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 quite realized that until I just typed the above sentence. Both of the 6th installment of these franchises changes the title to feature the character’s names and their states of existence. 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, as she evades her dad’s goons attempting to free our hero, Tommy Jarvis, as 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 as much love as the others.
Well, as we’re wont 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, for me to have grown a little and accepted it for what it is. But man, I just can’t do it. At least not yet, and 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.
It also has a scene where a very conflicted Antichrist magically makes his bully grow a pair of tits. That’s pretty wild too.
But let’s get back to this music, huh?
So yeah, this soundtrack is kinda nuts. Like, I’m not sure if they knew it at the time (maybe they did, who knows?) but looking back it’s like a who’s-who of the late 70’s punk and new wave scenes. It’s crazy to see a low budget directorial debut just stacking tracks like this.
The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, The Rezillos, the B-52s, Richard Hell, The Boomtown Rats, The Sex Pistols! It’s plays like a compliation album you used to only be able to by off a TV commercial that came of 4 Cassettes or 2 Compact Discs.
It doesn’t appear as though they released this soundtrack, though. They released the score, by director Frank LaLoggia and David Spear, but not this. That seems like a real missed trick to me. I’ll bet they coulda sold a metric shirtsworth of these things at that time. And then I wouldn’t have to pull the song from the end of the DVD. But at least it’s clean and clear and presumably complete. Can’t say that about a lot of In-Movie-Only songs.
Now, I’m not sure how any of this actually works, cause I’m just a dumbass that recklessly types potentially unsubstantiated nonsense onto the internet for people all over the world to not read. But I’m gonna blame this collection of songs on Soundtrack Coordinator Jonathan Brett.
Jonathan had just come off coordinating the soundtrack for 1979’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Highschool, which we know definitely featured the Ramones. Hell, the whole movie does. That’s an interesting story too.
Apparently that movie was originally titled Disco High, and producer Roger Corman wanted Todd Rundgren, despite Todd not producing anything close to what I’d call Disco. But Todd wanted more money than the notoriously cheap Corman was willing to part with for the job. At least that’s how I read it. Wikipedia says it was a “scheduling conflict” but IMDb says they “couldn’t come to an agreement.” Oh yeah? An agreement about the scheduling, I’m sure.
So, they went to Roger’s second choice, Cheap Trick. As it turns out Cheap Trick isn’t quite as affordable as they bill themselves and not nearly enough for the miserly Corman, and they were summarily dismissed. Or rather, ya know, they just couldn’t come to an agreement.
However, The film’s director, Mr. Allan Arkush, had some connections over at Warner Bros. Music, and after poo-pooing both Van Halen and Devo, they finally landed on The Ramones, because they recorded on Warner subsidiary Sire Records. Ahh interesting.
Ok, well that’s just fuckin’ swell, buddy. What the fuck does all this Rock ‘n’ Roll High Schoolhave to do with Fear No Evil?
Well, just about the entirety of the Fear No Evil soundtrack is Sire Record acts, including Title Tracker’s Trybe.
And outside of that fact, I can’t find a one lick of information about this fuckin band. Discogs list about 6 different Trybes and not a single one performed this Title Track.
I will say that Colin Jacobson over at DVD Movie Guide called the tune an “awful title song by some flop band called Trybe.” Nice!
This is good news, as it seems to suggest that he thinks they were some band that just didn’t make it. I wonder what he knows?
Me? I’m not convinced they’re even band at all and aren’t are just some one-off from writers Andy Paley and Erik Lindgren. We may never know.
Oh, but hey! What about the movie?
Well, I’ll tell ya, as derivative as it feels most of the time, it’s not terrible. It’s got some good moments in it, some creepy, some with fun FX or some that are just plain bizarre. It’s a weird movie, with a weird vibe.
I like the look of it. It’s hazy and warm, like comfort photography. This isn’t too surprising, directed as it is by Frank LaLoggia, the man behind the Class of 1988 alumni Lady In White. That movie have a spot on feel of fuzzy vintage Halloween, with a hazy glow of its on.
But that’s all a whole lot, so I’m gonna let y’all get the song already.
Here’s Fear No Evilfrom Trybe, whoever the hell they even are.
If a movie hits you off so with its Title Track before introducing you to all of its main characters or even an inkling of its plot, than you know you’re off to a good start.
When that Title Track get played diegetically in the film by a literal garage band, that’s even better.
If that Title Track is played directly after a young boy drives a stake through his grandfather’s heart cause the old bastard was terrorizing the kid by screaming “I’m a Vampire!!?” at the top of his lungs…then you’re watching Hard Rock Nightmare, my friend.
This psychological thriller cum Scooby Doo episode features a fair amount of rocking from our heroes, The Bad Boys, a name so dumb even their own band members clown on it. But as you’ll hear in the song, the local police force is getting a little tired of their loud and lousy rock.
So, now they’re out practicing at Jimmy’s Grandma’s house. Ya know, the one she left him despite him ruthlessly murdering her husband like a creature of the night. Hey, he was being kind of an asshole. She said as much herself.
But, it seems that there’s a werewolf on the loose too and doing some murdering of its own. But is the wolf real? Are the mysterious phone calls Jim’s getting from his Grandfather hallucinations? Is anyone gonna get to bang the undercover reporter writing about the band for her sister‘s rock magazine? Who knows!
What we do know is that it’ll be a Hard Rock Nightmare, cause they’ve let us know that shit right out the gate. And God bless ’em for that.
Here it is, just another Title Track from 1988. It’s Hard Rock Nightmare!
We’re keeping Title Track train chuggin’ along with a Title Track to 1989’s Night Visitor.
Now you may notice, however, that this song is not Night Visitor. That is because tonight’s Title Track is an Alternate Title Track, where the song was very much a True Title Track for most of the film’s inception and production (and hell, even in some Foreign market releases) but for some reason was stripped of its status by reckless executives.
Because dear readers, I ask, is Night Visitor a better title than Never Cry Devil? I should think not.
This thick slice of late 80’s Rock ‘N Roll cheesery comes from Willy DeVille, whom is perhaps best known being the leader of Mink DeVille, an early house band at New York’s famed CBGB.
Willy also earned himself an Academy Award nomination for writing and recording Storybook Love with Dire Straits’ Mark Knophler for the film The Princess Bride. Aces.
Here, Willy sets a mood while vaguely (very vaguely) singing about the things that might have something to do with the plot of this 1989 thriller about a boy who thinks he’s gonna see his sexy neighbor Shannon Tweed get buck, but just ends up seeing his fat History teacher ritualistically murdering her in a crazy Satan mask. It’s kinda wild.
But I can picture wilder. Much wilder.
Michael J. Pollard plays the muderer’s brother and (as always) just about steals the show. Elliot Gould showed for a few days to collect his checks and they somehow talked Shaft himself, Mr. Richard Roundtree, into playing the investigating detective.
None of it’s bad, per se, but it doesn’t quite amount to what you want from the premise.
However, it might just be more evidence for Mikey’s theorem that the quality of a movie’s Title Track is directly, and inversely, proportionate to how much that movie sucks.
Now, I’m not sure if that’s always true, particularly for the heavy hitters (Fright Night, Monster Squard, fuckin Ghostbusters for fuck’s sake) but it definitely seems to be the case here again at Track #375, cause this song’s delivering the goods. It’s Wily DeVille with Never Cry Devil.
Ok, that’s enough fake Title Tracks. Let’s get to with real deal, cause we got a bunch of these.
The good news is I thought I’d be playing catch up here with all the new songs from Title Tracks Pt. 6, but since that episode has yet to air, they can all debut right here on the Playlist for a change, like the old days!
You can thank Mr. Josh Spiegel over atMovie Timelinesfor our first Title Track, as I became aware of this tune and film it hails from while watching an episode of his ongoing series, The 80’s Project.
But Josh is generally pretty good about throwing Title Tracks my way whenever he stumbles across new ones. I’m just grateful to have a guy in the field doings some work for Title Track identification and acquisition.
And this one is a funky, disco-esque groover from Joyce Vincent Wilson, who is perhaps best known for being part of the group Dawn, as in Tony Orlando and Dawn. They were a trio of singers responsible for a string of hits in the early 70’s including Candida, Knock Three Times and Tie a yellow Ribbon Round the ole Oak Tree. They were so popular in fact that they even had a short lived variety show on CBS called, you guessed it, Tony Orlando and Dawn.
I love this tune, and since he mentions it in the first 2 seconds of the show, it’s going to be no spoiler to say it was Kyle Sullivan’s choice for favorite Title Track out of the Ep. 6 lineup.
No one else felt that way however, particularly Graham, who used it as solid evidence that he didn’t actually need to watch the film. Which I had to concur with, he didn’t. No one does, honesty. I mean, it’s fine, for what it is, but it doesn’t need to be burning a hole in anyone’s watch list, knowhutimean?
It’s a bit of a lighter, comedic take on the Fritz Leiber novel Conjure Wife, which had previously been adapted into the 1944 film Weird Woman and the 1962 film Burn, Witch, Burn.
There’s a cool gargoyle thing that comes out of a giant egg, I’ll say that. Richard Benjamin, of Love at First Bite fame is pretty fun. Terri Garr is great, and it was Lana Turner’s final film appearance. Whether that’s a positive or not is up to you, but she gives a solid performance despite the general Made-for-TV vibes this movie generates.
But you can’t blame Joyce Vincent Wilson, that’s for sure, cause it may not really fit that vibe, but this is a certified jammer. Kicking off a full-on Title Track Pt. 6 block, here’s the 1980’s Witches’ Brew!
Sometimes you just wish you knew a song existed sooner.
This would have paired perfectly with the 2022 addition, Stay the Night, which sounded suspiciously similar to Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name.
But even earlier than that, this song would have fit in nicely with all the other Haunted House hits in 2017.
Or perhaps, if I had know about this tune even earlier, I could have thrown it where it probably belongs, directly after Thriller, because damnit if this isn’t the most shameless Thriller knock-off I’ve ever heard.
Ok, maybe Golimar, but that thing was tucked away inside some obscure Telugu musical that no one saw for 25 years. Additionally, it doesn’t sound anywhere near as similar to Thriller as Doin’ It In a Haunted House does, which released to the American pop charts within a year of Thriller’s debut.
So shameless is this tune, in fact, that it sample’s directly from John Landis’ Thriller video in the opening minutes of the song. That’s either some kinda balls, or just plain wearing it on your sleeve. Cause if they didn’t think people would go “Hey! That sounds just like Thriller!” then someone is outta their goddamn mind.
And apparently they did, with Yvonne Gage herself stating (at least in retrospect) that she expressed concerns over its similarity to Thriller. These concerns were brushed away by the production team and they moved forward with the tune.
And boy am I glad they did, because Yvonne Cage’s Doin’ It In a Haunted House is a glorious thing. Not only is a fairly groovin’ tune, because well, it’s basically Thriller, but it’s called fuckin’ Doin’ It in a Haunted House. That’s just fantastic. And it’s not played for laughs either, at least as far as I can tell. This doesn’t strike me a jokey tune. This is just a straight faced Thriller knock-off with a ridiculous goddamn title and it’s beautiful.
It’s not terribly often that a song just gets an instant spot on the Plyalist based on its title alone. Most of them, I need to at least hear first. But this one? I was basically of the opinion that if it was even remotely listenable, it was goin on there, no question.
Then, I fire it up and it’s some ridiculous Thriller knock-off on top of that? Where has this song been all my life?! There’s still gems to be uncovered, even after years into this juggernaut.
But let’s talk about this song, shall we?
Let’s start with Yvonne, who began singing (as many girls do) at her local church from a very young age. Soon, she joined a band called the Soulettes and they even released an album under the band name Love, but Yvonne had already moved on by then, singing back up for a guy named Captain Sky. From there she met producer Don Burnside.
In addition to introducing her to Ministry (of all bands, with whom she recorded in their ) Don also produced her first 2 albums.
Originally, Doin’ It in a Haunted House was envisioned as a “response” record in the vein of Lydia Murdocks Superstar. If you’ve never heard that tune, I recommend giving it a listen, as it’s pretty wild if you’ve never come across it before.
Sung from the perspective of Billie Jean, Lydia posits Michael Jackson’s No. 1 tales omits some pretty big details and she means to set the record straight.
That record also sounds suspiciously like Billie Jean, aping the bassline and basic rhythm.
That sort of thing isn’t unheard of either, though not typically so overt. In fact, Response Songs (or Answers Songs) are as old as recorded music itself. Take a look at that list to see just how many songs are in fact (a good many of which I was totally unaware were) response songs.
What you might notice missing from that list, however, is Yvonne Gage’sDoin’ It in a Haunted House.
And probably not unjustly.
Despite being sold as the “Female Answer to Thriller,” the lyrics do little to suggest this is anything other than a similiar-ish concept wrapped up in a package sounding entirely too much like Thriller.
At least Rod Temperton thought so, anyway. See, he was the co-writer of Thriller and he proceeded to sue Gage for copyright infringement. Nothing really came from the suit, with Yvonne herself stating that Rod didn’t so much want money as he wanted to simply kill her record. Which, in effect, it kind of did, with deals and appearances evaporating from Yvonne upon the lawsuits release.
Mission accomplished pal, cause I haven’t heard of this thing in 40 years of its existence and I’m looking for shit like this. I guess I’m just not looking hard enough. Or maybe just not in the right places.
But like we always say, these kinds of things can’t hide from The Shindig forever, even if they should have been on there since day 1.
If you’ve never heard this one before, enjoy! If you’ve long been a fan, what the fuck? Drop The Shindig a line, will ya? This is too good an addition for ya’ll to have been sittin’ on.
Our next tune is another Monster Rap from the absolutely Monster Rap-dominated year of 1987. In addition to the 9 (yes 9!) Freddy Krueger raps released in 1987, you’ve got the 2 songs we just posted, plusGregory D’sMonster Booogie and Monster Rap Title Track juggernaut The Monster Squad.
And those are the ones that I’m aware of. There could be even more out there and I just haven’t hit the right search yet. So who knows.
Tonight’s ’87er comes from Cool Rock T and Daggy D, and it might sound a bit reminiscent of another…more famous…monster rap that you’re already familiar with, which is funny because the b-side to this single was called…Reminiscing.
This is another tune one that was sort of “lost” to the ages as the rip on YouTube right now is not the full song, and there didn’t seem to be any records floating around for sale. However, that was the case until a few months ago, when Monster Rap hero CCSchwiegert, listed this single on discogs.
Now, they listed it for $300 buck mind you, but to my amazement, they also posted a link to an audio sample of the record for potential buyers. And that sample? Yep, it was the entire fucking song. So, thank you CCSchweigert, you are an absolute legend. Sorry I didn’t kick you down the $300 bills, but owning a rare physical record simply because it is rare isn’t necessarily important to me, particularly at that price. See Track #370.
Now, you may be wondering why you’ve never heard of Cool Rock T (better known as Robert Tingle) and Daggy D (also known as Deron Wilson) and it’s probably because they don’t appear to have any other credits to their names unfortunately. This seems to be it from the duo.
As derivative as it may be, I love this tune. I love this beat. I love the lyrics. I love the way they make fake cars sounds during the intro. It’s just awesome. I mean it’s 100% aping Whodini, but in the best possible way.
Besides, I’m pretty sure I vote for Haunted House of Rock as my favorite Monster Rap of all time, and at present, it appears to be the originator. So what better tune to ape?
Here it is. It’s not a Haunted House made of, or where to find Rock, but rather the kind of Rock that is for, or of, a Haunted House. Ya know, Haunted House Rock.
Our next Shindigger here is from the band L7. No Rach, not that L7.
But wait, you say you’re not this “Rach,” and you’ve never heard of any band named L7? Oh, that’ll make this a bit easier then.
See, there was (evidentially anyway) an American Funk band by the name of L7. I call them Funk because this song is listed as being Funk and since it’s their only release, I guess that makes them a Funk band. I genuinely don’t know enough about the in’s and out’s of Funk to say whether or not this claim holds any water, but they might as well be Funk. Sounds Funky, anyway. They’re definitely not a Country band. And I wouldn’t call it this Metal. It’s certainly something. Funk is something. So, let’s go with them on Funk then.
Now, this precursory Funk iteration of L7 it’s is best known for…well…this release. In fact, they’re only known for this release, cause it’s, ya know, their only release. And it’s a Funk release, and Frankenstein, which is always a plus around here.
The 12” Maxi-Single, The Bride of Frankenstein, contains 4 tracks, but essentially only 2 songs. There’s Mr. Boogie Bop, which gets the standard and instrumental treatment, and the title tune, The Bride of Frankenstein. That one gets the standard treatment as well, but also an extra-special “Rap” version. And I say extra-special because this single is from 1983, the very year I believe to be the birth of Monster Rap itself.
That year gave us Whodini’s Haunted House of Rock, Edgar Winter’s futuristic Frankenstein 1984 and now, The Bride of Frankenstein Rap. I’d say only one of these tunes is legitimately Rap, however. Can you guess which one?
Yep, it’s the only one not actually claiming to be Rap. Go figure there.
But while this song may not pass a street test, for us ‘Diggers lookin for Halloween tunes, you can’t ask for much better than this. It’s solid gold.
Dudes strapping some reasonable whack-simile of Rap onto an otherwise bizarre “Funk” tune and just running with it? Oh you know we’re all over this.
Apparently a guy in the graveyard (why he’s in this graveyard is anyone’s guess) meets a dancing corpse that claims to be The Bride of Frankenstein. At least she shows him a gravestone to that effect. Now, why The Bride of Frankenstein would have “Bride of Frankenstein” carved into her tombstone is also anyone’s guess, but here we are.
Then, all of sudden it’s Halloween and the Rap shows up. Nice! Now the guy is looking for the Bride of Frankenstein and he winds up at the Monster Club. Which isn’t a bad place to look for her really, so I get it. Does the actual song shed any light on these events?
No, not really.
I’ll say this, they are 2 separate songs. They’re pretty much the same song musically, but the lyrics are all different. This isn’t just L7’sThe Bride of Frankenstein single with a Rap verse tacked on, and I can appreciate that.
In the original tune (which was perhaps a more fitting tune for the playlist, but oh well) our narrator is at a monster party where he meets a girl that he takes a liking to. However, he is warned, as he learns that she is the Bride of Frankenstein. Bummer for him I guess.
So, it’s kinda more dance-able, makes a bit more sense (albeit a very small bit) and is generally just a more regular tune. It definitely has less weird “mommmy mommy mommy” sounds, whatever the hell those are suppose to be, and that counts for something.
But that version of the song has no Rap (or whatever this is that is calling itself Rap) and it definitely doesn’t have any Halloween. So, when it comes to the playlist, we’re goin The Bride of Frankenstein Rap all day long on this one.
Our next Frankenstein adjacent track is the best kind of track; an 80’s Monster Rap.
This is a pretty rare tune it seems, and I had to ante up to catch this one. It wasn’t terribly expensive, but did take some waiting. Why this song isn’t in heavier rotation or found in more places online is beyond me.
So, we posted it up onto our YouTube channel DigTV a couple years back, as we wanted to get a clean copy out into the world asap.
But those things are fragile. Anything can get taken off YouTube at a moment’s notice and Lord knows I’m just waiting for Shindig Radio to get slapped with a cease and desist. So, we’re finally committing this one to the playlist, where it can hopefully have a second and long digital life, cause awesome vintage Monster Rap like Igor At Midnight, needs preserving.
This super referential and festive Electro Rap drops the names of everyone you’d expect, makes a reference to Halloween, and even includes a shout out to Thriller, a clear inspiration here for Cagé. I dunno bout that Darth Vader reference though, that one’s a little weird and random, but we’ll take it.
Once again, a huge shout out goes Werner Von Wallenrod and his Humble Little Hip Hop Vids for hipping me to this tune and sending me on the hunt.
From 1987, here’s the only release from Cagé (Drac. E. “D”), the extra halloweeny Igor At Midnight.
So here’s another (allegedly) Italo tune about Frankenstein. This one is really from Italy as well, which is nice. It also appears to definitely be about the Doctor, which is also nice.
It’s also by The Doctor, which is a little confusing. It also seems to be The Doctor’s only musical contribution to the world.
Here he is rockin a sweet Frankenstein mask, which is more than I can say for the intense and sweaty Phoebus. But maybe Phoebus had just taken his Frankenstein mask off. Latex is notorious for inducing a good sweat.
What’s also peculiar about this song, is that it too is from 1986. So, that year saw 2 separate Frankenstein related Italo-Disco tracks that were actually from Italy, by acts that never released ny other records? That’s weird. I mean, at least i think so. Is that weird? Seems weird to me anyway. What was going on in Italy in 1986 with Frankenstein that produced such similar efforts? Beats me, cause these songs don’t even really sound similar.
I do like this one though. More than the Phoebus tune anyway. It’s strange. What’s also strange is that The Doctorhere is sporting that mask while the song appears to be about Doctor Frankenstein for a change. Meanwhile Phoebus, clearly singing about how The Monster gives him a boner or whatever, appears mask-less, all intense and sweaty. Hmm. Perhaps that’s more apropos than I initially gave it credit for.
But I digress. This song is fun and certainly very danceable, but I’ll be honest here, I don’t really know what The Doctor is saying. But, unlike the Ecstasy song, I’m not sure I really care. Something about Chris Dobarts accent and the variety of words in Hey Frankenstein made me genuinely curious as to the lyrical content.
But here, I dunno. I guess I’m just not as interested. Either way, this could be the night!
We’re gonna segue out of Disco here with 2 different Frankenstein tunes from the same year out of the Italo-Disco scene.
We’ve got a few Italo-Disco tracks already on The Shindig, namely Disco Halloween from Forbidden Fruits. But what the hell is Italo-Disco? It doesn’t seem much like Disco, nor does it sound terribly Italian.
It’s been years now since we posted that song, and you don’t feel like clicking away to reread stuff you maybe never even read back then, so why don’t we just talk about it again, huh?
Well, it seems the question of “what is Italo-Disco” elicits a fairly complicated answer. Enthusiasts and historians can’t seem to agree on what exactly is, where and when it all started or what even really qualifies as, Italo-Disco.
As such, the sound of Italo-Disco can be a bit elusive. Some of it skews more Disco and Space Disco, while a bunch of it leans more toward dancey 80’s Pop.
The short versions seems to be that it’s what happened when inexperienced Italian producers in the late 70’s tried to imitate the Disco hits that were no longer flooding in from outside Italy in the wake of Disco’s stateside decline.
That said, it was also the eventual electronification of Disco and the precursor to just about every form of EDM that now exists. Wow, ok Italo-Disco, shit. Take it down a notch, huh. That’s a pretty bold statement.
These 2 things seem to be most important to a definition though: heavy use of electronic instrumentation (synths, drum machines and vocoders) and either overly melodramatic themes of love and sex, or robots. There’s lots of robots.
Most of it was sung in English, perhaps explaining why a lot of it doesn’t sound terribly Italian. Dunno if that was an attempt to mimic classic disco tracks or simply to appeal to an American audience.
Oddly enough, it’s was a German Record label ZYX, that is largely cited as being the originators of the term. They marketed full-on mixes of the emerging pop scene out of Italy as “Italo-Disco.” Soon, that sound was coming from all corners of the globe and getting slapped with the same moniker.
Meanwhile, over here in the States, guys like Patrick Crowley and Bobby Orlando were touching upon some similar sounds with Hi-NRG. That also featured heavy use of electronic instruments, but typically ran at a higher tempo than Italo, so is somewhat easy to pick out of a lineup. It was popular in the Gay club scene of the mid-80’s and was very much a precursor to Techno and House. We even have a Hi-NRGhit here on the playlist courtesy of Bobby Orlando’s own Whisper to a Scream, which appeared (perhaps less than coincidentally) in 1985’s Freddy’s Revenge.
So, as you might suspect, I’ve been listening to a lot of Italo-Disco over the last year or so, and given its overall variety, I find it to be a wildly mixed bag. Some of it I love, some of it I hate.
The beat and the bass are typically right on the money. The first couple minutes of any Italo song is usually pretty great. But by the time the singer joined the party, it seemed like a 70/30 split on whether I was bailing out. A lot of it just sounds like cheeseball dance music of a variety I’m not terribly fond.
Now, I love Giorgio Moroder, and his pop-driven 80’s work is great. Kano released some good tunes. Koto, Scotch and Casco too. But the genre seems less defined by particular artists then it does the one-off records dropped by total randos never to be heard from again. Those can definitely be hit or miss.
I seemed to prefer the older, earlier variety which leaned a little more into Space Disco territory, a genre that I love which has a lot of overlap with Italo.
But the point at where a thing stops being Italo and starts being any number of other genres that sprung up in its wake, is located somewhere just outside my range of hearing.
Consensus seems to be that the genre had mostly dried out by the early 90’s and had given way to House, or Eurobeat or Eurodisco.
Tonight’s selection, Frankenstein by Phoebus, is a great example of what I’m talking about. This song doesn’t bear the hallmarks of what I think of when I think of Italo-Disco. To me, this just sounds like generic 80’s dance music, which isn’t not what Italo is, but it’s hard to explain. I dunno, maybe I’m not even really sure what Italo is, but I don’t know if it’s this. However, according to the folks on Discogs anyway, it definitely is.
Despite that, I still kinda dig this tune. Perhaps it’s a testament to the fact that just singing about Frankenstein can afford you a fair bit of goodwill over here with The Shindig.
This one seems to be about the Monster. And specifically the monster from the movie, as Phoebus has just recently seen a Frankenstein picture at the cinema.
From what I can gather, the monster has left an impression on our dear narrator. The nature of which, however, I can’t exactly say. Is this guy sexually attracted to the creature? Is that what’s goin on here? Am I adding that in? Am I sexually attracted to the creature? What’s the deal? Cause Phoebus seems to be getting real worked up over this thing, and I’m not sure it’s of the “Hey, just pick up a copy of Famous Monsters and an Aurora Model kit and work it out” variety.
So much so, in fact, that his friends all say he needs a doctor, his dad has kicked him out of the house and his girlfriend won’t even talk to him.
As such we dropped in some clips from Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey’s Flesh For Frankenstein, cause…c’mon.
But enough of my rambling about a genre you probably don’t care to know about for some Monster song that I’m not even sure is prime example of that genre, in theme or sound.
He’s talkin’ about Frankenstein, so lose your mind already.
P.S. – If anyone listening happens to be familiar with this song but is finding they not familiar with this particular version, that is because it is a Shindig specific edit exclusive to the playlist.
It is a mashup I made of the 7” Mix and the Horror Mix. Not sure why I did this exactly, as I did it quite a while back. I think I liked the Horror Mix better in general, but preferred the opening of the 7” Mix. I think anyway. There’s something going on at the end too that’s different. Either way, we hope you enjoy!
Now, I probably should have just wrapped this all up with another Drac-Track and gotten us straight to the 10 slot on nothing but Draculas. And I could have too, Lord knows I have enough. But I figured we’re all a little fanged-out.
So we’re gonna double down on Meco and pivot to a bit referential werewolf action.
Cause If you ever wanted to hear what it might sound like if you asked AI to give you 80’s KISS covering Queen’s nonexistent Almost Title Track from An American Werewolf in London, allow me to present Meco’sWerewolf (Loose in London.)
In 1967, Mike Nichol’s tapped Simon and Granfunkel to provide songs for his new film The Graduate, and proceeded to blow Hollywood’s collective mind. A #1 hit single, a #1 hit album and 3 Grammy awards later, that town had a whole new blueprint for cross-marketing. One that generated its own goddamn revenue stream to boot.
And it was cheaper too. At that time, anyway. It isn’t any longer, but in the late 60’s and 70’s it sure was. Need a soundtrack? Just populate your film with licensed music, get a popular band to cut ya an exclusive track or two, then take all the money you just saved and put it in the bank to wait for all the other money you’re gonna make.
In 1977 however, John William’s skirted this new trend and brought soundtracks back to the golden era with Star Wars. In the process, he created the best selling non-pop album of all time and a theme which itself hit #10 on the Billboard charts.
As we know, Mecothen made his disco version, and that fucker shot to #1 and stayed there for 2 weeks.
The same year though, the Bee Gee ladened soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever dominated the charts with four #1 hits and selling over 16 million copies. It’s still one of the best selling albums, not just soundtracks, but albums of all time. It was even the first soundtrack to win the Grammy for Album of the Year. And that’s only happened twice since.
So by 1981, movie soundtracks we’re big business. They could helped promote a film just as much as TV and Radio spots or good word of mouth. The movie sold the soundtrack and the soundtrack sold the movie and everyone was riding that ouroboros all the way to the bank.
But John Landis’ new horror comedy An American Werewolf in London posed an interesting problem to the formula. Elmer Bernstein’s score for the film, though wonderfully atmospheric, only ran about 7 minutes long. The rest of the soundtrack was made of moon-tunes from the likes of Van Morrison, Creedence ClearwaterRevival and 3 different versions of Blue Moon. All good stuff, to be sure.
However, trying to pass off that limited assortment as a real LP for public consumption seemed like like a hard sell, I guess.
So, Polygram got the ingenious idea to let international Disco soundtrack leech Domencio Monardo loose on an “inspired by” album.
What resulted was Impressions of An American Werewolf in London, a double entendre of an album that I’m not sure was intentional or not.
This bizarre mishmash of weird covers, reworkings and strange originals is the official soundtrack for the film. For real. It’s listed in the credits. This was it. This is the thing. And they weren’t exactly flying off the shelves either.
And why not? Isn’t that why people buy soundtracks? To listen to a bunch of weird shit that wasn’t in the movie mixed with bastardized versions of the stuff that was?
No. It’s not. And they didn’t.
For us fans though, some 40 years after the fact looking for referential jams for our Halloween playlist, Impressions is like a weird little dish of what-the-fuckery cooked to order.
Namely, the cut Werewolf (Loose in London), which is exactly the kind of song you’d wish had actually been in the film, if only it didn’t sound like the kind of song that shouldn’t be in a film like this at all.
But it’s here for us now, in all it’s officially sanctioned and referential glory.
I’ll leave you with this quote from John Landis himself, which like Meco’sMoondancer, appears right on the back of the sleeve.
“Here I would like to brag about how unique this is, however I’m afraid Meco has done this same thing rather spectacularly before with the scores of STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, SUPERMAN, STAR TREK, THE BLACK HOLE, THE WIZARD OF OZ, and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK….”
Oh, I’d say this is just a little bit different than that, John.
So here’s a weird Disco Dracula with a confusing release history.
I originally came across this song as simply Dracula, sung by Linda Susan Bauer. I loved it and shoved it in the bullpen, as is custom.
Later, while digging around for other monster disco madness, I ran across the suggestion of the song Ooh Dracula, as performed by Hysteric. I listened to that, but it wasn’t really much of anything except a remix, yet it sounded a little different from Linda’s song.
What was it a remix of then?
Well, apparently the song Ooh Dracula by the German Disco groupEmpire.
So, I double checked around on Linda Susan Bauer and found out she was one of the singers for Empire, and that her version was itself a reworking of that version. Ok then.
Problem is, the band Empire isn’t really a band at all. They’re basically just this other band called Methusalem. Wait, what?
Ok, so bear with me with on this, cause the information is a little spotty. From what I can garner, Methusalem was a project of a producer named Jack White. Not that guy with the white pants, but this guy.
See, he was German. He also used to be a professional soccer player. But more importantly, he produced David Hasselhoff’s albums, including his Berlin Wall-leveling hit, Looking for Freedom.
More famously (I would assume), he was the man responsible for producing Laura Branigan, including her very actual hits Self Control, How Am I Suppose to Live Without You? and her insanely popular version of Umberto Tozzi’s Gloria. In fact, he also produced her hit The Lucky One, which appears in 1986’s Killer Party, is sitting in the bullpen and waiting it’s debut on The Shindig.
I think even more importantly though, Jack White is the man that produced the soundtrack to the 1984 Sci-Fi Musical Pia Zadora vehicle Voyage of the Rock Aliens. Choice.
However, before all of that success, Jack had been releasing disco singles to limited acclaim in the late 70’s. Methusalem’s lone album, Journey Into the Unknown, was released in 1980, also to limited acclaim.
So, Jack just continued producing disco singles, including one with Linda Susan Bauer entitled Shot Down under the moniker Empire.
When that single performed well, Jack figured he’d try and give Methusalm a new set of legs. So in 1981, he took Journey Into the Unknown, added Shot Down and another a new song he’d also produced with Linda entitled Ooh Dracula and released it as Empire’s lone LP, The First Album. Incidentally, that was also their last album as neither Empire nor Methusalem released anything after.
Some later, bootleggy repressings of Journey Into the Unknown feature the additional 2 songs, but from what I can tell, those are mostly erroneous. Even some places online will attribute this song to Methusalem, which is just as well I suppose. But as far as I can tell, nothing official by the Methusalem moniker was ever released containing Ooh Dracula. This appears to be “Empire”song, whatever that really means.
Linda herself released the song as just Dracula in 1982, and that’s the one I was familiar with. It’s not terribly different, from what I can tell. Maybe a little less synthy. Hard to say, really. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was the same track.
So what is Empire then? Well, basically Shot Down and Ooh Dracula, that’s what Empire is, featuring vocals by Linda Susan Bauer.
Methusalem is the rest of that album, with vocals from English singer Vicky Brown.
Now that that’s cleared up, what with this song?
Well, it’s your typical sort of Dracula tale. A woman is obsessed with that god forsaken creature of the night, and despite what everyone (including common goddamn sense) tells her, she’s determined to become a slave to that thing.
Oh well.
Better her than me, I suppose. Seems like it’s hard to resist that guy. Thankfully, we’ve never crossed paths. However, I do feel confident that my years of listening to Dracula songs has given me the tools necessary to fully protect myself from his evil ways.
#389: 
