Back on Shindig Radio Episode 19, Mikey asked what kinda musical acts came outta New Zealand.
I don’t think anybody had an answer for him at the time, and despite having already had this song waiting in the bullpen, Larry’s Rebelsdidn’t immediately jump out to me as the prime example in that moment. That’s mostly because I didn’t know they were from New Zealand at the time. What’s more, I’m still not sure that even if I had, they would have been a solid pull to smash on the table in that moment.
But here we are talking about New Zealand’s own, Larry’s Rebels.
Why? Well, because we’re in the 10 slot and they have a song called Halloween, why else!?
What’s the problem? Don’t these guys look like they can deliver the goods? Weird dudes with solid-colored suits and mod haircuts know what the fuck’s up with Halloween, right? Oh, you don’t trust me?
Hell, I wouldn’t blame ya. While I personally approve of every song on this list (in some way or another anyway) I’ve been known to drop a few duds on ya. And sure, not everyone’s gonna like the same stuff, and The Shindig offers (if nothing else) a wide variety of musical styling, but definitely nobody wanted It’s Only Halloween, probably nobody wanted Born of Halloween and I’m sure there was more than a few groans with Lep in the Hood. Not to mention countless other questionable tunes that deserve to be on The Shindig but maybe not in your ears.
I’ll accept that. But I’ve got a pretty good batting average here, no? Eh, probably depends on what you personally like and that’s always a little tricky.
But hey, maybe you like 60’s psychedelic rock. If you do, then Larry’s Rebelshave just the Halloween Song for you.
If not, just give it a day. Tomorrow’s gonna sound a little different. Not sayin’ you’ll like that either, but it’s different than this, that much I can guarantee.
If you have a playlist where every 10th track is a Halloween Song, and you start a 31 song countdown on October 1st, it’s mathematically impossible to get that song to actually fall on Halloween. Well, without skipping a day of course, or not doing 31 songs.
Originally, this song was slated post last year on Oct. 30th and I had a whole spiel about math and tactics that unfortunately no longer applies, as this cleanup act from 2021 has shifted everything earlier.
No matter anymore I suppose, so I’ll just delete all that bullshit and talk about Seducer, a band that managed to miss out on our Heavy Metal Halloween in 2018. I should drop them onto that playlist though for sure.
As I’ve said in the past, these 80’s metal “Halloween” tracks are just falling off of pumpkin trucks it seems and I find new ones all the time. Hell, I think there’s a bunch more in the bullpen at this point, although I know several are “Something” Halloween, or Halloween Something. Impressive still, no doubt.
Not Seducerthough. Nope, they’re comin’ correct with this dinger from 1985’s Caught in the Act.
Accidents, departures and record company troubles ultimately lead Seducer to pack it up before they could turn their early career momentum into full blown notoriety.
They are still well regarded by fans of British New Wave Metal, and they’ll forever live on, however dubious the honor may be, as Heavy Metal Halloween Shindig heroes.
Lead in here with a little clip from 1964’s Witchcraft, starring Lon Chaney. That’s a fun one, if you’re into the style and era. I’m pretty sure Tubi’s got it right now, if you’re lookin’ for something festive for the evening.
Witchcraft is extra cool because of this fresh gimmickry: The Witch Deflector!
Here’s what the actual device looked like, and it’s pretty dope. One just went recently on eBay for a cool 100 buck, if you’re interested in holding it in your hands at all times.
Man, I wish they still did stuff like this at theaters. Honestly though, I’ll bet it would be something lame now even if they did.
Oh yeah, the song. Here’s Seducer!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go start a Doom Metal band called Witch Deflector.
Here’s a song that’s been kicking around the bullpen for a while now, just waiting for some poor rookie left hander to get taken deep back to back in the 2nd.
Now, I’m not entirely sure that’s happened here, but in the middle of a metal run to Halloween seemed as good a time to drop this Halloween track from Blind Guardian.
Ah, Blind Guardian: the sorta band that’ll get you laughed outta the room in some circles and a get you fat lip for saying a disparaging word in the other.
However, before this operatic and somewhat silly German metal outfit went clean off the D&D deep end, they meted out some pretty by the numbers, if not exacting, speed metal.
And their first album, at least their first album as Blind Guardian (their original name was Lucifer’s Heritage…yeesh) feels largely indebted to their German power metal brothers, Helloween.
And much like Helloween, they’ve got a song about Halloween! Well, they say Halloween a lot , anyway. Additionally, the song was originally titled Halloween (The Wizard’s Crown) back on their old Lucifer’s Heritage Demo. So, what gives?
Well, when it came time to re-record the track for their proper debut, Battalions of Fear, they dropped the “Halloween,” kicked the parenthetical to the curb, and sent that “the” packing. A choice no doubt in an effort to differentiate their track from Helloween’s famous and similarly titled tune. A shame, really.
But, no matter. These are small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Besides, when your chorus is just you shouting “Halloween” along with the song’s title, it’s water under the bridge really, and The Shindig is happy to have you, “Halloween” or not. You ain’t lockin’ down no 10-slot pullin’ that kinda bullshit, make no mistake, but you can bring up the rear, no problem.
This move (aside from relegating them to a 9er) did keep Blind Guardian out of the rotation for Shindig Radio’s Heavy Metal Halloween. Sure, I could have used the demo and even could have added it here, but frankly, I like the studio version more, titles be damned.
So, if you don’t like Blind Guardian, maybe give their early stuff a go. It’s certainly a little less over-the-top nerds in their Mom’s basement rolling 26-sided die.
So, here they are, on Halloween as it were, taking the crown from Thelemic Wizard Aliester Crowley. Or maybe Crowley’s taking the crown from some other wizard. I dunno, it’s a little unclear with these wizard dust ups. I just know, that allegedly anyway, it’s supposed to be about Aliester Crowley, in some regard. Which is always just a little creepy.
Well The Shindig has hit 300 tracks, and we’re gonna ring in the occasion with Shindig All-Stars and Halloween heroes, Acid Witch.
Cause in pure Acid Witch fashion, they surprise-dropped another Halloween banger right as I was wrapping up last years countdown. C’mon fellas, give a guy a heads up!
What’s more? They even used the same damn sample fromThe Halloween That Almost Wasn’t that we used on our Happy Halloweird episode of Shindig Radio. Do these guys know how to party or what!? What can I say, pure Halloween minds think alike, I guess.
What’s more? They totally spoof Halloween’sDon’t Metal With Evil for the cover of the single. We’ve always thought of Acid Witchas the rightful heirs to the throne of Motor City’s Halloween ambassadors, and they now seem to be fully taking up that mantle.
So, while it’s not an explicitly “Halloween” titled song, as is the tradition (the great ones of those are starting to dry up at this point) it’s certainly Halloween enough for the big 300 slot, by a long shot.
And though I would have loved to have closed out Halloween 2020 with this virus-infused pandemic face melter, I think a year out is no big stretch, particularly seeing as how we’re still knee deep in all manner corona-nonsense.
So here’s to 300 songs and to 2021 being perhaps The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t.
And to Acid Witch, a band I wholeheartedly love, that keeps pumpin’ out new Halloween Metal for all the Pumpkinhead-bangers of the world. You’re doin the dark lords work, gentlemen.
We’re gonna kick off a long overdue disco block here with the somewhat appropriate Disco Halloween from a band called Forbidden Fruits.
I say somewhat because this song neither sounds very Halloweeny, nor even seems to have much to do with Halloween. I’m not sure, cause I can’t really tell what any of the lyrics are. They don’t sound too spooky, I’ll say that.
As is the case with many bands on this playlist, I had never heard of Italo-Disco outfitForbidden Fruits and I probably wouldn’t have ever heard of them had they not created a song called Disco Halloween.
But apparently no one else would have either, as it appears to be the only song ever released by Forbidden Fruits. I couldn’t dig up any real info on this band. This led me to believe, like many similar singles, that it was released by other artists as a one-off under a different moniker.
As you can see, the name Jimmy McFoy is splashed up there on that LP. This led me to then believe that he’s a somebody. And hell, maybe he is, but he’s definitely a somebody I couldn’t find much info about either. It seems as though he was a somewhat prominent singer in the Italo-Disco scene from in the early to mid 80’s. He even had semi-notable hit with Hi Girl in 1985.
Italo-Disco, for those readers that are still reading this and aren’t familiar with the term, was a form of electronic music that originated in Italy in the early 80’s. It made heavy use of drum machines and synthesizers and even the occasional vocoder. For some reason, despite being Italo, more often than not the singing would be in English. Like Disco itself, it didn’t last too long, and quickly splintered off into other Italo-centric subgenre’s like Italo-House, Italo-Dance and Eurobeat.
Now, looking further into the matter and Jimmy McFoy himself, I saw the name listed as a pseudonym for Antoine Van Bladel, and boy if that guy don’t have a bunch of stuff listed on his discografia. Among the long list you’ll find all of Jimmy McFoy’s releases, and some from the hilariously named Paul Paul, Tommy Bow,Videovision, Manhattan Claude, Johnny Game and indeed…Forbidden Fruits. He even had one under a band called Bank of America. Seriously? Bank of America? This dude released a record as Bank of America? I dunno, maybe it means something different in Italo.
So, what’s the deal, Jimbo? You singing on this tune? You produce it? You write this fucker? You bringing up the rear? What’s the deal, Jimmy?
We may never know. Whoever’s behind this one, when you bust down a track called Disco Halloween, and it’s half way listenable, you’re getting scooped up. Such is The Shindig. Which side of the halfway you’ll lean is certainly open for debate. For my money, despite be largely unfestive, it’s got a pretty fun beat, and hey, they say Halloween a bunch, so, we’re game.
Like most disco songs though, it’s overly long and doesn’t say a whole lot other than the title over and over. Which, if you’re cutting a rug at the local discotheque in the mid 80’s, is all you can really ask for. However this is 2021, and we’re definitely not coke-stepping the night away at the Starship Discovery, so I opted to use a truncated version so as not wear out any goodwill the song my have with listeners early on.
Now, the question remains, if you’re not getting terribly spooky, why Halloween? Eh, who knows? Maybe it’s like Christmas, where it makes good financial sense and ensures a certain amount of longevity attaching your name and song to an annual event. Hell, it got Forbidden Fruits roped up in The Shindig, which I’m sure was exactly what Antoine Van Bladel was hoping for all along.
Welcome back…anybody…to another swinging season on The Shindig. Hope you’re all ready for another macabre month of cuts to carve your pumpkin to, ’cause here it comes.
And speaking of orange gourds with grins, we’re gonna kick off 2021 with a song called Jack O’Lantern from 70’s British rockers, Babe Ruth.
While it does speak of Halloween, the song itself isn’t about actual Jack-O-Lanterns, but rather a fella named Jack who happens to have a very seasonal nickname, and a very felonious game.
You see, one Halloween, Jack dressed up in his dad’s clothes and went peeping through the windows of all the young girls around town. The squealers saw him and called the cozzers. But, alas! Jack’s father was the one who ended up in cuffs for the dirty deed. Clever girl.
Babe Ruth make this rhythmic entreaty for Jack to change his ways and spare his Mother some shame. Yeah, ya pervert! It’s not bad enough you goin’ around peepin’, but you gotta frame your own father while you’re doin it? That’s pretty low bruh.
Now granted, we don’t know much about Jack’s father. Maybe he was a real pervert too, and the whole thing wasn’t terribly out of character for him, thus leading to his swift arrest. Maybe Jack, as the old anti-marijuana ad of my youth once proclaimed, learn it from watching dear old dad.
We also don’t have much in the way of information here regarding their relationship. Maybe Jack’s dad was a just a dick, and a little pay back from Jack was just what the doctor ordered. We may never know.
What we do know is that Babe Ruth never became a big hit over here in the States. They saw a modicum of success in the beginning, ultimately finding their niche in certain prog rock circles. However, not experiencing much airplay, they never quite gained the kind of longevity some of their contemporaries have enjoyed.
Based on this tune alone, I’m a little surprised, cause this is a rocker, for sure. But listening through their catalog, it isn’t totally shocking. Despite some solid compositions, exceptional musicianship, and the undeniable vocal sex-swagger of lead singer Janita Haan, Babe Ruth lacks a certainly something we’ve come to associate with the more popular acts of the era. I’m not sure whether to say their music isn’t rockin’ enough, or that it’s just not catchy enough, but there’s definitely an X factor missing here which has almost certainly led to their relative obscurity.
Either way, your band throws down with a jammer called Jack O’Lantern and say “Halloween” a bunch, then your wider acclaim is a non-starter for us here in The Hole. Onto the Shindig you shall go!
Happy October 1st everybody. Let’s commence to rockin’ your pumpkins off with Jack O’Lantern!
We began our season with Acid Witch, so it’s seems only appropriate that all this high octane motor-metal now culminates in a Halloween Song from none other than Motorcity’s own Lords of Halloween.
It’s a full-throttled driving tune detailing one ill-fated night for several youths in Detroit. A Halloween night, as it happens, back in 1988. There, the paths of a few mischief causing trick-or-treaters collided with the Black Trans-Am of some hard rocking teens leaving Harpo’s, all laced up on LSD and looking for kicks.
It doesn’t end well for anyone on this hallowed eve. For on this night, they will find, the chill of death walks behind…
…in a twisted tale of All Hallo’s havoc Acid Witch calls…
Hardrock Halloween.
Thank you all for joining us this year. 2020 has been a strange one we hope that having the playlist to bump in October has made it feel a bit more like old Halloween times.
Watch out for more mini-playlists and videos throughout the year, keep the Creep Phone on speed dial and stay tuned for new episodes of Shindig Radio!
From all of us at Halloween Shindig, we hope you all have a very Happy, and a very weird, Halloween.
Shindig Radio is back and we’re celebrating the weirdest year in recent memory by loading your pumpkin with the weirdest Halloween songs you can imagine.
You’ll hear holiday classics from the likes of The Shaggs, Jan Terri, Butch Patrick, The Ghostbusters and more!
And for the first time ever, Shindig Radio is picking up The Creep Phoneto listen to your calls!
Join Mikey Rotella, Paul Lynde, Graham C. Schofield, Salsa’s Kamar de los Reyes, Matt Mastrella, The Old Gray Goose, Joe Piscapo and Jeff Baloney for the weirdest Halloween Special since Pinky Tuscadero sang Disco Baby with KISS!
So put on your masks, grab a fistful of pumpkin boys and get ready for some football, cause anything can happen on a Halloween episode of Shindig Radio, and this one’s a disaster!
Halloween by Bing Crosby, Boris Karloff & Victor Moore
Many of you are no doubt familiar with Bing Crosby, if only as the narrator of Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or from White Christmas. Already, no Holiday slouch.
Well, back in October of 1946, ole Bing here started hosting Philco Radio Time, a program sponsored by the Philco Corporation, who made phonographs back then. This program was known for being the 1st pre-recorded radio show in America! This was no doubt due to Philco’s influence as pioneers in the recording and reproduction of sound. Pretty neat
Like the variety television shows that would follow in its footsteps, this programm featured Bing and various musical guests performing songs and skits. Mostly though, it featured ads for Philco phonographs, unsurprisingly.
On October 29th 1947, Bing invited Universal Horror star Boris Karloff onto the program for a little festive spice. You can listen to the entire program here, if you’ve got a thing for old timey radio.
That night, stage actor and comedian Victor Moore was also on hand and the 3 of them decided to sing everybody a song for Halloween.
Now, this song was later released on a Bing Crosby compilation with much better audio quality then what’s available on the full program. However, I’ve taken the intro from the full episode to give the song a bit more context, which will explain the sudden shift in audio quality.
Long sitting in the Shindig Bullpen, 2020 seemed like an appropriate to year to finally add a song about folks being too afraid to leave their houses for Halloween.
I’m not sure what next week is gonna look like, mostly because I’m writing this under quarantine 5 months before Halloween. But also because, in this moment, it’s hard to imagine folks opting to have their children walk up to several dozen houses and grab fistfuls of unsanitized candy from the communal bowls of complete strangers. We’ll see I suppose.
However society ends up handling this already anemic autumnal activity, I’m sure it’ll be a thing straight out of 2020. So, let’s hear the newest oldest track on Halloween Shindig. But first, as the old Silver Shamrock ad says…
To kick off October proper, we’re gonna pull the lead-off batter from last year’s Heavy Metal Halloween episode of Shindig Radio, which segues nicely, being that it makes good use of a crude reworking of John Carpenter’s classic Halloween theme.
The oldest Heavy Metal Halloween track thus far on The Shindig, this one comes from Danish rocker’s Wasted, who formed in 1981. After releasing this demo in 1984, they toured extensively across Europe and began putting together a follow-up record.
Unfortunately, their record company at the time didn’t much care for this new material at all. They added insult to injury by suggesting the band would be more successful if they altered their style to sound more like Twisted Sister or Bon Jovi.
Wasted didn’t handle this seemingly constructive, yet mostly damn questionable, criticism all that well and slowly began imploding.
However, they reunited recently and just last year released a new album of brand new material that thankfully sounds nothing like either Bon Jovi or Twisted Sister.
So, despite the record company’s shortsightedness and the toll that not playing that type of ball offered Wasted, I’d like to personally thank them guys for sticking to their guns and providing this solid stand-up double, that wholly secures their place on Halloween Shindig.
By association, Shindig Superhero King Diamond finally becomes the Shindig All-Star he was always meant to be.
From Mercyful Fate’s 1983 debut album, Melissa, comes this Satany as shit foray into Halloween with Mr. Diamond at the helm, falsetto and all.
And, for King Diamond fans, the name Melissa is an important one.
According to the album’s final song (and title track) Melissa was a witch who owned the heart of King. She was (presumably) burned at the stake by a priest, to which King Diamond swore revenge.
Melissa then reappeared the following year, again on the final track, of the album Don’t Break the Oath called Come to the Sabbath. That song details the performance of a ritual that will curse the priest responsible for murdering Melissa.
King with his famous Melissa mic stand, though I doubt that’s the original skull.
Finally, Melissa appears on the 1993 Mercyful Fate reunion album, In the Shadows, on the song Is That You, Melissa? Here, King attempts to convince a Coven to perform a ritual which will allow him to speak with Melissa’s ghost. Though the Coven refuses, King is later visited by her spirit. They share a kiss and Melissa is never spoken of again.
However, Melissa holds even more significance to Mr. Diamond than that. See, sometime in 1981, King procured human remains from a medical school in Copenhagen. He then proceeded to named those bones “Melissa.”
King would go on to form his legendary mic stand from the femur and tibia of “Melissa’s” remains. Additionally, he would carry her skull around with him on stage. That is, he did, until one night at a show in the Netherlands (he reckons) Melissa’s skull was stolen!
King still uses his Melissa mic stand to this very day, but her skull has never…been seen…again.
It’s Halloween Night(The Witches’ Jack-O-Lantern) by Acid Witch
Welcome back Weeners! Thanks for joining us. Here’s to a new season on Halloween Shindig. We hope you all enjoy all the new tunes we have lined up for you this year.
Last year, recording and editing Shindig Radio kept me on my heels once the season for songs rolled around. So this year, I decided to get a little head start.
But then, California decided making fake rubber bullshit for crummy new movies that you’ll never see popping up on this website, wasn’t an “essential” service during a global pandemic. Go fig.
Needless to say, I had a bit of extra time on my hands. So this year, we’re starting things just a little bit early (and on the first day of Fall even!) as we’ve got 40 new Title Tracks, Monster Raps, and Halloween Scats to fill your Autumnal airwaves.
Leading us off this year, as promised, is a group of Shindig All-Stars that dropped a brand new Halloween Song just as I was finishing up last year’s countdown. C’mon, it was a wrap! But along came Acid Witch making me wish I had lagged just a little bit longer.
No matter! They’re here now to start the season off right, with another sludgy ode to the Eve of All Saints. This time around, they’re detailing the necessary steps for a Witch to turn a dude’s head into a Jack-O-Lantern…on Halloween Night, no less.
All right, fella. Sold.
This song is tough as shit and an instant inclusion. We hope you like it too, cause there’s more Acid Witch on the way, as we’ve yet to tap into their 2017 release Evil Sound Screamers, which is practically a Halloween Album unto itself. But until then…
Now, that should earn everyone hangin’ around here a new Halloween song. But the last time I checked, I noticed we completely flaked on our end on the Halloween last year.
We did deliver Acid Witch’sOctober 31st, so we didn’t completely abandon ya’ll. But, we didn’t make good with a new Halloween song, at least not one called Halloween, anyway.
So we’re making doubly sure we got you covered this year.
For our 2019 Halloween induction of a Halloween song, we figured we’d dig right into our Heavy Metal Halloween line-up and pull out an exclusive.
And what better exclusive than the secret song I stumbled upon the night before we recorded that episode – 220 Volt’s 1985 rockin’ Metaller, Halloween!
Ya know, that Swedish metal band that formed after an unfortunate mini-golf accident? I don’t know about you guys, but to me, nothing spells evil metal like minor hand injuries at the Dragon Castle on hole 7.
And since we had such a great time listening to all of Busta Rhymes’ nonsense from Halloween: Resurrection, and I have a habit of trickin’ out these tracks with Halloween franchise samples, we Busta Busted all over this one for yinz.
Happy Halloween everybody! Thanks for coming along for the ride. We’ll see ya’ll again on Oct. 1st, 2020 sharp!
Until then, stayed tuned for more episodes of Shindig Radio and definitely stay spooky!
Oh, and here’s that weird picture we referenced during the show. I think Matt was right, this singer definitely looks like a labradoodle.
Some of you may be familiar with 2 time Face/Off contestant and Shindig Radio personality Graham C. Schofield. What you may not know, however, is that he is also a massive Frank Zappa fan.
What you may also not know is that I have known him for over 13 years. In all of those 13 years I have been compiling, in various forms, the playlist you’ve come to know as Halloween Shindig.
In fact, the first Halloween I ever spent with him took place in my old backyard in Van Nuys, CA. At this Halloween gathering, an older version of The Shindig was playing to everyone’s delight.
So why, you might ask, did it take until a random pool gathering in 2019 for Graham to casually mention that Frank Zappa had a Halloween song?
It’s a solid question, and one I’m not sure he provided a satisfactory answer to when pressed. Probably something about plants.
Whatever the reason, late is definitely better than never, as we can now add Frank Zappa to the list of very famous and accomplished musicians that can stand proudly among the greats of true Halloweendom here on the Playlist.
While we all might clearly know (or can at least quickly gather) what Frank is actually talking about here, on the surface, Goblin Girl offers a fun and festive groove that tips its hat to the Eve of All Saints. All clear over here, kid.
So take a moment to bop along with Frank and the gang and their Goblin Girl.
She’s black and green,…cause it’s Halloween!
Interesting festive side note: This album was originally release in October of 1981 on Barking Pumpkin Records!
Let’s keep the weird late 70’s Halloween Special train rolling here with this strange number from perhaps the strangest Halloween cartoon of them all, Witch’s Night Out.
First aired on October 27th in 1978, this festive Canadian offering follows the Halloween adventures of 2 children named Small and Tender. Fully disillusioned after their Werewolf and Ghost costumes fail to scare a single soul in their small town, they unwittingly call an equally disillusioned Witch to their aid.
She promptly turns them (and their weird babysitter Bazooey) into literal versions of their get-ups. They then proceed to scare the hell out of an entire Halloween party and then the whole town. Despite being hunted down like dogs by a town full of joyless assholes, the children (and then everyone else) manage to rekindle their love of All Hallows’.
Highly stylized and very 70’s, the characters are all monochromatic and the voices (provided by Gilda Radner and Catherine O’hara to name a couple) are weird. Hell, this wholething is just plain weird, but if you grew up watching it on the Disney channel during the ’80’s and ’90’s, chances are it’s nostalgic as all get out.
YouTube can definitely provide you with several trips down memory lane of varying qualities, if you feel so inclined.
As for The Shindig, we’re gonna slot in its bizarro, vocoder heavy theme song, Witch Magic and send you down an audio nostalgia trip to a time when Halloween Specials were great, and filled analog airwaves with festive joy.It’s a bag of garbage!
A Merry, Shh, Creepy Hallowe’en by David Levy & George Tibbles
The Addams Family is a staple of classic American pop culture that has evolved over time to adapt to any medium thrown its way.
The Addams took their first breaths in 1938 as a single panel comic strip from cartoonist Charles Addams. Featured in the New Yorker magazine, they would be run periodically for 50 years until Addams’ death in 1988.
During that span (and then beyond), The Addams set about conquering every corner of entertainment the tried their hand at. First as the 1964 sitcom we all know and love, which ran for 2 seasons.
In 1972, the first animated incarnation of the Addams met Scooby-Doo. After that, a variety show was planned featuring (strangley) Butch (Eddie Munster) Partrick as Pugsly. A pilot was filmed but the show was ultimately not picked up by the networks.
Then, in 1973 The Addams Family became another beloved show, this time a cartoon which also ran for 2 seasons and featured a young Jodi Foster as the voice of Pugsly. Weird!
After that, the original cast reunited for the Television film Hallowe’en with the New Addams Family. In it, the legend of old Cousin Shy is told; a Chirstmas-like tale about a family ghost that mysteriously carves pumpkins and brings presents on Halloween.
Then, in 1991, The Addams took to the big screen in the Paramount Pictures adaptation which spawned a sequel in 1993 and then a direct to video reboot starring Tim Curry as Gomez.
After that, another animated series based on the new film followed before a second live action television show took form in 1998 as The New Addams Family.
In 2010, The Addams Family took on Broadway in a musical starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Nuewirth. Was there anywhere The Addams could not make their own peculiar home?
Today, as I’m sure you’re all aware, America’s First Family of the Macabre takes another trip to the big screen and gets another animated makeover, this time of the digital variety. Now, while sadly this not the much anticipated (and later canceled) stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams’ original designs that Tim Burton had planned, it is good to see The Addams back on their feet and ready to capture a whole new generation of fans.In honor of the return of The Addams Family, Halloween Shindig presents the very Halloweeny but Christmas-like carol A Merry, Shh, Creepy Hallowe’een from their 1977 Halloween Television reunion special.
Because how long could we ignore a Halloween song sung by The Addams?
It’s good to have you back. Hopefully you’ve been listening to the podcast we’ve been producing over the last year and it hasn’t been too long since you’ve last visited the ole ‘Dig here. Either way, you’re here now and we appreciate that.
Speaking of last year, our 1st track of 2019 was supposed to be the last track of 2018. Seems I was too busy handing out candy and futzing with malfunctioning fog machines to remember to post the last track. Oh well, at least it was for a good and truly Halloweeny cause.
Well, last year’s lost is this year’s gain, as rather than ending the season with a song called Halloween, we’re gonna start the season with one; a Shindig first!
And we got a doozy for ya in the form of another good ole fashioned 80’s Metal Halloween headbanger we’re so fond of over here.
This time, it came from deep in the heart of Texas. The band? Ripper!
Formed in 1977, they had a flare for the theatrical, taking cues from Alice Cooper and KISS with their ghastly appearance and spooky names. They even toss in some sinister horror synths on ya, just for ambiance! Though, admittedly, I think this is one of the few songs where they don’t utilize any de-tuned saw waves. Bummer.
Rippers’sHalloween comes from what is essentially the bands only album …And The Dead ShallRise, which is definitely worth checking out in its entirety.
Spruced up here with some cuts from 1988’s Halloween hoot Hollow Gate, for a little extra festive flare. Listen to local nutcake Mark Walters taunt his grandmother and cause some costumed havoc as you ring in the new season.
So let’s let ‘er rip, and let’s let Ripper lead the way.
For 2018’s 3rd belated official-induction of a Shindig All-Star, direct from Motor-City, it’s Halloween Metallers Acid Witch. They’re coming correct with the calendar date on which this whole holiday has always taken place.
Posting this song on any other day seemed, well, it seemed pretty stupid. So, we’re kicking off a heavy metal Halloween double-header with this tune, sure to make your Halloween a little more rockin’.
We’ve led it in with a sample from Halloween 2, where Loomis explains the meaning of that strange word they just found graffitied on the school chalk board to Haddonfield’s finest.
Of course, Donald Pleasence pronounces “Samhain” phonetically, but we can forgive him that transgression because, as always, he just sells the fuck out of this dialogue.
V. Ice, as the horror-core iteration of Robert Van Winkle (aka Vanilla Ice) refers to himself, was actually born on Halloween. October 31st 1967, to be precise. That’s pretty awesome as far as The Shindig is concerned. What’s more? He cut a referential Halloween track about it.
Double bonus.
Depending on your perspective that is.
From The Shindig’s perspective, it’s an all around winner. First and foremost, its a Referential Halloween Monster Rap. That’s pretty special. Referential Halloween tracks are a rarity, and the few others that appear on this playlist are weakly included in either direction. Not V. Ice’s jam though. Born On Halloween a card-carrying referential Halloween Monster Rap.
This is not a good song though. I love it. At times it fills me with Halloween joy. At other times it makes me laugh. I rock out to it in my car. Genuinely. I don’t change it at red lights when cute girls or tough guys pull up next to me.
It’s on The Shindig, hands down, no question, but it can’t really be called good. I love a lot of things genuinely that are not objectively good. Go scrolling randomly through this playlist; the evidence to that fact is compelling. Many things about this song are not good.
Starting with it’s absolutely ridiculous chorus. Random weirdo’s chant “Born On Halloween” in a manner that sounds suspiciously like This Is Halloween from A Nightmare Before Christmas. Fitting then, 100 songs after posting that track, we’ve finally decided to post this one.
Add to that some of the weakest referential rhymes to hit The Shindig since The Maniac Cop Rap, and it’s hard to make a strong case for the quality of this song.
“Some call him Psycho
the Norman Bates of Hip-Hop.
The ladies call him Alfred
Cause they’re all over his Hitchcock”
Wow.
No one calls V. Ice that, full stop. I doubt anyone calls him V. Ice for that matter, but hey.
I’ll also set my watch and warrant that no woman anywhere has ever referred to Vanilla Ice as “Alfred” for the sole purpose of alluding to his cock.
There’s no fucking way that’s mathematically possible. The amount of cognition involved in devising such a reference, divided by the relevance and knowledge of Alfred Hitchcock to any ladies within shouting distance of Robert Van Winkle on any given night, produces a probability that could only be visible through a high powered telescope, so fucking insane is it.
The kicker is that this incredibly juvenile rhyme…doesn’t even rhyme!
All of the above would be completely forgivable (as with most ridiculous rap boastings) if the lyric was actually clever. This one is not. And I fucking love it for that.
Violent J (not in fact born on Halloween, as he [perhaps] suggests) shows up to add some much needed street cred to the whole affair. I’m sorry, what?
When a rapping Clown from the Posse Insane is noticeably stepping up your track’s game, something is fucking broke. J quite honestly puts V. Ice to shame on this song with better rhymes, better rhythm and a tone becoming of the subject matter. It’s a breath of fresh air when J steps up to the mic. And that’s not a joke, either. That’s my sincere assessment.
The weirdos will intermittently spout off “With my mask I trick or treat, spooks and freaks all over your street” and “born on Halloween” to everyone’s delight, giving the song it’s air of Halloween spirit.
My research suggests that most listeners will find that all of this nonsense adds up to about 4 minutes of Halloween torture they’d rather have no part of. Can’t blame them for that. The more masochistic audiophiles however or any undercover Juggalos in your crowd might actually enjoy this business. Can’t blame them either, except maybe the undercover Juggalos, for well,…being fucking Juggalos.
I’ve been hard here on V.Ice here, as has the world as a whole for the last 25 years or so. Most of that is completely reasonable considering the seemingly disingenuous output of Robert’s career.
But seriously V.Ice, if you’ve somehow miraculously stumbled across this blog and are reading this, The Shindig loves this song, both genuinely and ironically, all at the same time. It loves that it exists and hoists it proudly among the ranks of Halloween rockdom. We wouldn’t change a thing about it. Your references, as weakly constructed as they are, jam-pack the front end of this track and the Halloween quotient is undeniable, right down to the cribbing of Danny Elfman and the good people of Halloweentown.
Please accept my apologies if I have made you feel, through any of the above criticism, that I am anything less than a fan of this track. There’s a lot of Halloween music I hate (there’s a few ICP songs that come to mind here) that I roundly refuse to include on this playlist. Born On Halloween is not one of those tracks. Born On Halloween is a Halloween song for the ages.
By far the spookier (and more mellow) track with this title, Blug Magic’sBorn On Halloween may take the prize for smoothest song on The Shindig. This a slow jam of the baby making variety. Provided of course you’ve found the right spooky lady.
No one affiliated with Blue Magic appears to have been born on Halloween. That’s okay though, because their song is not about themselves, but rather the spookiest girl in town; the Queen of Witchcraft.
She was born on Halloween, and since I’m 99% sure she’s 100% fictional, that can hardly be cross-referenced. We’re just gonna have to take their word for it.
So grab that witchy woman, dim the orange lights and fire up your favorite horror movie, cause Blue Magic’s about to smooth up your holiday with Born On Halloween.
Here’s what the actual device looked like, and it’s pretty dope. One just went recently on eBay for a cool 100 buck, if you’re interested in holding it in your hands at all times.
