With its large number of musicians and haunted houses, you’d think there would be a plethora of songs about Los Angeles ghosts. Not true. We scoured the internet and the brains of music trivia experts, and these four tunes are what we uncovered.
If there’s one sign of hope, it’s that three of these are from the last decade. So maybe this is a trend that will only become more popular.
Supernatural
Ke$ha
“I’ve got a song called ‘Supernatural’, that song was about having sex with a ghost,” KeSha told Ryan Seacrest in 2012. “I lived in this flop house at Rural Canyon and there was this weird energy that lived there, and it used to keep me at night and wake me up. And it progressed into this dark, sexual spirit.
“It did scare me but that’s part of the fun of it.”
The claims aroused the suspicions of several paranormal experts, who suggested Ke$sha was making these stories up for publicity, saying that while sex with ghosts did happen, it was incredibly rare.
Find Me
Kings of Leon
Lead singer Caleb Followill told NME the song of their newest album is inspired by a paranormal experience his wife, model Lily Aldridge, experienced.
“She stayed in this hotel in Los Angeles. This is going to sound weird and a lot of people will roll their eyes, but she felt like it was haunted. When she tells the story, it’s the scariest thing. So I took that and turned it into a love story.”
We don’t know which hotel, or what story she’s referring to – but if anyone does find out please send us a message!
The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
Death Cab for Cutie
Among our grievances with pop culture here at CreepyLA, it’s when perfectly titled songs like “The Ghosts of Beverly Drive” come along they end up referring to ghosts in a metaphorical, not paranormal sense. In Death Cab for Cutie’s case, it seems to be about baggage in a relationship. Pfft.
The music video takes on an LA star tour, which, maybe, included a few haunted locations along Beverly Drive. And, it can just as easily be about an actual ghost if you really want it to be. Take a listen and judge for yourself.
Peg
Steely Dan
Okay, we admit this one may be a stretch. But according to several online sources, Steely Dan’s signature hit, “Peg,” is based on Peg Entwistle, from the point of view of a sleazy movie producer whose empty promises of fame led her to jump to her death from the Hollywood sign.
From one theory, “The pin-up shot he keeps with ‘your letter’ is her suicide note, found in Peg’s purse and published in the local newspapers. And “it will come back to you,” both a reference to the karmic retribution for her sin, and the fame that would accompany her as a result of Peg’s action.”
Peg Entwistle’s ghost is one of LA’s most legendary, frequently seen refollowing the path she made from her home in Beachwood Canyon up to the giant letter “H” that she lept from.
