That which scares me… scares me!

Sure, there are things that scare me - plenty of ‘em. I’m just not sure how many have been summed up in songs that haven’t already been claimed by my fellow Uncles.

But there are things that scare me - death, dismemberment and loss being the big three. I try not to let fear rule my life and daily existence. Imagine me, a person who loves to ski down rock chutes, through tight stands of trees, off of cliffs into steep, snow-laden bowls, being so overcome by fear that I hesitate during a crucial point in my descent? That could - and likely would - be lethal. Same thing goes for my go-for-broke descents on my marathon bike rides: I can’t dwell on the potential for harm, I simply must go.

Fear is just part of living. It’s not the biggest controlling factor in my life, but it’s there - and it’s here, in this playlist, so enjoy!

1. “Kid Fears” - Indigo Girls (from In With The Out Crowd)
   Fear: loss of innocence
   This song is a bit of a catch-all of common childhood fears and neuroses. I remember seeing the Indigo Girls perform this song at the 1991 Telluride Bluegrass Festival, with David Wilcox singing the refrain that Michael Stipe sang on the album version. This song speaks on many levels, but mostly seems to be a plea to bring back the simple, primal fears of childhood as a replacement for the complex issues of adulthood.
2. “Taking It All To Tennessee” - Vance Gilbert (from Somerville Live)
   Fear: losing touch with close friends
   Having a best friend move away is tragic, no matter your age. This song was written in response to Vance’s close friend, Ellis Paul, moving to Tennessee from Massachusetts. It’s one of those songs that lays out the raw feelings of hurt and betrayal that, while often irrational, do exist but get buried under a sense of obligation not to hurt any feelings.
3. “Mother” - John Lennon & Elephant’s Memory (from Christmas Present)
   Fear: not reconciling with one’s parents
   My relationship with my parents isn’t what many would call good. Then again, few can say that they have 100% wonderful relationships with their parents, so I’m certainly not alone. John Lennon had a very tenuous relationship with his natural parents. His mother, Julia, was not the best mother, eventually ceding parental responsibilities to her sister, Mimi. While Julia taught John to play the banjo and guitar, she wasn’t a close parent, and was killed when John was 17. His father, Alf, was an itinerant sailor who drifted in and out of his son’s life. And this song, written while Lennon was under the treatment of Arthur Janov and his “primal scream” therapy, is an open-book plea to his departed/estranged parents.
4. “The Sun Is Burning” - Simon & Garfunkel (from Old Friends)
   Fear: nuclear holocaust
   When I was young, there was a TV movie that raised the hackles of many parents across America: The Day After. This movie depicted a nuclear attack and the after-effects of such devastation. Life was changed in a quick, blinding flash, and those who didn’t die often suffered a more gruesome, painful descent into death. This song, one of the earliest from Simon & Garfunkel, paints a rosy picture of life that is brought to an end by a nuclear bomb.
5. “Psycho Killer” - Talking Heads (demo version)
   Fear: being the victim of a murderous rampage
   David Byrne is a weird dude - cool, but weird. I tend to like almost everything he does, both musically and socially (he’s a huge proponent of cycling over automobile as urban personal transit, amongst other things), but he’s still a weird guy. And this, one of the earliest songs by the Talking Heads, is proof positive. Only RISD could produce this kind of warped sensibility, right? This is the demo recording they made for CBS Records, back in the day.
6. “Let The Devil In” - TV on the Radio (from Return to Cookie Mountain)
   Fear: the devil
   An eerie tune by a group that scares me: so talented, yet not always able to reel in the talent to make something that’s truly lovely. This song is scary, in and of itself, so it all fits.
7. “Boris The Spider” - The Who (from A Quick One)
   Fear: arachnophobia
   John Entwistle’s classic tune about a curious spider named Boris. He meets a sticky end.
8. “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” - Pink Floyd (from Atom Heat Mother Goes On The Road)
   Fear: dismemberment by axe blade
   Roger Waters has always had a rather…. obscure and frightening sensibility to his songwriting. While much of it has centered around the death of his father during World War II, some of his early writing for Pink Floyd involved mistakes that had tragic results. The roots of this one-line song are often disputed: some think it’s a reference to how Jerry Garcia lost part of his finger, others think that it’s a reference to a horror film. Whatever the case, Waters’ blood-curdling scream at the mid-point of the song is one for the ages. This performance is from a live concert in Montreaux, Switzerland, in 1970.

Download: “Kid Fears” - Indigo Girls (mp3)
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Download: “Taking It All To Tennessee” - Vance Gilbert (mp3)
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Download: “Mother” - John Lennon & Elephant’s Memory (mp3)
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Download: “The Sun Is Burning” - Simon & Garfunkel (mp3)
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Download: “Psycho Killer” - Talking Heads (mp3)
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Download: “Let The Devil In” - TV on the Radio (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: “Boris The Spider” - The Who (mp3)
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Download: “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” - Pink Floyd (mp3)
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Download all the songs in a handy ZIP file:

Download: “‘That which scares me… scares me!” (ZIP)
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