As this murder ballad became a folk standard, recorded most famously by the Stanley Brothers in , the events it relates became the stuff of hazy legend. But when this struggling three-man string band first sang these lyrics in , their story of Charlie Lawson was ripped from the headlines. Just a year earlier, on Christmas Day, Lawson murdered his wife and six of his seven children, rested their heads on pillows of stone and then killed himself. The seventh child was out on an errand at the time. The Buddies sing with a cool Appalachian resignation, acknowledging but not sensationalizing the violent terror lurking in everyday life. The idea that a man might one day snap without explanation and destroy his family and himself feels all the more tragic set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, suggesting as it does that not even family life could offer refuge from the economic despair of the age. Maybe the best-known Appalachian murder ballad is the first-person account of an apparently otherwise ordinary Tennessee fellow who inexplicably takes time out from a stroll with his sweetheart to beat her to death with a stick despite her heartbreaking protests. On the recording they made for their debut LP Tragic Songs of Life later a country hit , Ira and Charlie Louvin harmonize with grim rectitude over a brisk, easy waltz rhythm that adds to the fatalism of its crisply moralistic ending, with the violent creep wasting away in prison.


2. Psycho (1960)


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Also take a look at my original horror music pack Battle Against Fear , a compilation that can work as a complete soundtrack and add life to your most terrifying projects. Perfect to express a paranormal situation. A music box can sound very creepy.
What is horror music?
Written by Phillip Williams Published on Give your Halloween party a jolt with these bloodcurdling film scores. The preponderance of reissue labels like Waxwork and Death Waltz , dedicated to unearthing old scores and rendering them in beautifully designed vinyl editions, proves that soundtracks — and especially horror soundtracks — can be a gripping listening experience, even when divorced from their parent film. Here are some of the creepiest film soundtracks available on Spotify. Halloween Composed by: John Carpenter. Soundtracks which nightmare? The one where you are pursued by an evil clown. Unbelievably, the theme to slasher flick Halloween was recorded in just an hour.
Beyond being dark and diverse mood-setters for thriller nights, horror film soundtracks have quietly changed the world like a virus. Director Harry Bromley Davenport once described his sci-fi shocker Xtro as "an extraordinary mess," an assessment that the film's many critics would probably view as immodestly generous. Far more coherent than the film itself is its soundtrack, which was also penned and recorded by Bromley Davenport. Whether motivated by budgetary constraints, an admiration for John Carpenter's soundtrack work or both, Bromley Davenport — a trained classical pianist — went the minimalist analog synth route, mixing haunting melodies with whirring electronic effects and woozy waltzes.