This is one sad scary creepy tune! It tells a tale of mental illness, loneliness and isolation, all in 6 minutes and 33 seconds!
I'm breaking my own rule because this song is from 1971 off the Love It To Death album which spawned Alice Cooper's big hit, I'm Eighteen. But Alice had been in bands since the 60s!
Alice Cooper is both the name of the band and the name of the singer. Alice Cooper the man was born Vincent Furnier and in high school in Arizona he was in a band called The Spiders. They had a pretty cool Garage Rock song called Don't Blow Your Mind which has a really fuzzy guitar break and features Alice/Vincent on vocals.
By 1969, the Alice Cooper band was born and played in LA then Detroit. A very cool song from their First album, Pretties For You, is a psychedelic song called Fields of Regret. It's a bit like The Doors song, When The Music's Over, but has harmonica. Also similar to Pink Floyd.
Two years later, Alice Cooper recorded The Ballad of Dwight Fry. It might help to know who Dwight Frye was, since the song is loosely based on him. He was an actor in the early days of Hollywood appearing in creepy Monster Movie series like Dracula and Frankenstein. It is said that he had mental health issues, was in a mental hospital for 14 days, then escaped and killed his wife and child because he couldn't handle reality.
Let's look at the lyrics, to see what is happening to Dwight Fry:
Mommy where's daddy?
He's been gone for so long.
Do you think he'll ever come home? (in creepy little kid's voice)
I was gone for fourteen days
I coulda been gone for more
Held up in the intensive care ward
Lyin' on the floor
I was gone for all those days
But I, was not all alone
I made friends with a lot of people
In the danger zone
See my lonely life unfold
I see it every day
See my lonely mind explode
Since I've gone away
I think I lost some weight there
And I, I'm sure I need some rest
Sleepin don't come very easy
In a straight white vest
Should like to see that little children
She's only four years old.. old
I'd give her back all of her play things
Even, even the ones I stole
See my lonely life unfold
I see it everyday
See my lonely mind explode
When I've gone insane
I want to get out of here
I want to get out of here
I, I've gotta, I've gotta get out of here
I, I gotta get out of here
I, I gotta get out of here
Igottagetoutahere
Ya gotta let me out of here
Let me outta her
See my lonely life unfold
I see it everyday
See my lonely mind explode
Blown up in my face
Creepy guitar break
I grabbed my hat and I got my coat
And I, I ran into the street
I saw a man that was choking there
I guess he couldn't breathe
Said to myself this is very strange
I'm glad it wasn't me
But now I hear those sirens callin'
And so I am not free
I didn't want to be
I didn't want to be
I didn't want to be
See my lonely life unfold
(I didn't want to be)
I see it every day
(Leave me alone
I didn't want to be
Don't Touch Me!!!)
See my lonely mind explode
When I've gone Insane
Creepy guitar outro
Warning!!! This could be a mental health trigger. If you are upset, depressed or have mental health problems, you do not want to listen to this!
If you are empathetic to the human condition, when we all feel lonely and out of control sometimes, you will appreciate the sentiment here and it may bring tears to your eyes and a chill to your heart.
Just press play to hear the Creepiest Song of All Time!
