C’mon, ya’ll didn’t think we were gonna make it all the way through 2019 and not give ya a Freddy/Jason double header, did ya?
Naw, it’s tradition ’round here and this year we’re reaching back into The Dream Master’s bag!
And the treat we’ve pulled out is this 80’s Pop Rock classic that has much longer legs as a real standing hit than any association with Mr. Big Time.
However, associated it is and onto the Shindig it goes!
In the very ridiculous and very Karate Kid-inspired training montage from A Nightmare on Elm Street Pt. 4, you will here this Jack FM favorite.
The Dream Warrior Kristen Parker (who was here recast with theme song singer and Shindig inductee Tuesday Knight) is trying to piece a normal life back together. Part of that puzzle is her boyfriend Rick, who’s not too fond of her old “spooky” buddies Kincaid and Joey.
Sport-o Rick suits up early on to assure us that, if push comes to shove, Freddy ain’t getting to him without a fight.
He throws on one of Myagi’s spare headbands, hits the bag and flails a pair of nunchucks around to this not-particularly-tough but particularly-whiny popper from Wayne New Jersey’s own Dramarama.
Later, his sister Alice picks up the same nunchucks and Neo’s that shit with the quickness, also while listening to Anything, Anything.
If you think Rick looks kind of familiar, that’s because he plays nerdy shut-in lightweight Calvin in Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama! How’s that for timing?
So come on! Verbally berate your girlfriend and try to buy her off while being totally self absorbed and not understanding at all why she’s not at all interested in marrying your needy asss. Hey, maybe even try to beat up her dad! That’s a good move. You can use some of Rick’s bitchin’ Taekwonkido!
As I’m sure anyone reading this is probably well aware, the steaming horror platform Shudder has been airing new episodes of Greg Nicotero’s Creepshow revival.
And while the response seems to be pretty positive, with some even claiming the show “nails” the vibe and spirit of Creepshow, I would respectfully like to disagree. That show isn’t nailing anything for me except the coffin lid on the belief that “sometimes…dead is better.”
That isn’t to suggest it’s not worth watching. It’s a new, and weekly, horror anthology from Greg Nicotero and a pile of other guys directly involved with the original Creepshow. That’s definitely a commendable and worthwhile effort.
But Creepshow, it is not.
I do appear to be in the minority on this one though, so maybe I’m just an old, purest curmudgeon.
Whatever your impression of the show may be, I’d like to hope we can all agree that an area where it’s coming up disappointingly short, is its score.
I mean no disrespect to the team of composers creating music for these new installments, because they’ve produced some interesting and creepy arrangements that definitely sound good. They just don’t sound like Creepshow.
Because Creepshow has a very specific sound. And that sound is the sound of the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.
Created by Dave Smith and released in 1978, The Prophet 5 was the first completely programmable polyphonic (5 individual and articulated notes simultaneously) that featured a microprocessor for scanning knob positions, allowing for the storing and recalling of sounds; a technological revolution for the fledgling Synthesizer.
And composer John Harrison made extensive use of those novel and stock Prophet 5 presets.
So much so that the Creepshowscore practically plays like a demo track for this breakthrough instrument.
The American made Prophet 5 then became indelibly stabbed into the heart of American Horror.
The bulk of Carpenter’s scores with Alan Howarth, from Escape from New York to Halloween 3 to Christine, all feature prominent use of the board, albeit with Alan’s own programming.
Tim Krog’s score for The Boogeyman, Wakeman’s for The Burning, Brad Fidel’s for The Terminator, Jay Chattaway’s for Maniac, and probably a dozens of others, are all smeared Sequential’s sonic signature. It’s the sound of horror
The Prophet 5 and its big brother the Prophet 10 (essentially just 2 Prophet 5’s strapped together in the same enclosure) became as ubiquitous as the MiniMoog, but with a sound all its own.
It saddens me that these new composers have yet to muster much what John Harrison accomplished with just a Steinway Piano and a Prophet 5; pure 80’s synthy horror. Creepshow.
But maybe they’re not trying to. And maybe that’s the problem. Or at least my problem with it. I think they’re fine horror scores. But, to me, if you’re trying to capture the spirit of Creepshow, at least a third of that vibe lies in the score, and if you’re not trying to capture that, you’re fighting a losing battling.
And it wouldn’t be hard to do. Vintage Prophet 5’s may be expensive, but nothing outside the realm of this production or any professional composers. Hell, you could easily just rent one in here in Los Angeles, if that was a concern.
But even then, assuming you couldn’t get your hands on an original Prophet 5, modern equivalents like the Prophet 6, or a Prophet REV2 or the older but still attainable Prophet 600, would all get you right in that ballpark. A Polysix, a Trident, hell, a 300 dollar Kawai K3, could all to get ya some Creepshowy sounding stuff.
Or shit, even if you just used a laptop. There are several software recreations of the Prophet 5 (including Uhe’s excellent Repro5) which would get you so close to the mark, you’d be Creepshowing out in no time.
Seriously, with just a few clicks: Preset 2-1: Unison Glide with Resonance or any recreation of that and you’re all over Richard Watches Them Drown from Something To Tide You Over. It’s seriously that easy. No programing necessary. It’s a fuckin preset. They practically all were. The thing just sounds like Creepshow straight from the factory. It’s nuts.
So, I’m a rambling nerd right now, and I get that, but I don’t get why this show sounds the way it does. Particularly considering John Harrison – the man himself! – is involved. He’s right there, on set, directing some of these stories.
That is, unless they’re consciously tying to make it sound different. So, I have to conclude that this is the case. And it boggles my mind why you wouldn’t want it to sound like that. It’s so iconic, so 80’s, so exactly the thing they’re trying to evoke.
Now, with all that being vented, if you’re finding yourself a little disillusioned by the new music as well, let John Harrison and The Creepshow Welcome You.
We haven’t had a good Horror Theme here in a spell and it’s also been a while since we’ve had a visit Shindig All-Star Danny Elfman.
So, we’ll take care of both here with this addition that’s been waiting too long in the attic to pop out and scare us all.
What can we say about Beetlejuice that hasn’t been said? If you’re reading this, chances are we don’t need to tell you how great this film is, but I’m sure I’ll tack on at least a couple sentences below this that will do just that. So, who am I kidding exactly?
Arguably Tim Burton’s finest contribution to the world, everything from it’s off-beat story, wonderful production design, inspired special FX and iconic titular performance from Michael Keaton all coalesce to make this a bona fide horror comedy classic that has truly stood the test of time. I’m still shocked to see how much Beetlejuiceshit I see around on Halloween. Hell, I just saw one of those obnoxious inflatable lawn decorations in a store that was a sandworm! It was the first one I ever even remotely considered putting on the front lawn.
And that is to say nothing of Danny Elfman’s amazing score, which fits this film like a black and white striped suit.
So grab a sheet, you’re handbook for the recently deceased and let’s scare the hell out of the Deetz’s!
It has come to our attention that the previously slotted song, for reasons that will hopefully become clear to Shindig fans soon enough, does not deserve a place at this table.
The short version is that Captain Clegg and his Night Creatures are apparently villainous (possibly even fictitious!) scoundrels, ungraciously aping the vibe and appearance of Shindig All-Stars, The Ghastly Ones. And an affront to The Ghastly Ones is an affront to this playlist.
Despite its Halloweeniness, and its appearance in a Halloween film (albeit Rob Zombie’s unfortunate Halloween II) we can no longer, in good conscience, continue to host it on this playlist.
And I’m quite sure they’ll be terribly upset, too. Who am I kidding right now with all this official business? No one sees this blog or reads any of my nonsense, least of all the bands that are featured here within.
Unless that band is The Ghastly Ones.
So while, Captain Clegg may never be aware that this playlist is here, or that he was ever here, or that he was then removed – Norman, Garret, Kevin and Dave may very well. And as far as we’re concerned, they’re the only Ones that matter.
So, we now interrupt your regularly scheduled Halloween song…Without Warning!
Santa Monica Blvd. Boyby Linnea Quigley and The Skirts
About an hour into Nightmare Sisters, we get something much more interesting, appropriate and better than anything Haunted Garage has to offer, no disrespect to Dukey intended.
That’s when Linnea Quigley’s succubus-possessed Melody grabs a mic and puts on a show.
Yep, that’s right. Linnea Quigley herself sings this inclusive track and permanently seals her fate upon The Shindig.
When a Scream Queen (particularly one as beloved by this blog as Linnea Quigley) sings an inclusive (or hell, non-inclusive….more on that later) it would be a crime against the holiday not to include that upon our Hallowed list.
Linnea seems to be detailing a problem in which a boy she’s been seeing has left her for another person. A boy, in fact. A Santa Monica Blvd. Boy, even.
This boggles my mind. Not that this boy might leave Linnea for another boy. That’s fine. Do you’re thing, pal. Sexuality can be a tricky and grey spectrum which can defy all conventional categorization. No judgements here, friend. In fact, I’d like to extended a gracious “thank you” for freeing Linnea so that she might pursue a more meaningful physical relationship with say, oh i don’t know, me.
No. What boggles my mind is that he would leave her at all. This boy is obviously confused and looking for love in a place other than the vicinity of Linnea Quigley. Ok, don’t get that, but fine.
If I may, Linnea. I’d like to politely suggest that, rather than feeling forlorn over this dear confused chap, you could move onto one of the,.. shit, I’ll conservatively say tens of thousands of other boys that will not only not leave you for some other boy, but not leave you at all for any other person period. Just a friendly recommendation.
All kidding aside (seriously though Linnea, I can be reached at ed@halloweenshindig.com) it is our utmost pleasure to officially add Linnea Quigley to the roster of performers on Halloween Shindig, with her upbeat and inclusive track Santa Monica Blvd. Boy!
Right on the heels of Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, David DeCoteau grabbed up Linnea, Brinke, Michelle and most of the crew, then ran across town to began shooting this sister film. 4 days later they had Nightmare Sisters in the can.
Another silly and scandalous horror/nudie/sex comedy from DeCoteau and company, Nightmare Sisters is a fun flick that would make a great double-feature with Bowl-O-Rama.
We mentioned Dukey Flyswatter in our last post, as he provides the voice of old Uncle Impy. Dukey also appears here, in his human form, as the opportunistic mystic Omar.
Dukey Flyswatter, however, is just the stage name of actor/singer/writer Michael Sonye, who also happens to be the lead singer of L.A. splatterpunk outfit Haunted Garage.
As such, Haunted Garage provides 4 different tracks for Nightmare Sistersand our selection this evening, Sorority Sister Succubus acts as an introductory track, running over the film’s opening credits.
What better way to follow up a David DeCoteau sorority flick without a title track, than with another David DeCoteau sorority flick with an almost title track about sorority sisters from a movie called something else?
If ever a movie was crying out for a Title Track, it might be David DeCoteau’s 1988 cheeseball classic Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama.
Unfortunately, we’re not that lucky.
However, we do get the superbly 80’s and synthed-out pop number Here In Darkness.
Could this have been a Title Track? Eh, maybe. That’s a hard Title to squeeze into any melodic structure, much less this one, which is pretty tight. Additionally, and probably more applicable, the film was originally (and more lamely) titled The Imp.
Legend has it (read: IMDb trivia) that Charlie Band himself held a contest at Empire Pictures to retitle the movie. Bitchin’ Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama was chosen. However, the MPAA, purveyors of quality changes the industry over, decided “bitchin,” (despite is non-derogatory use) wasn’t stickin’ around. Plain old Sorority Babes it is.
Which is fine by me, as the Sorority Babes themselves aren’t all that bitchin’ to begin with. Now, B&E babe Linnea Quigley’s Spider, on the other hand, is plenty bitchin for the lot of them.
But anytime you get Brinke Stevens, Michelle Bauer and Linnea Quigley tag teaming on a sumbitch, you’re in for the goods, full stop.
Now throw in Stoogie from Night of the Demons, Valerie from Slumber Party Massacre, career Bum and literal dude that’s basically been in everything Buck Flower, plus a Dukey Flyswatter voiced puppet Imp with attitude to spare and you’ve got all the makings for a late night, low budget cult classic in waiting.
So grab a brewski, a bowling trophy and a Tri Beta paddle and join them all Here In Darkness!
All right. So I think we can all agree He’s Coming Back is a pretty bad Monster Rap.
I mean, it’s a Good Monster Rap, in that it’s a prime example of what these songs are all about and how that usually just goes terribly awry. But it is not a Good Monster Rap. Dig?
So, in an effort to redeem the Monster Rap genre (if that’s even feasible or worthy of attempt) we present to you Scream by Ice MC.
If you’re not familiar with Ice MC, please do not feel the least bit bad. This is no deficiency on your part.
Mostly likely this is because you’re either:
An American.
Not listening to Raggamuffin rap and/or
A regular person doing regular things and not wasting what short time we have on this planet associating with shit like Scream by Ice MC. And I don’t blame you. I sometimes wish I was just that sort of person doing just those sorts things, whatever they may be.
In fact, I was that person until last week. Well, I was those first 2 types of people, anyway. Still an American too. Still not listening to any Ragamuffin rap, either. However, I do know what it is now and I have heard this song and I am quite presently wasting all kinds of precious time with it. But I digress.
I was definitely not familiar with this song until last week. That’s when Shindig super enthusiast and research beast Devin Connors hipped me to this track. And within about 30 seconds I knew he’d discovered gold.
What Ice MC has created here is a more approachable and less Faygo-drenched associative Monster Rap than a similarly themed example from another ice-based rapper.
Ice MC sets his sights and weird British accent to referencing several horror movies amidst the heavy electronic back beat and sample-stuffed rhythms of the Raggamuffin sound; a subset of Dancehall and Reggae music where sampling forms the backbone of the melody.
What unfolds is something somewhat unique in the Monster Rap game; A song strangely catchy, somewhat legitimately fun and yet laughably ridiculous. Boardering on bad while flirting with good, this song rests in a limbo not entirely either.
Run DMC’s Ghostbusters is too crafted to be thought silly. The Chucky Song too white and corporate to be considered real. Or something like last night’s He’s Coming Back, which is a bit too tedious to be genuinely enjoyed.
While attempting to pull some samples from Repossessed for its Title Track, I naturally stumbled across this end credit oddity, which can only be called a gem when you host a playlist like the one I’ve constructed here.
A highly referential Monster Rap Sweet Song? Oh, this is going on the playlist for sure, I don’t care how bad it is.
That this is my knee jerk reaction is a bit of a shame, because this song is bad. And I mean it’s bad, so I apologize for that.
So bad in fact, that you happen to be looking at the proud recipient of 1990’s Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Song from a Motion Picture.
I hope you all can understand and appreciate it’s inclusion. My compulsive need to include inclusive (and referential) Monster Raps Sweet Songs prevents me from treating this thing objectively, or considering your overall enjoyment of this playlist. But my hope is you can at least see why, when stumbling upon something of this nature, it has to be included.
Well, either way I apologize.
In fairness, the verses aren’t so bad. It’s really the chorus here that’s dragging this whole track down. But lyrically, you’re getting a heaping helping of allusions to the film, plenty of bizarro lines and a rhyme structure that is off-center, to say the least.
Not helping matters is it’s length. It’s crazy to me to think Repossessed had enough credits to sustain a 4 minute song. For real? That many heads on Repossessed? They must roll at an unnaturally slow pace, cause I don’t know what the hell all those people were doing.
I will say, I wish I had rediscovered this thing earlier so we could have had the chance to really dig into this one on our Monster Raps episodes. Oh well. Perhaps we’ll amass enough new Monster Raps to warrant a Part 3. Fingers crossed.
In closing, I do hope that somewhere, someone listening to this playlist actually likes this song. Or at the very least, appreciates the necessity of it’s inclusion, because I’m fairly sure they’ll be the only one.
While certainly not what I’d call a good movie or even all that funny, you can do a lot worse than 1990’s Horror Spoof Repossessed. Namely Transylvania 6-5000. But I digress.
The best thing going for this silly slice of parody is Linda Blair. Landing the star of the original film you’re spoofing is a big play in this racket, and here she does a fine job lampooning herself, tongue firmly in cheek. It’s neat just to see her there in the blue dress taking a poke at herself and it goes some distance to endearing this movie to a certain audience.
I’m also a sucker for Leslie Nielsen, though I have to admit, his accent takes me out of this one a little. This is not one of his crowning comedic works, but it certainly beats Spy Hard or 2001: A Space Travesty.
A lot of the jokes here don’t land well, but there are a number of smaller gags that I think work and produce some genuine laughs. This, however, is not the gold standard of horror parodies, by any means. Hell, it ain’t even a copper standard.
Making all of this a little easier to ingest though is its upbeat Title Track from Teen Witch’sown Cindy Valentine. A second (hell, maybe even 3rd or 4th) tier 80’s pop singer you may or may not be familiar with. I vaguely recognized a couple of her bigger hits (from where exactly, I could not say) but if you had no recollection of ever hearing any of her assembly line genri-pop, that would be perfectly understandishable.
I’ve yet to hear a Cindy Valentine song I didn’t like and that very much includes Never Gonna Be The Same Again from Teen Witch. But in fairness, I haven’t listened to the breadth of her catalog. I’m sure there’s some turkeys in there, even by my admittedly dubious standards.
But here it is, my personal pick from the crop of Bad and Ugly Title Tracks of Episode 8, it’s Cindy Valentinewith Reposssessed!
Since I basically read the write up for this song on Episode 10 of Shindig Radio, I’ll spare you all the tedium of posting a direct transcript.
The short version is that Transylvania 6-5000 gives you 2 different Title Tracks and hey, isn’t that swell.
The other Title Track, which plays as a Sweet Song during the end credits, is a direct spoof of Glenn Miller’s Pennsylvania 6-5000 and its serves a nice coda to the film.
And despite how I may feel about that film, which is not terribly positive, I love this Title Track which plays right at the beginning of our ill-fated adventure.
Paul Chiten delivers the goods here with a very referential and appropriately 80’s pop theme the fits the movie quite nicely.
One thing I failed to mention during the show, is that the film actually apes it’s title from a 1963 Bugs Bunny short. This may make the allusion to Glenn Miller’s 1940 big band hit a little bit more understandable; 23 years on verses 45.
Another thing I’d like to address here is, on the show Kyle and myself answer Mikey’s question about the nature of the 6-5000 incorrectly. We both quickly state it is the hotel’s address, when in fact it is the hotel’s telephone number, PEnnsylvania 6-5000, in accordance with the old telephone exchange system. What can I say? Research is not our strong suit and confident misinformation flows freely. C’est la vie, it would seem. Je suis désolé, mon Mikey!
And with all that said, we’ll just follow the best thing about Transylvania 6-5000, with the 2nd best thing about Transylvania 6-5000.
Some of you may be familiar with 2 time Face/Off contestant and Shindig Radio personality Graham C. Schofield. What you may not know, however, is that he is also a massive Frank Zappa fan.
What you may also not know is that I have known him for over 13 years. In all of those 13 years I have been compiling, in various forms, the playlist you’ve come to know as Halloween Shindig.
In fact, the first Halloween I ever spent with him took place in my old backyard in Van Nuys, CA. At this Halloween gathering, an older version of The Shindig was playing to everyone’s delight.
So why, you might ask, did it take until a random pool gathering in 2019 for Graham to casually mention that Frank Zappa had a Halloween song?
It’s a solid question, and one I’m not sure he provided a satisfactory answer to when pressed. Probably something about plants.
Whatever the reason, late is definitely better than never, as we can now add Frank Zappa to the list of very famous and accomplished musicians that can stand proudly among the greats of true Halloweendom here on the Playlist.
While we all might clearly know (or can at least quickly gather) what Frank is actually talking about here, on the surface, Goblin Girl offers a fun and festive groove that tips its hat to the Eve of All Saints. All clear over here, kid.
So take a moment to bop along with Frank and the gang and their Goblin Girl.
She’s black and green,…cause it’s Halloween!
Interesting festive side note: This album was originally release in October of 1981 on Barking Pumpkin Records!
Let’s keep the weird late 70’s Halloween Special train rolling here with this strange number from perhaps the strangest Halloween cartoon of them all, Witch’s Night Out.
First aired on October 27th in 1978, this festive Canadian offering follows the Halloween adventures of 2 children named Small and Tender. Fully disillusioned after their Werewolf and Ghost costumes fail to scare a single soul in their small town, they unwittingly call an equally disillusioned Witch to their aid.
She promptly turns them (and their weird babysitter Bazooey) into literal versions of their get-ups. They then proceed to scare the hell out of an entire Halloween party and then the whole town. Despite being hunted down like dogs by a town full of joyless assholes, the children (and then everyone else) manage to rekindle their love of All Hallows’.
Highly stylized and very 70’s, the characters are all monochromatic and the voices (provided by Gilda Radner and Catherine O’hara to name a couple) are weird. Hell, this wholething is just plain weird, but if you grew up watching it on the Disney channel during the ’80’s and ’90’s, chances are it’s nostalgic as all get out.
YouTube can definitely provide you with several trips down memory lane of varying qualities, if you feel so inclined.
As for The Shindig, we’re gonna slot in its bizarro, vocoder heavy theme song, Witch Magic and send you down an audio nostalgia trip to a time when Halloween Specials were great, and filled analog airwaves with festive joy.It’s a bag of garbage!
A Merry, Shh, Creepy Hallowe’en by David Levy & George Tibbles
The Addams Family is a staple of classic American pop culture that has evolved over time to adapt to any medium thrown its way.
The Addams took their first breaths in 1938 as a single panel comic strip from cartoonist Charles Addams. Featured in the New Yorker magazine, they would be run periodically for 50 years until Addams’ death in 1988.
During that span (and then beyond), The Addams set about conquering every corner of entertainment the tried their hand at. First as the 1964 sitcom we all know and love, which ran for 2 seasons.
In 1972, the first animated incarnation of the Addams met Scooby-Doo. After that, a variety show was planned featuring (strangley) Butch (Eddie Munster) Partrick as Pugsly. A pilot was filmed but the show was ultimately not picked up by the networks.
Then, in 1973 The Addams Family became another beloved show, this time a cartoon which also ran for 2 seasons and featured a young Jodi Foster as the voice of Pugsly. Weird!
After that, the original cast reunited for the Television film Hallowe’en with the New Addams Family. In it, the legend of old Cousin Shy is told; a Chirstmas-like tale about a family ghost that mysteriously carves pumpkins and brings presents on Halloween.
Then, in 1991, The Addams took to the big screen in the Paramount Pictures adaptation which spawned a sequel in 1993 and then a direct to video reboot starring Tim Curry as Gomez.
After that, another animated series based on the new film followed before a second live action television show took form in 1998 as The New Addams Family.
In 2010, The Addams Family took on Broadway in a musical starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Nuewirth. Was there anywhere The Addams could not make their own peculiar home?
Today, as I’m sure you’re all aware, America’s First Family of the Macabre takes another trip to the big screen and gets another animated makeover, this time of the digital variety. Now, while sadly this not the much anticipated (and later canceled) stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams’ original designs that Tim Burton had planned, it is good to see The Addams back on their feet and ready to capture a whole new generation of fans.In honor of the return of The Addams Family, Halloween Shindig presents the very Halloweeny but Christmas-like carol A Merry, Shh, Creepy Hallowe’een from their 1977 Halloween Television reunion special.
Because how long could we ignore a Halloween song sung by The Addams?
Are you into D&D, community college theater or weird masquerade sex-parties that feature no sex?
Yeah, I didn’t thi…
Wait, what? You are? Oh…all right then.
I still don’t think I should recommend 1983’s Skullduggery though, even if you have the added perquisite love for low-rent, bizarro horror movies produced by alien-people making lots of real confusing decisions.
I’m pleased to report it does feature a surprise reference to Halloween though, as you will hear attached to our next sonf, which is a totally out of left center Title Track that caught me right off guard. Skullduggery coming hard right out of the gate, huh? If only the film followed through on such a promise.
On the 1st part of Shindig Radio’s Title Tracks retrospective, we did a fair amount of clowning on this Scooby-Doo theme of a song which sounds dated even for its time. Mikey likened it to a 70’s television drama, ala Fantasy Island, and we think you’ll agree.
Despite a couple laughs had at its expense, I rather enjoy this Title Track. It’s got a good beat and is suitably mysterious, much like the plot of its namesake, Skullduggery.
Speaking of the film, you can soft pass on Skullduggery, unless you’re feeling hard pressed for something you haven’t seen before and aren’t too protective of your free time.
I will say, if you do decide to watch the film, you’ll hear this song featured prominently over its “we couldn’t really figure out how to not make this just a plain blue screen” credit sequence, which perfectly informs the next 90 minutes or so you’ll be spending with Skullduggery.
Personally, I recommend spending at least 2 minutes with it, which is just enough time to enjoy this weirdo Title Track.
And now, we have our first track to make its debut on Shindig Radio before being added to the playlist, and what a perfect song for that honor.
An 80’s disco Title Track for the slasher classic Prom Night, composer Paul Zaza cranked out a doozy with this one. Perfectly capturing the mood of the film and the vibe of its era, Prom Night is, at least sonically anyway, a fantastic Title Track.
Featured during the film’s climactic Prom sequence, it’s catchy, danceable and more importantly (like any good Title Track) it repeats the title ad nauseam.
Though, as noted by The Shindig Radio crew, that’s about where any references to either this movie or even an actual Prom, end. Which is a shame, as just a little bit could have gone a long way to taking this from just a passing Title Track to something really great.
No matter, because despite how Graham Schofield may feel about this cut, it’s unused sister Title Track or dancing disco bullshit in general, I think this song boogies.
Allegedly, this sequence was shot with a bunch of popular disco tunes playing in the background. Once the producers realized it might cost them a small fortune to secure the rights to such recognizable hits, they tasked Paul Zaza with recreating reasonable facsimiles as replacements.
Unfortunately, he only had about a week to do it.
Given the tight timeline, I think Paul knocked this one out of the park, creating a disco slasher Title Track for the ages.
Just remember, it’s not who you go with, it’s who takes you home.
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!
Here’s an interesting Frankenstein song, in that it makes the strange delineation of referring to him as Mr. Frankenstein and not Dr. Frankenstein.
Okay, fair enough. But who the hell is Mr. Frankenstein?
Well, it’s Victor Frankenstein, right? He is a Mr. Frankenstein. But why specify an honorific different then the one typically associated with this classic literary character? Don’t make no sense.
So, does he mean the monster? Could you refer to the monster as Mr. Frankenstein?
Sure, why not, right? Dr. Frankenstein is technically a kind of father, so the surname could carry over. The monster has no medical degree to speak of and is himself not a doctor. So if you were going to make the distinction, you’d make it for that reason, right?
No, no, I’m not talking about Dr. Frankenstein, I’m talking about his monster, Mr. Frankenstein.
Oh, ok then.
Well, how bout the lyrics? Surely they’ll provide some clarification.
Well, at one point this Mr. Frankenstein character (whomever he may be) opens his mouth and bites the head off the singer, thus causing him to die. Does that sound like something Dr. Frankenstein might do, or is even capable of doing? Not in my book.
Honestly, it doesn’t really sound like anything the monster would do either, but c’mon, he is a monster, so he’s probably more liable to do such a thing.
So, this song is either about unnaturally bitey Frankenstein’s Monster, or some cannibalistic jerk named Frankenstein who just happens eat people at local cafes.
Because there seems to be a serious shortage of songs specifically about The Creature from the Black Lagoon, we’re gonna spin you a twofer for the old Gillman.
This one comes from Welsh singer/songwriter/producer Dave Edmunds, who had a pretty solid career performing in several different rock acts in the late 60’s and 70’s while also producing a number of different artists.
The story behind this album is a little goofy, because by all accounts, this is an album by the band Rockpile.
You see, after several years of limited success with different bands and a solo album, Dave hooked up with notable singer/songwriter Nick Lowe. Together, with guitarist Ed Bremner and drummer Terry Williams they formed the band Rockpile. However, Lowe was signed to Stiff Records at the time and Dave was signed to Led Zeppelin label Swan Song. This caused a bit of confusion for recording and releasing albums.
What followed was a series of solo releases that actually featured the entire band as background accompaniment. These included Edmund’s 1978 Tracks on Wax 4, Lowe’s Labor of Lust and this album from 1979, Repeat When Necessary.
Offically, the writing credits for this tune belong to Ed Bremner. Now, why Ed decided to write a strange toe tapper about a 25 year old soggy monster, we may never know exactly. Why they all decided to slip it among the rest of the tracks on a fairly standard Pub Rock album, we may also never know.
My guess? Well, it’s a pretty fun tune that’ll quickly worm its way into your head.
This has been in the Shindig Bullpen for years, as it appears on Elvira’s compilation Haunted Hits. The bullpen is a secondary playlist I have filled with songs yet to get officially added or songs that I’m considering for addition. I listen to it throughout the year. I add songs, remove songs, play around with order, see what fits together nicely. That sort of deal.
For years this was a song I kinda hated. Slowly but surely though and against all odds, it finally weaseled its way into my head and I’ve come to enjoy it quite a bit. Perhaps you may find yourself having a similar response. Though, I certainly wouldn’t blame you if this one never comes around for ya like it did for me. I get it.
However, since there is that shortage I mentioned earlier and Lagoony is one of the Big 5, Dave Edmunds and his strange by the numbers rock song about a classic monster get their chance to swim.
(I’m In Love With) The Creature from the Black Lagoonby Hans Conried & Alice Pearce
Long before Guillermo Del Toro won Oscars and appalled your Grandma by having a mute girl fuck a fish man, people have been musing about what it might be like to engage in some inter-species monster sex.
While not nearly as explicit, this old time ditty comes courtesy of an unlikely duo with whom you may be at least vaguely familiar.
For some reason (perhaps other than it seemed like a solid move in the late 50’s) comedians Hans Conried and Alice Pearce released the creature feature album Monster Rally. This classic Halloween LP from 1959 features tons of fun songs and another great album cover from the legendary Jack Davis.
Let’s take a moment here to just appreciate what an awesome artist and influence on horror imagery Jack Davis was. Here’s the full painting for the Monster Rally LP.
Now, if you’re a Bewitchedfan, you may recognize Alice Pearce’s name and cadence, as she played nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz to Samantha and Darrin Stephens. Here she is:
Though it doesn’t seem like Conried makes much of an appearance on this particular tune, Alice sings up a storm detailing a brief and heartbreaking affair with our titular lagoon lurker.
In the end though, he leaves her for a sexy young flounder that swims passed. It’s all a little sad, really.
Hans Conried probably just provides some background sound FX here, but I couldn’t say for sure. Whether present or not, Hans may sound familiar to you as he is not only the voice of Dudley Do-Right antagonist Snidley Whiplash but also Captain Hook in Walt Disney’s classic Peter Pan.
More significantly (at least to the Shindig) he was the voice of Dr. Dred on The Drak Pack, and is the narrator for The Dr. Seuss Halloween Special Halloween is Grinch Night. Pretty neat. Plus he cut a fun novelty monster album? This guy’s batting 1000 right here.
So let’s take another brief moment here, amidst all of the very wholesome fare, to enjoy this short number and imagine what monster we might like to have sex with.
I’ll take the entire cast of Hammer’s Vampire Lovers.
