Tyler Cowen “lists his nominations”:http://volokh.com/2004_02_15_volokh_archive.html#107687506590275408 for “best all-time songs about obsession.” My vote goes to Nina Simone’s version of “I Put a Spell on You”:http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/I-Put-a-Spell-on-You-lyrics-Nina-Simone/C305A20BC494E7BA482569A10024AEE5. Especially the last verse.
{ 76 comments }
decnavda 02.15.04 at 9:42 pm
“Every Breath You Take” Police.
I can not believe he missed it.
chun the unavoidable 02.15.04 at 9:47 pm
Just about anything by Toby Keith.
Walt Pohl 02.15.04 at 9:55 pm
The correct answer is “Rid Of Me”, by PJ Harvey.
Alan 02.15.04 at 10:11 pm
Bob Dylan’s “Most of the Time” should be on the list.
mandarin 02.15.04 at 10:40 pm
“Codex” by Pere Ubu. “I think about you all the ti-i-i-mmmmmme”…
dave heasman 02.15.04 at 11:12 pm
“You Don’t Know Nothin’ About Love” by Carl Hall.
“Stay With Me Baby” by Lorraine Ellison.
andrej 1500 02.15.04 at 11:36 pm
‘i want you’ elvis costello/attractions on blood and chocolate!
andrej 1500 02.15.04 at 11:36 pm
‘i want you’ elvis costello/attractions on blood and chocolate!
Anne C. 02.15.04 at 11:51 pm
“One Way or Another” by Blondie. Which also just happens to be a great song.
Bill Humphries 02.16.04 at 12:01 am
Dan Hick’s “I Scare Myself”
jgl 02.16.04 at 12:12 am
“Insanely Jealous” by the Soft Boys.
Timothy 02.16.04 at 12:18 am
“Under My Thumb” by the Rolling Stones
Andrew Edwards 02.16.04 at 12:23 am
For what it’s worth, Marilyn Manson did a pretty terrifying version of ‘I Put A Spell On You’.
steve 02.16.04 at 1:34 am
how about “Pictures of Lily” by The Who?
Jim Thomason 02.16.04 at 2:17 am
“Alice” by Tom Waits. Great album too.
Dell Adams 02.16.04 at 2:20 am
The Beatles – “I’m So Tired”
Lisa Williams 02.16.04 at 2:49 am
“Just Be Good To Me,” by the SOS Band (“People always talkin’ bout/You’re a user/I don’t care about the other girls/just be good to me”)
Devin McCullen 02.16.04 at 3:14 am
A couple from the country section (and I’m sure there’s more): Kasey Chambers’ “Barricades and Brickwalls” would qualify. And there’s a track on Sara Evans’ first album (aka the good one) called “If You Ever Want My Loving” that’s pretty creepy when you think about the lyrics.
Michael Friedman 02.16.04 at 3:17 am
Led Zeppelin – Thank you
If the sun refused to shine
I would still be loving you…
Ted Barlow 02.16.04 at 3:22 am
50% or so of PJ Harvey’s songs are about romantic obsession. I really love PJ Harvey and would have a hard time picking a favorite, but “Rid of Me” is surely a good candidate.
I remember seeing a performance art student during college drawing out the lyrics to “Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance”. It’s kind of a creepy song when you draw it out.
Steve Laniel 02.16.04 at 3:29 am
“Whisper” by Morphine (“Whisper me your number / I’ll call you up at home”)
bliffle 02.16.04 at 3:42 am
Kid stuff. Billy Eckstines “Jelly, Jelly” the 2nd Josh White version:
“I’ve got 19 women
livin’ in my neighorhood
18 are fools
and that other gal
ain’t no damn good
but she makes me holler…
oooooh baby, oooh ooh
…
”
timks 02.16.04 at 3:47 am
“I’m Not Angry” by Elvis Costello & the Attractions on My Aim is True
Mr Ripley 02.16.04 at 3:47 am
Stephen Sondheim’s “Not a Day Goes By.” Okay, maybe it’s not up to the obsessionality of the Costello song . . . (bliffle: what does it mean in the Josh White song when his accompanists shout out, “GREAT GOGOL MOGOL!”?)
Carl 02.16.04 at 4:12 am
“I’m So Tired”, but since someone already said it, how about “That Certain Female” by Charlie Feathers.
rosalind 02.16.04 at 4:34 am
Billie Holiday’s performance of “I Must Have that Man.”
gemma 02.16.04 at 4:54 am
“My Man” as sung by Abbey Lincoln. The ultimate co-dependent battered-woman song.
greifer 02.16.04 at 7:11 am
Infected, Bad Religion
Maniac, Cinerama
and for a sweeter version, Take Me, by The Wedding Present–well, virtually every song by the Wedding Present.
Do You Love Me, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Rid of Me, by PJ Harvey
robbo 02.16.04 at 7:42 am
Counting Crows – Goodnight Elizabeth
Lori Carlson – Head in a Box
The Cranberries – Pretty
jb 02.16.04 at 8:35 am
counting crows: anna begins
nine inch nails: reptile. kind of.
bjork: joga
Nick 02.16.04 at 9:02 am
Surprised no one else has mentioned it already -‘Losing My Religion’ by REM. Then there’s always Pulp’s ‘Babies’, Beth Orton’s ‘She Cries Your Name’ and a whole load of songs by Matthew Sweet (most of the Girlfriend album, for a start).
Vidkun Quisling 02.16.04 at 9:20 am
Suzanne by Randy Newman. Has a better song about stalking ever been written ?
Ziggy 02.16.04 at 9:48 am
Wild is the wind
ginger 02.16.04 at 10:13 am
The Who – Pictures of Lily
The Police – Don’t Stand So Close to Me
The Police – Can’t Stand Losing You
Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U
Chris Isaak – Wicked Game
U2 – With or without You
U2 – So Cruel
Joanne Jacobs 02.16.04 at 10:17 am
Herman’s Hermits:
Why does the sun go on shining
Why does the sea rush to shore
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world
Cause you don’t love me anymore
Why do the birds go on singing
Why do the stars glow above
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world
It ended when I lost your love
I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything is the same as it was
I can’t understand, no, I can’t understand
How life goes on the way it does
Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eye of mine crying
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye
dave heasman 02.16.04 at 10:49 am
“Don’t they know it’s the end of the world..”
for the sake of propriety should be identified as a country classic by, IIRC, Skeeter Davis, rather than a drip by Herman the drip.
“I Put A Spell On You” by Screaming Jay Hawkins is as obsessed as trhe later Nina Simone version, but it’s obsessed by the spell.
Simone’s “I Loves You Porgy” deserves mention too.
Andrew Edwards 02.16.04 at 12:41 pm
The Afghan Whigs’ “When we two parted”:
I should have seen this shit coming down the hall
Every night I spent in that bed with you facing the wall
If I could have only once heard you scream
To feel you were alive
Instead of watching you abandoning yourself
Baby you can open your eyes now
And please allow me to present you with a clue
If I inflict the pain
Then baby only I can comfort you
Edward Lee 02.16.04 at 1:24 pm
Cure, “Pictures Of You”
EcoDude 02.16.04 at 1:51 pm
The Smiths “How Soon is Now”
Alison 02.16.04 at 2:06 pm
It may not be that good, but when I was a child I think ‘Wichita Line Man’ gave me my first inkling of what sexual obsession might be, and I still find myself creeped/ fascinated by that song.
Mike 02.16.04 at 2:33 pm
Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire”.
Sometimes it’s like someone took a knife baby
edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley
through the middle of my soul
At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
and a freight train running through the
middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
I’m on fire
He sings it like a man dying of thirst. Also (and as strage as it may sound) how about Ave Maria? If we’re talking about a sexual obsession here, then of course not. But I have this amazing version where the singer sounds as though she is dying to attain something she just can’t get, no matter how badly she wants it and calls for it.
Also, Bob Dylan’s “Ballad in Plain D”.
Robert 02.16.04 at 2:48 pm
Garbage, “Cup of Cofee”
http://www.flatoutblind.org/garbage
todd 02.16.04 at 3:00 pm
From the 50s:
I WILL FOLLOW HIM
Love him, I love him, I love him
And where he goes I’ll follow, I’ll follow, I’ll follow
I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go
There isn’t an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep me away
I must follow him, ever since he touched my hand I knew
That near him I always must be
And nothing can keep him from me
He is my destiny
I love him, I love him, I love him
And where he goes I’ll follow, I’ll follow, I’ll follow
He’ll always be my true love, my true love, my true love
From now until forever, forever, forever
I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go
There isn’t an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep, keep me away
Away from my love
I love him, I love him, I love him
And where he goes I’ll follow, I’ll follow, I’ll follow
He’ll always be my true love, my true love, my true love
From now until forever, forever, forever
I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go
There isn’t an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep, keep me away
Away from my love
Do-do do-do-do do-do-do and where he goes
I’ll follow, I’ll follow, I’ll follow
I know I’ll always love him
***********
I’ve always found these lyrics kind of creepy, in a Fatal Attraction kind of way…
Gib 02.16.04 at 3:16 pm
Don’t forget the song that introduced a whole new generation to the merits of creepy, all-consuming obsession, Clay Aiken’s “Invisible”
I mean, not only is the guy obsessed, he’s asking for superpowers to help him stalk.
john s 02.16.04 at 3:33 pm
“The Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady.
“Run for Your Life” by the Beatles — maybe the all-time creepiest stalking song, made all the more so by it’s jaunty melody. “I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man…”
john s 02.16.04 at 3:34 pm
Make that “its” jaunty melody.
harry 02.16.04 at 3:56 pm
Alice says
bq. It may not be that good, but when I was a child I think ‘Wichita Line Man’…
How good do you want Alice? Its brilliant.
Loudon Wainwright:
‘I’m Alright’ and
‘One Man Guy’ (about self-obsession)
Independant George 02.16.04 at 4:03 pm
Possession, by Sarah McLachlan. It was actually based on her experiences with an obsessed fan…
David Weigel 02.16.04 at 4:08 pm
Barenaked Ladies, “Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank”:
You say you love me, is that the truth?
Although they’ve heard the songs, my friends want living proof.
I know your address, I ring the bell
I bring you flowers and a .22 with shells.
just me 02.16.04 at 4:17 pm
The whole Layla double album by Derek and the Dominoes — when Clapton was pining for Patti Harrison, wife of his best friend George Harrison. Esp. listen to Have You Ever Loved A Woman. Ane even more than the lyrics do, the guitar screams pain. Really.
just me 02.16.04 at 4:17 pm
The whole Layla double album by Derek and the Dominoes — when Clapton was pining for Patti Harrison, wife of his best friend George Harrison. Esp. listen to Have You Ever Loved A Woman. Ane even more than the lyrics do, the guitar screams pain. Really.
Sean E 02.16.04 at 4:26 pm
“You Spin me Round” by Dead or Alive
“If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself)” by Pete Droge
Sean E 02.16.04 at 4:30 pm
Forgot “LA County” by Lyle Lovett.
Eric James Stone 02.16.04 at 4:37 pm
“#1 Crush” by Garbage, on the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack.
http://www.lyricsdir.com/g/garbage/1-crush.php
blueshoe 02.16.04 at 4:48 pm
Natacha Atlas put out a lively cover of “I Put a Spell on You.” Her arrangement features Arabic vocal inflections and instruments and an entrancing trip-hoppy beat. It’s ever the song of obsession, ecstatically so, and danceable.
dorkafork 02.16.04 at 6:44 pm
“Run For Your Life” – The Beatles.
“Well I’d rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or I won’t know where I am”
Geoff 02.16.04 at 8:06 pm
I’d second the vote for “Every Breath You Take” by the Police. That song clearly qualifies as “The Obsessed Stalker’s Anthem”..The story told could easily be testimony in a family law dispute… or worse.
Geoff
Graham 02.16.04 at 8:18 pm
Liebestod, anyone?
MQ 02.16.04 at 9:12 pm
This subject is too big — it should include probably more than half of all great love songs. What else is thwarted love but obsession?
Anyway: “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, Ray Charles version.
J Mann 02.16.04 at 9:51 pm
I Want You – Elvis Costello & the Attractions.
The More You Ignore Me – Morrissey
Thieves in the Temple – Prince
Emily 02.16.04 at 9:52 pm
Oh geesh – no one’s mentioned Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Obsession” yet? The song is the perfect stalker anthem, complete with deep breaths in the backing vocal.
do you hear this breath it’s an obsessive breath
can you feel this beat it’s an obsessive heart beat
waiting to be joined with its obsession
i close my eyes but i can’t sleep
the thin membrane can’t veil
the branded picture of you
the signs and signals show – the traffic lights say go
again you baffle me pretending not to see …me
i broke into your room – i broke down in my room
touched your belongings there – and left a lock of my hair
another sign for you
you screamed into my face get the hell out of my place
another sign for me? can you forgive me?
for not understanding your ways
you know sometimes you take it all too far
then i remember it’s a game between you and me
a divine test for us two
it’s all in my imagination
yes they even say that our mission …is only
my obsession
do you hear this breath it’s an oppressive breath
suffocating in the poison of your obsession
can you feel this beat it’s a possessive beat
your pulse stops in the claws of your obsession
denise 02.16.04 at 10:28 pm
Genesis “Mama” — creepy obsession
Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire” — obsession that works out okay; June co-wrote it upon meeting Johnny and falling for him despite both being married to others.
George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today” — relief from obsession
He said “I’ll love you ’til I die.”
She told him “you’ll forget in time.”
As the years went slowly by.
She still preyed upon his mind.
. . .
I went to see him just today,
But I didn’t see no tears.
All dressed up to go away.
First time I’d seen him smile in years.
He stopped loving her today.
They placed a wreath upon his door.
And soon they’ll carry him away.
He stopped loving her today.
. . .
Phil 02.17.04 at 12:12 am
All For Leyna, Billy Joel:
“There’s nothing else I can do
‘Cause I’m doing it all for Leyna
I don’t want anyone new
‘Cause I’m living it all for Leyna
There’s nothing in it for you
‘Cause I’m giving it all to Leyna
. . . Now I’m in my room
Watching the tube
Telling myself she still may drop
Over to say
She’s changed her mind
So, I wait in the dark
Listening for her
Instead of my old man saying stop…
Kidding yourself
Wasting your time . . . ”
W. Kiernan 02.17.04 at 1:00 am
will I wait a lonely lifetime?
if you want me to I will
timks 02.17.04 at 5:47 am
Thought of two more:
Lola – The Kinks
Shame – Randy Newman (“Suzanne” is good, too)
This is fun!
jb 02.17.04 at 7:20 am
The Cure’s Lovesong comes to mind, too. I’m spending way too many brain cycles on this.
Shai 02.17.04 at 7:46 am
“You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette, where she basically validates every guy’s fantasy that his ex-girlfriend is still sitting at home obsessing over him long after he’s moved on.
Tom K 02.17.04 at 9:47 am
I used to love her
But I had to kill her
I used to love her,
But I had to kill her
I had to put her six feet under
And I can still hear her complain
I used to love her,
But I had to kill her
I used to love her,
But I had to kill her
I knew I’d miss her
So I had to keep her
She’s buried right in my backyard
I used to love her
But I had to kill her
I used to love her,
But I had to kill her
She bitched so much,
She drove me nuts
And now I’m happier this way,
I used to love her
But I had to kill her
I used to love her,
But I had to kill her
I had to put her,
six feet under
And I can still hear her complain
dave heasman 02.17.04 at 10:30 am
“From the 50s:
I WILL FOLLOW HIM
”
Early 60s I think. Originally an Italian song, a hit in the US by Little Peggy March.
Rich 02.17.04 at 11:01 am
“I’m not in love” but by Tori Amos rather than 10cc. Breathy and creepy.
I’m not in love, so don’t forget it.
It’s just a silly phase I’m going through.
And just because I call you up,
Don’t get me wrong, don’t think you’ve got it made.
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because…
I like to see you, but then again,
That doesn’t mean you mean that much to me.
So if I call you, don’t make a fuss –
Don’t tell your friends about the two of us.
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because…
I keep your picture upon the wall.
It hides a nasty stain that’s lying there.
So don’t you ask me to give it back.
I know you know it doesn’t mean that much to me.
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because…
Ooh, you’ll wait a long time for me.
Ooh, you’ll wait a long time.
I’m not in love, I’m not in love…
Angus 02.17.04 at 11:45 am
“You Oughta Know†by Alanis Morissette, where she basically validates every guy’s fantasy that his ex-girlfriend is still sitting at home obsessing over him long after he’s moved on.
Um, if he’s moved on, why is he fantasising about his ex-girlfriend sitting at home obsessing over him?
denise 02.17.04 at 5:23 pm
“You Oughta Know” loses a certain something when you realize that there’s a definite possibility it was written about Alanis’s ex-boyfriend Dave “Uncle Joey” Coulier.
flynngrrl 02.17.04 at 8:07 pm
“I Think I Love You” by the Partridge Family. Esp. the part at the end where David Cassidy is yelling “I think I love you” over and over again. He even stops singing at one point and starts again. I can’t help but picture him being restrained and then escaping to continue his song…
Hard Pressed 02.17.04 at 9:36 pm
“Keep on Washin’ Up” by Otis Redd & His Hands, 1953 (’98 CD re-release on Bear Family Records).
“Does This Sound In Tune to You?,” 1972, underground guitar legend Hayden Weems, on his landmark, 4-LP set, “I’m Not Ready Yet.”
adamsj 02.19.04 at 2:26 am
For a PJ Harvey song, out of the many choices, I like Perfect Day. That whole album has an obsessive feel to it.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Peter Gabriel’s third album yet, Intruder being the most glaring example of obsession on it.
timks 02.20.04 at 3:43 am
How about Tom Lehrer’s “I Hold Your Hand in Mine”?
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