Oct 262011
Halloween is a big deal in our house. We have a black cat called Salem and the wife has years of decorations we cart down every October 1. We also have a large playlist of spooky-themed songs. Beside the typical ones — “Monster Mash,” stuff by The Zombies, “Black Magic Woman” — I think Donovan‘s “Season of the Witch” might be my favorite. I really dig the organ and the snaky guitar fills. Anyone else have suggestions for the old playlist?
“The Insect God”
Part of a bizarre one-off 1976 collaboration between author/artist Edward Gorey and a bunch of avant-garde jazzters and proggers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtRqUEtMsDg
Some of my favorites:
“The Curse of Millhaven,” Nick Cave (might have the highest body count of any rock song)
“Monster in Your Parasol,” Queens of the Stone Age
“Human Fly,” The Cramps
“Blacula,” The Crystallites
Going through my Halloween iPod playlist, I’ve noticed that Quasi have some great spooky songs like “Two Devils” and “Death is not the End.” Also John Cale is great Halloween music. And Camper Van Beethoven’s version of “O Death.”
“Vampire Blues” — Neil Young
“Graveyard Girl”– M83
“Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) — Bowie
“Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) — Concrete Blonde
I gotta go with the whole first Black Sabbath record.
anything by diamanda galas.
Hasil Adkins – “No More Hot Dogs” & “We Got a Date”, because it sounds like he just may mean it (he didn’t – he was actually a sweet guy, but he could certainly sound like a deranged backwoods psycho, dancing beneath a full moon, in a suit made out of others’ skins).
http://youtu.be/4vclF5gi1jE
and
http://youtu.be/ZJ2BJo4wzkE
Also, “TV Set” by The Cramps, another ode to dismemberment.
http://youtu.be/vIcJP5K0DSQ
Some more from an old Halloween Party Playlist
“Ghost Town” — The Specials
“Everyday is Halloween” — Ministry
“Dr. Evil: Doctor of Evil” and “In A Lonely Coffin” — The Minus 5
This is one by Diamanda I used to use on Halloween Tapes: http://youtu.be/xHB0LZd5YI0
The album this was on used to scare the crap out of our cats any time I put it on…
“She’s My Witch” by Kip Tyler is a great slinky number, though the original has been taken down on you tube….
“You Must Be A Witch” by The Lollipop Shoppe is a great paranoid-sounding psych-rocker:
http://youtu.be/4jnHYW8Er2E
Or you could go with something from Coven’s concept album, “Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls”, like their song, “Black Sabbath”: http://youtu.be/yBHmxpx9qiw
or a little Venom, “In League with Satan”:
http://youtu.be/qbFu-NNneEI
The Witch by the Sonics.
Also, I have a cd of soundtracks from Alfred Hitchcock movies and it has with the music from Psycho on it. I used to put it on a boom box and then hide it in the shower during Halloween parties at my house.
Or this, one of the most horrifying songs to ever hit the airwaves:
http://youtu.be/eS6Blh089rA
I’ve always been a bit of a Halloween Scrooge (although that changes this Friday night!), and the thought of a Halloween playlist is so far from my wheelhouse it’s not funny. I do, however, enjoy the music of Clinic, whose music is “Satanic” to my ears and whose albums should be named Damien Omen I through V (or however many albums they’ve released that all sound exactly alike). I would suggest “The Witch (Made to Measure), off one of their recent albums, Do It!. I’ve also written about Psychic TV’s “In the Nursery” before, a song that actually made me freak out as much as a work of art has ever made me freak out. I think I also lost it.
“I Put A Spell On You” by Screaming Jay Hawkins
“Fire” by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown should work.
Some suggestions from the Royales:
Your Ghost – Kristin Hersh
The Ghost in You – Psychedelic Furs
The Ghost in You Lingers – Spoon
Spooky – Classic IV
Pumpkin – Tricky
Scarecrow – Wolfgang Press
Black Cat – Broadcast
It’s Tricky – Run DMC
Almost anything off of Broadcast and the Focus Group’s album, Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
Bad Moon Rising – Creedence
Halloween – Sonic Youth
Frankenstein- Edgar Winter
Vampire Moon – Afghan Whigs
Skull – Sebadoh
Graveyard – PiL
Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon
Casper the Friendly Ghost – Daniel Johnston
Wolf Like Me – TV on the Radio
and…a favorite, Atlas Sound – A Ghost Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prnvilh-_5I
Ok, we’ll stop now.
I did a cd for a kids’ party a few years back, I can’t remember most of it but there was the Who’s Boris The Spider, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Kinks’ Wicked Annabella
This may push a little off topic, but worthy of mentioning here:
I always get a little creeped out by the last portion of the White Album. Side three going into side 4, culminating with “Revolution 9” just gives me the willies. The creaking sound at the end of “Long Long Long?” “Heleter Skelter?” There’s just a weird creep vibe going on for me.
TB
Absolutely. Those songs and Cry Baby Cry are best heard in an attic.
I’m a bit of a Halloween Scrooge myself even though I live in the Witch City, but I would throw in Bloodrock’s DOA as a suggestion.
To revisit a recent thread, how about Witches Promise?
The Monks of Doom actually do a cover of this song.
Any version of “There’s A Ghost In My House,” but I’ll throw The Fall in the ring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NVl2byln_c
For “Season Of The Witch,” I recommend the Lou Rawls version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hl3U0KhwgM
I just stumbled across this Halloween-appropriate number:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aN12nx-rN0
I heart Monks of Doom.
CVB’s “O Death” – a classic.
Oh, god, you just reminded me of that whole “Flowers in the Attic” book series that was very SCARY.
I don’t know, shouldn’t the Residents have some kind of Lifetime Achievement exclusion when the topic is scary music?
scary in a different way: the shaggs – it’s halloween
more topical than scary: the dream syndicate – halloween
Too late for Halloween 2011, but Roky Erickson has lots of spooky songs…”If You Have Ghosts,” “Night of the Vampire,” : I Walked with a Zombie”…
Indeed, how did we miss him? Welcome to the fray, J-Hank.