Tomino’s Hell (Japan)

Another creepy tale from Japan and, like the Red Room, it involves a curse. The legend is about “Tomino’s Hell,” a poem in a book called The Heart is Like a Rolling Stone, written by Yomota Inuhiko. It is said that anyone who reads the poem aloud will be cursed to suffer just like Tomino. Some believed that the curse is only to suffer terrible accidents, while others say death will surely follow. Hardly anything is known how this particular urban legend sprouted from the darkest pits of Japanese imagination, but the mystery only adds more creep factor to the whole legend.

The poem itself is a horrible read. It conjures very dreadful and very graphic images that slowly shred apart the reader’s heart (unless, of course, the reader has no heart to begin with). If anyone wants to read the English version of the poem, you can read it here.

There are some foolhardy individuals who read the poem aloud and later claimed to have suffered no ill effects. However, there are those (and there are a lot of them,) who say otherwise. If someone reading this wants to tempt fate and try out if the curse is true or not, make sure to read it in the original Japanese and tell us how things work out afterwards. Best of luck!

Source: https://www.toptenz.net/

The Midnight Bus (Beijing, China)

A young man was on his way home late one night. The streets were empty except for the occasional motorists, and the only one at the bus stop with him was an old man (some say an old woman). The midnight bus arrived and they boarded it without any fuss. The old man took a seat near the front of the bus while the young man sat a couple of rows behind him. There were no other passengers with them.

After awhile, the bus stopped and two new passengers climbed aboard and sat behind the driver’s seat. Several minutes later, the old man suddenly stood up and confronted the young man. He looked angry, and accused the young man of stealing his wallet. The young man was angry at being accused of something so preposterous. The argument became more heated until the old men angrily declared that both of them must get off the bus and settle their argument at the nearest police station. The young man at first did not want to go with the old man, but then relented just to settle the matter and prove his innocence.

When they got off and the bus zoomed away, the young man was startled to see that the old man was no longer angry — in fact, he looked relieved. When he asked the old man what it was all about, the old man answered: “I just saved both our lives.”

To which the young man responded with a confused “Huh?”

“Did you see the two passengers?”

“Yeah, so what?” replied the young man, still miffed and bewildered.

“Well, unlike you, I took a closer look. They have no feet; they were just floating on air. Those two were ghosts!”

The next day the news was all about the midnight bus – it had gone missing along with its driver. For several days, the police tried to locate the bus, and finally found it more than a hundred kilometers away from its regular route. Inside the bus was the badly-decomposed body of the driver. The authorities were even more perplexed and horrified when, upon checking the tank, they found blood instead of petrol.

There are several versions of this legend going around, but this is one of the more famous versions. There is even a version with the murdering ghost being that of a young girl and another with Qin Dynasty officials. Take whatever version will suit your fancy, but one thing is clear: bus rides in Beijing may be worth more than the fare.

Source: https://www.toptenz.net/

Orang Minyak (Malaysia)

Orang Minyak (Oily Man) is a ridiculous urban legend that would make any self-respecting Japanese porn director angry for not thinking of the idea first and making a movie out of it.

An orang minyak is a regular chap who has learned some black magic and uses it to both rob and rub. With powers granted by Satan himself, he covers his whole body in a black oily substance that makes him practically invisible at night, and makes breaking and entering easy as pie. Oh, yeah, apparently the orang minyak can also crawl up walls and the sides of tall building, as well as jump long distances on rooftops, making him kind of like a sleazy Malaysian version of Venom.

The Orang Minyak apparently does not have the usual modus operandi of most monsters – he has no appetite for blood and guts – preferring instead to molest teenage girls and steal expensive appliances. He might not kill people, but who would not be scarred for life if you wake up one night with an oily man groping your privates and then stealing your laptop and new iPhone.

What makes thing creepier is that unlike other urban legends, the orang minyak is still pretty much active in his career, with sightings being reported as recently as 2012. In that incident, the orang minyak terrorized an entire village for a couple of weeks.

Source: https://www.toptenz.net/

Curse of the Red Room (Japan)

It looks like monsters and paranormal forces that find delight in murdering innocent teens in Japan have gone online as well. The Red Room is an internet pop-up that announces your forthcoming death, and you can do nothing about it since no pop-up blocker can ever stop it from claiming its victim. So, if you are chosen as the Red Room’s next victim, the best thing you can do is compose a good goodbye letter to your loved ones, for death is sure to come shortly afterwards.

The cursed pop-up appears as a red window with Japanese lettering that translates to, “Do you like … ?)” accompanied by a cute but sinister voice reading it aloud. When you try to exit the window, things get worse; no matter what you do, the window cannot be closed. Each click of the mouse reveals more letters until the message will finally read, “Do you like The Red Room?” Once the full message is revealed, the computer screen is swathed in red and a list of names will appear on the red backdrop – names of the victims of the Red Room.

What follows soon afterwards is the victim’s death, by suicide. Why is it called the Red Room? Well, before the poor bugger farts his last fart, he paints his room with his own blood. How does he do it? No one knows. We’re guessing a squeegee, since they spread blood very evenly.

Source: https://www.toptenz.net/

The Sweet Girl of Ancol Bridge (Indonesia)

This legend revolves around the ghost of Maryam, a girl that is said to haunt Ancol Bridge in Jakarta, Indonesia. The locals believe that her ghostly presence in Ancol Bridge is the reason behind the many traffic accidents in the area.

The sad story of Maryam has its roots from a tragic incident that was said to have happened in the early 1800’s. The story goes that Maryam was a servant of a wealthy old merchant. When she was sixteen, her beauty captivated the wealthy merchant so much that he wanted to have her as a concubine. Such a fate was unthinkable for the young maid, thus she decided to run away instead.

While Maryam was wandering around, looking for a new place to stay, another rich old guy took notice of her beauty and made some advances, which Maryam rejected. Angered by her rejection, he went after her with some of his thugs. Poor Maryam was raped and killed by her suitor, who dumped her body in a nearby rice field.

There have since been many reported sightings of a ghostly woman near Ancol Bridge, whose presence is said to cause traffic accidents to any male motorists passing by.

CDUH’s The Orange Tag

Hospitals are a creepy place in general. People die there every minute. This story is something that any of us might experience so ready carefully!

Once upon a time, a doctor at the Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital found a woman in the elevator, unconscious. She was beside a man in a lab gown.

The doctor quickly approached her and rushed her to the Emergency Room. When she regained her consciousness, the doctor asked him what was wrong.

She answered her with voice shaking, that she saw a man with an orange tag, standing in the elevator with her.

An orange tag is a label that’s clipped on a dead body.

The doctor went back to the elevator and the same man asked him is the woman was okay. The doctor responded that she saw a man with an orange tag.

The man laughed and admitted that it was him.

He was the patient that the doctor proclaimed dead earlier.

Source: http://queencitycebu.com/

Late Husband Communicating Through Old Vcr Tapes?

Good evening. I've spent much of my afternoon reading this site with interest and could not resist writing to you all (on this dark and rainy post-holiday evening). I've spent years noting to myself dozens of incidents that seem paranormal, but have only recently been curious enough to look around on the internet, and your site seems really legit -- caring and intelligent. 

I'm an educated, grounded and stable individual, a Christian and former newspaper columnist, currently teaching and a mom of four great kids. I've lost many loved ones in my almost 60 years, but have always loved my life, felt quite strong and consider myself to be a happy warrior for my "causes." Guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm a busy, suburban mom, living near a large southern city but every now and then some compelling things happen and the mysteries of life compel me to seek out those who might know more than I do, on a topic I know little about (except for tv shows and a real appreciation for Dean Koontz novels).

A couple months ago I was finishing a basement cleanup that's dragged on for months. We live in a great suburban home, very bright and cheery, incuding the basement, which is more of a terrace level with windows everywhere and not creepy at all. I ran across a small box of VCR tapes that had not been transferred onto DVD and decided to take a look at them. 

As background, I'll share that my first husband, a Marine aviator, passed away 26 years ago after a lengthy and serious illness, leaving behind two daughters, ages 2 and 3, and me. Over the years, I feel like he's found small ways to let me know he's still with us... Some of them are really fun, but I'll stick with this one thing. So I'm in the basement about 3 in the afternoon. 

Middle schoolers (with my second husband) won't be home for a couple hours and I'm dying to see these videos from almost 30 years ago, one of which is titled, "Best Tape for Dad." I locate my 90s-era small tv with a built in VCR player and set it up on a chair. Sitting on the floor I put in the first tape and it's some great snow day footage of my daughters as toddlers with their Daddy, just charming (they're both grown and married career women now). I pull out my i-phone to take some snips to send to them at work (and to just have on my phone). I start noticing as I'm holding up my phone, taking video of the video, that in the phone camera there is a black line that pops up, not horizontal or vertical, but crossways like a slash through the screen. It's not on the TV or the video tape, just on my phone screen. I didn't think too much of it and kept taking videos of this tape in short segments. 

Then I started to notice that the black slash only happened at certain moments in the video. Mostly it popped when the camera panned to my late husband, but also during closeups of a precious little face or another tender moment. I notice the black slashes on my phone seem to be appearing at moments of significance, and sometimes more dark black than others a moment later. I know so little about the technology, but I wondered if a spirit was trying to watch with me, whether they could take energy from the pixels or something, which would make the black area. As I watch the tapes, I start talking out loud a little bit, something I've done before at certain moments, and the black lines seemed to almost happen more as I narrate the tape just a bit, sort of remembering. (i.e. "Oh, here comes the snowball" as in the video he throws one in my direction).

Next thing I know, my middle schoolers were home off the bus, and I was upstairs telling my 8th grade son, a really smart kid about electronics and other things, about this black slash going through my i-phone video. I joked that I thought it might be some "ghost guy stuff" which is what we call it (based on my recent interest in Ghost Adventures-type programs, for which I get teased relentlessly by all my kids). So my son was intrigued and wanted to see this black line, and I wanted to show it to him, maybe for validation... 

Or maybe hoping it would not be there when we went back down. So we did and I turned on the tape (sorry if this is getting boring) and there's the black slash on my i-phone again. How is it not on the tv or VCR tape? We discuss it, how it seems like there's a pattern to the line... Then as the tape is playing I suspect the line is actually popping up in response to my comments. I go way out on a limb and say, "OK, can you do an SOS?" (a military thing, haha) After which the black line flashes out _ _ _ __ __ __ _ _ _. (I might actually have that backwards). But we both were a bit amazed to say the least and reacted with big, "OH WOWs." The slash DID respond with an SOS! This is when you just blink and think, "Holy cow, is this SOMEthing? Or am I wishing/imagining/pushing it?"

Well, that's about it. I've not wanted to try it again since, something about not wanting to mess with things I don't understand. But has anyone ever heard about something like this? Also, when I viewed some of the video snips on my computer, which has a large screen, there were some places in the videos that I feel I could see... My late husband's likeness. And all I can say on that is, I think I've gotten pretty good at seeing ghosts in photos (stories for another day perhaps).

Thank you for letting me share this. I know about EVPs, so it seems like if you can catch a ghost in a photo, positive imaging, then what I got was some kind of negative imaging... Or a portion of the picture was just not relayed... Maybe this is easily debunked? I'm wide open to all thoughts. I understand I can upload a photo at some point, which I'll do if possible.

Source: https://www.yourghoststories.com/

LILLIAN GREY

In a cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah, there’s a tombstone of a woman named Lillian Grey, and on it reads “Victim of the beast 666.” Many have speculated as to what that means and what horrible fate befell this woman, even if the truth might be as simple as her husband being very anti-government and commissioning the tombstone upon her death.

Source: therichest.com

A Lady In White At Home

I've been a silent follower of this site and I must say the stories here are mostly the reason I'm awake at work. I work the night shift by the way.

I used to be a nurse in a hospital and I have few encounters as well. Mostly of a black shadow especially when someone is about to die. But my story is not about the shadow to which I assume the Angel of Death, it's about a lady in white.

My encounter took place in our house which was 2 storey building with more than 20 rooms... By the way, let me give you a brief background of what our house was. I used to live in an old and big apartment which was owned by my grandmother. My mom told me the area to which it was built used to be a cemetery and a dumping site of corpse way back Japanese occupation which I haven't really confirmed yet. But one thing is sure about that house, it was creepy. Even though I grew up surrounded by lots of people since it was also a boarding house (it was near school so there were lots of students renting the place) my parents always had something to scare us up.

We were told that during early 80's they had a boarder (an exchange student from Thailand) who has a third eye. She was always silent but one day she just shouted while pointing to one area which was an aisle towards the rooms then fainted. She claimed she saw a woman without a face who had a long hair wearing white. And it happened to her many times until she went home back to Thailand. And she was not the only one who complained about it. There were stories from other boarders that we had but I never believed it until I experienced it myself.

My experience happened way back college (2008).It was 3PM then and I was alone since my mom was working and my siblings were in school. I was watching Prinsesa nang Banyera (afternoon drama) when I saw something with my peripheral vision which prompted me to take a look to an aisle in the house to the rooms. There I saw a woman wearing white, I was not able to see her face since she was walking opposite of my direction. She was wearing a vintage white dress and had a very long black hair. And unlike the usual ghost encounter that I have read, she was not floating but was walking. Then she suddenly disappeared when she reached to the old mirror that we had. Ever since then, I became a believer. Good thing about it was that she did not scare me at all and just passed by like she was just a part of the household. That was my first and last encounter of that woman except for the times I hear someone crying.

Our house was sold 2015 and a new building was built but Construction workers working for the new building to which our apartment stood before claimed of seeing a woman wearing white and hearing cries and sometimes hearing people enjoying and seemed to be having a party at dawn even though there was none. Now a new building stands but I haven't confirmed yet if the people living there still see that woman in white. By the way, Across our old house is a Catholic church up to this day.

I hope you enjoyed my story.

Source: Aella9114

Robert Johnson’s Faustian bargain

Robert Johnson, for a variety of reasons, was America’s first true rock star. A Delta blues pioneer, Johnson inspired countless musicians in the past century, and, having died young at the age of 27, was one of the first to cast a dark shadow over the infamously cursed number. But perhaps most incredible of all, long before heavy metal bands began singing about Satan, a myth arose that Johnson was given his musical abilities via a Faustian bargain of his own. 

While living on a plantation in Mississippi, Johnson was reportedly visited by the Devil himself, who tuned Johnson’s guitar and strummed a few tunes before giving it back to Johnson along with exceptional musical skills, in exchange for his immortal soul. Later details, like the meeting happening at the “crossroads”, were added later. There is, of course, no evidence that it happened, and Johnson’s song “Cross Road Blues,” which some have attributed to being inspired by the supposed soul sale, is more likely about hitchhiking. Furthermore, the story is one that’s been repeated in various forms of folklore and literature. Nonetheless, this is easily the most badass rock ‘n’ roll urban legend you’re likely to hear.

Source: https://www.treblezine.com/

Whole Lotta Mudshark

Thanks to the Internet, stories about rock stars and groupies have become easier to track down, and considering some of the tales circulating out there, far more disgusting than you’d ever imagine. Yet the story of Led Zeppelin’s encounter with a groupie and a shark is far more entertaining, particularly because it’s, to some degree, actually true. When the tale circulated, various versions of the story involved one or all members of Led Zeppelin involved in some kind of sexual mischief involving a groupie and a shark, and you can use your imagination to fill in the details. 

Well, apparently, this all arose from an incident at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, at which John Bonham and manager Richard Cole were fishing and caught some red snapper. Some groupies show up, and Cole introduces one to one of the snappers in a, erm, rather creative manner. That there’s a kernel of truth here makes it that much better, if a little icky.

Soure: https://www.treblezine.com

Paul is dead

The Beatles have long been the source of some funny rumors, myths, legends and whoppers, but in 1967 one in particular spread far and wide, and persisted up through the band’s final days. Paul McCartney, conspiracy theorists believed, had been killed in a car accident in 1967 and was replaced in the band by a look-alike. Seems silly now, but in the ’60s radio stations and publishers discussed and exploited the myth at length, and fans pointed to numerous clues heard in their music or displayed in artwork. 

There was the “I buried Paul” that’s supposedly heard at the end of “Strawberry Fields Forever” (actual phrase “Cranberry sauce”). The “turn me on, dead man” message heard when “Revolution #9″ plays backward. And then there’s the supposed imagery of Abbey Road: John, in white, is the heavenly body; Ringo, in black, is the mourner; George, in denim, is the gravedigger; and Paul, barefoot and out of step, is the corpse. It took a Life magazine article in 1969 to convince people otherwise (apparently). Nowadays the rumor seems quaint, given that McCartney has been continuously performing and releasing new music. But never let the truth get in the way of a good conspiracy.

Source: https://www.treblezine.com

Deborah Harry’s brush with Bundy

The most intriguing legends are often the ones that are the most terrifying. To wit: Blondie singer Deborah Harry claimed in 1989 that notorious serial killer Ted Bundy lured her into his car in the ’70s. According to Harry’s story, she was trying to hail a cab in New York City around 2 or 3 a.m., and wasn’t able to flag one down, so a guy in a small car offered to give her a ride. As she entered the car, she saw that the inside was stripped bare and there were no door handles that would allow her to open the door from the inside, so in a fortuitous moment of panic she was able to get the door open from the outside and escape. 
And later on, after seeing his face on TV, she realized the driver was none other than Bundy himself. While nobody doubts that some creepy bastard gave her a lift that night, there’s no evidence that suggests it actually was Bundy, and lots of evidence that contradicts that being the case. Snopes gives a pretty detailed account of his history and whereabouts for most of his life, and it appears he never spent any time in New York City. That said, whatever happened that night definitely sounds like a close call, and Harry certainly is lucky for having gotten out of that car.

Source: https://www.treblezine.com/10-pop-music-urban-legends/

Rollercoaster of death

A persistent myth since the ’70s surrounding the Ohio Players’ “Love Rollercoaster” goes that while the band was recording their 1975 funk hit, a woman was murdered in the room adjacent to the studio, and the scream captured on the song (which, to be fair, is a curious element to the song) is that of the victim. It’s one of those myths that gets passed around over decades and decades because, above all, it’s a really good story! But not true. 

However, the band seemed to agree that the myth was good for their image. The band’s Jimmy “Diamond” Williams explains, “The DJ made this crack and it swept the country. People were asking us ‘Did you kill this chick?’ The band took a vow of silence because that makes you sell more records.”

Source: https://www.treblezine.com

Keith Richards snorts dad

Keith Richards could pretty much do any outrageous kind of stunt that involves ingesting a foreign or illicit object of some kind and people would believe it. And so it went in 2007 after Keith Richards said he snorted his father’s ashes after he was cremated. Not long thereafter, Richards denied it, saying that he was merely joking. 

However, apparently there was a little truth to the story. In 2010, Richards stated in his autobiography “Life,” that he acted on impulse in an otherwise innocent situation involving the ashes: “The truth of the matter is that after having Dad’s ashes in a black box for six years, because I really couldn’t bring myself to scatter him to the winds, I finally planted a sturdy English oak to spread him around. And as I took the lid off of the box, a fine spray of his ashes blew out on to the table. I couldn’t just brush him off so I wiped my finger over it and snorted the residue.”

Source: https://www.treblezine.com

THE LEGEND OF CATALINA OF DUMAGUETE

It is said that even the wild people who once roamed the remote mountains spoke of Catalina with love. Around the coastal towns and villages of the island, when the wind whips the waters of the Tañon Strait into a frenzy and storms rampage in from the sea, the old men and women would gather their grandchildren around the glow of burning coconut lamp. As the wind howled and shook the walls and the roof they would tell the story of Catalina of Dumaguete. 

They would tell how many, many years ago, there was an old man named Banog who made his living by making daily rounds of the town selling the sweet water from the coconut tree. This was before the custom of making it into strong liquor became widespread. Although Banog was poor, he was very much respected and considered a good man despite his poverty. Banog had a daughter named Catalina, and everyone did all they could to support them because the Gentle People always supported one another the best they could. 

At the age of sixteen, Catalina was a very pretty and hardworking girl. She always wore a long white dress, which she kept spotlessly clean and in good repair. Everyone agreed she was very good of character, with a lovely nature, and everyone liked her. But in some ways she was a very strange girl. She very rarely spoke, and was often found standing staring out over the sea while shading her eyes with one hand. At other times she would suddenly stand tall while clasping her hands together and gaze into the sky, as though she could see something that no one else could. Because of these strange characteristics, the people believed she had some mysterious power of sight.

THE PIRATE ATTACK

There came a day when a fleet of ships carrying fierce pirate warriors appeared off the coast of Dumaguete. They came ashore and attacked the islanders, killing the men and enslaving the women. They even killed poor, harmless, Banog. They robbed and pillaged, and rounded up all the women and placed them on to a ship to be sold as slaves. One of the prisoners was Catalina, and she sat silently in the bow of the ship staring fixedly at the sky. Although her companions talked to her trying to comfort her, she gave them no reply. Then a very wonderful thing happened. Suddenly, Catalina stood upright and leaped from the bow into the water. But instead of sinking, she landed lightly on the sea’s surface and walked over the waves back to her island home. Her captors were astounded, but made no attempt to stop or interfere with her because they feared her, so she reached shore safely.

There were still many survivors on the island who had escaped and hid in the forests, and when they saw Catalina return they all came out to meet her. Although they greeted her warmly, she said nothing and gazed beyond them at the great Thunder Mountain of Dalugdug. Then, she walked straight towards it with her eyes still fixed upon it. She walked through the burnt town of Dumaguete, ignoring the horrors that lay all around her, and strode steadfastly onwards.

THE SIGBIN OF THE THUNDER MOUNTAIN

The Thunder Mountain of Dalugdug was the home of a terrible beast called a Sigbin. Some say it was like a monstrous crow but under its neck two long legs protruded, similar to those found on grasshoppers, which gave it the ability to leap great distances without the need to use its wings. There are many conflicting descriptions, possibly because few people survive an encounter with one. Others say the Sigbin is a nocturnal creature that can suck the blood from the shadows of its chosen victim, and it has a terrible smell that is often the first sign of it being nearby. At every opportunity it would attack and kill humans and sometimes it ventured out in search of prey. People feared to go near the Thunder Mountain. 

When the people saw Catalina begin to take the road up to the mountain, they grew afraid and cried warnings to her. She took no notice, but continued to stride along the mountain path with her eyes firmly fixed on the mountain top. She walked higher and higher until all they could see was the white of her dress floating up the mountain. 

Suddenly, Catalina stopped and raised her hands. A terrifying sound was heard, and the Sigbin came rushing down the mountainside taking great leaps and screaming. It leaped over the heads of the people and jumped across the sea to the island of Cebu, where it hid itself in the mountains. 

Seeing the panicked departure of the Sigbin, the people ran up the Thunder Mountain looking for Catalina. To their sorrow they found no sign of her, although they searched and searched. Dismayed, the people returned to their ruined town intent on rebuilding it and making it a fair and happy place to live again.

THE PIRATES RETURN
They rebuilt Dumaguete, and several years later a fleet of pirate ships again appeared off the coast. This time the men were determined to fight and armed themselves with what poor weapons they could find. They gathered on the beaches to meet the invaders, and told the women to take the children and the animals into the forest and hide. 

Although they were not warriors, the Gentle People remembered their loved ones who had been killed or enslaved and remembered their homes that had been destroyed and they fought fiercely. This time they managed to drive the enemies back to the sea. But more pirate boats arrived with reinforcements and landed further along the shore, and they came around behind the defenders. The islanders eventually became outnumbered and exhausted and were facing defeat.  

THE RETURN OF CATALINA

Then something else wonderful happened. A cloud floated across the sky to form a bridge from the Thunder Mountain to Dumaguete, and down the bridge strode Catalina carrying in her hands a beehive. She stood before the astounded pirates holding the beehive high above her head, and then spoke magical words and placed it on the ground in front of them. She uttered a single word of command, and from the beehive instead of bees thousands of fierce little men swarmed out wielding deadly spears. Instantly, they attacked the pirates and killed all of them. Then, Catalina picked up the hive and returned over the cloud bridge to the Thunder Mountain without saying another word. 

The people came out of hiding and asked the little men many questions. They gave no answers, and ran back through the forest to the Thunder Mountain where they are said to live to this day wild and free. Also, the Sigbin has never returned and is still said to haunt the mountains of the island of Cebu. 

REMEMBERING CATALINA


All this happened a long, long time ago. For many years thereafter, during anxious and frightening times, the old men and women of Dumaguete would gather their grandchildren around them. They would tell the story of Catalina, the strange girl with the faraway look in her eyes, who chased out the Sigbin and came down from the Thunder Mountain and saved their ancestors from the pirates. So this is why all the Gentle People love and remember Catalina, who is still said to reside on the Thunder Mountain of Dalugdug. 

Source: https://folklorethursday.com/legends/philippine-folktales-legends-catalina-dumaguete/

Phil Collins, drowning witness

Phil Collins’ 1981 hit “In the Air Tonight” is undeniably his greatest song (and even made our Top 200 Songs of the ’80s list), but it’s also the one that courted the weirdest legend, if one that takes its lyrics a little too literally. During the verse, Collins sings, “Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand.” 

And from there, a combination of the telephone game and vivid imaginations interpreted the song to be a true story about a supposed drowning incident that Collins witnessed, in which someone refused to come to the aid of the victim. The myth gets even juicier when coupled with a follow-up myth, that Collins came face-to-face with the culprit at a concert while performing the song. It’s good enough to be a movie script, but it might as well be, because it’s complete fiction. Collins has said he was going through a divorce at the time and his own frustration and bewilderment led him to wrote those words, but that the drowning incident in question never happened. Or did it? (No, it didn’t).

Source: https://www.treblezine.com

Lou Reed gives something to cry about

Lou Reed has made a career of turning rock music into an endurance test, sometimes for better or for worse, his bleak concept album Berlin being one of those that definitely falls on the better side. Folks will debate over which moment is the most chilling, though it’s hard to overlook “The Kids,” which ends in a jarring chorus of screaming, crying children. The story goes that producer Bob Ezrin told his kids that their mother was dead in order to get such an emotional and intense reaction out of them. 

It’s not too out of the question to believe, considering that listening to it is an upsetting experience in and of itself. But apparently, not true. In the liner notes to Lou Reed’s anthology Between Thought and Expression, Ezrin merely recorded his kids around bedtime when they were cranky: “It’s something you’ve seen a thousand times but because of the compression on it and the way that it’s in your face [in the mix] it’s relentless. And it’s totally dry. It’s completely dry, it’s distorted, and it’s compressed to death. It makes it so unbelievably emotional people accused me of beating my kids.”

Source: https://www.treblezine.com

Takin’ Care of pizza

Some myths are so hilarious that they’re plausible, and given how funny the story is, singer/guitarist Randy Bachman is actually responsible for spreading it as truth! When recording their hit “Takin’ Care of Business,” Bachman-Turner Overdrive apparently invited a pizza delivery guy to play piano in the studio. Per Bachman’s story, a guy sent to deliver pizzas to Steve Miller Band, who were recording next door, stopped in the wrong room by mistake. 

He suggests their song could use a piano, they take him up on it, and the rest is history. Bachman’s brother Robbie, however, said that was a bit of an exaggeration on Randy’s part, and what really happened is a session musician recording next door was asked to play piano on the song, and in a hurry he wrote the chord progression on a pizza box. Seattle radio station KZOK actually had members of the band in the studio to sort out the truth of the matter, in fact, as well as a telephone interview with the pianist himself, Norman Durkee, a professional whose credits include being Bette Midler and Barry Manilow’s musical director. His best quote? “They don’t get high; they just eat a lot of pizza.” So, not actually a pizza guy. One more thing, though: get to the working overtime part!

Source: https://www.treblezine.com

Marilyn Manson’s Wonder Years

Marilyn Manson, born Brian Warner, has spent most of his adult life making a career out of shock value, his schtick making more than a few parents nervous in the ’90s. But the idea of a dark, threatening rock star actually having in his past a tenured role as a nerdy best friend in a prime-time drama apparently seemed pretty romantic, if not hilarious, to some. And thus the rumor began that it was, in fact, Marilyn Manson who portrayed Paul Pfeiffer, Kevin Arnold’s geeky chum, on The Wonder Years. This one’s pretty easy to debunk though. Josh Saviano, a very different person, played Paul Pfeiffer. A variation on the legend is that Manson played Kevin on Mr. Belvedere, but no, that was Rob Stone.

Source: https://www.treblezine.com