In years past, I’ve hosted a Spooky October Series here on the Blind Pig. But this year-October was almost half over before it even crossed my mind. As I looked back over the Blind Pig archives I realized I had written about spooky stuff quite often since I started blogging. Over the next 2 weeks I’ll share some of those old posts with you.
One of my favorite spooky posts is Haunting Songs-you can click here to read it-and follow the links to songs I think are especially haunting.
This past summer I fell in love with a new scary song. It all started when Chatter picked up a Josh Williams cd at a thrift store in Black Mountain, NC. Chatter was already a fan of Mr. Williams-but once she listened to that cd a few hundred times she became slightly obssessed.
Remember our trip to Cashiers back in the summer? (if you missed it-just click on the words in orange to read about it) Josh Williams just happen to be playing on the main stage-and Chatter just happen to get to meet him. After she came back down to Earth she said “You know what? Someday I’ll be playing on the same stage he is and I’m going to tell him I met him when I was only 15 years old and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me.” I said “That sounds totally possible to me.”
The whole cd is great-all the songs are top notch but the song I like the best is The Cave. I couldn’t wait to ask Paul if he’d ever heard it. I said “I found the scariest song ever!” Then he busted my bubble by saying “Oh that’s an old Johnny Paycheck song.” I said “Well don’t you think it’s scary?” He said “Well I guess so.” Well I guess so-hmph! See if you think it’s scary-here are the words:
Last night I had the strangest dream that I have ever dreamed I was a boy again just barely in my teens Wondering through the woods and hills that towered above our town And in the rocks and brush an entrance to a cave I found
And like most any young boy would I crawled into the cave And in the damp dark darkness then I slowly made my way Tunnel after tunnel going this ole way and that Until suddenly I knew I didn’t know where I was at
Well I tried to find the way out but it seemed to be in vain The more I tried the more confused and frightened I became At last in sheer exhaustion I collapsed and fell asleep Until the distant roaring sound of thunder wakened me
The thunder boomed the Earth it shook I trembled in my fear Surely this must be the worst storm in a thousand years And all the time the fury of the storm just seemed to grow Until suddenly it ended with a great earthquaking roar
I then began to crawl around and what a stroke of luck I saw a ball of tiny light and so I followed up And soon I crawled out of what I thought would be my grave And what I saw it made me wish I was back down in the cave
For there was not a blade of grass a tree or bush around Not even one small bug a crawling on the parched burnt ground And looking down the hill I saw the shambles of a town Where people used to live before the bomb came down
Watch the video below and you can hear Josh Williams perform the song.
Another song on the cd is Mordecai-if you’ve never seen the video it is totally worth taking the time to watch-and it’s not scary at all-well unless you’re afraid of birds. Click here to see it.
Tipper
That Mordecia video was hilarious! I wouldn’t know what to do either!!!
That is a scary song!!!
I can honestly say I’ve never really listened to spooky or scary music but I could listen to this Josh Williams sing anything I do love his voice. Thank you for introducing me to new music.
Good to have music sure have missed it
John
I love it, hadn’t heard it in years.
I am a cave fan, no horror at all. I spent most weekends of my freshman year in college going through wild caves all over East and Middle Tennessee.
Nothing in my mind to be afraid of, once you get a couple of hundred yards in, there are no critters except harmless cave critters. The copperheads, rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, bears, etc. don’t usually like it when you get too far back – too cold at about 56 degrees the year ’round.
It has been over 40 years since I have been in a wild cave, although I did get to go through Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico a few years ago. Caves that have lights and trails and signs aren’t as interesting as the wild ones that most people have never been in.
Tipper,
Your timing on this was close to amazing.
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. That probably wouldn’t have triggered this sort of thought for you, even if you heard it mentioned in passing on TV – simply because it predated you by about a decade.
But that was certainly a period when the thought of bombs coming down was very much in the minds of many.
Tipper,
Scary, scary song…For me it has a lot of meaning growing up around where I did….I had horror dreams of planes flying over like the old movie news reels in the forties…bombs by the hundreds falling out of the doors on the planes…That roaring sign you don’t soon forget. It took me years to get over those dreams…I don’t know which would be worse, being alone in a cave or being alone looking over the devastation…
I do believe I like spooks, haints and witch stories better…
than doom…
Thanks Tipper, for a thought provoking post and I hope this doesn’t conjure up that old childhood war/bomb dream…LOL
Here is an old newspaper article about an incident that happened in 1972 near where I live. It is called “Valdese Childrens Memorial Park” I drove by yesterday and a bunch of kids were there practicing football. Your post today reminded me and I did a little research and found this. This was just some kids playing in a “cave”:
Valdese, N.C. (UPI) — A backyard bomb shelter built during the Cuban missile scare 10 years ago exploded Tuesday evening, killed five children who were playing on its steps.
A sixth child was injured in the blast which authorities speculate may have been caused by leaking gas from a butane gas tank or fumes from large quantities of gasoline stored in the shelter.
The powerful explosion blew the body of one child 300 feet onto a road and big pieces of the foot thick, steel reinforced concrete shelter were scattered over a wide area.
The children, police said, were playing “kid’s games” on the steps leading down into the 15-by-25 foot shelter textile executive ED GARROU had sunk into the side of a steep hill about 70 feet to one side of his $40,000 brick home.
GARROU, during the shelter-building frenzy in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, had stocked the shelter with large quantities of gasoline for an electric generator and also installed a butane tank.
Keither Seigall, 19, a member of the Valdese Rescue Squad, said the explosion shook his trailer home three quarters of a mile away, and “when I got here, I smelled the gasoline fumes real strong.”
The dead included GARROU’S daughter, JEAN ANITA, 12, DONALD ROBINSON, 13, his sister REGINA, 10, GLORIA HAMMOND, 12, and MIKE POWELL, 10. The only survivor among the neighborhood children playing at the shelter was BEA PICOU, the GARROU child’s cousin, who lives next door.
The state bureau of investigation (SBI) was called in to look for the cause of the explosion that rocked this small town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.
The force of the explosion went mostly downhill, through the door. The heavy roof caved in, burying the bodies of three of the victims under such a pile of rubble that authorities had to bring in heavy equipment to uncover them.
Seigall, one of the first on the scene, said when he arrived, “the PICOU girl was in the grass, and she was alive.”
Authorities said there were very few such shelters in Valdese, and GARROU’S was expensive to construct. Family friends said he “kept it up” and frequently changed the water and food stored inside.
However, Deputy Fire Marshal Sherrill Brittain said there were “a good many” bomb shelters in Valdese.
Phantom 309 was always scary to me. Then I’ve always thought Merle Haggard’s “What have you got planned tonight Diana” was very haunting.
Put me in a cave, especially by my lonesome, I would be terrified. I thank the Lord each day that I still have my eyes and my sense of touch and smell. I would worry about what I couldn’t see or feel. I am a non-lover of crawling creatures, like snakes, etc. I think the song has some very important feelings and thoughts for interpretation. Interesting to say the least!
For those who grew up in limestone-rich East Tennessee (and elsewhere through the limestone belt), a I did, The Cave-as-horror is particularly sensitive, what with the region being riddled with them, along with tales of lost explorers, never-heard-from-again-kids, midnight moonshine runs, hole-in-wall desperadoes, and such.
Let me tell you about the camel cricket turnaround…
Josh certainly has a very nice voice. I look forward to seeing Chatter play on the same stage with him.
Yes, that song is spooky. The wars of man are as spooky as anything nature can do.
Another great find. Loved it.
I have to agree with Chatter, I really like the song the Cave. I popped over and watched the the other video and the baby bird that landed on his guitar was just way too cool! I bet that little bird had a mama somewhere near by.