The heavy thud of the kick drum sounds like a sealed vault closing. A bright piano figure plays out a frantic thought you cannot escape. Over it all, a voice cracks with a private dread that slowly becomes a public spectacle. This is R Dean Taylor’s ‘There Is A Ghost In My House’. It is a masterpiece of claustrophobic soul. It also holds one of the greatest second chance narratives in modern music.
The song did not begin as a classic. It began as a failure. In 1967, Taylor was a Canadian anomaly at Motown. He was one of the label’s only white artists. He programmed his voice perfectly for their sound but the company did not know what to do with him. He co-wrote hits for The Supremes and The Temptations. His own single was released on the subsidiary V.I.P. Records. It completely stiffed. It took a different world to understand its brilliance. That world was the Northern Soul scene in the United Kingdom.
Imagine a packed dance hall in the English North. The air is thick with sweat and talcum powder. A DJ drops a fast 45 record. The energy is violent and euphoric. ‘There Is A Ghost In My House’ fit perfectly into this chaos. The tempo was punishing. The mood was paranoid. The dancers did not care about the darkness of the lyrics. They embraced it completely. They turned a private panic into an athletic communal ritual. The song became a secret handshake for an underground movement.
The bassline does not ask you to dance. It demands that you run.
The great Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier produced the track alongside Taylor. The legendary Funk Brothers played on the session. The bassline is urgent. The hi hats sizzle. The strings sweep in with a cinematic weight. The brass punches through like a sharp martial call. The track is a controlled implosion. It sounds like a man unraveling in real time. The arrangement never offers a comfortable landing. It keeps the tension high.
R Dean Taylor gives the performance of his career. His voice is sharp and clear. He sings of a ghost in his house. The ghost is not a cliché. It is the memory of a lover who has left. She is absent but her presence is everywhere. He sounds cornered by his own emotions. The music does not comfort him. It amplifies his panic to a fever pitch.
The song failed in 1967. Seven years later it rose from the dead. It was re released on the Tamla Motown label. It became a number three hit in the United Kingdom. It defined the Northern Soul movement forever. It proved that great music will eventually find its time. The fade out of the track is a masterstroke. It offers no release. It simply fades away. You are left in the loop of the narrator anxiety. You must turn the record over and play it again.
If this sound speaks to you, explore the genre further. Dobie Gray has ‘Out On The Floor’. It has the same breathless pace. Frank Wilson recorded ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’. It is the holy grail of the genre. Gloria Jones offers ‘Tainted Love’. It shares the dark lyrical themes with an upbeat tempo. The Four Tops track ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ gives you the orchestral weight. The Flirtations ‘Nothing But A Heartache’ is also a fantastic choice for fans of this specific era.