If you were a 70s kid, you probably jammed out to these three songs, only to get majorly creeped out once you really listened to the lyrics. Let’s take a somewhat uncomfortable walk through 70s music history, shall we?

“Timothy” by The Buoys from ‘The Buoys’ (1970)

I’m not going to lie, I’ve shimmied a bit to this song in the past. It’s so upbeat! However, after a closer listen to those lyrics, I’ve come to realize that “Timothy” by The Buoys is one of the darkest songs of the 1970s.

“Timothy” comes from the pop-rock band’s sole album from 1970. And the tune is about a group of miners who are caved in while working. Two of the miners, the only survivors of the ordeal, were ultimately forced to cannibalize their companion, the titular Timothy. “My stomach was full as it could be / And nobody ever got around / To findin’ Timothy” is an insanely dark line. Radio stations tried to ban this one, but that didn’t stop it from hitting the Top 40.

“Run Joey Run” by David Geddes (1975)

Alright, David Geddes’ vocal performance on this song is so good and so clear, there’s no way listeners didn’t grasp what was unfolding in “Run Joey Run”. But 70s kids might not have really sat with the weight of the song’s lyrics until they were adults. It’s one of those songs, one whose meaning became more horrifically apparent once listeners’ frontal lobes developed.

A solid and anthemic tune, “Run Joey Run” is about a young woman who is in love with her boyfriend. However, her abusive father is unhappy about their relationship. In a fit of rage, he pursues the boyfriend in question, intending to shoot him. At the last minute, the young woman steps in front of her beloved to save him, is shot, and ultimately dies. The last verse of the song spells out her final words: “Daddy, please don’t / It wasn’t his fault / He means so much to me / Daddy, please don’t / We’re gon…na get… mar…ried……”

‘Excitable Boy’ by Warren Zevon from ‘Excitable Boy’ (1978)

This song creeps me out, and I wasn’t even a 70s kid. This entry on our list of 70s songs that creeped out listeners is a pretty direct and violent one lyrically. “Excitable Boy” details the life of a r*pist and psychotic murderer, from his youth being called an “excitable boy” who “rubbed pot roast” on himself to the brutal murder he commits as an adult. This leads him to doing time in an insane asylum. He’s eventually let out, only to dig up the poor victim’s bones and build “a cage” with them. Mind you, the entirety of this Warren Zevon song is performed against an upbeat pop-rock composition suitable for a silly rom-com soundtrack. It’s insanely unsettling.

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