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The Halloween Song

TRACK #350:

The Halloween Song by The Four Downs

Look, I know this album cover over here ain’t exactly selling the sizzle or the steak, but the 2006 CD Bomp in the Night is actually a pretty solid Halloween compilation.

It’s a 30-track packed offering of, mostly old (but trusty) Halloween staples. Bert Convy, Danny Hutton, Jack and Jim, Lee Ross and Mann Drake all appear on this comp. It even features a rare cover of Spooky Movies by Ron Barrett. Nice!

Now, this sort of thing is completely irrelevant these days, given that most of the songs here are readily available, if not on music streaming services, then most certainly YouTube. And that affords you all the ability to take or leave as many of these songs as you’d like in the building of your own personal Halloween playlist.

Most of them.

There are a few rare and unique tracks here that might cause a guy like me, in a year like 2020, to actually seek out this album, including the song I fully purchased this album to hear, The Mysterial’s Halloween (It’s Your Big Scene).

This tune is only available either here, or (I think anyway) on their 2008 release Theatre of the Seasons under the title Halloween (The Story of Linus). I assume this is the same song, but I ain’t in no rush to confirm that shit, because I don’t really like this song. It’s definitely not making the playlist, either way. Such is life. So it goes. Thanks for playing.

It’s a throwbacky Doo-Wop snoozer about Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, which might sound great, but it doesn’t actually sound great, so here it ain’t.

I will make it available on DigTV however, so that any potential diggers out there can spare themselves any serious scouring or dollars and decide for themselves if they want to hear it a 2nd time.

Ok, then why the fuck are we even talking about this damn CD then?

Well, I mention it because it’s also the only place I’ve ever seen where you can hear tonight’s track, outside of finding it’s original 45 anyway. And it’s The Halloween Song by The Four Downs.

Of course, I found that 45 before I found this CD, but I enjoy having the 45, and it certainly didn’t cost much, so either way.

However, that 45 contained some sort of scratch or imperfection that made it so I couldn’t actually rip a clean copy from the vinyl, even after hours of cleaning, brushing, replaying and trying again.

So, in went the CD. But, ah-ha! This CD apparently contained its own imperfection, as it would only rip to track 25 before promptly ejecting the fuckin’ thing over and over and over. What is this, some sick joke? It played fine in my car, so what gives?

I ended up having to drag my DVD player out to the Halloween Hole and hook it up to my inputs and manually record the output of the CD to get this digital copy. Holy shit.

But after all of that, I can confidentially state that this tune was actually saved from Halloween obscurity by Bomp in the Night. Big ups.

And now my frustration is the world’s gain as in addition to this song now being featured on the playlist, I will post it on YouTube for Halloween hungry hermits the world over. No longer need The Halloween Song by The Four Downs be hard to come across, scratched and digitally corrupted. Nay!

Because this is exactly the sort of thing we wanna have cap off our Referential Monster jam mega block. This mellow tune (which sounds suspiciously similar to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da) is possibly the most Referential Halloween Monster Song this side of Vanilla Ice’s Born on Halloween.

V. Ice probably still holds the crown, based on sheer volume, but for the quality over quantity crowd, The Four Downs have got you covered. The record itself is even dedicated to George Romero and Billy Cardille. Nice!

The song details some martial strife that plagues a Pittsburgh couple (newlywed on Halloween, no less) after they festively ring in the occasion with a little Chiller Theatre marathon. After their night of Chilly Billy and chill, the husband starts acting a little peculiar.

Gorgo, Dr. X, Rodan, Willard, The Crawling Hand, Day of the Triffidsy? Even The Tingler gets a shout in their rapid-fire referential litany. Not necessarily deep cuts in ‘79, but it’s a refreshing and old school hit list in 2023.

What’s more? It’s yet another instance of The Mysterioso Pizzicato. What is it with that lick? People composing Halloween Songs love that shit.

And a plus 1 here to Baader-Meinhof, because ever since putting those 2 songs next to each other last year and talking about The Mysterioso Pizzicato, I have run across no less than 5 additional songs incorporating that tune. That’s almost as many as were on the playlist already! I’d call it synchronicity, but it’s really not at all important. Either way, you know a playlist is eminent.

For now, kick back with Dave Goodrich and Julie Holzen as they work through some monster inspired trouble in paradise with The Halloween Song.

 

Monster Talk: Horror Hosts

The Horror Host has been a beloved fixture of the genre for almost 60 years now. So ingrained are they in horror culture that even their parodies have slipped into iconography.

From a time when TV had no guide, DVRs and streaming video weren’t even the stuff of the B-grade sci-fi these horror hosts peddled. TV was a living thing, existing with or without your manifesting gaze. It was there, happening somewhere behind all the black. You needed only to turn it on an tune in to whatever it was offering, lest you miss out entirely.

So you waited.

Originally, Universal Studios offered a package of horror classics and worn out titles called Shock Theater to local TV stations for broadcast. The stations had weathermen, announcers and news anchors doubling as any number of ghoulish characters to present these frightening films of yesteryear.

The movies were often the subject of ridicule, and the focus became rather on the hosts themselves, their outlandishness and their skits. These shows found almost instant success, and America of the late 50’s, 60’s and 70’s loved these local fixtures. Many spawned several incarnations and are still remembered with great fondness in their hometowns.

As the Shindig enters its 2nd quarter, we’ll take a beat or two to pay tribute to those horror hosts immortalized in song.

Watch horror movies.

Keep America strong.

Stay sick

and Goodnight, whatever you are….

Pleasant nightmares and unpleasant dreams.