As I mentioned earlier this year (or rather in 2023 when I wrote this cause it was originally slated to appear 2 years ago!), I’ve had to dig around just a little deeper to find songs lately. And sometimes those songs just aren’t readily available.
Halloween by Abstractions is just that sort of tune. No one had this streaming. No one had it uploaded to YouTube. This was a pay to play deal for The Shindig and we were glad to shell out and be able to provide this digital version to the Halloween music loving world.
Anyway, seems about a month before we posted our version to the tube, someone beat us to the punch. Wish that dude beat me to the punch when I was trying to buy this album, but hey, it’s not like it was expensive, and the album’s not a wash or anything. I guess buying an album, ripping the audio, taking nice shots of the sleeve and cutting a YouTube video is a sure fire way to make it miraculously appear on YouTube right before I post it. This sentence was in reference to The Night of the Monster’s Party from that year, the post I’m referring to above. Then, I originally had a line here about EJ Rock’s Freaky Halloween which is (thankfully!) completely irrelevant now. That was a beautiful surprise development of the 2024 season.
Either way, Halloweenby Abstractions is there now, and now it’s here too, closing out our 2025 season and our week of Hallo-Women. The lead singer of Abstractions was Joyce Martin, who co-wrote the lyrics with Rex Martin, who also wrote the music. Are they married? Are they brother and sister? Who knows? We can only speculate. I’d like to think they’re lovers. At least, I’d like to think that only if they aren’t actually related. If they are related, I’d like to think they are definitely not lovers, cause ya know, why would I like to think they were if they were? I wouldn’t like that at all. I’ll move on.
According to Discogs, Abstractionswas from Indianapolis Indiana, which is totally corroborated by the liner notes. These also contain lyrics, which is pretty cool for an LP like this. We scanned them and ran them over our YouTube Video.
It’s a moody sort of ABBA-esque and atmospheric song of loss and self discovery, all set to the Season of the Witch. Sure, it ain’t Bill Ervin’sHalloween, but not everything can or should be, right? Songs of loss and longing fit perfectly with the season. They needn’t all be trick or treating and ghosts, right? At least not literal ghosts.
So, we’re gonna leave you now for the season with this mellow rumination and wish you all a very Happy Halloween. Thanks for stopping by again this October. We’ve got some episodes of Shindig Radio in the can already that should be slowly trickling out next year and hopefully we can record a true blue Halloween episode for you to enjoy next season.
Song Poems: that wonderful intersection of predatory con artists, studio musicians just trying to make a living and average Americans with a pen in their hand and a song in their heart. The things born of this unlikely junction are works of wholly unique art that, stripped of even just one of their 3 components, would cease to be the kind of special that they are.
If you’re unfamiliar, Song-Poems were a strange sort of scam with roots that can be traced back to almost the very beginning of recorded music itself.
Unscrupulous “producers” would put ads in the backs of pulpy publications looking for the next big thing with the promise of fame and unfathomable royalties. Could that be you?
They’d solicit “Song-Poems,” a sort of a condescending shorthand for “lyrics” that they figured the unwashed masses could understand. You’d send them your “song-poem” for “evaluation” (which it would invariably pass) and then the onslaught of salesmanship would pour in. Which, of course, was followed by entreaties for money.
See, they’d have their army of highly skilled professionals record your song, and then put the weight of their aggressive marketing department behind you to make it a hit! Cause your song was just that good. All you had to do was fork over some money, which would be nothing compared to the amount of money you’d make once your song hit the top!
Only there was no top, because there was no marketing. There was just some studio, filled with working class musicians cranking out maybe 12 of these things a day as fast they could. Then they’d slap those puppies on wax and shoot ‘em your way. Now you got a song. Thanks! Onto the next mark.
It was a weird scam, because these companies actually made good with the records, which seems like it would involve far more effort than it was worth. But I guess not, because there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of these things floating around, and lord knows how many that are still undiscovered. For collectors of the bizarre, they’re like a dream come true.
And it is from this unlikely Venn Diagram of greedy but thrifty producers, talented yet rushed musicians and inexperienced and possibly batshit songwriters that these wholly unique, outsider-esque but semi-polished and sometimes tonally discrepant head-scratchers were born. And thank the maker.
As you might imagine, there’s a metric stocking’s worth of Christmas Song-Poems. There’s even a whole compilation of them that’s easily heard called Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? Hell, some of those tunes even appear on our That’s One Weird Ass Christmasplaylist.
However, as you might also imagine, the world isn’t exactly inundated with Halloween Song-Poems. In fact, there’s only 2 that I’m aware of, thus far anyway.
You’ve got the virtually non-existent Halloween by Cinema Records’ in-house band The Real Pros. This one seems so rare that the only mention of it I can even find is the discogs page which states it’s from 1979. It has never sold, no one owns it, and apparently only 1 person other than me even wants the damn thing. And that person better be prepared for a serious fight if one finally does appear for sale.
The other song seems equally rare, but a year ago, some kind soul whom has done the world a great service, posted it to YouTube. And that song is tonight’s inclusion, Charles E. Warren’s The Halloween Queen as sung by Buddy Mix.
Now, a lot of Song-Poem enthusiasts don’t seem to have the same amount of love for the Song-Poems of the late 70’s and 80’s. I’m not sure why though, because I love ’em. Some of my favorites are from this era; AIDS Is Out, Spock and Lucifer are all fantastic. There’s something about the lifeless drum machines, synth heavy arrangements and 80’s stylings that suits the slapdash nature of these weird songs so well.
Rainbow Records seem to be the leading purveyors of such song-poems, cranking out as many as 24 Hollywood Gold albums, each boasting roughly 16 songs a piece. Now that’s somewhere in the vicinity of 400 songs, from just one label, during just the 1980’s. At least I think it’s the 80’s. Sounds like it would have to be, but those damn records ain’t got no dates on ‘em. Go fig.
Buddy Mixhere is featured on most of the early installments. All the Hollywood Gold albums have the same art and are differentiated by a strange 3 digit number code. This one’s HG-504. It seems like they started at 500, but 500 and 501 appear to be unaccounted for on the American Song Poems Music Archives. I have HG-548, which is also not present on the archive, but that page hasn’t been updated in over 10 years, so I’m not sure how definitive that discography is any longer.
Between the different records he appears on, Buddy’s got roughly 30 of these things under his belt, and that’s not too shabby.
Here, he lends his vocal stylings to a song about a stripper from San Francisco. At least I think it’s a stripper, anyway. One can never be too sure, and there’s room for interpretation here, I think. What the hell that has to do with Halloween exactly, I couldn’t rightly say, but man do I think I love it more for that fact.
I suppose you could suggest her role as a stripper (or even perhaps as a woman) is a disguise – her costume if you will – and doing that every night to earn a living could very well make her a Queen of Halloweening. Then again, there’s maybe a more compelling argument that The Halloween Queen is in drag, or even trans perhaps, adding an extra and fairly compelling layer of complexity to the whole affair. Maybe I’m reading too much into Charles E. Warren’s writing. Maybe I’m offending him. If so, I apologize. Whatever’s going on, it’s turning his flame up higher than he’s ever seen.
Seriously though, I have written far too many words now for what amounts to a weird song written by some guy who thought maybe it might be a hit cause some fast talking producer convinced him it could be. Or who knows, maybe he just wanted to hear it recorded and had an extra couple hundred bucks laying around. Either way, we win with Charles E. Warren’s The Halloween Queen.
So, thank you Chuck, Buddy, all the session musicians over at Rainbow and whichever producer decided this one…ya know…“made the cut.” Without y’all we wouldn’t be able to count a Song-Poem amongst the ranks of Halloween Shindig, and what sort of an wannabe all-inclusive musical compendium would that make it?
Our next 3 songs of the season are roughly the same kind of song told in 3 distinct musical styles.
Now they are for sure different songs, thematically, but they each speak on a kind of festive royalty; a Halloween Queen.
One is pretty much just “you’re far out and spooky and man that really turns my gears.” The second is essentially “Sheskinda repulsive and badass and that’s awesome.” And the 3rd? I dunno really. I guess it’s a different flavor of the first one. But we’ll cross that (very wordy) bridge when we get to it.
For now, let’s kick this off right. The first up stylistically, is Heavy Metal. Thematically, it’s the I’m ugly and awesome and fuck you and this song is definitely all 3.
From Belgium speed metal pioneer’s Acid comes Halloween Queen, which can be found on the band 3rd and final studio release, 1985’s Engine Beast.
Acid formed in 1980 as Precious Page but quickly changed their name to Acid and released their first single in 1982. Soon they were releasing full LPs and shredding across Europe with for the likes of Sabbath, Venom and Motörhead. Non-heinous!
Not only were they pioneers in the speed/thrash scene, they were one of the first metal bands to be fronted by a female singer. Her name was Kate De Lombaert and she’s a total badass, a Halloween Queen even, though she is singing in 3rd person her, so maybe this is not exactly autobiographical.
Here she is rocking a Dracula cape and lookin mighty dangerous. Definitely non non-non non-non-heinous.
What better way to wrap up of week of Hallo-Women than with a run of Halloween Queens, and what better Queen to lead the charge than a Halloween Queen herself.
Dracula’s Tango (Sucker For Your Love)by Toto Coelo
Since we’re talking about women talking about monsters, how about 5 women talking about monsters. Or at least one monster anyway. Yeah, you guessed it – Dracula. Of course it’s Dracula. It’s always Dracula. So much Dracula. Too much Dracula.
I know I said I was only gonna give you 1 Dracula song this year, and that’s because this block wasn’t initially scheduled for this season. But as I was finishing up the Disco block I wasn’t quite settled about how it was segueing into the next part of the playlist. So, I decided to move these songs up a bit, shuffled out a few tunes, and viola! Now you got more Dracula. It’s honesty just that easy to suddenly have Dracula around here, such is the extent of Draculas littering the bullpen. There’s a whole other crop coming at you in 2026. Just Draculas. So much Draculas. Too much Draculas.
But this one’s a great monster dance song that’s pretty well known and exactly the type of song that should have made the list years ago. It’s been hanging around the bullpen forever just waiting to find the right spot to call home, and I think we’ve now found it.
It’s a poppy number that comes from a group of British ladies originally named Toto. The United States made them change their name though to avoid confusion with the real Toto, cause that’s the kinda bullshit the United States does. I suppose I get it, but this seems more geared toward preventing a customer from buying an album they maybe didn’t want, than it is seems geared toward maybe helping an artist sell some records on a little borrowed name recognition. The music industry suddenly developed a consciousness toward its customers, or something? Get the fuck outta here.
I will say that I wouldn’t have complained at all about an alternate cut of Lynch’s Dune scored by the likes of Toto Coelo.
Speaking of which, that’s what they changed their name to, Toto Coelo. In Latin it means “by all of Heaven” or “the whole of the Heavens.” It seems like a fancy way of saying completely, or absolutely. So there’s that.
According to Wikipedia, By The Full Breadth of The Heavens formed in ’81 and their first recording was a Buggles tune produced by Trevor Horn. How do you like that? Sometimes the small weird ways things end up unintentionally connected around here is kinda wild. Apparently this was an unreleased track though, but that little thread is still interesting.
Their actual breakout hit came the following year in the form I Eat Cannibals. Not exactly a number one hit, either in England or here (peaked at 8 in the UK and 66 here in the states) but it was enough to warrant a follow up single right on its heels.
Now, why someone thought a weird song about wanting to fuck Dracula was the ticket, I couldn’t say. Never seems to me like the thing to bet the farm on, and I’m a guy who literally wants your next hit to be a song about you wanting to fuck Dracula. Like I’m here for it, literally. I’m literally here at this domain for the express purpose of talking about your weird 1982 hit song about how you’re getting all horny for Dracula. But yeah, I’ve seen the numbers. It’s not a large constituency.
So, as you might imagine Toto Coelo’s flash was of an “in the pan” variety. They went for the hat trick and released Milk From The Coconut, the 3rd single off their 1983 album Man O’War, but that one didn’t really move the needle either. Anyone who was really feeling I Eat Cannibals had moved on.
Now, I’m usually a pretty generous listener with things like that, and there is a vocoder, and that’s awesome obviously, but I struggle with Milk from the Coconut a bit. It’s ok, but I’m not surprised this one failed to chart.
Now Dracula’s Tango, on the other hand, provides no such obstacle. It is the clear winner of the 3 singles, my biases not withstanding. Anyone claiming I Eat Cannibals is the better single is not to be trusted. So, while I think I Eat Cannibals could make for a perfectly reasonable addition to The Shindig, we have obviously and predictably staked our flag on Dracula’s Tango.
An interesting bit of trivia about the ladies of Toto Coelo; they fully appear performing in the 1983 sequel, Grizzly II: The Predator. That sucker was shot in Budapest, and the production ran out of money so the Hungarian government confiscated all their equipment. As a result, the movie was never released or finished. Canon bought the rights with the intention to release it in the late 80’s but that didn’t happen before Canon fell apart.
In 2020, an independent company shot some extra footage and finally got the film released as Grizzly II: The Revenge. It’s not good, and has tons of weird new footage spliced-in that feels all out of place. And since it featured a bunch of young actors that had since became famous, they bill them all like the real stars of the film.
It’s got John Rhys-Davies and Louise Fletcher and Charles Cyphers. But those are the real actors. In small ass cameos you had the likes of George Clooney, Laura Dern and even Charlie Sheen! According to IMDb Charlie Sheen actually turned down the role of Daniel in The Karate Kid so he could go to Hungary and be in this trash. Holy shit. Poor guy. No wonder he kept bangin’ 7 grams rocks. I would too if I had given up a shot at bring the Karate Kid for fuckin Grizzly II, only to see it get full-on shelved for 40 years.
Though, to be fair, being Topper Harley and Rick Vaughn kinda makes up for not getting to be Daniel Larusso. In the grand scheme of things, maybe that’s even better. Maybe he really was winning. In the end though, he’s still Charlie Sheen, and that don’t sound like any kind of winning to me. Rest in peace Corey Haim.
Holy shit, that was a detour. What the hell were we talking about again? Oh, another song about women obsessed with a fucking literal creature of the night, that will completely drain their body of life in order to sustain their own, with absolutely no thought or concerned paid to the very object of that sustenance, rendering them into what one Dracula referred to as a “beautiful wine press” ?Yeah, that sounds about par for the Dracula course.
Here’s Toto Coelo with a toto dance-floor ‘digger sure to get your blood flowing. It’s Dracula’s Tango (Sucker For Your Love)
Exactly 50 songs ago, when another Disco Block was coming to an end, I lamented that there weren’t any true-blue Halloween Disco songs.
But I did name drop a band called Number One Ensemble and alluded to them getting their day on the playlist. Well, we’re at the end of another Disco Block and that day is today.
Number One Ensemble was an Italy Disco/Italo-Disco band from the late 70’s and early 80’s. And it’s true, they have a decidedly Disco-enough sound to be considered as such. Unfortunately, their ode to the holiday, simply titled Halloween, does not seem to have that same disco sound. It’s plays more like a standard sort of early 80’s rock song, honestly, not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just maybe not what you wanna end a Disco Block with. But, as mentioned, this is pretty much it for Halloween specific “disco” songs, from what I can tell anyway. I’d love to be treated one day to an awesome, previously unaware to me Disco Halloween banger.
But that’s ok though, this song doesn’t really need to be an out and out Disco tune for our purposes here, and besides, I like this song! It’s been available our our YouTube page for a few years now and it’s been hanging out in the bullpen for what seems like forever, so here it comes.
Plus, it’s a good way to kick off the next Block’s theme, which is Hallo-Women! We’ve got an 11 track run coming at ya of songs either performed by women (8) or specifically about spooky women (the other 3.)
I’m pretty pumped for this upcoming block, as it contains my favorite addition of the season, 2 awesome title tracks, 1 Halloween mistress we haven’t heard from in years, several long suffering benchwarmers and the first Song-Poem to hit The Shindig!
I’m running a little behind schedule this season, but we’re gonna try to slam all of these in before the big day. So let’s drop the needle of Number One Ensemble and get this thing going, cause we got 7 days to clear 11 songs before Halloween!
Sometimes there’s just some bands that somehow fly just under the radar. Bands that almost seem to actively evade me. Bands that absolutely defy the odds that, given the stuff I’m searching for and the amount of time I spend searching for it, I’m guaranteed to find them.
Nightmare is just such a band.
Nightmare is so just such a band that they’re already Shindig All-Stars. It’ll take at least 3 seasons to get em in there, but they’ll join up soon enough, it’s already a done deal.
When I stumbled upon them last year it was like one of those weird explosive epiphanies where it almost feels like they’re being willed into existence at that very moment. How had I not come across them yet? How had no one sent them to me before? How were they not a more widely popular band?
At their core Nightmare was a shock-rock group from the UK that had wild onstage illusions in the vein of Alice Cooper, W.A.S.P. or GWAR. Their show was a show, and not just any show, but the Shock Show! They employed fire eating, sexy witches, hangings, impalement, an electric chair, burning coffins and beheadings with a big ass guillotine. Fun stuff.
Their music is a weird blend of goth, new wave, rock and novelty song. They’re like something that stepped out of an unofficial but scarier Rocky Horror sequel. And anytime horror meets rock, The Shindig should be there, tipping the hat.
Nightmare was the passion project of singer, bassist and testicle arsonist Ron Dickson, who started out in the late 60’s with the glam/psych outfit Light Fantastic. Their wild and unpredictable stage performances quickly gained them a following in the UK and no doubt set a blueprint for the onstage antics of Nightmare to come.
After about a 10 year run, Ron says himself in this detailed history of Light Fantastic, the band separated and that’s when he formed Nightmare. Their Facebook page is a wonderful repository for old newspaper clippings and videos of Nightmare in the glory days. Like this photo, used to produce the Great Balls of Fire EP sleeve.
In addition to touring extensively and firing off several EPs throughout the early 80’s, they released only one, but one glorious LP in 1985 entitled Children of the Night. The album itself claims it’s more of an approximation of the band’s work on stage. An afterthought almost. A souvenir, if you will, of that time you spent seeing the crazy Nightmare Shock Show. This entire album is a festive treat that I highly recommend spinning this and every Halloween.
While there are probably at least 7 different songs on here we could pump directly into the playlist straight away, it is Track #4 which is fashioning Nightmare’s debut on The Shindig.
While not technically a Haunted Disco, Boogie Bogie Man definitely concerns a haunted theater, a ghostly band and one hell of a lead riff. If this graveyard stomper doesn’t get you moving, you just might not be dead yet.
What’s interesting is that this song is a reworking of sorts (or a cover, if it do ya) of the Light Fantastic song titled Boogi Woogi Bogiman. The two tracks are strikingly similar, if not basically identical. I admit to liking the Nightmare version more, though I’m probably biased, as it’s the version I heard first. I do think it rocks a little harder and is a bit more sinister. That chipmunk voice in the Light Fantastic version kinda kills it for me. That album cover though, holy smokes, that’s a fun sleeve. Again, not quite as sinister as Nightmare, but definitely weird and hedging in the Nightmare direction.
So, let’s welcome a band that should have been here since jump. A band I shouldn’t even be talking about 13 years into this business because all of their songs should have already been added by now. Let’s welcome the children of the night! Let us welcome, Nightmare!
For a Halloween playlist that basically didn’t feature a Phantom of the Opera song from like 13 years, dropping 2 in one season might seem a little over the top.
But as I was putting together that block of Classic Monster tracks to close out the 300s, this was my original song for the Phantom slot. But, as you’ll hear, it ain’t really much of a Phantom of the Opera song at all.
Sure, it’s called that. And they definitely say it, but I’m not really 100% on what this song is really all about. Turns out though, they say “haunted disco” a whole shitload. And, since I was also lining up a Monster Disco Block, it seemed like a perfect fit.
So, who says “haunted disco?” Why it’s Marzio, who I’d say is like an Italian Dio, but, ya know.
But like Dio, Marzio is the name under which Marzio Vincenzi released his sole LP Smoke on the Volcano. In addition to tonight’s tune, this album also features his disco take on the Deep Purple classic, hence the title, I guess anyway. Here’s a picture of him looking not at all like the guy you imagine is singing this weird disco horror song.
Prior to this solo venture, Vincenzi lent his vocal talents to a disco team-up of Italian musician Mauro Malavasi and sketchy business man Jacques Fred Petrus called Macho.
Macho’s big number was a 1978 cover of Chicago’s cover of The Spencer Davis Group hit (written by Steven Winwood) I’m A Man. This 17 minute exercise in keeping coked-up boomers on the dance floor for as long as possible is impressive in its ambition. It’s a jam too, but 17 minutes of anything is asking a bit much, even for notoriously long disco songs.
Thankfully, tonight’s tune is only asking about 6 minutes of our time, which should be just enough to throw down a few moves on the floor and head back to the bathroom for bumps.
Holding up the back end our Monster Disco block, here’s Marzio with Phantom of the Opera!
We don’t talk about The Devil much around these parts. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I’m not that into him, as character. Or even as real entity vying for my eternal soul, honestly. I’m not into that either. But just as a matter of subject, he’s not terribly interesting to me.
Now, I like movies about The Devil, or probably more accurately, I like movies about the goddamn nutjobs that lick goat asshole or pour blood onto naked women out of some misguided loyalty to a being that, by all accounts, shouldn’t be trusted for even a second. Dumb shit cultists and their dumb shit rituals are interesting to me. But The Devil himself? Naw, not so much.
And listen, I know this holiday gets all wrapped up with him, what with the paganism and Christian fundamentalists crying bloody murder over the whole affair, but this just isn’t a day I largely associate with The Devil. Maybe that’s my naïveté. But look, I like Draculas and Mummies and Haunted Houses and shit. I like Witches and candy and Jack O’lanterns and maybe you’ll say all that occult paganism is Satanic and in service of The Devil, and the mere separation of the two in my mind is but the very trick Satan has pulled on me. Ok. Fine. Go off. That doesn’t mean I gotta talk about him or give a shit.
So anyway, all of that is to say we don’t have a lot of songs about The Devil on the playlist. But when I was looking for songs to round out this Classic Monster block, I figured the Devil might be due to get his due.
After auditioning a pile of possible Devil tracks, I finally landed on this one from Tom Rodhebecause, well I dunno really. I guess because it kind of a fun, danceable tune, but probably more because it’s absolutely ridiculous. What is he even talking about in this song? And what’s with that voice? It’s completely goofy and I love every second of it.
Now Tom Rodhe only ever released this single, but Tom ROD released plenty of other singles and even a 1978 LP called Understand. None of that quite sounds like Devil, though. In fact, most of it just kinda sounds like disco-tinged late 70’s AOR. It’s pretty standard sounding stuff. So what’s with Devil? It’s seems to materialize out of nowhere and then Tom, either Rodhe or Rod, never releases another song again. It’s strange.
Here’s Tom Rod looking all damp for some reason. What’s going on here? Is this a lip gloss ad? Was this photo taken in the middle of a boxing match that Tom was involved in, what gives? I don’t like the way he’s staring at us either. I just kinda want him to leave us all alone. Or at least go back to looking like he does in the other EPs, which is way less intense.
I think he’s French. I’ve seen him sing in French anyway. I know that doesn’t necessarily mean he is French, but it seems more likely than him being Polish. There’s not a lot of information on the guy it seems. You can find his songs easily enough, they’re all over YouTube, but information in another thing. Even weird tidbits of info that one can usually glean from comment sections is non-existent here. It’s kinda weird actually. He’s got tons of videos, all a number of years old at this point, that basically have ZERO comments and it’s strange to see. There is one notable exception, which is this video for Tom’s Lady Gonna Run Away, where the poster gets 1 comment and proceeds to launch into a 12 response thread that goes completely unanswered, where the poster even wishes him a Happy Easter for no reason. I got a real kick outta that.
But really I’m talking about all kinds of things here that aren’t really this song right now, so I’m gonna wrap this up by saying, I used samples from the Highway to Heaven episode I Was A Middle Aged Werewolf, which is a fun episode. Unfortunately, I haven’t thrown it up on the TeleWeen page yet, so if you wanna check it out, here’s a direct link. It’s definitely a fun one to watch this Halloween. Watch the other one from Season 2 though first, as this is sort of the sillier follow up to that Halloween episode.
Now, here’s a song about The Devil, I think anyway. It’s Tom Rodhewith Devil!
Despite enjoying a fair amount of success, by 1987 our dynamic and heinous duo of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde had called it quits.
It was at this point that Andre Harrell went out and formed Uptown Records. Mr. Hyde, known to the government as Alonzo Brown, ultimately went on to become a screenwriter and an Emmy winning producer of The Judge Mathis show.
Before he did that however, Mr. Hyde drop one final single for Profile Records called The Witch.
Now that song has been in and out of the bullpen over the years, because it’s a bop and it’s called The Witch. Problem is, it’s not really about a witch, it’s just about a girl that kinda pissed Mr. Hyde off, which is a bummer, cause it really is a cool song.
In fairness though, most songs about witches are just men complaining about some woman that spurned them or made them feel uncomfortable by being assertive or weird. This trend gets pretty annoying when you’re just looking for spooky songs for your Halloween playlist and you keep getting served up scorned men warning you about the last female they encountered. Men, please stop this. Resist the temptation. It’s cliched and tired to use a witch metaphor in your song about a woman that wasn’t interested in you. Stop sullying up cool evil witches with all your insecure sexism.
But all of that’s not really a problem, because I’m an idiot. See, the B side of The Witch is a song called Hyde’s Beat. Now, if I wasn’t an idiot, I’d have just listened to that B side straight away instead of just assuming that it was the instrumental to The Witch. If Alonzo Brown went by any other name, I may not have jumped to such a quick conclusion, but again, I just assumed it was the dub version, cause I’m an idiot.
Once I finally listened to it, and realized this Mr. Hyde was the Mr. Hyde of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, everything feel into place. Because Hyde’s Beat appears to be the spiritual successor (if not just the direct sequel) to Transformation. It picks up immediately after “Mr. Hyde” has killed “Dr. Jekyll,” and we find Hyde in a state of disarray – confused and scared at the prospect of the dead man on the floor, a dead man he’ll surely be blamed for killing.
Toward the end of the Robert Louis Stevenson’s original story, Jekyll begins involuntarily transforming into Hyde, such that he needs the serum to turn back into Jekyll rather than the other way around. Eventually, he runs out serum though and is doomed to transform completely into Hyde once and for all and remain that way forever.
Once that happens, Edward Hyde makes the decision to take his own life. He drink some poison Jekyll has laying around the lab, effectively kill the both of them and thus ending the story.
In our song however, we have Hyde “killing” Dr. Jekyll and completely coming apart at the seams as result. Because we’re people that know Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, we can only assume that this murder is purely metaphoric and represents the point at which Hyde can no longer turn back into Jekyll, right? Yeah, I think we can. Rather than take his own life though, Mr. Hyde just jumps out of a window and into a limo with Igor, as any one of us might do in the same situation.
Naturally, all the cops in the city are now looking for him, cause he just killed Dr. Jekyll, and since Dr. Jekyll is a totally separate person, there’s definitely a body on the ground indicting murder and thus leading to an investigation where law enforcement might be looking for Jekyll curios and off-putting friend, Mr. Hyde, right? Yeah, I think that’s safe to assume.
So, Igor does what a buddy might do, and he brings Hyde to a bar so he can lay low for a while. Unfortunately, everyone at the bar freaks out when they see Hyde and high-tails it outta there. But then, all of sudden its morning and Hyde is waking up next to a woman like he’s Jekyll again but has been dickin’ down all night like Mr. Hyde. Only he’s still Mr. Hyde, and she’s not really feeling that, so he jumps out of another window cause why not. Doors are for pussy. Get with it.
Then basically he just becomes homeless, wandering the city streets alone and shunned, proclaiming to whomever will listen that he didn’t kill Dr. Jekyll, which shouldn’t be a problem, because there’s no body, and everyone’s just like “Hey, where did Dr. Jekyll go,” right? I mean, if they’ve even noticed. Jekyll hasn’t even been dead a whole day yet, is anyone really looking suspecting foul play yet? Is this all just some delusion Hyde is spiraling into as he’s lays dying from the poison he drank in the lab? Is this thing coming at it all from an angle I hadn’t consider yet? Who knows.
Eventually though, Hyde comes to the realization that Jekyll being dead is actually kind of liberating and hopefully our humble narrator finally finds some peace. I sure hope so. He seems pretty distressed through most of this song. Or maybe his cries of “I’m free!” are his last words as he chokes on his own breath, dying on the floor of the laboratory. Who knows?
So yeah, it kinda deviates from the story a little, but there are references to Billy Dee Williams and Thriller and even Rodney Dangerfield, so that kinda re-centers things a bit back toward the original text.
So here’s Mr. Hyde, on his own at last, living his best life and rockin’ a beat that is truly his own.
Well, how bout Jekyll and Hyde? There’s a classic gothic horror staple that hasn’t gotten but maybe a passing mention here in the most fleeting of monster party verses. And even that I’m not 100% on.
So, let’s put a little mustard on it then, shall we? Instead of adding just any old song about Jekyll and Hyde, how about one from a pair of dudes that actually named themselves Jeckyll and Hyde, spelling notwithstanding.
The 80’s electo rap duo Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hydehave been on the Shindig’s radar for some time now. How could they not be? They’re an electro rap duo called Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. They’ve had a few songs in the bullpen for a while at this point. They’ve been waiting patiently.
They’ve also been pretty influential. In addition to being the first guys to sample the ridiculously sampled Genius of Love by Tom Tom Club, Dr. Jeckyll is actually Andre Harrell, the founder of Uptown Records. How’s that for crazy?
I love that monsters songs always seem to hiding in the closets of some of the movers and shakers in music. Call them novelties. Call them silly and unserious. Call them completely inconsequential in the grand breadth of musical history, because maybe they are. But you can not say that The Shindig does not boast among it’s ranks some of the most influential, popular and talented musicians, performers and producers the business had to offer, even if the songs represented here are not the pinnacle of those same artists careers.
But I digress.
Despite dropping their first single in 1980 (and then later a weird doo-wop style throwback mashup called Jeckyll and Hyde Dance that wasn’t terribly referential) it took 6 years for these guys to release a song about the men who gave them their names. But when they did, man did they unleash a doozy.
And that doozy was 1986’s Transformation, one hell of Golden Age Monster Rap that indulges in the clever gimmick of having each rapper assume their respective namesakes in alternating verses. Perhaps that’s the obvious choice, but a wise one never the less, and one that pays off for this fun modernization of the Jekyll and Hyde story, or at least the generally held notion of the Jekyll and Hyde story, anyway. Cause Jekyll and Hyde is kind of a…strange case…of apparent misunderstanding.
First and foremost, let’s look at the concrete stuff. The 1866 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson is a mystery that doesn’t so much focus on Jekyll had Hyde directly, as the story is mostly told through other characters reacting to the various actions of Jekyll and Hyde. Additionally, the reader is never really privy to Hyde’s actions directly. In the end, it is revealed that Dr. Jekyll was in fact Mr. Hyde the whole time and it is played as a surprise ending.
Now, that’s kind of a boring prospect for a moving picture though, I reckon, so Hollywood Hollywooded it up by focusing directly on the two titular characters, in particular Edward Hyde and the visualization of their transformation. Which is an interesting distinction. Most every adaptation plays with the idea the Dr. Jekyll is consumed by Mr. Hyde and then, like a werewolf almost, awakens the next day without any memory of what Hyde has done. The implication that Hyde is someone different and is no longer Dr. Jekyll. But this isn’t really what happens in the story, not expressly.
Dr. Jekyll does indeed transform into Mr. Hyde, but not in this somewhat metaphoric sense. Edward Hyde isn’t a separate person with conflicting goals and desires. Edward Hyde is Henry Jekyll. The Doctor does transform into Hyde, yes, but in the most literal sense, like Henry is wearing a Hyde costume. The serum changes Jekyll’s appearance, and that change (much like the Invisible Man) allows him walk unrecognized in the night, free to act upon his otherwise repressed desires, whatever they may be. Jekyll and Hyde isn’t a tale of a man with split personality disorder, it’s the tale a doctor inventing a physical mask as cover for his hedonistic desires.
Which brings us to another curious point about this story and its adaptations. Since we never really get to see Hyde doing what Hyde be doing, the reader is left to the second hand descriptions of his activies by Jekyll; activities that Jekyll is even reluctant to fully reveal on his deathbed, so there’s that. You’re a murder man, what else could you still be trying to…hyde? And why?
As such, many have taken to a queer reading of the story, with Hyde being an expression of Jekyll’s repressed Victorian homosexuality. To wit, there is practically no women in the story, it’s all a bunch of interpersonal relationships between these dudes. Homosexuality had been broadly criminalized in London the year before the story was released, and apparently Hyde Park was a a popular destination for homosexual rendezvous. Some of Stevenson’s close friends, including a former Reverend (curiously named Walter Jekyll,) were homosexuals themselves. One such friend wrote to Robert after reading the story, expressing his opinion that when viewed allegorically, (to borrow a modern phrase) it hit different.
There is this funny SNL skit with Bill Hader that (whether intentional or not) is in ways perhaps a more accurate adaptation on both accounts. Not only is Jekyll openly admitting to having sex with men after he takes the “serum,” but that he, despite claiming he doesn’t remember what is happening as Hyde…clearly remembers what is happening as Hyde. Indeed it is the reason he “invents” the “serum” to begin with – to provide cover for these acts to his wife and colleagues, as he can offload those desires directly onto “Hyde.”
Was this a widely held opinion of the story in the day? Was old time Hollywood aware of such an interpretation? Is that why Hyde was initially (and henceforth) always seen cavorting with female prostitutes, despite the fact that Mr. Hyde neither encounters, nor murders any prostitutes in Stevenson’s original story. Was it an attempt to redirect the story and reassert the character as unflinchingly heterosexual, lest anyone gets any untoward ideas? Who knows?
But where am I now? I was talking about this song, and now I’ve wandered dangerously far off course from this highly detailed account of a Dr. Jekyll just wanting to wear Timberland boots and embrace Hyde’s primal heterosexual trysts.
Let’s get back to this song that doesn’t concern itself with how Hyde should be interpreted, and certainly doesn’t have any patience for a queer reading of the text.
Here’s the duo themselves, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde singing about their very specific predicament in the 80’s Monster Rap epic Transformation.
The Wolfman by The Chaz Jackson Band featuring Rudy Gleason
There’s not much I can really say about Charles “Chaz” Jackson. There’s even less I can say about Rudy Gleason, but we’ll get to that in a moment. Sometimes that’s just the way of it.
Chaz’s discogs profile talks about him being in love with a trumpet and buying a guitar at 18 while stationed in Japan with the Army. Doesn’t mention him playing those instruments, mind you, just that he loved one and bought the other. Alright then.
It goes on to talk about all the different musicians he went to see. It’s like a paragraph of different famous musicians. Not musicians he performed with, but rather acts he just saw perform. Ok, I guess.
It’s a strange little blurb that speaks not to his talents or achievements, but to encounters and influences. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, to see Chaz only has 2 singles and about 5 songs to his credit.
Now, credited alongside Chaz’s band on each release is Rudy Gleason. So is Rudy the guy singing? If so, why isn’t he just covered under the umbrella of the “band” like the other players here? Is it because Rudy had a prolific career of his own and The Chaz Jackson Band was just a side project for him? Well, not that I can tell, as these tracks (and all of them, it appears) seem to be the only official music Rudy Gleason ever had to his name. So that’s a little strange.
But despite this curious write up and the limited output, every one of these tunes is kinda slappy , including tonight inclusion, The Wolfman.
Thing about this song is, well 2 things really. One of them is that it was a little long and repetitive, so I kinda trimmed it down a smidge. I know, a little sacrilege, a little presumptuous, a little shitty, but hey, I took the liberty all the same, justified or not. Call it a Shindig Special Cut.
But really the thing about it is, despite being called The Wolfman, it kinda gives off more of a Red Riding Hood vibe really, no doubt aided by this guy (Rudy or otherwise) literally saying “The Big Bad Wolf is gonna get you.” So, I dunno. Should I not have included it? It’s called The Wolfman. They’re certainly saying “The Wolfman” but really nothing about this songs feels Wolfman-like at all.
I kinda like it though despite. At least, when it’s not pushing 6 minutes, which this song definitely doesn’t need to be pushing. It has a decidedly 80’s dance floor jam quality, which I appreciate. If I didn’t know any better and you tried telling me this fucker was on the Teen Wolf soundtrack (as it should have been) I wouldn’t bat an eyelash. And hey, at the end of the day this is supposed to be a party playlist, and sometimes a little jiggle juice is just what the doctor ordered.
So, let’s inch a little closer to 400 with our next Monstrous inclusion, however unmonstrous it may actually be, with The Wolfman from The Chaz Jackson Band Featuring Rudy Gleason.
Spooky Shindig Post Script. SSPS? Yeah, I guess.
Tonight is a Full Moon! The Harvest Moon – and a Supermoon – to be precise. That’s a little weird. And while I’d love to say I orchestrated such a thing consciously, I did not purposefully place The Wolfman song on the Full Moon. That happened purely by coincidence.
On Saturday mornings in 1986, The Real Ghostbusters cartoon aired on ABC to the delight of an entire generation across the country.
What resulted over the next 7 years was one of the finest pieces of animated children’s media to come out of the 80’s. This high quality program was hugely creative, thoroughly entertaining and massively expansive to the Ghostbusters mythos. The variety of wild creatures and situations this iteration of the Ghostbusters went up against was singular, and the animation that brought them to life was top notch.
Like any good cartoon of the era, The Real Ghostbusters acted as 30 minute commercial for all manner of useless shit your parents didn’t want to buy you. The difference here was that this commercial was impeccably crafted and could stand on its own outside of any merchandise. It never felt like the product informed the art, like say with Transformers. The other difference? Real Ghostbusters shit is awesome, specifically the action figures and the wearable toys. If you don’t remember these things, never had any or are too young to fall into either category, do yourself a favor and Google that awesome shit.
One other piece of very rare merchandise attached to this show is the album presented here today, The Real Ghostbusters Soundtrack. Released in 1986, it features the in-show pop music from specific episodes from the show’s first season run. They’re all performed by two young girls Tonya Townsend and Tyren Perry, a duo known as Tahiti. Unfortunatley (for me at least) this appears to be the only thing Tahiti released. Tyren released a solo album in ’89, but Tonya didn’t
But none of that matters, because for one shinning moment, these two girls were the literal sound of a weird occult children’s cartoon based on a strange supernatural comedy about ghost fighting scientists in New York City and the whole damn thing is too goddamn 80’s to bear. I love every second.
A huge thank you and shout out is due to Paul Rudoff at Spook Central. I’m not sure if he’s the sole responsible party for this rare piece of media existing in the digital domain, but he’s been running Spook Central since 1996, and he’s certainly the reason I know about this album. So, my credit and my thanks land on him directly. I mean no ill will posting the playlist here, nor am I interested in diverting traffic away from his site. You can listen to all of this on Spook Central, or on several different YouTube accounts. It just seemed again like the kind of thing people should be able to listen to here, so now they can.
If you love The Real Ghostbusters and always wished there were full versions of these songs, I’ve got good news. If you just love the most 80’s of 80’s synth pop syngery, I’ve also got some good news.
Here it is, in all it’s glory, from straight heaters like Don’t Play Her Game, to the epic 80’s beauty of Hometown Hero, to Shindig Halloween solid gold like Midnight Action…it’s all here. Enjoy.
Making sure we remain Hard Til Halloween is Texas thrashers Juggernaut with All Hallow’s Eve from their 1986 debut album, Baptism Under Fire.
Despite releasing 2 full studio albums back-to-back on Metal Blade Records, opening some shows for King Diamond and having the kind of talent that would later go on to outfit acts like Machine Head, Spastic Ink, S.A. Slayer, Halford, Fates Warning and Sacred Reich, Juggernaut itself never really found its groove and disbanded within 7 years of their debut release.
Which is a shame, cause this kind of mid-80’s speed metal really warms a certain corner of my heart. It’s what I think metal sounds like when I imagine it, and as such, it’s what I want metal to sound like when I hear it.
Thankfully for us, like any metal band at the height of the Satanic Panic, they delivered a face melter all about the Eve of All Hallows. In fact, they went so far as to call it All Hallows Eve.
Unless, that is, you’re looking at the center label for Baptism Under Fire. That one simply lists the song as All Hallows. The back says Eve, and the record even has a pull out sleeve with lyrics, and that says Eve too. So I’m not really sure what the deal is there. Maybe just a misprint?
What I do know is that this song rules and I was glad to dig up yet another 80’s metal All Hallows, Eve or not.
The main bumpers here are courtesy of the Tales From the Darkside installment Cutty Black Sow, a particularly ruthless Halloween episode that happens to feature a couple of cool Halloween masks, including this shot of our favorite Helloween evoking Be Something Studio’s all-star, Fang Face.
Turns out, if you gotta song called Trick or Treat, there’s like a 60% chance that shit’s got nothing to do with Halloween. And those are Shindig numbers. You take that game over to Apple Music or Spotify and you’re probably lookin at closer to 80%. Pretty damning numbers.
I’m not sure what it is about Trick or Treating that inspired so much non-festive music, but here we are. I guess it’s just a phonetically pleasing phrase that’s helpful in any number of non-holiday related situations. It does the heavy lift for you and conjures up all kinds of imagery on its own. Now, I’d argue that that imagery is exclusively Halloween based, but apparently it can mean a lot of different shit a number of (and specifically sexy) contexts.
Even King Diamond, Mr. Halloween himself, wrote a song called Trick or Treat that is not only not about the holiday, but doesn’t even reference Trick or Trreating beyond the use of the iconic phrase.
Should we be surprised then that Diamond Head, the band that asked the world if they were, in fact, evil, has a song called Trick or Treat that’s basically “women be shoppin” ?I’m not, I can tell you that much.
But of course, like Witchfynde, Fastway or even the Actual King of Rock ‘N Roll himself, Mr. Chuck Berry, the song still rocks the house. And for a band like Diamond Head, exceptions can and will be made.
Besides, sometimes just saying Trick or Treat is enough, even if you aren’t evil. But if you are? Well, that kinda changes everything.
So, it’s been about 4 years or so since we enlisted any news players onto The Shindig All-Star Team. At almost 400 songs deep on the playlist, that either seems perfectly reasonable to you, as we’ve tapped out most of the big hitters already, or it seems completely unreasonable because how the fuck is that possible after so many goddamn songs?
Well, take your pick, but the fact remains, no one has hit 3 songs since Acid Witch and King Diamond both did so back in 2020. And honestly, it’s amazing to me that either one of them hadn’t already.
Well, today we welcome abroad new All-Stars Blackie Lawless and the boys of W.A.S.P.
The White Anglo-Saxon Protestants from Los Angeles lent their tune Tormentor to Charlie Band’s 1984 bat-shit anthology The Dungeonmaster. It shows up specifically in Charlie’s own segment entitled Heavy Metal.
What’s more? The boys actually appear in the film, playing this very song and it’s awesome. Charlie forever immortalized their short-lived and controversial on-stage Torture Rack gag.
And if that’s somehow not good enough for you, Tormentor also makes an appearance in 1984’s resurrected Samurai rampage picture Ghost Warrior, and once again in Charlie Band’s own TerrorVision, playing on the television. And hey, is OD wearing a W.A.S.P. shirt?
You’re goddamn right he is.
So, let’s not belabor the point. W.A.S.P. rules and it’s good to see them finally get the All-Star representation they deserve. Welcome aboard, fellas!
Do you like this noise?! Then you shall have your fill of it!
Speaking of Alice Cooper, who didn’t make an appearance on the soundtrack of the movie he appeared in (Freddy’s Dead) we’re gonna finally close out his hat-trick from Friday the 13th’s equal and opposite 6th installment (that’s odd) Jason Lives.
Seriously, that’s weird right? I hadn’t realized this coincidence until I just typed the above sentence. Both of the 6th films in these franchises changes the title to feature the character’s name first and their states of existence. How interesting. Anyway…
Here’s the lesser celebrated of the 3 tunes Alice’s has in 1986’s Friday the 13th Part VI.
Used to fine effect as Megan tears ass through Crystal La…wait sorry…Forest Green, evading her dad’s goons during the attempted jailbreak of our hero, Tommy Jarvis, while he waits patiently in her crotch.
It’s a good get-away song, that’s for sure, but without the direct references to the film, or to monstery adolescent Frankenstein shit, it seems like Hard Rock Summer doesn’t get quite as much love as the others.
Well, as we’re wont to say… on The Shindig, every song gets its day.
Except maybe Keeping Halloween Alive. I know Alice is a Shindig All-Star and that’s basically his Halloween song, but man oh man is that not something I want on this list. It’s been in the bullpen for years, and each season I give it another chance to have grown on me. Or a chance for me to have grown enough to accept it for what it is. But man, I just can’t do it. At least not yet; maybe even never. Oh well, guy’s got like 6 songs or some shit on the playlist already and Identity Crisises will show up eventually, so give it a rest, will ya?
Here’s Joe Satrini’sSummer So…oh wait, I mean, here’s Alice Cooper withHard Rock Summer!
On several occasions now I have spoken about a hard to find or incomplete song, and that has somehow seemed to simply manifest that song into availability.
The first instance was with the woefully truncated Title Track to Aerobicide. This one took years, but was finally uncovered and restored to its full glory by Giles Nuytens. Thank him. Hit like and subscribe and all of that. He’s out there in these streets doin’ the Lord’s work.
The second instance wasBit Bizzare’s Freddy Krueger rap Freddie’s Groove, a rare Hip-Hop single which also existed in an incomplete form on YouTube and was hard come by on vinyl. Shortly after our Freddy’s Rap episode and posting it to the Freddy’s Raps playlists, two different copies of the 45 suddenly presented themselves. One of these now has a permanent residence in the Halloween Hole and has thusly been uploaded to YouTube and the Freddy Raps playlist.
Similarly, the 3rd occurrence was with another Freddy Rap entitled He’s Back from LA’s own Triple Scoop. Shortly after expressing my disappointment about not being able to include that song on the same playlist, a copy not only appeared on Discogs, but some kind soul uploaded it to Youtube as well. Thank the maker.
So now, rather than avoiding tonight’s song again for yet another year, I’m just gonna let her rip, in hopes that whatever synchronistic hoodoo is going on around here can maybe work it’s magic once again.
Because for many, many years now, this song has been the Holy Grail of Halloween Shindig.
Freaky Halloween? An Electro Rap tune from 1987 specifically about Halloween? Are you kidding me? Any rap song specifically about Halloween is rare enough, but something of this nature, from this era? It had to be great.
But alas, years and years passed and I had yet to come across a single copy for sale. Only 2 registered users on Discog even owned it. 42 other users wanted it, and yet not 1 has ever sold on the platform in its 22 years of existence.
It is a song so elusive, I didn’t even know what it sounded like…
See, this guy not only recorded it through what sounded like the microphone on his cellphone, but he only uploaded a minute’s worth of the song! What kind of sick joke is this, sir?! You have, in your possession one of the rarest Halloween songs known to man, and a YouTube channel, and the wherewithal to upload the track, and this is the treatment you afford it?
I suppose we should be grateful that we have it at all. And I am, please don’t misunderstand me. But, in a way, it’s almost worse now. See, when I didn’t know what it sounded like, it was still a mystery. It still had the chance to be whack. But it’s not whack! It’s fantastic! And now curious desire has been replaced with desperate need. Desperate need that can not be satiated.
And look, I begged him. He’s in Brazil, I believe. I used multiple accounts to request he upload the full song. I even pleaded with him in Portuguese to give this song to the world, fully. But at present, he has not acquiesced.
This playlist will never be complete in my eyes without this song. This full song.
If anyone reading this post has this 45, I will pay handsomely for it. If you can not part with it, I completely understand. But could you please make a decent rip of this song and send it to The Shindig. I’d pay just as handsomely for that. Even if you don’t own it and just have access to it – please! Access it for the team, champ!
The Shindig needs this song. You need this song. The World needs this song.
Please help Halloween Shindig make this and all future Halloweens, freaky.
Until then, let us bask in what little exists of Ernest Jordan’s electro-rap masterpiece Freaky Halloween.
Now, this is all you would have read and heard, had I posted this last year when it was supposed to post. Indeed, it’s all you would have read if I had posted this 3 weeks ago…
Because that is when the hoodoo apparently worked it’s magic yet again. Just sitting in the draft folder for almost 3 years, this post stirred the spirits. And like some summoned Halloween miracle, the very same guy on YouTube, DJTuta from Brazil, posted his 45 for sale on Discogs. Get right outta town.
Of course, he posted it for an absolutely unconscionable amount of money. Well, at least for a price that was completely unjustifiable to me. The dream was shattered.
So I began to soothe myself, “C’mon. No one is gonna pay that much for Freaky Halloween. It’ll sit there unsold, he’ll eventually mark it down, and then you can rush in! It’s yours, just be patient.”
But what if it didn’t just sit there unsold? Was that a risk I was willing to take?
After a few days went by with no one purchasing the record, I was feeling reassured. But I started getting paranoid, too. I had been down this road before with other rare items. If something, even something rare, is available and every time you check on it it’s still available, you can become complacent and you drag your feet. But then bam! All of a sudden and before you know it, it’s gone. You have to just accept you had a chance and you squandered it and now you’re waiting again. What if that happened here?
Only 47 (apparently 5 more people had expressed interest in the last 2 years) other people “wanted” it on Discogs, and that’s not that many. But it was still 46 chances for someone to swoop in and scoop it up. What if this was our only chance? What if it got purchased and hoarded again and we never got to even really hear it?! What if someone else out there decided they needed Freaky Halloween more than Halloween Shindig needed Freaky Halloween?!!
Well, fuck all that business. No one needs Freaky Halloween more than Halloween Shindig, goddamn it! And The Shindig will democratize its availability and make sure that the whole world receives it, uncut and clear! This was what this site was made for, and this is what needed to be done.
But that price. That goddamn price. We simply couldn’t pay it. It was just completely unjustifiable.
But…
There’s always another “but.” We wouldn’t be talking about this still if there wasn’t another “but,” right?
Because that’s when I remembered – The Shindig coffers! Of course!!
See, there’s a specific PayPal account where all the Redbubble, TeePublic, Zazzle, Ko-Fi and Shindig Shop sales just deposit to, and it’s not my main PayPal account. It’s an account I hadn’t actually looked at in almost 4 years. And holy shit. It was possible.
Why, if not for this very reason, was there even an account? Why, if not for this express purpose, had people ever supported this foolish endeavor of ours? Why, if not to make that which is unobtainable to one, accessible to all through the power of many?
If you have ever purchased a die-cut, a sticker, a Title Tracks T-Shirt, a Shindig Radio dog blanket, a throw pillow with Kyle’s face on it, or simply given us a few buck just for the fuck of it – then this is for you. This super rare and almost unobtainium piece of Halloween music exists on this website, in its complete form and for the entire world to enjoy, because of you. All of you.
My endless gratitude goes out to each and every person who has ever contributed anything to this fund. You have made this Halloween aspiration – an aspiration you were not even aware existed – come to fruition, in the clutch, when it was absolutely needed the most. And for that, I thank you.
And you should thank each other. Because of you all, this Halloween, and every Halloween hereafter, will be a Freaky Halloween.
PS: Oh, and the song? C’mon, that synth bass? That chorus? This horn bag slangin’ it to this chick on Halloween? It’s a straight up Halloween sex song, and it’s incredible. Count Dracula, who sucked me dry? Get the fuck outta here. I love this shit. It’s so much more than I could have hoped.
Not to be outdone on the controversial front, Stromtroppers of Death vocalist Billy Milano said “hold my beer” and formed M.O.D. (or Methods of Destruction) in 1986 to continue that same Thrashy and offensive legacy.
Their debut album, U.S.A. for M.O.D. was released in 1987. Songs like Aren’t You Hungry, Imported Society and A.I.D.S. will not doubt find much harsher criticisms today than at the time of their release, where such attitudes were far more normalized. And that’s not to say they weren’t criticized in their day, it’s just, try releasing A.I.D.S. in 2024 and lemme know how that pans out for you and your band. I’ll bet it works out way less than it did in 1987.
For their part, M.O.D. later apologized for the blatant racism found on Aren’t You Hungry. However, the juvenile (if not completely typical) Homophobia on display in A.I.D.S (which might appear almost jaw-dropping to an audience in 2024) has not received the same treatment, that I am aware.
Largely, people just regard Billy has a hateful racist bigot now and leave it there, choosing to either embrace the music while separating the art from the artist, or completely disregarding him and his artistic endeavors altogether, be they M.O.D. or S.O.D.
In subsequent albums, they never quite treaded as deep into the murky topical waters waded in on their debut, but they still maintained that off-putting and decidedly thrash-metal attitude all the same.
But we’re here for U.S.A for M.O.D., which like their S.O.D. counterpart’s debut, also contains a (thankfully) far less controversial ode to Mr. Big Time himself.
Love him or loathe him, Billy Milano just really liked Freddy Krueger I guess, cause here comes Man of Your Dreams.
2022 saw no shortage of Heavy Metal tunes. I think there were 8, by my count. Not a bad showing.
But in 2023, we completely ignored metal altogether. I’m not entirely sure if that was intentional on my part. I have a sort of master list that ebbs and flows and sometimes that doesn’t always jibe with how the seasons break out. Either way, 2023 was metal-free. What a Samhain bummer.
So, for the 2024 season we’re bringing it back. We’re goin Hard ‘Til Halloween. We got Heavy Metal Halloweeners, Referential Metal and Inclusive Metal all on the docket and we’re gonna keep your head bangin’ til the costumes are hangin. And if it ain’t quite Metal, it’ll still be hard, guaranteed.
Setting off this block is a dusty old fucker you might be familiar with. See, we featured this tune on Shindig Radio’s Heavy Metal Halloween back in 2019, and I could have sworn it was already on the playlist. But it was not! So, we’re gonna set the record straight and get this straggler on the roster tonight. It’s none other than Halloweenby Avenger.
The German Power Metal Band Rage was known, for a very brief period of their prolific career, as Avenger. Seems there was a British band by that name as well, so they went ahead and changed their name to Rage.
But not before they released their first album, which incidentally includes tonight’s Shindigger, predictably called Halloween.
Like their German brethren Helloween, Avenger takes a few minutes to wail away for us about the Eve of All Hallows, taking the stance that the night is inherently evil and linked to Satan.
For the record, I’d just like to state, I am not a Devil worshipper. Nor am I a Satanist, Luciferian or otherwise. I pledge no specific allegiance to Satan, Bel, Baal, Baphomet, Set, or any creepy fuckin’ Owl gods. I’m not entirely sure a being of such report exists, nor do I think any of us are. At least, I’d like to hope none of us are aware anyway.
But assuming a sentient being representing all evil with whatever powers, attributes, motivations and intent the old books of lore (or berobed weirdos in the woods of Mendecino County) have assigned upon it does actually exist, I wish not to align myself with them.
Now, the pious might argue that by simply having a blog and a room dedicated to a day not set aside for the Lord All Mighty, I am implicitly doing exactly that. Or that in creating an entire playlist of songs that not only fail to glorify Jesus, but it most cases represent a direct affront to him, that anything else I might say on that matter would be complete and utter horseshit. Hell, they might even be right. I’m not really sure how all of that works.
But if an all-powerful and omnipotent being stands as the antithesis to such an evil being, I imagine it knows full well about my post here and is hopefully noting my rejection of any and all actual creatures it stands in opposition against. But again, probably not how all that really works. At least, not if these righteous folks are to be believed anyway.
Look, I just like the color orange and think spooky monster stuff is pretty neat. I enjoy detailed and cartoonish representations of those monsters. In particular, I love old Halloween decorations. I like hazy blow-molded lights and creased cardboard die-cuts and honey-combed tissue paper shaped like bats. I like plastic Jack O’Lanterns and Ben Cooper masks and whatever the hell that stuff is they make stretchy cobwebs out of.
I like it when the leaves turn and crunch under the feet. I like the sharp sensation of breathing a lungful of cool autumn air. I like harvest foods like apples and corn and man, pumpkins with faces carved into them sure look cool.
I like the smell of latex masks and that shitty colored hair spray. I like candy and the communal spirit of the night. I like that it is a neighborhood-centered holiday rather than a family-centered one. I have fond memories of Halloweens past, trick or treating in the crisp air and watching Halloween TV shows and scary movies after.
Perhaps I am naive. Perhaps I’m unwittingly praying to Satan everyday through these activities. I’d sure hope not, and would like to go on record as such not being my intention. And that’s because that’s just not what Halloween means to me. It means the acknowledgment and honoring of death as one season of life gives way to another. This is not evil. Nature doesn’t understand that concept. Nature just is.
But maybe that’s that naïveté. Maybe it’s not about what it means to me, or what I ignorantly think it means. Maybe there’s something entirely more sinister at play here. But I dunno. That sounds like a whole lot of self righteous, puritanical Christian bullshit to me. But maybe that’s just the devil hard at work again, manipulating me with lies.
Now, should you go the other way with this concept and think that yes, Halloween is inherently evil and fuck yeah that’s exactly why you like it and my declaration of non-allegiance to Satan seriously offends you as a reader, cause man doesn’t it seem like some pussy ass shit over here at Halloween Shindig right now, I thought they were down – then shit, I dunno.
I’m not sure what to tell you, in that case. If that’s the sort of thing that you and your Master do not particularly appreciate, then I guess I’d apologize. But what do you need that for? You’re all fuckin evil and shit, right? What do you care what I say or think? Shut the fuck up, be fuckin evil and get the fuck down on this Hard ‘Til Halloween shit, will ya?!
So here we are, 12 years and almost 400 songs into this whole endeavor and we’re only now acknowledging iconic 80’s MTV Corey vehicle and known for its soundtrack vampire extravaganza, The Lost Boys? What in the actual bloody fuck, gang?
It’s shameful really, that it’s taken so long, and that its inclusion was ultimately by request, cause it shouldn’t have needed to be that way. A special shout out is in order though for Shindig enthusiast and Creep Phone caller, Peter Ostrowski, for finally asking what everyone probably should have been asking all along: “Hey! Where’s all the fuckin Lost Boys at, bud? And with the all the stupid shit you’ve forced us to listen to? Seriously?”
It’s a good question, as this is a pretty glaring omission. And, what’s more, is that it’s an especially shameful omission once you consider that this song, from Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm, is a Title Track.
I will add the caveat though that this is a Parenthetical Title Track, which certainly does not absolve me of failing to include it until now, but might possibly explain why. For years I simply assumed the song was only called Lost In The Shadows.
However, and as I must reiterate and can’t stress enough, this should not have prevented me from adding it to the playlist as an Inclusive Track during any one of the last 11 years. There’s just no excuse for that. Cause listen to this fuckin thing, it absolutely destroys. The 80’s synth, the driving bass line, the snare that doesn’t let your feet sit still. If there’s a song that had “Halloween Shindig” written on it, it was Lost in the Shadows.
But, like we always say around here, every song the should be on The Shindig will be on The Shindig…in time.
As for The Lost Boys, I’ll spare you any unnecessary dissertations. There’s a 99.9% chance that if you’re actually reading what’s written here, I don’t need to sell you on The Lost Boys, one way or the other. The odds that you might be sitting there all “The Lost Boys, huh? I think I’ve heard of that. Hmm, I wonder if I should watch it?” are practically fuckin zero.
So, let’s just blast through all that blah blah blah Corey Feldman is awesome, blah blah blah that sweaty saxophone guy from Monsterpalooza, and hey how bout that Jaime Gertz huh? Or man, it’s shame about Corey Haim though for real, he was great and yadda yadda yadda that Echo and The Bunnymen cover sucks, and hey it’s not nearly as badass as Near Dark but whatever I guess, cause it’s still cool cause man wouldn’t it be awesome to be a Lost Boy, with the dirt bikes and the hair and the sleeping all day and shit? Yeah.
So grab your copy of Batman #14, some takeout maggots and don’t waltz, cause with Lost in the Shadows, we can all Rock ‘N Roll.
