Our next Shindigger here is from the band L7. No Rach, not that L7.
But wait, you say you’re not this “Rach,” and you’ve never heard of any band named L7? Oh, that’ll make this a bit easier then.
See, there was (evidentially anyway) an American Funk band by the name of L7. I call them Funk because this song is listed as being Funk and since it’s their only release, I guess that makes them a Funk band. I genuinely don’t know enough about the in’s and out’s of Funk to say whether or not this claim holds any water, but they might as well be Funk. Sounds Funky, anyway. They’re definitely not a Country band. And I wouldn’t call it this Metal. It’s certainly something. Funk is something. So, let’s go with them on Funk then.
Now, this precursory Funk iteration of L7 it’s is best known for…well…this release. In fact, they’re only known for this release, cause it’s, ya know, their only release. And it’s a Funk release, and Frankenstein, which is always a plus around here.
The 12” Maxi-Single, The Bride of Frankenstein, contains 4 tracks, but essentially only 2 songs. There’s Mr. Boogie Bop, which gets the standard and instrumental treatment, and the title tune, The Bride of Frankenstein. That one gets the standard treatment as well, but also an extra-special “Rap” version. And I say extra-special because this single is from 1983, the very year I believe to be the birth of Monster Rap itself.
That year gave us Whodini’s Haunted House of Rock, Edgar Winter’s futuristic Frankenstein 1984 and now, The Bride of Frankenstein Rap. I’d say only one of these tunes is legitimately Rap, however. Can you guess which one?
Yep, it’s the only one not actually claiming to be Rap. Go figure there.
But while this song may not pass a street test, for us ‘Diggers lookin for Halloween tunes, you can’t ask for much better than this. It’s solid gold.
Dudes strapping some reasonable whack-simile of Rap onto an otherwise bizarre “Funk” tune and just running with it? Oh you know we’re all over this.
Apparently a guy in the graveyard (why he’s in this graveyard is anyone’s guess) meets a dancing corpse that claims to be The Bride of Frankenstein. At least she shows him a gravestone to that effect. Now, why The Bride of Frankenstein would have “Bride of Frankenstein” carved into her tombstone is also anyone’s guess, but here we are.
Then, all of sudden it’s Halloween and the Rap shows up. Nice! Now the guy is looking for the Bride of Frankenstein and he winds up at the Monster Club. Which isn’t a bad place to look for her really, so I get it. Does the actual song shed any light on these events?
No, not really.
I’ll say this, they are 2 separate songs. They’re pretty much the same song musically, but the lyrics are all different. This isn’t just L7’sThe Bride of Frankenstein single with a Rap verse tacked on, and I can appreciate that.
In the original tune (which was perhaps a more fitting tune for the playlist, but oh well) our narrator is at a monster party where he meets a girl that he takes a liking to. However, he is warned, as he learns that she is the Bride of Frankenstein. Bummer for him I guess.
So, it’s kinda more dance-able, makes a bit more sense (albeit a very small bit) and is generally just a more regular tune. It definitely has less weird “mommmy mommy mommy” sounds, whatever the hell those are suppose to be, and that counts for something.
But that version of the song has no Rap (or whatever this is that is calling itself Rap) and it definitely doesn’t have any Halloween. So, when it comes to the playlist, we’re goin The Bride of Frankenstein Rap all day long on this one.
And as reasonable people, we can overlook the fact that there isn’t any actual film called The Evils of Frankenstein
Cause c’mon, it was 1976, after all. Cross referenceable material, albeit available, wasn’t nearly as ubiquitous as we’ve come to expect in our cushy age of instantaneous digital information. Unwittingly adding an “S” to the title of some movie you randomly caught on Creature Features one night…a movie that scared the shit outta you so bad you had to write a song about it…isn’t nearly the worst thing you could do. Who knows, he was probably hammered anyway.
But was this dude even watching The Evil of Frankenstein?
First and foremost, he describes Frankenstein and his hunchback assistant building a creature. This does not happen in The Evil of Frankenstein. Not only does Victor not have a hunchback assistant, he doesn’t even build a creature. They discover Victor’s original creature frozen in ice, ala Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.
And speaking of ala, of all the Hammer Frankenstein’s to write a song about, you pick Evil? Hammer’s co-opted, financed by Universal “let’s just retcon this whole thing and port the entire Universal aesthetic over to Bray Studios” travesty? Really? C’mon John. Just about every other Hammer Frankenstein is better than that mess.
And to that point, despite being called The Evil of Frankenstein, it’s probably Cushing’s least evil portrayal of the character, and thus the least likely to turn your hair white.
Part of the Universal-ization of Evilextended to the Doc’s entire demeanor, I guess. Cause gone was Hammer’s original and refreshing take, which placed Victor front and center as a villain, a man willing to straight up take life in his obsessive quest to create life.
But hey, maybe he just picked that name out of a hat. Maybe he just liked the way it sounded… after he added an “s” of course.
Cause I mean, he clearly didn’t watch it. And if he did watch it, he didn’t remember it too well. Maybe it just scared the shit so far outta him his mind blocked all the small details like, ya know, the entire goddamn plot. Who’s to say?
But then he changes the channel and lands on some idealized version of House of Frankenstein or some such thing, who knows. We’re clearly in the realm of fantasy here and that’s fine, cause I don’t wanna pick on Choctaw John too much here. I mean, outside of perhaps naming yourself Choctaw John, but that’s a matter for a different website.
For our part, John recorded a great Frankenstein tune and we’re happy to have him. This 7″ also contains the B-side World of Darkness, which is another wild-ass banger chocked to the brim with dark imagery about global nuclear holocaust. Shit, John. I guess when you weren’t sittin’ around getting scared by old monster movies, you figured you might as well just scare the fuck outta everyone else, huh? Yeesh.
Well, thanks for the dark twang, bud. Now go rewatch…or maybe even just watch…The Evil of Frankenstein, will ya? And when you’re done, pop in any other Hammer Frankenstein flick, as they’re pretty much all superior to that pile.
Whether talking about the man himself or his godforsaken creation, lots of folks have sung about Frankenstein. I still think not as many as Dracula, but it’s a pretty hefty list either way.
However, I don’t think anyone has sung about him as enthusiastically as Chuck Osbournedoes here, on his 1975 single, Frankenstein.
Like the bastard son of Louie Armstrong and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Chuck practically throws my voice out screaming the praises of the creature for doing a bunch of shit I’m not even sure he ever did. Hard to know really, cause I can’t rightly understand most of whatever the hell Chuck’s even saying in this song. But man, is it awesome.
I might even go so far as to call this the coolest song I’ve ever heard about Frankenstein, Doctor or otherwise. I’m not sure why it took me so long to find this one, but I’m sure glad I did, and I hope that you are too.
Seems there’s a little confusion over Chuck’s name, though. See, he released this song twice on a Pennsylvania label called Hittsburgh USA, which I gotta say, is a pretty outstanding name for a label from the Monongahela Valley.
Can’t tell which record was first though, as they both got released in ‘75. One of them was the B-Side of Day Dream Drifter. That one is credited to Chuck Osborne. And that guy had a couple of other singles.
The other one is a A-Sider with an instrumental version of the tune on the B-side. Now, that one is credited to a guy named Chuck Osbourne, with a U. That’s weird. Chucky U doesn’t have any other singles, just this one.
Was this just a typo? What gives? Guy hiding from the Feds? What’s the deal here?
I imagine if my name was spelt wrong on my own goddamn single, the only single Hittsburgh USA had to their name mind you, I’d be pretty pissed off. Maybe that’s why he spends the whole song just screaming.
And it’s not like they didn’t know how to spell it. One of these pressings got it right. Useless, of course, that’s not even his name at all, and it’s some kinda cover. Maybe he is hiding from the Feds. Guy sounds a little unhinged here about Frankenstein, it’s not outta the realm of possibility to think he’s done some wild shit. I better stop asking so many questions.
I’d say I’m gonna go with Osborne, cause that guy had more releases, but I don’t think so. That no U business is some B-Side bullshit.
I’m goin Osbourne, cause that’s the guy who released the full-on Frankenstein single, with the instrumental on the flip. Frankenstein by Chuck Osbourne is an goddamn A-sider, fuckin’ Hittsburgh USA. Put some respect on that name, however you spell it. Cause if this song is any indication, Chuck deserves it.
So here’s another (allegedly) Italo tune about Frankenstein. This one is really from Italy as well, which is nice. It also appears to definitely be about the Doctor, which is also nice.
It’s also by The Doctor, which is a little confusing. It also seems to be The Doctor’s only musical contribution to the world.
Here he is rockin a sweet Frankenstein mask, which is more than I can say for the intense and sweaty Phoebus. But maybe Phoebus had just taken his Frankenstein mask off. Latex is notorious for inducing a good sweat.
What’s also peculiar about this song, is that it too is from 1986. So, that year saw 2 separate Frankenstein related Italo-Disco tracks that were actually from Italy, by acts that never released ny other records? That’s weird. I mean, at least i think so. Is that weird? Seems weird to me anyway. What was going on in Italy in 1986 with Frankenstein that produced such similar efforts? Beats me, cause these songs don’t even really sound similar.
I do like this one though. More than the Phoebus tune anyway. It’s strange. What’s also strange is that The Doctorhere is sporting that mask while the song appears to be about Doctor Frankenstein for a change. Meanwhile Phoebus, clearly singing about how The Monster gives him a boner or whatever, appears mask-less, all intense and sweaty. Hmm. Perhaps that’s more apropos than I initially gave it credit for.
But I digress. This song is fun and certainly very danceable, but I’ll be honest here, I don’t really know what The Doctor is saying. But, unlike the Ecstasy song, I’m not sure I really care. Something about Chris Dobarts accent and the variety of words in Hey Frankenstein made me genuinely curious as to the lyrical content.
But here, I dunno. I guess I’m just not as interested. Either way, this could be the night!
We’re gonna segue out of Disco here with 2 different Frankenstein tunes from the same year out of the Italo-Disco scene.
We’ve got a few Italo-Disco tracks already on The Shindig, namely Disco Halloween from Forbidden Fruits. But what the hell is Italo-Disco? It doesn’t seem much like Disco, nor does it sound terribly Italian.
It’s been years now since we posted that song, and you don’t feel like clicking away to reread stuff you maybe never even read back then, so why don’t we just talk about it again, huh?
Well, it seems the question of “what is Italo-Disco” elicits a fairly complicated answer. Enthusiasts and historians can’t seem to agree on what exactly is, where and when it all started or what even really qualifies as, Italo-Disco.
As such, the sound of Italo-Disco can be a bit elusive. Some of it skews more Disco and Space Disco, while a bunch of it leans more toward dancey 80’s Pop.
The short versions seems to be that it’s what happened when inexperienced Italian producers in the late 70’s tried to imitate the Disco hits that were no longer flooding in from outside Italy in the wake of Disco’s stateside decline.
That said, it was also the eventual electronification of Disco and the precursor to just about every form of EDM that now exists. Wow, ok Italo-Disco, shit. Take it down a notch, huh. That’s a pretty bold statement.
These 2 things seem to be most important to a definition though: heavy use of electronic instrumentation (synths, drum machines and vocoders) and either overly melodramatic themes of love and sex, or robots. There’s lots of robots.
Most of it was sung in English, perhaps explaining why a lot of it doesn’t sound terribly Italian. Dunno if that was an attempt to mimic classic disco tracks or simply to appeal to an American audience.
Oddly enough, it’s was a German Record label ZYX, that is largely cited as being the originators of the term. They marketed full-on mixes of the emerging pop scene out of Italy as “Italo-Disco.” Soon, that sound was coming from all corners of the globe and getting slapped with the same moniker.
Meanwhile, over here in the States, guys like Patrick Crowley and Bobby Orlando were touching upon some similar sounds with Hi-NRG. That also featured heavy use of electronic instruments, but typically ran at a higher tempo than Italo, so is somewhat easy to pick out of a lineup. It was popular in the Gay club scene of the mid-80’s and was very much a precursor to Techno and House. We even have a Hi-NRGhit here on the playlist courtesy of Bobby Orlando’s own Whisper to a Scream, which appeared (perhaps less than coincidentally) in 1985’s Freddy’s Revenge.
So, as you might suspect, I’ve been listening to a lot of Italo-Disco over the last year or so, and given its overall variety, I find it to be a wildly mixed bag. Some of it I love, some of it I hate.
The beat and the bass are typically right on the money. The first couple minutes of any Italo song is usually pretty great. But by the time the singer joined the party, it seemed like a 70/30 split on whether I was bailing out. A lot of it just sounds like cheeseball dance music of a variety I’m not terribly fond.
Now, I love Giorgio Moroder, and his pop-driven 80’s work is great. Kano released some good tunes. Koto, Scotch and Casco too. But the genre seems less defined by particular artists then it does the one-off records dropped by total randos never to be heard from again. Those can definitely be hit or miss.
I seemed to prefer the older, earlier variety which leaned a little more into Space Disco territory, a genre that I love which has a lot of overlap with Italo.
But the point at where a thing stops being Italo and starts being any number of other genres that sprung up in its wake, is located somewhere just outside my range of hearing.
Consensus seems to be that the genre had mostly dried out by the early 90’s and had given way to House, or Eurobeat or Eurodisco.
Tonight’s selection, Frankenstein by Phoebus, is a great example of what I’m talking about. This song doesn’t bear the hallmarks of what I think of when I think of Italo-Disco. To me, this just sounds like generic 80’s dance music, which isn’t not what Italo is, but it’s hard to explain. I dunno, maybe I’m not even really sure what Italo is, but I don’t know if it’s this. However, according to the folks on Discogs anyway, it definitely is.
Despite that, I still kinda dig this tune. Perhaps it’s a testament to the fact that just singing about Frankenstein can afford you a fair bit of goodwill over here with The Shindig.
This one seems to be about the Monster. And specifically the monster from the movie, as Phoebus has just recently seen a Frankenstein picture at the cinema.
From what I can gather, the monster has left an impression on our dear narrator. The nature of which, however, I can’t exactly say. Is this guy sexually attracted to the creature? Is that what’s goin on here? Am I adding that in? Am I sexually attracted to the creature? What’s the deal? Cause Phoebus seems to be getting real worked up over this thing, and I’m not sure it’s of the “Hey, just pick up a copy of Famous Monsters and an Aurora Model kit and work it out” variety.
So much so, in fact, that his friends all say he needs a doctor, his dad has kicked him out of the house and his girlfriend won’t even talk to him.
As such we dropped in some clips from Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey’s Flesh For Frankenstein, cause…c’mon.
But enough of my rambling about a genre you probably don’t care to know about for some Monster song that I’m not even sure is prime example of that genre, in theme or sound.
He’s talkin’ about Frankenstein, so lose your mind already.
P.S. – If anyone listening happens to be familiar with this song but is finding they not familiar with this particular version, that is because it is a Shindig specific edit exclusive to the playlist.
It is a mashup I made of the 7” Mix and the Horror Mix. Not sure why I did this exactly, as I did it quite a while back. I think I liked the Horror Mix better in general, but preferred the opening of the 7” Mix. I think anyway. There’s something going on at the end too that’s different. Either way, we hope you enjoy!
Guy’s kinda boring, ain’t he? Drink a little blood, flash a little cape, hiss a bit with some fangs maybe, whatever. Big deal. Why’s this dude getting so much love in the tracks?
What about ole Frankenstein?
Well, while seemingly not as referenced as The Count, Frankenstein is still no slouch when it comes to recordings. In fact, according to a title search of “Frankenstein” on Discogs, there’s 785 master recordings. That’s almost 120 more than Dracula! Maybe old nut-neck ain’t 2nd banana after all. Maybe he is the big dog at the party. Though in fairness, a ton of those releases are just various compilation appearances and covers of the Edgar Winter classic. Without meticulously scrubbing either search for duplicates of that nature, it would hard to say for sure who emerges as the clear winner.
That’s of no real concern to us though, cause we’re gonna show Frank a little love now anyway, cause Lord knows he’s been getting the high-hat. Plus, I got a bunch of Franken-Jams clogging up the bullpen. Not as many as Dracula, but still quite a few.
I think it’s worth noting that in 9 out of 10 songs it’s the monster that’s being referenced rather than the Doctor. Sometimes that can be hard to determine with some of these songs, but it’s a safe bet it’s usually the creature.
And we can look the other way on that one, right gang? We can just accept that most people are calling the creature “Frankenstein,” accurate or not. I’m prepared to let it go for a block of Franken-Rock, aren’t you?
Yeah, of course you are, cause you don’t give a damn. Does the track groove? Yeah? Well then fire it up.
And groove this one does, cause we’re flippin’ the switch on this block with another song I had to fish outta the drink just to hear. And once again, it was definitely worth it. Some people had the A-side from the Ecstasy single What’d I Say? but no one seemed to have the B-side, Hey Frankenstein.
Ecstasy was a French disco band in the late 70’s that cut a number of 45s, but seemed to fizzle out just before the turn of the decade.
Chris Dobat, otherwise known as Mister Ecstasy, was the driving force behind that band and he seems to have pivoted to solo Funk work in the 80’s. Not bad.
Here, he lets it all hang out with some funky disco dedicated to Doctor himself. At least, I think anyway. Cause I’m not gonna lie, half the time I can’t tell what the hell Chris is actually saying. The fact that this is the B-side to What’d I Say? seems entirely appropriate.
However, I didn’t wanna leave y’all hanging. So, I decided to listen to this song on repeat, for an ungodly amount of times, until I figured out what the lyrics are.
Here is my best attempt. If anyone would like to assist me or correct any of these lines, I’ll take all the help I can get. We posted the song to YouTube last year, and you can use their playback speed to help with the translation. Though I warn you, it’s only so helpful.
Hey Frankenstein
Hey Hey, Hey Hey (x2)
Hey Frankenstein
Comes walking in
you know its him
Oh, bad Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
He’s gotta prove
He’s in the groove
Oh, bad Frankenstein
He takes a drink
To make it quick
It’s all feelin fine
He can’t play fair
He doesn’t care
He’s bad Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
He’s doctor
When his medicine
Oh, he’s Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
He wore his dice
And they’ll look nice
He’s no valentine
So full of ice
He wore them twice
He’s no friend of mine
And if your taught
To live to start
Don’t, bad Frankenstein
Hey Frankenstein
Hey Hey, Hey Hey (x2)
He’s moving fast
He’s moving where it’s at
Looking for fun
Anyway, anywhere, anyone
When there’s no more fun
He’s back on the run
Playboy #1
Always looking for fun
On the run
?
He’s got a secret
Dice!
He wore them twice!
Louder
Sexy
Horns
He begs it
Mr. Frankenstein
Comes a-walking in
Mr. Frankenstein
Funky Valentine
Hey, Frankenstein
He’s gotta prove
He’s in the groove
Oh, bad Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
When it get hot
He’s very bad
He’s bad, Frankenstein
He knows the way
To scare his prey
Oh he’s Frankenstein
He’ll never let you get away
Here comes Frankenstein
Hey Frankenstein
Comes walking in
you know its him
Oh, bad Frankenstein
Hey, Frankenstein
He’s gotta prove
He’s in the groove
Oh, bad Frankenstein
He takes a drink
To make it quick
It’s all feelin fine
He can’t play fair
He doesn’t care
He’s bad Frankenstein (x4)
So, that’s what I got anyway.
Can’t say I’m entirely convinced I got any of this right, and lots of it just sounds wrong. But some it of seems right, and after entirely too many listens, I gotta call it a wrap. But please, if you’re feeling like maybe you also gotta know what this guy is saying and my translation seems like trash, help me out. Lemme know what you think.
Oh, and hey! Speaking of letting it all hang out, that’s a full on fully up there adorning the front of this 45. Cause hey, if you jump into a tub to record your single, maybe a nipple slips out, ya know? It’s ‘78! It’s disco! What’s a nipple? C’mon, get loose, will ya?
Oh yeah? Big Eric, huh? So, what’s this guy’s deal?
Well, let’s start with that name. “Big Eric “ appears to be a one-off pseudonym used by German artist Eric Billinghurst specifically for this track.
But Eric Billinghurst is better know throughout Germany as Bill Hurst, a standard issue AOR style rocker who produced 2 albums including the (apparently quite rare) 1982 release, Ice Cold Calculation. That fucker’s going for over 200 buck right now on Discogs. This is a shame because it contains a track called Horror that I’d love to investigate. Is it a different take on this song? Is it some other referential rock rarity? Who knows? Not us. Well, at least not yet anyway. That’s fuck off dollars from something I ain’t heard before. I’m hesitant to buy the Critters LPs that are goin for half that much, and the playlist needs a cleaner copy of that song pronto. But Ice Cold Calculation is in our sights, so we’ll keep you posted.
Until then, we can satisfy our Bill Hurst fix with Horror Ball, a peculiar Discoish tune that doubles as a fun play on words.
This one’s a bit silly, but that’s never been a problem around here, and it’s got a good groove, which is always a plus.
On top of that, it’s giving you what you need. All the Monsters you want getting shouted out to an infection disco beat.
And look at the cover to this thing! That’s just plain old fashion monster awesome.
So let’s get some horror going with Big Eric, shall we?
Now, there’s a ton of this kinda old timey Monster Rock ‘N Roll, but I don’t add it to the playlist that often. It’s monstery, sure, but something about it always feels a little off, like they could be singing about any old thing. There’s nothing distinctly spooky or festive about it most of the time.
There’s even a similar tune to tonight’s inclusion titled The Mummy’s Ball by The Verdicts that I removed from this block of balls for just that reason.
But Screaming Ball has a few things going for it that help it make the cut.
First and foremost, I dig this tune. It swings.
Secondly, from what I can tell, this is the very first pop song to actually reference Dracula. At least in the title, anyway.
Thirdly, it’s a pretty referential tune. In fact,The Duponts even have a similarly structured reference to Spike Jone’s Ball-Tune, only The Duponts make The Thing from Another World do The Stroll instead of a Mole Person. But both of them do reference the Thing.
And lastly, it’s from The Duponts, whom were also know as Little Anthony and the DuPonts, after the main vocalist, Anthony Gourdine.
But The Duponts weren’t the only crew associated with a Little Anthony, as Anthony Gourdine is also the Little Anthony of Little Anthony and The Imperials fame, best known from their hits like Tears on My Pillow and I Think I’m Going Out of My Head.
In 2009, Little Anthony and his Imperials were all inducted into the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame, and any time you can add a Hall of Famer to the roster, you should probably just do it.
And dammit if I don’t just love idea of a future Hall of Famer his cuttin’ his teeth on some forgotten old novelty monster record. What’s cooler than that?
Well, it’s also a Mysterioso Pizzicato offender. How do you like that? Another one for the fire, boys.
So let’s all having a scream ball over at Dracula hall. C’mon, it’s a horror party!
Now here’s a song that we’ve been putting off since jump.
Yep, this one’s been in the bullpen forever.
So long in fact, it was on pre-internet versions of the playlist that were played and distributed. But it’s high time to kick it on out, if only so I can stop thinking about it anymore.
I don’t imagine any playlist featuring as much novelty music as The Shindig would be complete if it didn’t feature at least one tune from The Godfather of Novelty songs himself, Mr. Spike Jones.
In the days before Rock ‘N Roll ruined everything, Spike and his City Slickers reigned supreme. He was the Weird Al of his era, though I’m not sure if that reference even holds much weight here in 2023. But he was a songsman and comedian in equal order, and having your popular tune get “spiked” was a sign you had made it big.
Though WW2 era songs about Hitler and All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth are all well and good, they’re certainly not Shindigable. However, like any novelty man worth his weight in buffalo nickels, Spike released a Horror record. 1959’s Spike Jones in Hi-Fi featured a ghastly cover with Spike as a Teenage Brain Surgeon surrounded by monsters. The album had lots of horror goings-one including a reference to Plan 9 featuring Vampira herself, Ms. Malia Nurmi. Even legendary singer and voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft, most notable for being Tony The Tiger and singing You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, makes an appearance.
But for our part, it is track 6 which concerns us, a monster of a referential monster party tune, and one of the older Monster Songs on the playlist.
Spike details the gathering of Monsters big and small at his Monster Movie Ball, and as we’ve said several times around here, a full 3 years before Boris Pickett and his Cryptkickers.
But Spike’s song isn’t simply a Monster Song, featuring generic avatars of the Big 5. Nay! Monster Movie Ball, as its name suggests, is a bonafide referential hitter. In addition to name dropping all the classics, Spike finds time to reference House of Wax and The Mole People and actual creep Peter Lorre.
But he even mentions real-world singing fiends like Vampira, Zacherlee, Dave Savile’s Witch Doctor, and makes Dracula do the Cha Cha Cha à la Bruno Martino. Not too shabby.
So Spike, my apologies. Though you’ve been with us for 20 years and have been passed over, time and time again for 10, today is your day. Welcome aboard, buddy!
Speaking of Jack and Jim, here’s another duo knockin’ out some more old time Monster Roll for ya.
Clifton Nivison and Martin Fulterman (the Clif and Marty here, respectively) were both former members of The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble. As it happens, they’re also former members of Former Members of The New York Rock Ensemble, but that’s a separate and confusing matter involving Opal Records selling a bunch of their music without Clif or Marty’s knowledge.
The Rock Ensemble were a group of Juilliard music students who decided to bust out some Rock ‘N Roll using conventional orchestral instruments. A novel concept at the time, to be sure.
After releasing 5 albums over the course of 6 years, The Rock Ensemble parted ways. Seems Clif and Marty were disillusioned with the Ensemble’s lack of commercial success, and signed with Specter Records/Opal Productions in order to make some career headway.
At Opal, Clif and Marty acted as a kind of utility duo, recording demos, writing music for other acts and releasing tunes under various pseudonyms.
And their single, Monster Movies, appears to have been just that kind of assignment.
Now, why Opal Records would assign these 2 guys some novelty Monster song in 1972 is anyone’s guess. What was the temperature on Monster Songs in ‘72? Hell, I couldn’t tell ya, cause the only other Track on Halloween Shindig from 1972 is Edgar Winter’sFrankenstein, and that’s definitely not a novelty monster song. In fact, ‘66 through ‘73 is a pretty barren wasteland for that kinda stuff, at least as far as this playlist is concerned anyway.
Now, that’s not to say the public wasn’t hungry for Monster Songs in ‘72, it just means there aren’t any that I’ve found or found and enjoyed enough to add to a 300+ rooster of songs which pretty much meet that exact specification. Just saying.
Regardless of how the 45-buying folks of 1972 felt, this is a fun and referential jam which goes so far as to specifically declare its love, not just for Godzilla, but directly to him, as though he might be out there somewhere in the South Pacific listening. Now, I gotta give that kinda thing just a little bit of love myself.
Outside of The Ensemble, and this particular single, I can’t suss out much about our boy Clifton, but Martin Fulterman is a bit of a different story.
See, Martin apparently changed his name to Mark Snow and went on to compose music for an almost absurd amount of Films, TV movies and shows. The most notable of his creations, no doubt, has got to be the famous X-Files Theme.For real? Ole Monster Movie Marty? Pretty snazzy lineage attached to a 40 year old novelty song.
Other Mark Snow projects of note (to me anyway) include Ernest Saves Christmas, Dolly Dearest, Project ALF, Skateboard, TJ Hooker and even Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. And let me tell you, that’s cutting the list real short.
Mark Snow has composed, written songs for or worked on the music department of more shit than you’d believe. Over 350 different credits, including some ridiculous sounding TV movie called Ghosts Can’t Do It, which sounds like some PG-rated Lifetime version of Hellraiser that somehow features our 45th President himself, Mr. Donald Trump.
I’ll just leave you with that as we drop the needle on Clif and Marty’s lone 45, Monster Movies.
We said we’re diggin’ deep and clearing out the bullpen in 2023, so here’s a Halloween compilation staple that’s been kicking around for longer than I can remember.
I’m glad I waited though, since last year’s Halloween Ends turned this Referential Monster dinger into a full blown Inclusive jam.
And much like Pete Antell’s It’s Halloween,Jack and Jim’s classic Midnight Monsters Hop is the best thing going for Halloween Ends and it’s literally the first minute and a half of the film.
Seriously, you can stop watching after this song ends. In fact, you could just listen to this, which features the opening dialogue with the entire tune, and probably have a more satisfying time than wading through that fan-fic grade afterthought jerk-off session they tried to pass off as the ultimate bookend to a legendary 40-year-old Horror saga. Hell, H20 is a more satisfying conclusion to the whole affair than that turd.
But I digress, cause we got this song. A bonafide Halloween jammer from 1959. Yep, you read that right. 3 years before Boris Pickett unveiled his own swinging Monster Party, Jack and Jim were laying the groundwork for monster get-togethers everywhere.
However, Bert Convy still has ‘em all beat, and no doubt provided inspiration to both, with his 1958 cut simply titled The Monsters Hop.
Credit where it’s due though, cause I think Jack and Jim here are serving up probably the swingingest tune of the bunch. It’s used to great effect in Halloween Ends too, actually tricking you into thinking you’re about to watch something cool. No such luck.
We’ve led it in, of course, with hometown hero Willy the Kid on WURG The Urge… Haddonfield’s home for rock!
You gotta love it when a horror movie gives you some solid DJ action, and Willy gets it good to The Cramp’sI Was a Teenage Werewolf. At least, I guess he gets it good. As good as that turkey is giving anyway. Unfortunately, he’s a little underutilized in the story and his death scene feels like it’s ripped from some other movie. Some movie you might rather be watching.
At least compared to the one you’ve been watching. I’m not sure the movie on display at WURG is worth watching either, but at least Michael’s not getting slapped around in a cave by some dildo who been getting bullied by a bunch of high school band dorks. A shame really, what they did to Michael.
And not just in Halloween Ends either (though perhaps the most undignified) but the whole damn lot of it, all the way down the line. From making him Laurie’s brother, to bringing him back from complete incineration, to positing him as some sort of Druid-curse vessel, to making his mask CG, to letting Busta Rhymes karate kick him out a window on a reality show, to making him some generic bullying victim with a white trash stripper mom.
It’s unfortunate that Michael couldn’t have been left to just wander off into the Halloween night, never to be seen again. Now there’s a reconned remakequel I could get behind.
Oh well, at least we got the 1st minute or so of Halloween Ends, featuring this classic monster tune from a duo who, like I so wish I could say for Michael Myers, we never heard from again.
My quest to find more and more Monstery Halloween songs for this playlist has gotten to point where I have to dig a little deeper than usual.
Anymore nowadays, the songs I’m coming across aren’t always readily available. This has lead to me hunting down and purchasing some rarer records without the benefit of hearing them first.
This has been pretty fun though. In an age where virtually any song you can imagine is easily accessible somewhere virtually, it’s added a bit of excitement back into discovering music. Waiting for a video to pop up randomly, or for someone to post a record for sale, or simply waiting for that record to arrive feels akin to something from a bygone era.
Now, that can also be frustrating too, because if a song isn’t streaming on music services, and no one has posted it on YouTube, there’s a good chance it’s also not available for sale either. So now I just got a pile of potential additions and Lord knows if I’ll ever be able to hear ‘em.
But there’s also been plenty of occasions where, despite not being digitized somewhere (or somewhere easily searchable) a physical copy is still available to purchase. As you might imagine though, this has lead to some disappointments. Such is the gamble. It’s much easier when someone has already posted whatever song it is I’m looking for to YouTube so I can easily disregard it or snatch it up at no personal time or monetary expense.
But that’s the fun.
And when it pays off, it’s definitely worth it.
And then, you write all of that, and during a cursory bit of information gathering while finalizing the post, you type the name of that song into a Google search and find out that not only was the song posted to YouTube 8 fucking years ago, but it was posted by the song’s goddamn author and singer.
Such is the case with our 2023 opener, The Night of the Monster’s Party from The Monsters.
What the fuck, YouTube? Not one time did your internal search pull this video. Not once! And across many pages. Trust me, I kept clicking.
But a simple Google search (so simple in fact I can’t believe I hadn’t done it until that moment) pulls that shit up as the first goddamn hit!? You’re owned by goddamn Google, you piece of shit.
So, rather than the line,
“It still seems wild to me that I had to purchase this 45 to be able to hear this tune.“
which I had written,
I now need to type something stupid like;
“It’s wild to me that I went through the entire process of finding this 45 for sale, purchasing it, waiting for it to arrive in the mail and throwing it on my turntable to hear this song, when all I had to do was a fuckin’ Google search.”
Seriously? I have to write that shit? On a blog that gets broadcast to anyone across the planet with an internet connection? Jesus.
Now, I suppose I could have just erased that shit, and went about my business, but where’s the fun in that? All of what I said above is still true for a bunch of other songs we’ve got lined up this year, and I believe it. Plus, it is kinda funny to read it back in retrospect, realizing what a moron I was.
But I severely digress.
In my defense (but just barely) Bill forgot his own song’s party was possessive, which apparently threw the YouTube search engine into some fuckin’ algorithmic tail spin that returned nothing but My Little Pony videos instead of the 70’s monster song that all of my viewing history should’ve alerted YouTube that I was actually looking for. That, and no one had yet linked Bill’s video on Discogs. No excuse, ultimately, but I’ve since corrected that little error too. Twice over now.
Interestingly, Bill provides this bit of insight on the video’s description:
“I recorded this in 1973 and released it on Dart Records. We recorded at Chappells studio and called ourselves The Monsters. I think we released it just prior to Halloween. We did the rounds on Capital Radio etc and I have photographs of me with fangs and a facefull of black and white makeup. Those were the days!!!! We had quite a few sales but not enough to get in the charts I am afraid!”
That’s some solid firsthand info right there. He even tossed in a shout out to Halloween. Double bonus. Let’s go for the hat trick!
The upshot of actually purchasing this 45 was that the seller included an awesome promotional sheet. Check this shit out!
Now that’s what I call a win.
Not sure if I’d call this a “disco beat” though. But hey, Dart’s gotta sell this shit to, I dunno, whoever the hell’s in the market for Monster music in 1974. Disco freaks? Beats me. Was anyone even into Disco in ‘74? Was Disco even Disco in ‘74? Cause this shit don’t sound like Disco to me, so maybe Disco was different then.
Either way, that’s of no concern to us really, cause this song’s great however you classify it.
But we should address the cause of this whole YouTube search fiasco to begin with; that apostrophe S.
Cause this is the night of the Monster’s Party, as we previously discussed. It’s possessive. Now, Bill forgot that part, leading to our search debacle, but even Dart Records here seem to be confused. The 45 says Monster’s, and this promotional sheet says both Monsters and Monster’s. Ok then.
I’m going with that Monsters shit is a typo, and it’s Monster’s. It’s their party.
But wait. These guys singing areThe Monsters. So that’s a extra layer of confusion. Is it their party?
Now, they’re not these Monsters, who are also Monsters from this exact same time period, not to add further confusion or anything. These LARPers in the graveyard here aren’t from Britain. But well get to them, and their own “Disco” monster jam in just bit.
Back to this party.
Now, in the event you’re thinking thus might be some kinda backstage, monster groupie, sex drugs and disco-get-together, fear not. The lyrics set the record straight pretty quick.
In an old castle, Dracula, Frankenstein and the Werewolf are dancing to a song. Not this song of course, cause that wouldn’t make much sense and I’m pretty sure Monsters don’t actually listen to this kinda shit. But they’re dancing to a tune. 74? I’m gonna say it was Dark Lady by Cher. Why not?
But then the Mummy shows up later and gets scared by some other bloodsucking vampire, I guess. Even Dracula’s Daughter joins at one point! She might be the scary vampire. Unclear. But what is clear is that these are the real titular Monsters, and thus the party is their’s.
They say it’s happened all before, which is weird. Perhaps these guys do this a lot. Or maybe they’re just referring to The Monsters Hop (not possessive), or possibly even the Midnight Monsters Hop (also not possessive), or the dozens of other “Hey, let’s have Dracula dance around with Frankenstein while Wolfman plays the bass or some shit” songs, cause why not, right? If they got together, monsters would grab instruments and dance and party and eat plasma pizza, would they not?
The most curious lyric though is the warning, for us the listeners, to lock our doors. Why? These monsters all seem pretty occupied dancing around in this old castle. The one chick’s hungry from some monster pie, what the fuck that is. She tryin to eat one of these dudes? She just tryin to get balled out at this party? What’s her deal?
There’s no indication that they’re heading out afterwards to tear up the countryside. Maybe do a little fuckin, but that’s upstairs. Chances are, if these dudes weren’t singing to us about this soirée, we wouldn’t even know it was happening at all.
I’ll lock my doors all right, don’t worry about that pal. But not because some literary characters are dancing with a creature I’ve never seen before in an old castle I don’t live anywhere near. Pretty sure I’m good, bud. I appreciate the warning and all, but I’m not too concerned about this party spilling out onto the streets of Los Angeles. The pantsless meth-head posted up in a tent on the corner, shouting into a pay phone that hasn’t worked since 2005 is all the motivation I need to keep those fuckers fully bolted.
Unnecessary warnings aside, kicking off our Referential Monster of a year in perfect monster party fashion, with a little help from the Mysterioso Pizzicato no less, it’sThe Monsters with The Night of the Monster’s Party.
So, here’s a slice of bizarro-70’s-monster-weirdness I wish I knew existed back in 2018 when we did our Christmas episode of Shindig Radio. It’s the exact sort of thing I was trying to include.
Thankfully, it’s here now, so let’s talk about it.
Back in 1974, it would appear as though someone just casually listening to Boris Pickett’sMonster’s Holiday and thought it would be a great idea for an entire novelty concept album.
And they were right, cause this thing is awesome.
Now, it’s not exactly the same as Monster’s Holiday because the monsters don’t rob Santa, as they plan to do in Boris’ song. What’s happening here is that Frankenstein’s Monster is sick and dying. Ok, off to a weird start. But then, just going right along with the weirdness, he laments that he’s never been invited to a Christmas party. So, as some kinda Make-A-Wish Foundation move, the Association of Monsters decide to throw him a Christmas Party.
It’s a bizarre concept, no doubt, but it features a couple of fun new monsters tunes, a few classic Christmas carol renditions and some fantastic voice acting.
So, if you’re feeling like your Christmas is lacking a little Monster action, fire this thing up, because it’s one monstrously jolly listen.
“Man, I really love that Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein, but I just wish it had more synths, ya know? Like some newer synths…and maybe even a drum machine, yeah! And hey, what if it had some lyrics too, ya know, instead of being an instrumental? And dude, the lyrics could really be about Frankenstein, so it would actually be a real monster song! And oh shit, what if Edgar himself, weirdo, freaky 70’s looking, literal-ass whitest dude ever was rappin’ all over the motherfucker?”
Well my friend, have I got some good news for you today, courtesy of Edgar Winter’svery own Frankenstein 1984.
Yep.
Now, why Edgar decided to update Frankenstein, I couldn’t say. I wasn’t able to find any interviews with him talking about this particular version. But my guess is, Edgar is a pretty experimental guy. The original Frankenstein was the first ever #1 hit to heavily feature a synthesizer. And Edgar is perhaps the inventor of what we think of today as a keytar, as he was the first one to strap the ARP2600’s keyboard around his neck.
As synthesizer technology and their use in popular music grew over the decade or so following this hit, I’m sure Edgar wanted to take another stab at it and incorporate more electronic instrumentation.
Now, why…in addition to this…Edgar decided to remix a slightly different version of the song and then rap over the top of it…that’s about anyone’s guess. As we’ve reckoned many times here on The Shindig before, Rap was starting to emerge as a legitimate musical force and in those early days, everybody decided to take swing.
So let’s thank Edgar Winterfor deciding to throw his hat in the ring and take a song with dubious connections to both Halloween and Frankenstein himself and turn it into the full-blown epic Monster Rap we always wished it could be.
He even went so far as to call it the Monster Rap version.
Dashiki enthusiast and suspected racial appropriator Johnny Wakelin sang a lot of songs about boxers. Not the dogs mind you, but dudes who put on gloves and punch the shit out of each other.
Over a roughly 30 year span, Johnny released 12 different songs about boxers. Of courseMuhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson each got 2 a piece, but that’s still no mean feat.
It all seemed to start in 1972, when he wrote a song called Hungarian Superman about Hungarian boxer Joe Bugner.
Apparently no one cared though.
Then Joe Bugner lost to both Muhammad Ali and Ghost Fever star Joe Frazier. 12 rounders to be sure, and by decisions, but still L’s none the less.
So, Johnny figured he’d just rework Joe’s tune to be about Muhammad Ali and call it Black Superman instead. Keen.
This time people seemed to care. Well, at least a little. The song hit number 7 in the UK. It only reached number 21 here in the states, but it stayed in the top 100 for 6 months! Not too shabby for a weird ass tune from some British guy about an American boxer.
Figuring if it ain’t broke it ain’t broke, Johnny whipped up In Zaire, a song about Ali’s famous 1974 bout dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle” against George Foreman. That one didn’t do as well, but still had some legs.
After a few underperforming singles including Africa Man, Cream Puff and Afro Afrique, he attempt to rebottle the lightning with 1986’s Bruno, about boxer Frank Bruno.
That didn’t do so hot either.
Later down the line Johnny thought, fuck it, I’ll write songs about all kinds of boxers including Sugar Ray Leonard, Prince Nassem Hamed and even my own hometown hero Rocky Marciano.
Now, you may be thinking “Gee, that’s real swell, pal, but what the fuck does that have to do with Halloween, you blithering jackass.”
A fair question.
Well, it seems that in the middle of all this pugilist pop, and for seemingly no good reason at all, ole Johnny decided to jump on the disco train and bring some of that spooky monster party shit with him. What?
So, he grabbed up an instrumental disco tune from Harold Faltermeyer – yep Top Gun, Fletch Theme, Axel F Harold Faltermeyer – and slapped some silly Monster Mash-fashioned lyrics over the whole thing.
The result was Dr. Frankenstein’s Disco Party, a bonafide Monster Disco jammer that’s as grooving as it is bizarre.
Seriously, this song rules. And it hits all the notes you want for a monster party disco hit. You got Dracula, Mummies, Zombies, fuckin Bigfoot and even a nod to Frankenstein’s Monster himself. Hell, all the invitations to this Shindig are delivered by bat for fuck’s sake. It’s incredible! Johnny should have ditched the boxing motif and stuck with the monster parties, you ask us.
So let’s say gold riddance to this disco block with a little underground groove about a bunch of bloodaholics.
Unfortunately for everyone listening, that’s not where the “Disco Dracula” ends.
Cause every once and a while The Shindig stumbles across a song that’s definitely not good, but not totally unlistenable, that practically insists upon itself to make the playlist.
Dracula Disco is just such a song.
Because where else do you put this? Where else does this thing get the nod? When else does this song get its day?
But maybe it shouldn’t get its day, because that place doesn’t exist. Maybe it should just get buried in a hole somewhere where you put uninspired, and dubious cash-in trash like this.
Well, unfortunately for that hole, such a place does exist. And that place is Halloween Shindig. And that day is today.
But holy shit. This is the kind of thing that give disco a bad name.
Say what you want about something like Soul Dracula, or Disco Blood, but those songs cut rugs. This shit…this Dracula Disco shit…this is bland, repetitive, cash grabby garbage. Hell, it barely qualifies as music. You can’t dance to this shit! Isn’t that the soul purpose of disco, to at least get your feet moving? What is this song’s purpose? Who is this song for? It’s definitely for us, right now, in hindsight. But I mean in its day, to whom was this appealing to? To whom was this being sold, I ask!
Not gonna lie though, this guy does a pretty good Dracula, but the song isn’t asking much of him in the way of singing. Also, his party is poorly attended and whack as fuck. What’s he got? 2 guests and some lights? A little music? Well, if it’s shit like Dracula Disco, count me out, Conde.
Where’s the cavalcade of monsterous party goers? Where’s the plasma pizza or the blood ballon race? This party doesn’t even have a spooky DJ. This party is lazy and so is this song.
Unfortunately, lazy though it might be, it’s exactly the kind of thing that needs to be on this playlist. Because, where else do you put a thing like Dracula Disco, if not in a trash can?
Also, that LP cover is pretty fantastic. Dude has a coffin guitar, so what the hell.
I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to talk about this nugget of nostalgic goodness, and smack dab in the middle of a Monster Disco Block seemed like the perfect place. Because, ya know, there’s no better way to segue out of fully audible quasi-consensual Vampire fucking than to start taking about children’s breakfast mascots.
Additionally, it appears dragging my feet for years has actually timed this post up to the 50th anniversay of the Monster Cereals, commemorated here with their own all-star box of super-group cereal called Monster Mash! Albertsons, Ralphs and Target all failed me on this box. When every single goddamn physical retail store finally succumbs to the will of Amazon, let The Monster Mash Cereal be their epitaphs!
As an added bonus, the crew teamed up to produce a new version of Boris Pickett’s classic graveyard smash, The Monster Mash. The song’s kind of trash, as Monster Mash covers go, but you can scan this QR code and listen to it on Spotify. They even made a mildly amusing Behind the Music-style video as accompaniment, and that’s worth a watch.
But I digress.
Anyone who’s probably actually reading these posts are well aware of the Monster Cereals. They’re iconic, even if you’ve never indulged in a bowlful of their colorful and crunchy crap.
Before these cartoon creatures came to be, cereal giant General Mills used to use Disney-owned properties to slang their morning crack. But in 1971, they decided it would be a hell of a lot more profitable if they just invented their own characters and kept all the proceeds. Enter Franken Berry and Count Alfred Chocula. Yep, Chocula has a name and that name is apparently Alfred.
So, smashed between Saturday morning cartoons, General Mills unleashed their animated monsters and grabbed the minds and stomachs of an entire generation.
Interesting side note: apparently in 1972, they began using a pigment in Franken Berry which actually turned kids shit pink. They even had a term for it known as “Franken Berry Stool.” Not sure whether this pigment was actually harmful or not, but they discontinued using it shortly thereafter none the less.
But because turning kid turds funny colors while pushing an addictive powder directly into their bloodstreams only makes you so much money, an entire marketing web was established. Stickers, rings, vinyl toys, magnets, and other such pieces of plastic were either shoved into the boxes, or featured as mail-away prizes on the back.
Well in 1979, General Mills began a campaign of of thin, flexible 45rpm records known as Flexi-Discs. These prizes were attached directly the backs of specially marked boxes of the each of the Monster Cereals.
3 of these 4 minute records were produced featuring the gang performing skits, including Monster Adventures in Outer Space and Count Chocula Goes to Hollywood. But it is the 3rd record which concerns us today, The Monsters Go Disco. It was 1979, after all.
This tale involves the monsters finding themselves frightfully lonely on a Saturday Night and deciding to give the local discotheque a go.
There they encounter a Wolfman Jack like disc jockey and have themselves a good ole fashioned dance off for the affections of “Donna Disco.”
But for now, let’s us indulge in a little lull amidst our Monster Disco Block and get a little Franken Berry Stool of our own with The Monsters Go Disco.
Dr. Hackensteinby Claude LeHanaff and Hard Roaders
Sometime after Stuart Gordon made Re-Animator but before Henenlotter made Frankenhooker, writer/director Richard Clark released his lone feature, Dr. Hackenstein, which combines elements of both in a more traditional Frankenstein setting.
It’s a quaint little horror comedy that, while not especially noteworthy, is perfectly watchable and even somewhat charming. I’d have a hard time imagining anyone who likes either of the aforementioned films not finding at least something about this one they enjoy. Particularly considering the FX, which were provided by none other than Kurtzman, Nicotero and Berger EFX Group. Ya know, B.C. KNB EFX
It stars David Murr from Neon Maniacs as the titular physician, a guy who you’d almost mistake for Roddy McDowell. Playing along side him, as the main damsel in bodily distress, is the lovely Stacey Travis, whom some of you may recognize from Phantasm 2, Hardware or even Earth Girls Are Easy.
Additionally, you get some fun guest appearances from both Ramseys Anne and Logan, Phyllis Diller, and that cheapskate Hotel Manager from Ghostbusters! Not a bad showing.
What’s more? You guessed it. With only one feature to his credit, Richard Clark had the wherewithal to include an honest to God Title Track.
That egghead Stanley Kubrick never had a Title Track. Some auteur he was. No wonder he never got an Oscar. And don’t give me any of that “Well, Dr. Strangelove’sWe’ll Meet Again was technically a Title Track from the musical We’ll Meet Again” baloney, cause I ain’t having it! If we all just start throwing other people’s Title Tracks into our movies with different titles and no Title Tracks and and then calling them Title Tracks, what does that make us? No better than the terrorists, that’s what.
100% anachronistic and totally 80’s, this goofy as all get-out Title Track gets the extra special treatment of being a Sweet Song too boot. Double bonus!
So, sit back and relax, the doctor will see you now.
He calls himself an Obstetrician! He’s Dr. Hackenstein.
(It’s A) Monsters’ Holidayby Buck Owens and The Buckaroos
On Oct. 30th 1973, Hee-Haw co-host and future Country Hall of Fame inductee Buck Owens entered his Bakersfield California studio with his Buckaroos to record this shit-kickin’ country creep-out.
Released the following summer, just ahead of Halloween 1974, (It’s A) Monsters’ Holiday reached #6 on the Billboard Country Charts. Not bad for a silly monster song.
And boy howdy, is this one silly.
Rattling off all kinds of monsters – Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Dracula, The Hunchback, Gremlins, Goblins, Mummies and Zombies – Buck Owens gives shout outs all around in this goofy and upbeat tune.
Now, why all of these Monsters inexplicably appearing in Buck’s bedroom constitutes a “holiday” I couldn’t well say. To me, it just sounds like more work.
Cause for Monsters, scaring people is their job, right? At least, you could say it’s not below their pay-grade. So, if they’re just doing their job, than it sounds like they’re at work. Not much of a holiday, just doing what you do for a living.
Now, if they were hanging out by the pool, hittin’ the slopes, or yuckin it up down at the local Monster VFW, I could see considering this a nice little reprieve from their everyday responsibilities; a true holiday.
As it stands, this doesn’t sound like much of a vacation to me. But it does sound like one down home, country-fried Shindiggin’ Halloween hoedown if I’ve ever heard one.
Mostly a funked-out disco instrumental, we filled that track with some fun samples from Blacula and called it a day.
Now, the soul returns with Dr. Beezar, Soul Frankenstein!
True to form, it’s mostly a funked-out disco instrumental, so this time so we shoved in a bunch of samples from Blackenstein.
Unfortunately, BlaculaBlackenstein is not.
What could have (and probably should have) been a fun, campy and exploitative horror romp like its predecessor, slowly unfurls into a dull, plodding and joyless affair that isn’t funny, scary or entertaining.
The Dr. Frankenstein character (here called simply Dr. Stein) isn’t even Black! What kinda sense does that make?
Featuring a plot that resembles something more akin to The Island of Dr. Moreau, you’re getting limited horrific goings-ons and even less Blacksploitation from Blackenstein. It’s as if the filmmakers were neither familiar with Mary Shelley’s classic tale or even the concept of Blacksploitation.
But enough about this crummy movie, because Captain Dax will make all of it worthwhile.
One of several aliases used by The Lafayette Afro Band, this track was a big hit in Japan in 1976. So yeah, these guys were quite literally big in Japan. I guess that’s really a thing people can be.
This boogie-down creepster features so much synthy 70’s goodness, it feels right at home among the spooky ranks of Halloween Shindig.
While I typically recommend staying away from things lightly, because most movies are at least good for a single watch, I wholeheartedly advise avoiding Blackenstein at all cost.
I do not recommend, however, avoiding Captain Dax’s funked out, Franked-up, Moogin’ groove Dr. Beezar, Soul Frankenstein!
