Stalker Songs
We all have those songs. Those “special” songs. We all have them. Songs that bring us back through time and space to a moment from our distant past. We can be somewhere with our friends or family or with a date and hear a song in the background. Just a few chords or some lyrics and, suddenly, memories flood back.
We have songs that are connected to memories of our first date with a special someone, a secret liaison, a new car. Maybe, there was a song that was dedicated to a love interest who did not quite know you. Someone with whom you took long romantic walks, but who was unaware of your being there.
Stalkers. How many of us have had stalkers? Statistics hold that roughly 22.5% of us have been stalked. That we know of, that is. Some stalkers, the predatory type, make the stalking their, well, their foreplay. It is the thrill of the hunt for them. There are four other types of stalker than the predatory type, psychologists tell us. The other four types to take on this relentless and neurotic behavior include the rejected, intimacy seeker, incompetent, and the resentful stalker.
Some of these songs were knowingly written with evil intent and were admitted to be just that. Other songs were claimed based upon other works. Some killers have also made this claim; that their "work" was based upon or "inspired" by another killer's previous exploits.
Or, maybe they all had written these while watching Play Misty for Me. No? Not all could use that groovy movie as an excuse.
Honeycombs
Have I the Right?
1964
This song asks have I the right hold you, to kiss you. In short, to keep you. Does your stalker have the right to keep you?
Well, does he? Or is it a she?
There is, what is described as, a distinctive beat. One that is made by beating a cast iron tub with a broom handle. Or is it, perhaps, someone being beaten into submission in that tub? A head being knocked against the cast iron tub? The predatory stalker has his prey.
Anyway, the song asks "Have I the right to hold you?"
The lyrics ominously state that "You know I've always told you / That we must never ever part
Oh ooh ooh oh / Have I the right to kiss you?
http://www.popmatters.com/post/170681-stalkers-playlist/
Corey Hart
Sunglasses at Night
1984
The hunter is close to his prey. He can see her. He can likely smell her perfume. He is close enough to almost touch her. Suddenly, without warning, he finds that he is in mortal danger.
His target is armed. A razor sharp switchblade is now expertly brandished. It is so much more than an even match. This stalker, clearly the incompetent, has been found out. He is confronted and is now begging, powerless.
Somehow, these sunglasses are going to protect him while he watches his target weave her stories. "Watch you weave / Then breathe your story lines."
The stalker, the hunter becomes the hunted. He suddenly pleads for his life, "Don't switch the blade / On the guy in shades, oh no!"
As Corey Hart tells it, this all came from an idea of smoking in the rain. Just innocently smoking in the rain.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=9394
http://www.popmatters.com/post/170681-stalkers-playlist/
Cheap Trick
I Want You To Want Me
1977
Seeking Intimacy
I Want You to Want Me is the heart's desire of someone who is seeing an intimate relationship with the intended. This song gives voice to that painful desire of wanting, needing someone to want them. Is this stalker seeing intimacy or is he incompetent with an anger problem? Perhaps he is another like Pennsylvania's own Caleb Farley.
With lyrics like these one would wonder, is she being watched from a car, through a remotely activated computer camera, or what? Where is her watcher? How is the stalked tracking his prey? Would the words below mean the same if they were written on a note? On parchment in an antique ink formula? In blood on a wall?
I want you to want me / I need you to need me / I'd love you to love me / I'm beggin' you to beg me / I want you to want me / I need you to need me / I'd love you to love me.
http://www.popmatters.com/post/170681-stalkers-playlist/
Blondie
One Way or Another
1978
“Heaven has no rage like love turned to hatred / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” This is what the 18th Century playwright William Congrieve wrote. Debie Harry definitely seemed to be that woman scorned. She was more than obsessive. In “One Way or Another” we find the theme song for Hollywood’s black-bag operations.
Finding this person, this object of her …. hmmm, desire. Getting that person at all costs. It would seem that even kidnapping in broad daylight was not off the list of options.
These lyrics actually were inspired by just such a thing. According to interviews with Debbie Harry she was being stalked. This song is the result of that dark time.
One way or another I'm gonna find ya / I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha / One way or another I'm gonna win ya / I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha / One way or another I'm gonna see ya / I'm gonna meetcha meetcha meetcha meetcha / One day, maybe next week / I'm gonna meetcha
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=905
http://www.popmatters.com/post/170681-stalkers-playlist/
Animotion
Obsession
1984
This is about a stalker, actually. It harkens to a 1965 thriller, The Collector. In that story the villain collected butterflies, and people. In this song the stalker clearly tells you that he will collect you and have you. This stalker excuses confidence. Confidence only in the first part of the chase, though. As he continues his pursuit he shows that he wants intimacy, he is seeking that intimacy. In this pursuit he is an unmitigated failure, he is completely incompetent.
Oh, how teens gyrated and danced and vamped in under 21 clubs to this song. With strobe lights flashing. Sweat, cologne, and perfume mingling. Such an obsession. Such a time. Who must I become to make you sleep with me? That line, that question holds an Edward Geinian horror of a skin suit which was visages in Silence of the Lambs.
You are an obsession ... There's no balance / No equality ... I will have you / Yes, I will have you / I will find a way and I will have you
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=10870
https://www.google.com/search?q=animotion+obsession+lyrics&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Police
Every Breath You Take
1983
Jealousy. Obsessiveness. Possessiveness. Sadistic in nature. Even Sting said that this song is evil. This stalker, this hunter is unambiguously the predatory type. Or is this stalker resentful and seeking revenge?
There is nothing in this song about love. Even Sting himself will tell you that. It is about hunting your prey, watching them, patiently waiting for the prime opportunity. Or, better still, setting up the perfect trap. Then, striking.
Can't you hear the stalker? Can't you hear him? Laughing as he sings this? Listen to the song again. I think this time you will hear it.
Every breath you take / Every move you make / Every bond you break / Every step you take / I'll be watching you.
Every single day / Every word you say / Every game you play / Every night you stay / I'll be watching you.
Oh can't you see / You belong to me?
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/police/everybreathyoutake.html
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=548
Morrissey
The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get
1994
This song fits the profile of the intimacy seeker. He has latched on to a woman who is not aware that she has become this man's target. He truly believes and will behave as though the two are in love.
These lyrics, this song, clearly talk about becoming the driving image in the target's mind. The central figure on one person's entire landscape. This one person, our stalker, wants their obsession to become as obsessed with them as they are with their obsession. They want their target to become as deranged, just as mad.
The difference, you see, is that the stalker knows the terrain, he knows the madness while the victim does not. She has nothing to hold onto in that barren landscape of his insanity once she is there. Once she is hopelessly entrapped within it.
The more you ignore me, the closer I get / You're wasting your time / The more you ignore me, the closer I get / You're wasting your time / I will be in the bar with my head on the bar / I am now a central part of your mind's landscape / Whether you care or do not / Yeah, I've made up your mind
Hello
Lionel Ritchie
1983
This is supposedly written from the perspective of a young man too shy to talk to the beautiful women walking by. He cannot bring himself to speak as they approach. This fits the profile of the incompetent. He desperately desires a close relationship, but is so unaware and unsure as to how to build one. Still, he hopes and believes that his actions will create that bond of intimacy.
In this song, as the stalker, he cannot give up his hunting blind. Maybe he has not hunted or watched long enough. Perhaps, when he does touch her hair, he will be doing so to collect it as a trophy. Perhaps, when he kisses her lips, he will keep them in a box, as did Ed Gein.
I've been alone with you / Inside my mind / And in my dreams I've kissed your lips / A thousand times / I sometimes see you / Pass outside my door / Hello! / Is it me you're looking for? / I can see it in your eyes / I can see it in your smile
http://sabotagetimes.com/music/8-songs-probably-written-by-stalkers
The Beatles
Run for Your Life
1965
They put it right out there with no ambiguity. It is as clear as can be. This is right from the predator. Beatles ... I wonder, flesh eating 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
You better run for your life if you can, little girl / Hide your head in the sand little girl / Catch you with another man / That's the end ah little girl
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-famous-love-songs-with-creepy-stalker-lyrics
Rick Astley
Never Gonna Give You Up
1987
His target knows him. They dated. He made promises to her. She broke up with him. He made promises. He is going to break his promise to her. Never going to leave her. Never going anywhere she isn't.
Never.
This stalker is the resentful stalker.
Gotta make you understand / Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down
http://sabotagetimes.com/music/8-songs-probably-written-by-stalkers
The Human League
Don't You Want Me
1981
Typical love story. Boy meets girl. Boy makes girl a star. Girl no longer wants boy, she is now too good for his type. Boy snaps. Is this one resentful or is he struggling with rejection?
Is it power politics? Or is it personal? Is there a dark ending to this? Does it end somewhere in a dark, dank alley with a split skull? Or is someone always just a little behind? No, this stalker is the resentful stalker. He is looking for revenge. He wants vengeance, blood vengeance.
Don't, don't you want me? / You know I can't believe it / When I hear that you won't see me. / Don't, don't you want me? / You know I don't believe you / When you say that you don't need me.
http://www.liketotally80s.com/2011/01/80s-music-dark-side/
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4149
Def Leopard
Two Steps Behind
1993
It is said that this was about being there for someone and helping them through tough times. But it also seems that it is about being there because now they owe you. They owe you and they will pay.
Oh, they will pay. They will pay. Yes, they will. You are going to make sure of that. This is revenge, oh yes, this stalker is also a resentful stalker.
Walk away if you want to / It's ok, if you need to / You can run, but you can never hide / From the shadow that's creeping up beside you / There's a magic running through your soul / But you can't have it all
(Whatever you do) / I'll be two steps behind you / (Wherever you go)
and I'll be there to remind you / that it only takes a minute of your precious time / to turn around and I'll be two steps behind.
https://coolaggregator.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/ten-love-songs-that-sound-like-stalkers/
