Whisper To A Scream

TRACK #66:

Whisper To A Scream by Bobby Orlando & Claudja Barry

Lets get a Freddy two-fer going, cause your guests are still pissed…

“How the fuck am I supposed to dance to some bullshit like ‘Down In The Boiler Room’…? Are you serious right now?!”

And fair enough. I’m not sure that song’s palatable, much less danceable. So let’s look to Freddy’s soundtrack offerings for a little relief. And what better place to go for a dose of danceable 80’s synth-pop than Freddy’s Revenge.

Certainly the black sheep of the series (and with good cause), A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 is probably the worst way you could have followed the highly original and groundbreaking hit.

Every franchise has its Oddball Entry. Ya know, that one that doesn’t quite jive for whatever reason; be it overtly non-canon (Halloween 3), lacking its main character (Friday 5) or plays fast and loose with the primary mythos, as is the case with Freddy’s Revenge.

While not so out of place at the time, just a little curve ball for the sequel, the fact that subsequent Elm Streets have totally ignored this entry, its characters and its logic, makes it the strange, stand-out entry it seems today.

Basically, Freddy attempts to possess Jesse, the new teenager living in Nancy’s old room at 1428 Elm., choosing to work through the boy in the material world, as opposed to terrorizing all the children in their sleep. Granted, he does possess Jesse through his dreams, but all the kills are carried out by Jesse in the waking world, as he slowly transforms into a flesh and blood Freddy Krueger.

Needless to say, that pissed off a lot of fans at the time, and still continues to do so today. Coupled with its generalized shortcomings (acting, writing, direction, etc), its bizarre homo-eroticism and its overall weirdness, Freddy’s Revenge is not a fan favorite, and is offend cited as the series’ low-point: a rushed and lazy attempt to cash-in on the success of the original, with Dream Warriors being a much more creative and fitting sequel. True enough, I can concede.

However, I have a soft spot for Elm Street 2, cause well…

I’m a sucker for bad movies, and this one delivers.
Clu Gulager is awesome. I don’t care what movie he’s in, he’s always on point.
Grady is the man (as played by Ron Rusler of The Daggers….fuck yeah Thrashin’)
Freddy is still scary, and he retains his creep-factor before plunging into total buffoonery as per 3, 4 et al.
Jesse is such a little wiener, it’s hard not to love him. Horror’s first male Scream Queen.
You could write a thesis paper on its homosexual subtext. In fact, I kinda found one looking for gifs. Make that 2.
And I appreciate the attempt to do something different. Though its failure does lead to subsequent films treading back (and back again) into more familiar waters, it’s still nice to see people trying something different.

That being said (and long-windedly at that) let’s get to Bobby Orlando’s funky beats, as heard during the pool party sequence of Freddy’s Revenge.

Down In The Boiler Room

TRACK #65:

Down In The Boiler Room by The Elm Street Group

Segueing nicely out of our Horror Host block is this oddity that only the 80’s could have produced, featuring a man whom himself was briefly a Horror Host, Mr. Big Time…Fred Krueger.

Between Dream Warriors and The Dream Master, Freddy-Mania was nearing its peak, and some producer (bless their soul) thought it made perfectly sound financial sense to green-light Freddy’s Greatest Hits.

Dinosaur Dracula puts it best when he writes:

Beyond the costumes and suction-cupped window dolls was this album. This beautiful album, aimed at God knows who. I doubt it sold more than a few thousand copies, but then, maybe no more than a few thousand copies were produced to begin with.
It’s a bizarre thing with no clear audience. Too sophisticated for kids, too stupid for adults. Too much like show tunes for the horror crowd, too much like scary bloody horror for anyone else.
A mix of covers and original songs, Freddy Krueger is all over the album, but only rarely does he actually “sing.” Usually, he just tacks one-liners onto the verses. The actual music-making was done by the “Elm Street Group,” who I’m guessing were regular studio musicians gathered to make two months’ rent with the weirdest work they’d ever do.

Naturally, there’s a couple of these gems on Shindig, starting out with this particularly strange number concerning Freddy’s boiler room.

Led-in with a clip from Freddy’s Nightmares – Mr. Krueger’s own personal horror anthology television show that first aired the following year. The program had Freddy playing Rod Serling to all manner of neutered Elm Street-style tales where Freddy fucked with the protagonists for any number of ridiculous reasons.

Enjoy!

Vampira

TRACK #61:

Vampira by Misfits

If John Zacherle is the grandaddy of Horror Hosts, then Maila Nurmi is their mother goddess.

Back in 1954, The Vampira Show was the first program to feature a spooky host introducing (and mocking) old B-movies.

Though only on the air for about a year, Vampira’s mark on horror culture can still be felt today, particularly tooling around Tumblr, where her image is ever present.

And why not? As Mr. Danzig so succinctly puts it:

Two inch nails
Micro-waist
with a pale white feline face
inclination eyebrows to there
Vampira
Mistress to the horror kid

Vampira is the embodiment of the classic horror image. Young fangirls still want to be her, and young fanboys still want to be with her. And though nothing but a few old kinescopes exist of the short-lived program, Maila Nurmi’s legacy will forever live on with the genre.

Fittingly led in by Martin Landu’s oscar-bearing Bela Lugosi, exulting Ms. Nurmi’s appealing qualities to Johnny Depp’s irritated Ed Wood.

Go try on a sweater then, Nerd-o. Me and Bela here will just sit back with some morphine and enjoy the show.

Monster Rap

TRACK #53:

Monster Rap by Bobby “Boris” Pickett

Over the years, as the musical climate shifted, Boris Pickett attempted to recapture his Monster Mash lightning into all manner of bottle. The results were, well, not quite as successful.

In the early 80’s he tried rap, much to the delight of The Shindig.

Easily my favorite Boris Pickett tune, this goofy number is, I think, the funniest of his career. The ridiculous chorus of “Shock the body. Shock the body, body” in that Karloff voice is unmatched. Plus a rapping Frankenstein in the form of “Monster Mouth” is pretty fantastic too.

Though, I think the funniest aspect of the track is Boris’ initial excitement to hear the monster rap, and how quickly that turns to complete annoyance once the creature “won’t stop rapping.”

Even in the form of a silly rap, some remnant of Mary Shelley’s themes still persist,…kind of.

Either way, Boris Pickett’s Monster Rap is Shindig gold, all the way around.

Love Is A Lie

TRACK #52:

Love Is A Lie by Lion

We’ve already gotten a sampling of Freddy Krueger’s sonically iconic offerings, but surely his contemporary and adversary Jason Voorhees has a thing or two to say on the matter awesome 80’s soundtracks, no?

Yes. Yes he does.

From 1984’s prematurely subtitled The Final Chapter (a title made all the more ridiculous considering there are fewer Friday the 13ths proceeding it than following it), comes this tune from LA butt-rockers Lion.

Man, that’s pretty emphatic. They even blow up the mask for God’s sake.

This is the song to which Crispin Glover (aka George McFly, or Jimbo here) famously does he’s strange and erratic gyrations.

I’ve heard from unconfirmed sources (read: my buddy Matt Mastrella, AC/DC fan and possible rumorist) that during filming, the actual song playing was Back In Black, which they could not ultimately use after failing to secure the rights. If that’s true, it would certainly go a long way to explaining Jimbo’s arrhythmic seizing.

However, Crispin Glover is a pretty bizarre bastard himself and maybe that’s all the explanation needed. Click here for some support of this assertion.

Led in with the archetypal campfire tale of Jason, originally featured in Part 2 and rehashed in pieces during the pre-title sequence from Part 4. Its a favorite moment of mine from the series, and goes great with the song, if a tad lengthy.

I think it’s worth the wait though, and makes for a spooky interlude where your party guest can kick back and take in a little histrionic Voorhees history before Lion commence to rock.

Enjoy!

Raining Blood

TRACK #47:

Raining Blood by Slayer

Perhaps the only track on the playlist that doesn’t fall into one of my fairly open-ended categories, Raining Blood is an old hold-over from the days when the Shindig wasn’t a dense as it is today.

I’ve always used it as a lead-in to Helen’s Theme (from Candyman) by Phillip Glass, as the rain effect at the end was too perfect.

I’ve never removed it for that very reason, despite the small annoyance it’s always posed me knowing it isn’t about, featured in, or even remotely related to any horror movie or Halloween.

Maybe you could call it a Devilish Track, and perhaps I will, because well, the guy is busting out of purgatory on his way to heaven to “fuck that place up,” as Jeff Hanneman worded it.

Besides, this song fuckin’ owns. How much more justification do you need?

Led in by Father Urbain Grandier’s sentencing from Ken Russell’s 1971 nusto-mastepiece The Devils.

Hand’s Off

TRACK #45:

Hands Off by Maria Vidal

So, we’re just over 2 hours into the playlist, and you’re party should be starting to pick up a little.

But you’re guests are pissed, “What’s with this music? We can’t dance to this shit!”

Well, problem solved, thanks to Maria Vidal and Once Bitten.

If Jim Carrey, Lauren Hutton and Karen Kopins can all dance to this, and as well as they do, than anyone can.

Spirit

TRACK #43:

Spirit by Doug E. Fresh and The Get Fresh Crew

When it comes to Monster Raps, no movie’s got that category on lock down like Ghostbusters 2.

Whatever your take on the movie itself (I happen to enjoy it, though not nearly as much as the superior original) its soundtrack is pretty serious, and as such has a lot of representation on The Shindig.

The year was 1989 and this soundtrack certainly feels that way, bridging the gap between 80’s pop and paving the way for what would be the mainstream explosion of rap the following year. Hats off the the music supervisor’s foresight on that one.

Like any good soundtrack it also consistently reminds one of the movie, as the music is featured so predominately within the film.

The first Shindig cut from that album is Doug E. Fresh’s Spirit. Some people hear it, some people fear it. Some people just won’t go near it.

Dig it.

Full Moon

TRACK #42:

Full Moon by Elvira

Segueing nicely from that last sample is this gem from everyone’s favorite wet nightmare Elvira.

Of all the Elvira originals on The Shindig (and there’s a few), this is perhaps my favorite. It’s got a fun 80’s synth-pop sound, and it features the Mistress of the Dark singing seductively about how essentially a full moon makes her crazy horny. Um, ok. ‘Nuff said. I’m in.

Here’s Elvira with Full Moon.

Thanks for the boner.

Rock Until You Drop

TRACK #39:

Rock Until You Drop by Michael Sembello

If you’re a bunch of kids that have to do battle with a gang of famous monsters and you need to resort to smelting down your mom’s fine silverware, jacking the school’s archery equipment, and belt sanding stakes in shop class, then you could probably use a montage.

That oughta free up valuable screen time to cut some business cards, write a letter to the Army Guys, grab a soda and maybe do a spit take when seeing naked pictures Frankenstein accidentally took of your buddy’s hot sister.

And if you do need a montage, then this song oughta fit the bill just fine; a song which instructs you, with gleeful irresponsibility, to be completely reckless in your rocking. Suggested amongst the dangerous activities are “dancing until your feet fall off” and “partying until your brains fall out.” Both of which, I might add, are terrible things to encourage of children. Ah, the 80’s, that wonderful place where no one gave a shit about children or their safety.

From 1987’s horror answer to The Goonies, it’s Michael Sembello’s Rock Until You Drop. Go forth weeners and try this at home.

Evil Dead

TRACK #38:

Evil Dead by Death

In honor of the trailer that’s mysteriously making everyone forget how mediocre and soulless the last 10 plus years in Remakewood have been, I’m bumpin’ up this track from gore-sicians Death.

In a fitting coincidence, this song is titled Evil Dead, rather than The Evil Dead, which could assist in one’s argument that the song isn’t actually about The Evil Dead, but rather just some run-o-the-mill dead of a generically evil nature.

Lyrically, I think it could go either way. While indeed Chuck Schuldiner doesn’t say anything wholly specific to Sam Raimi’s 1981 trailblazing gorefest, there’s enough material here to make an argument that it is referential. Lines like “Spirits within causing terror,” “All will die tonight” or even quite simply “Covered in blood,” certainly evoke images of The Evil Dead.

But if you told me Chuck wasn’t referring to the film at all, that wouldn’t surprise me either.
Cut in with tons of clips from The Evil Dead (as I am now forced to specify), here’s the ultimate experience in grueling metal.

Listen to this….this is the tape i found downstairs….

Witchfinder General

TRACK #34:

Witchfinder General by Witchfinder General

Sometimes bands name songs after horror movies.

Some bands even name whole albums after horror movies.

And sometimes they go full-bore and just name the whole goddamn band after a horror movie.

Such is the case with British doom-smiths Witchfinder General.

What’s more, they even have a band anthem. That’s a triple threat.

Led in and peppered with samples from the band’s 1968 namesake starring Vincent Price.

If you’ve never heard of the film, perhaps you’re familiar with The Conqueror Worm (which has this bad news poster right here) as it was billed in America. Huhwhaa?

The unnecessary title change was in an effort to sell the movie as another in the line of Corman/Price/Poe hits, which it most certainly was not.

It is however an interesting (albeit a little slow) abuse of power tale with a pretty creepy and understated performance from Price and lots of great shots of the English countryside.

If you’re down with movies like Mark of the Devil, The Blood on Satan’s Claw (considered by Tigon Productions to be Witchfinder’s successor) or even The Devils, then Witchfinder General might just have exactly what you’re looking for.

Nightmare

TRACK #27:

Nightmare by Tuesday Knight

When it comes to horror movie icons, no one quite has the pop music angle cornered like Freddy Krueger.

The Shindig features multiple offerings from Freddy’s eurythmic career, from metal, to 80’s dance pop and even 2 monster raps.

First up from Krueger and Co. comes the not-quite-Title Track from A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master.

Nightmare is interesting as it is performed by actress Tuesday Knight, who plays Kristen Parker in the film, the role originally held by Patricia Arquette in Dream Warriors.

Ghouls Night Out

TRACK #25:

Ghouls Night Out by The Misfits

Webster’s defines Ghoul as

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.)

TerrorVision

TRACK #22:

TerrorVision by The Fibonaccis

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.

This Is The Night (Trick Or Treat)

TRACK #21:

This Is The Night (Trick or Treat) by Lou Rawls

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.

See You In Hell

TRACK #18:

See You In Hell by Grim Reaper

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.

Shocker

TRACK #16:

Shocker by The Dudes of Wrath

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 Was A Teenage Werewolf

TRACK #15:

I Was a Teenage Werewolf by The Cramps

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!

Partytime (Zombie Version)

TRACK #4:

Partytime (Zombie Version) by 45 Grave

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.

Oh, let’s do thaaaaat.

Halloween Shindig

The Horror Fan's Halloween Playlist

The 80’s