The celebration begins!
I've decided to kick off my four post Halloween-a-thon with something nice, light and general. As I stated in my last blog, Halloween music exists more in spirit than tradition. It's a feeling. Whether it's a song like "This is Halloween" that catches the aesthetics, or one that simply sounds spooky, Halloween music is all about capitalizing on a mood. There's a reason that "Tubular Bells" becomes super popular this time of year; it sound scary as shit and it reminds us that The Exorcist was a thing.
So for this addition to my playlists, I'm trying to hone in on those perfect, Halloween party songs. This will hardly be a comprehensive list. It's more of a rundown of some of my personal favorites. I also won't be including a few classics like "Thriller" because honestly, what's the point? I enjoy sharing music that other people might not have heard before rather than beating to death songs of which there's nothing more to be said.
So, starting chronologically...
1. Nightmare by Artie Shaw (1938)
Being an old jazz number doesn't stop Shaw's seminal work from being spooky as all hell. The rhythmic drumbeat and clarinet line that form the song's backbone, coupled with an aggressive brass section help this song create atmosphere that says "something awful is about to happen". For an era in which music was so sanitized, Shaw's tune really stands out as unique simply for the audacity of what it was trying to do and the creativity with which it went about doing it. That's probably why he adopted it as his signature song.
2. Downbound Train by Chuck Berry (1955)
It's hard to believe it, but the Godfather of Rock and Roll (who may have also put cameras in women's toilets at one point or another) was once a fiery Southern Baptist. For the B-side of his fourth single, he brought that obsession with damnation into the recording booth and banged out "Downbound Train"; the tale of a drunk dreaming about his trip on train to Hell. It's hardly shocking or powerful, but Berry brings enough sincerity to it to make it seem spooky.
3. I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins (1956)
Screamin' Jay's 1956 classic has long been a Halloween favorite. Rock and roll legend states that Hawkins originally tried to record this song as a more typical blues piece, and it never worked. Then he and the rest of the band showed up at the studio shitfaced drunk to rerecord it, and he viscerally growled out the tune in the guttural fashion that would become one of his trademarks. There have been dozens of covers since, mostly playing the song as a straight ballad. But if you're building a soundtrack to Halloween, accept no substitute.
4. Devil's Grip on Me by the The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1967)
Like Hawkins, Arthur Brown's performances were always bombastic and colorful. The two artists also shared a love of macabre lyrics and spooky sounds. Hammy though it might be, it's hard to go wrong with Brown for a Halloween choice. This one invokes images of Satan, so I think it's a winner.
5. Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus (1979)
Bela Lugosi was a larger than life figure in early horror cinema, and had actually been dead for 23 years at the time of this song's recording. None the less, it's a masterful tribute to him. The song features driving percussion accented by bass guitar and dozens of odd, bizarre sound effects and guitar distortions that help create the atmosphere of a horror film. "Bella Lugosi's dead...undead," The song proclaims, "and the bats have left the belltower." It was Bauhaus's first single, and it really established them as the pioneers of goth rock as it emerged in the late 70s.
6. Human Fly by the Cramps (1980)
Bauhaus weren't the only band that studied old horror film. Right there with them were the Cramps, one of my favorite punk bands. Between songs like "Zombie Dance", "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "Human Fly", it was obvious from the beginning that campy B-horror was a major part the group's visual and audio aesthetics. The latter of those was written as a loving tribute to b-horror film The Fly (the 1958 original, mind you, not the 1986 Jeff Goldblum one). The song is played in a surf rock style, if surf rock overdosed on acid. At only 2:02, it's far too short for a song this good, but I'm not sure the Cramps were ever very capable of recordings songs over 150 seconds or so.
7. Ghost Town by the Specials (1981)
Ska today has becoming Babbie's First Rock Genre for teenagers everywhere. Now that the stereotype has formed, it's difficult to remember that the genre could once be pretty edgy. Such was the case for the 1981 single "Ghost Town". Though the song is less about supernatural entities and more about modern urban decay, its depiction of crime, violence and the miserable state of poverty stricken cities, sounds decidedly uneasy. This is mostly due to the swinging saxophone that creates the desolate atmosphere on the song.
8. Country Death Song by the Violent Femmes (1985)
The Violent Femmes first album may have made them famous, but for my money it was their second that made them great. The son of a devout Baptist minister (there's a pattern forming here, for the observant among you), frontman Gordon Gano decided that for the second record, the band would play stripped down, gothic country as opposed to acoustic party-punk. The result was a deep, emotive and occasionally creepy album with fervent religious overtones. The album's opening track, Country Death Song, is the confession of a crazed man seeking penance in suicide for the daughter he'd murdered. A simple, bouncing bass backs the song, while veteran banjo picker Tony Trischka creates a desolate, dark country vibe. Gano's own psychotic vocal performance drives home the madness meant in the song.
9. Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo (1986)
If there's a song more "80s" than this one, I'm not sure what it is. Cheesy drums and sax? Check. Aggressive synthesizer? Done. Faux gothic affectations? They're all over it. Oingo Boingo and front man Danny Effman (Jack Skellington himself) not only created a distillation of everything that new wave was teased for, but also the perfect Halloween party song short of MJ's "Thriller". Despite all of it's cheesyness, I adore this song. It's too fun not to fall completely in love with.
10. The Curse of Millhaven by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1994)
I've already written extensively about Nick Cave & the Bad Seed's magnus opus Murder Ballads. But it would feel wrong of me to make a list of Halloween music and not include a song from it. The natural choice, both because it's fun and grisly as hell, is "The Curse of Millhaven". The song chronicles the narration of a pretty blonde haired girl named Loretta (though she prefers Lottie) and the small town she lives in. Oh, and 23 people that she viciously murders for her own amusement. Nick Cave inflects that sort of gleeful insanity perfectly in his vocal performance, and the erratic, swinging bass and guitar chords sell it well. Though it might disturb the more faint of heart, this a great song for a Halloween party.
11. The Ghost of Stephen Foster by Squirrel Nut Zipper (1998)
Speaking of fun, nobody does it better than SNZ. "Hell", their biggest hit, was a very tempting choice for this. But ultimately I went for this one instead. This song details a meeting between our anonymous narrator and the spectral version of America's original hitmaker in a spooky old hotel. It's a bizarre, neo-swing tune that would feel right at home being played by a ghost band in a haunted house coming to life. I always got that mental image from it, so I was pleased to find that the video was exactly that. It's right above, and it's one of the most enjoyable music videos ever made. So check it out.
12. God's Away on Business by Tom Waits (2002)
Tom Waits is the indisputable king of Halloween. Between his gravelly, snarling voice, his freaky avante guard hooks and the macabre songwriting he's wont to delve into, there are literally dozens of songs I could choose for a list like this. Not all of his music is like that, of course, but the 2002 album Blood Money certainly qualifies in its entirety. I ultimately went with "God's Away on Business", because it's the record's best and because there's a badass mashup in which Cookie Monster sings it.
13. The Shankhill Butchers by the Decemberists (2006)
There have been so many gory revenge ballads, tales of killers and deeds most foul expressed on Decemberist albums that I actually think that frontman Colin Meloy might be insane. Whether I'm right or not, he's damn good at creating them. Meloy, in this song, plays a mother telling her children a threatening lullaby about the very real historical gang of Irish loyalists. In fiction, they came for disobedient children, with "cleavers and their knives". The whole thing is done in a very minimalist, spooky, understated way that fits the song perfectly.
14. Cannibal Family by the Wolfgangs (2011)
I'm not even going to pretend that I know what this song is about. The lyrics, as far as I can tell, don't exist online and what's-her-name up there's vocals are incomprehensible. But this rockabilly jam sounds dark, and the video implies that it's about people who eat people. That's pretty fuckin' Halloween right there.
15. He of Cloven Hoof by Those Poor Bastards (2012)
If Tom Waits is the King of Halloween, Those Poor Bastards are his princes. TPB plays a tortured, gothic, mutant version of country, or so the theory goes. This song is less country and more "wailing pipe organs from Hell". I first heard it at a truck stop where I fueled up at 3 AM on a drive home, and was shocked at how different it sounded from anything recorded ever. TPB steep their music in pitch black Biblical imagery, southern gothic themes and insanely creepy musical vibes. Some of it borders on hammy, but most of it is genuinely creepy in a way that can make your skin crawl.
So that does it for Halloween list one. To continue the leadup to the holiday, later this week I'll be posting a review of the album of my nightmares; an album so, horrifyingly bad that it chills my very bones. What record could frighten me so? You'll just have to tune into the Weekly Record to find out.
So, starting chronologically...
1. Nightmare by Artie Shaw (1938)
Being an old jazz number doesn't stop Shaw's seminal work from being spooky as all hell. The rhythmic drumbeat and clarinet line that form the song's backbone, coupled with an aggressive brass section help this song create atmosphere that says "something awful is about to happen". For an era in which music was so sanitized, Shaw's tune really stands out as unique simply for the audacity of what it was trying to do and the creativity with which it went about doing it. That's probably why he adopted it as his signature song.
2. Downbound Train by Chuck Berry (1955)
It's hard to believe it, but the Godfather of Rock and Roll (who may have also put cameras in women's toilets at one point or another) was once a fiery Southern Baptist. For the B-side of his fourth single, he brought that obsession with damnation into the recording booth and banged out "Downbound Train"; the tale of a drunk dreaming about his trip on train to Hell. It's hardly shocking or powerful, but Berry brings enough sincerity to it to make it seem spooky.
3. I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins (1956)
Screamin' Jay's 1956 classic has long been a Halloween favorite. Rock and roll legend states that Hawkins originally tried to record this song as a more typical blues piece, and it never worked. Then he and the rest of the band showed up at the studio shitfaced drunk to rerecord it, and he viscerally growled out the tune in the guttural fashion that would become one of his trademarks. There have been dozens of covers since, mostly playing the song as a straight ballad. But if you're building a soundtrack to Halloween, accept no substitute.
4. Devil's Grip on Me by the The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1967)
Like Hawkins, Arthur Brown's performances were always bombastic and colorful. The two artists also shared a love of macabre lyrics and spooky sounds. Hammy though it might be, it's hard to go wrong with Brown for a Halloween choice. This one invokes images of Satan, so I think it's a winner.
5. Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus (1979)
Bela Lugosi was a larger than life figure in early horror cinema, and had actually been dead for 23 years at the time of this song's recording. None the less, it's a masterful tribute to him. The song features driving percussion accented by bass guitar and dozens of odd, bizarre sound effects and guitar distortions that help create the atmosphere of a horror film. "Bella Lugosi's dead...undead," The song proclaims, "and the bats have left the belltower." It was Bauhaus's first single, and it really established them as the pioneers of goth rock as it emerged in the late 70s.
6. Human Fly by the Cramps (1980)
Bauhaus weren't the only band that studied old horror film. Right there with them were the Cramps, one of my favorite punk bands. Between songs like "Zombie Dance", "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "Human Fly", it was obvious from the beginning that campy B-horror was a major part the group's visual and audio aesthetics. The latter of those was written as a loving tribute to b-horror film The Fly (the 1958 original, mind you, not the 1986 Jeff Goldblum one). The song is played in a surf rock style, if surf rock overdosed on acid. At only 2:02, it's far too short for a song this good, but I'm not sure the Cramps were ever very capable of recordings songs over 150 seconds or so.
7. Ghost Town by the Specials (1981)
Ska today has becoming Babbie's First Rock Genre for teenagers everywhere. Now that the stereotype has formed, it's difficult to remember that the genre could once be pretty edgy. Such was the case for the 1981 single "Ghost Town". Though the song is less about supernatural entities and more about modern urban decay, its depiction of crime, violence and the miserable state of poverty stricken cities, sounds decidedly uneasy. This is mostly due to the swinging saxophone that creates the desolate atmosphere on the song.
8. Country Death Song by the Violent Femmes (1985)
The Violent Femmes first album may have made them famous, but for my money it was their second that made them great. The son of a devout Baptist minister (there's a pattern forming here, for the observant among you), frontman Gordon Gano decided that for the second record, the band would play stripped down, gothic country as opposed to acoustic party-punk. The result was a deep, emotive and occasionally creepy album with fervent religious overtones. The album's opening track, Country Death Song, is the confession of a crazed man seeking penance in suicide for the daughter he'd murdered. A simple, bouncing bass backs the song, while veteran banjo picker Tony Trischka creates a desolate, dark country vibe. Gano's own psychotic vocal performance drives home the madness meant in the song.
9. Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo (1986)
If there's a song more "80s" than this one, I'm not sure what it is. Cheesy drums and sax? Check. Aggressive synthesizer? Done. Faux gothic affectations? They're all over it. Oingo Boingo and front man Danny Effman (Jack Skellington himself) not only created a distillation of everything that new wave was teased for, but also the perfect Halloween party song short of MJ's "Thriller". Despite all of it's cheesyness, I adore this song. It's too fun not to fall completely in love with.
10. The Curse of Millhaven by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1994)
I've already written extensively about Nick Cave & the Bad Seed's magnus opus Murder Ballads. But it would feel wrong of me to make a list of Halloween music and not include a song from it. The natural choice, both because it's fun and grisly as hell, is "The Curse of Millhaven". The song chronicles the narration of a pretty blonde haired girl named Loretta (though she prefers Lottie) and the small town she lives in. Oh, and 23 people that she viciously murders for her own amusement. Nick Cave inflects that sort of gleeful insanity perfectly in his vocal performance, and the erratic, swinging bass and guitar chords sell it well. Though it might disturb the more faint of heart, this a great song for a Halloween party.
11. The Ghost of Stephen Foster by Squirrel Nut Zipper (1998)
Speaking of fun, nobody does it better than SNZ. "Hell", their biggest hit, was a very tempting choice for this. But ultimately I went for this one instead. This song details a meeting between our anonymous narrator and the spectral version of America's original hitmaker in a spooky old hotel. It's a bizarre, neo-swing tune that would feel right at home being played by a ghost band in a haunted house coming to life. I always got that mental image from it, so I was pleased to find that the video was exactly that. It's right above, and it's one of the most enjoyable music videos ever made. So check it out.
12. God's Away on Business by Tom Waits (2002)
Tom Waits is the indisputable king of Halloween. Between his gravelly, snarling voice, his freaky avante guard hooks and the macabre songwriting he's wont to delve into, there are literally dozens of songs I could choose for a list like this. Not all of his music is like that, of course, but the 2002 album Blood Money certainly qualifies in its entirety. I ultimately went with "God's Away on Business", because it's the record's best and because there's a badass mashup in which Cookie Monster sings it.
13. The Shankhill Butchers by the Decemberists (2006)
There have been so many gory revenge ballads, tales of killers and deeds most foul expressed on Decemberist albums that I actually think that frontman Colin Meloy might be insane. Whether I'm right or not, he's damn good at creating them. Meloy, in this song, plays a mother telling her children a threatening lullaby about the very real historical gang of Irish loyalists. In fiction, they came for disobedient children, with "cleavers and their knives". The whole thing is done in a very minimalist, spooky, understated way that fits the song perfectly.
14. Cannibal Family by the Wolfgangs (2011)
I'm not even going to pretend that I know what this song is about. The lyrics, as far as I can tell, don't exist online and what's-her-name up there's vocals are incomprehensible. But this rockabilly jam sounds dark, and the video implies that it's about people who eat people. That's pretty fuckin' Halloween right there.
15. He of Cloven Hoof by Those Poor Bastards (2012)
If Tom Waits is the King of Halloween, Those Poor Bastards are his princes. TPB plays a tortured, gothic, mutant version of country, or so the theory goes. This song is less country and more "wailing pipe organs from Hell". I first heard it at a truck stop where I fueled up at 3 AM on a drive home, and was shocked at how different it sounded from anything recorded ever. TPB steep their music in pitch black Biblical imagery, southern gothic themes and insanely creepy musical vibes. Some of it borders on hammy, but most of it is genuinely creepy in a way that can make your skin crawl.
So that does it for Halloween list one. To continue the leadup to the holiday, later this week I'll be posting a review of the album of my nightmares; an album so, horrifyingly bad that it chills my very bones. What record could frighten me so? You'll just have to tune into the Weekly Record to find out.
No comments:
Post a Comment