Ah, the 80’s. Was there a better decade for horror, or horror related music? Not according to this blog. Revel in the golden age of Horror sounds here.
legendary evil being that robs graves and feeds on corpses
one suggestive of a ghoul; especially : one who shows morbid interest in things considered shocking or repulsive
So basically, we’re all ghouls. And if there was ever a night for ghouls, it was Halloween.
So, take it away boys.
(Cut in with Stephen Weber from Tales from the Crypt’s S3 Episode Mournin’ Mess, and well, that’s Bill the Butcher at the end there from Gangs of New York.)
Before Full Moon became synonymous with “shitty movie”, Charlie Band had Empire Pictures, which produced a fair amount of good genre offerings like Re-Animator, Ghoulies, From Beyond and Prison, just to name a few.
Among them was TerrorVision, a 1986 film you can easily catch on Netflix these days and won’t be disappointed with,…supposin’ you like that sort of thing.
And that sort of thing is ridiculous (not ridiculously bad, however) horror. With Charlie Band’s name attached, we could be walking into that territory, but TerrorVision manages to be 80’s enough and fun enough to avoid such trappings and deliver a flick that doesn’t take itself at all seriously and has a good time with some silly creature and gore effects.
Plus it’s got The Phantom of Paradise’s Beef, Garret Graham as the Dad and Jon Gries as his daughter’s punked-out boyfriend named O.D., and that’s gotta be worth a viewing.
From TerrorVision comes TerrorVision, the Title Track performed by the Fibonaccis.
I don’t know bout y’all, but when I was a kid, only one thing meant Halloween and that was Garfield’s Halloween special.
6 years before The Simpsons would forever lace itself in my brain to this Eve of the Dead, Garfield was digging through costumes in John’s attic, trick or treating with Odie, and getting lost in a row boat.
The most memorable aspect of Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, other than those goddamn ghost pirates scaring the living shit out of me, was the music.
The first cut from this classic holiday cartoon is the opening number by Lou Rawls, lead in by our old pal Binky The Clown. Enjoy.
Well, we’re almost 20 songs into the Shindig, and we’ve yet to supply any songs in the Devilish category.
What can i say? Its my least favorite category, as I don’t tend to think of the Devil or Hell as particularly Halloweeny. Yeah, the two go hand and hand, I suppose, but there’s a shit load of songs talkin’ bout the Devil, and you can’t fit ‘em all into one Halloween playlist.
But, I have a soft spot for this song, and it’s band, Grim Reaper, and I just like hearing it, and Halloween’s as good an excuse as any to get it into a rotation.
Perhaps the most ridiculous song you can imagine, sung by the most ridiculous group of dudes you can imagine, See You In Hell features one of the most repetitious choruses you’re liable to hear.
In fact, the phrase “See You In Hell” appears in the song a total of 38 times in a matter of 4 minutes. That’s an average of a “See You In Hell” every 6 and a half seconds. That’s pretty incredible. It’s probably a world record.
Ushered in with a little help from a Devilish Ned Flanders and a desperately hungry Homer Simpson, I’ll see you in hell, my friends.
Once in a while a song is not only about a horror movie, or just featured in that horror movie but it’s named after the goddamn thing too. It’s the trifecta, the hat trick, the triple threat – it’s the Title Track, and little else ever competes.
Regretfully, Title Tracks mostly appear to be a thing of the past. Maybe they seem too corny or passe to modern filmmakers. However, dig around through the 80’s and early 90’s and these fuckers are everywhere, probably more out of some ridiculous sense of cross media marketing than any real attempt to make something awesome,…unless your talking about today’s Title Track, Shocker.
Whatever your opinion of Shocker (its definitely not Craven’s finest hour and a half) its soundtrack is out of control.
A supergroup like Voltron assembles from nowhere to rock your pumpkins off.
Paul Stanley, Desmond Child and Alice Cooper show up to sing.
Vivian Campbell and Guy Mann-Dude from Def Leppard stop by to shred.
Whitesnake’s Rudy Sarzo picks up the bass and Mötley Crüe hammer Tommy Lee keeps the beat.
Add in some backing vocals by Van Halen’s Michael Anthony and Cooper guitarist Kane Roberts and you got yourself a genuine fuckin’ supergroup to end all supergroups.
What’s more, these guys got together specifically for this soundtrack and never again. To top it all off they called themselves The Dudes of Wrath, a pun I’m not sure makes any goddamn sense, but is still pretty awesome none-the-less.
So bang your head for the dearly departed Horace Pinker, nobody may ever see him again.
I love The Cramps, so you can believe there’s as many Cramps songs on The Shindig as I can justify within my categorization. At present, I believe that number is 5.
First one from Lux and Co. is I Was a Teenage Werewolf, a groovy garage tune with plenty of monstrous overtones.
Lead in with claw-ripping attack by a clip from the trailer to I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
Nothing you’ve ever conceived packs such a spine-tingling jolt!
Now it’s party time, literally. We’ve established it’s Halloween, now commence the rocking.
Fourth in line is the first of many selections from possibly the finest horror movie soundtrack ever – Return of the Living Dead.
Apparently the original version of this song was actually about a 5 year old whom is raped and abused by her family. Now, I don’t know if that’s more Halloweeny, but it’s definitely more horrific, that’s for sure.
Needless to say, the producers asked Dinah Cancer if she could rewrite the lyrics to make it a bit more relevant to the film, and a bit less, well, rapey.
The result? Our first official crossover song, and one of the most ass-kicking tracks from a kick-ass soundtrack.
So, do you wanna party? It’s not a bad question, Burt.
With the first 2 tracks simply serving as atmosphere, the the unofficial start to Halloween Shindig is here. And what better herald is there than King Diamond to usher in our festivities? Halloween (or our Shindig) doesn’t truly begin until King Diamond fucking says so.
But to King Diamond, every night is Halloween, and he looks damn prepared for it…always. Check it out.
Anything anyone who looks anything like this 90% of the time has to say about Halloween is probably true, so we should just listen.
But, I’m not sure how that works exactly. If Halloween is just constantly occurring, what’s all the fuss about? What are any of us doing here? Why is there a party, and why do you need music for it?
That’s because, in deference to whether King gets his sack out and goes trick-or-treating every night, Halloween is still Oct. 31st, and you’ve got a party to host. A partyKing Diamondwill most likely not be attending…at least not physically anyway.
So, in the true spirit of Halloween, the eve of the dead…..crank it up, and let the spirit of King Diamondmake an appearance at your Shindig.
