Thursday, October 6, 2011

(today's zomby) AND EVERY VERSION OF THE SONG "PSYCHO" I COULD FIND

You can usually tell what kind of day I've had by the joke (or lack thereof) in each day's Zomby.

And now, today's Zomby...


Let's keep the grim mood going with one of the darkest songs ever written, "Psycho" by blind San Antonio street musician Leon Payne (1917-1969) a.k.a. "The Blind Balladeer." The song was written in the late 1950s, but the most famous recording is probably a 1973 cover by Jack Kittel. This track was featured on the soundtrack of the Bill Murray movie Larger Than Life.



But that's just the tip of the psychotic iceberg. Ten more demented cover versions after the break!

Amazingly, the song was also recorded by Elvis Costello during one of his country music phases.



The first to record the track, though, was Eddie Noack.



But YouTube has many more cover versions of the track, usually by musicians I've never heard of. Like The Watusis.



And James Power who sings the song to his cat.



Beasts of Bourbon are the only act to actually film a music video for the song. They're apparently an Australian band from the 1980s. Here's that. (Note the lead singer's resemblance to the apes in Planet of the Apes.)



Then there's the delightfully-named Rudi Protrudi.



A YouTube user named kesutton01 has an unconventional approach to melody. The ventriloquist dummy, however, makes a perfect creeptastic touch.



The song is still being covered today, as proven by this 2011 clip from Roger Wallace.



And another 2011 clip, this one by Ryan Thomas Becker.



This last clip, the only version of the song I could find by women, seems to have been recorded by a pair of sisters known on YouTube as 1DBCOSTELLO.



If you actually watched all these clips, good luck sleeping tonight.