Stalker Pop, Part 1: Older Than You May Think
I swiped the term in the post title from a long-ago review of Alanis Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill album, in which the reviewer (alas, I don’t remember who) said in reference to “You Oughta Know” that Alanis had invented a new genre: “stalker pop.”
I admire the term, but, of course, stalker pop — songs about keeping an eye on one’s beloved/object of obsession, and often featuring veiled or even open threats — is a much older art form than that.
You can go all the way back to 1963 for Bobby Vee’s “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”: “‘Cause the night has a thousand eyes/And a thousand eyes can’t help but see/If you are true to me.” He also warns the alleged “runaround lover” that if someone is with her when she calls him, he’ll know.
The lyric does take an odd little turn at the end, as Bobby declares that he fully intends to cheat too, and notes that the gossips with those “thousand eyes” won’t let him get away with it either. Considering it’s Bobby Vee, this tune actually kind of rocks.
And there were even stalker songs before rock ‘n’ roll: Here’s “I’m Walking Behind You,” a hit for Eddie Fisher in 1953. With overwrought vocal and at a glacial pace, Eddie tells his beloved, who is wisely marrying someone else, that he plans to continue to obsess over her pretty much from now on.
The song wraps up on this moderately chilling note: “If things should go wrong, dear/And fate is unkind/Look over your shoulder/I’m walking behind.”
“If things should go wrong,” huh? Perhaps the new husband is the one who should be looking over his shoulder.
Next up: ’60s stalker pop from the Beatles, the Who, and more.
Categories: Sweet Emotion
2 Comments »
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December 17th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Now this is a fascinating topic,
seems I’m always a day behind in reading here,
but this was very interesting.
I can hardly wait to see what you come up with for the 60′s
Thanks Bridey
December 18th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Jumping ahed to the 70′s, I’d have to say my favorite stalker song is AC/DC’s “Night Prowler,” from the epic Highway to Hell record. Last song on the album, and it’s awesome. “Too scared to turn the light out/’Cuz there’s something on your mind/Was that a noise outside the window?/What’s that shadow on the blind?/As you lie there naked/Like a body in a tomb/something unintelligeble/As I slip into your room…
Spooky stuff there Bon!
Good heavens, that’s creepy — a slasher-stalker song!
–Bridey