour Photo," said he made the clip with no commercial expectations or calculations, fully expecting that it would not be shown on major video outlets.

"I begged [the album's producer] Rick Rubin to let me shoot something to that track," said Romanek, who heard the song several months before the album was released and fell in love with its stark sound.

After several attempts to convince his friend Rubin to let him shoot the clip, even offering to do it for free, longtime Cash fan Romanek finally succeeded in scoring the gig. But after plans to film it in Los Angeles fell apart due to Cash's health, Romanek had only a few days to conceive and shoot the video before Cash left for his annual health sabbatical in Jamaica.

"I wanted to do two things," he said. "I wanted to celebrate this legend and his achievements but also be very candid about what Johnny's life is like right now." Cash suffers from a nervous-system disease, autonomic neuropathy, which renders him susceptible to pulmonary disorders.

Romanek hopped a red-eye to Nashville on a Wednesday night and spent the next day scouting locations in Cash's house and at the museum, quickly putting the concept together in his head. Though he's known for such elaborate videos as Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream," Romanek thought the "Hurt" video should be firmly focused on the 70-year-old man in black, with no gimmicks and no trick shots.

"His music has always been extremely candid," Romanek said. "That's what I wanted to draw from. I didn't want to make a phony video. I wanted to tell the truth but not be insensitive, because Johnny is not in the peak of health right now."

The one consolation to the warts-and-all approach was the metaphorically arresting footage of the House of Cash museum, which appears to have fallen into decrepitude. Though the imagery makes for high drama when run alongside snapshots of Cash, Romanek admitted that the museum was more a victim of a flood rather than neglect.

The rest of the video is a haunting portrait of a clearly fragile Cash juxtaposed with archival glimpses of a hale and hearty hell-raiser hopping trains, visiting his abandoned childhood home and taking walks with his family. The intercut footage came from several boxes pulled from Cash's private collection and lent to Romanek, who spent weeks combing through hundreds of hours of tape.

"I've gotten letter after letter from people saying that the video made them weep and they can't stop watching it," Romanek said. As further proof of its success, the perennially cool but commercially hard-to-pigeonhole Cash has now been nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards — 'Hurt' has gotten a nod for Video of the Year, among other awards (see "Missy, Justin, Johnny Cash, 50 And Eminem Top VMA Nominees List").

"I'm most proud of the fact that it's causing this visceral, emotional reaction," Romanek said. "That's the whole reason to make any sort of film. You don't often have the opportunity to do that with a music video because that's not usually what you're being asked to accomplish."

from here

and for any one that isn't familiar with the video, it's here.

[Durandal]

If you haven't seen Kermit the Frog's music video cover of "Hurt", I highly recommend it. It's just fucking hilarious.

[Metatwaddle]

If you haven't seen Kermit the Frog's music video cover of "Hurt", I highly recommend it. It's just fucking hilarious.

Oh man, I think I ruptured something laughing at that. My favorite part is the surprise appearance of The God Delusion.

[Kanastrous]

Speaking of Johnny Cash...The Man Comes Around.

Oh yeah, baby!

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder: One of the four beasts saying: "Come and see." And I saw. And behold, a white horse.
There's a man goin' 'round takin' names. An' he decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won't be treated all the same. There'll be a golden ladder reaching down. When the man comes around.

The hairs on your arm will stand up. At the terror in each sip and in each sup. For you partake of that last offered cup, Or disappear into the potter's ground. When the man comes around.

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers. One hundred million angels singin'. Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum. Voices callin', voices cryin'. Some are born an' some are dyin'. It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come.

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree. The virgins are all trimming their wicks. The whirlwind is in the thorn tree. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Till Armageddon, no Shalam, no Shalom. Then the father hen will call his chickens home. The wise men will bow down before the throne. And at his feet they'll cast their golden crown. When the man comes around.

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still. Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still. Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still. Listen to the words long written down, When the man comes around.

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers. One hundred million angels singin'. Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettle drum. Voices callin', voices cryin'. Some are born an' some are dyin'. It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come.

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree. The virgins are all trimming their wicks. The whirlwind is in the thorn tree. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

In measured hundredweight and penny pound. When the man comes around.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts, And I looked and behold: a pale horse. And his name, that sat on him, was Death.




And Hell followed with him.

[Edi]

The most haunting songs for me tend to be Shadow Lover from the Song's of Vanyel's Time record of Mercedes Lackey's, the Shadow Lover being Death.

Another one is Nightwish's Sleeping Sun. It's always captivated me.

[Eris]

Al Stewart, a depressingly little known artist, wrote Roads to Moscow which has managed to give me goosebumps. And I have to second Cash's cover of Hurt. It's just that good. Kermit's cover raped my childhood. We'll just leave it at that. (I loved it, but still...)

They crossed over the border the hour before dawn
moving in lines through the day
Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground t'were they lay
Waiting for orders we held in the wood
Word from the front never came
By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away

I softly move through the shadows, slip away through the trees
Crossing their lines in the mist in the fields on our hands ands our knees

And all that i ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air, glowing red
Silhouetting the smoke on the breeze

All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine
Smolensk and Viasma soon fell
By Autumn we stood with backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come
Riding the wind like a bell
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill

Winter brought with the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads
Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground, while the skies filled with snow

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air, glowing red
Silhouetting the snow on the breeze

In the footsteps of Napoleon, the shadow figures stagger through the winter
Falling back before the gates of Moscow, standing in the wings like an avenger
And far away behind their lines, the partisans are stirring in the forest
Coming unexpectedly upon their outpost, growing like a promise
You'll never know, you'll never know, which way to turn, which way to look you'll never see us
As we steal into the blackness of the night you'll never know, you'll never hear us

And evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming
The morning road leads to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming

Two broken tigers on fire in the night
Flicker their souls to the wind
We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin
It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun
At home, it will alomst be spring
The flames of the tiger are lighting the road to Berlin

I quickly move through the ruins that bow to the ground
The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The eyes of the city are opening
Now it's the end of a dream

I'm coming home, I'm coming home , now you can taste it in the wind the war is over
And I listen to the clicking of the train wheels as we roll across the border
And now they ask about the time that i was caught behind their time and taken prisoner
They only held me for a day, a lucky break i say
They turn and listen closer
I'll never know, I'll never know, why I was taken from the line with all the others
to board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia

And it's cold and damp in the transit camp and the air is still and sullen
and the pale sun of October whispers the snow will soon be coming
And I wonder when, I'll be home again and the morning answers never
And the evening sighs and the steely, Russian skies go on,
forever.