♫Motel 68♫

Image: A run-down motel with a classic neon sign announcing Motel 68. The neon "vacancy" sign is lit.

Let's start with the verse:

Welcome to the Motel Sixty-Eight
It's really great to have you
I mean really, really great
We don't get many travellers
Since they built the interstate...
Welcome to the motel Sixty Eight

The history (and effects) of the Interstate Highway System is fascinating. Oddly, the most interesting visual media about its effects is a Disney film. You'd think there'd be a Chinatown or Hell on Wheels somewhere out there!

Motel 6 is of course famous. Less famous but still extant is Super 8. Maybe the name is "put them together, and 8 rhymes well." Maybe it means (19)68. Or, nice...

Here comes the story. Check-in:

Lights are on
No one around
I ding the bell
And it resounds

A moment goes
Another, too
Then from the back
A word comes: "Who?"

"I need a room"
He showed his face
An obscure smile
"This is the place"

What a sad sack place! I get the hanging out in back waiting for a customer. That's not uncommon. But waiting a few beats then greeting from back with a "Who?" then pivoting to "Really, really great" to have a customer? Creepy AF.

The music fits so, so well. The bass. The harp. The percussion. The Sitar. The Theremin-ish bits. The dismal, yet upbeat, mood.

So many tropes are hit. I can't root source them all. (Also, outside of Hitchcock, I'm not much of a horror flick aficionado - sorry, Fenris! -- I just know the famous ones.) I'm quoting a lot here. Please go hear the original!

I took the room
I locked the door
I checked the lock
And again once more

I've seen the films
Won't take a chance
Kidneys for sale
Snacks or transplants

Or maybe the guy
Looks in through the wall
I check paintings' eyes
I hear a call

A phone is ringing
In late night gloom
No one is answering
It's an empty room

Turn on the tube
An in-house ad
The voice is strange
The tones are bad

Do I dare to take a shower?
Do I even dare to even sleep?
Would I hear the doorlatch open
If someone comes in for a creep?

I shut my eyes just for a moment
And I awoke in streaming dawn
Still had my scalp and all my organs
Maybe I had it all wrong

Sudden shift in tone. An inner voice:

Maybe you shouldn't base your world on movies
Out here there's a world and it is good

Oh, but this is the Existential Dreadniks, remember?

I throw the door wide to breathe morning
Stabbed, the clerk is bleeding on my stoop

Expiring fast
He sang, to the last:

[Chorus]

Joyful as always, Fenris!