TRACK #430:

Halloween by Mighty High

Writing a Halloween music blog for the past 14 years has taken me places I’m not sure I ever would have gone otherwise. Disco, in particular, is a candy dish I never really thought I’d stick my hand into.

But looking for songs about monsters (and more specifically, Halloween) has led me to find bands I would have otherwise never found. And I could have written this about any number of bands with “Halloween” songs that weren’t metal bands. Larry’s Rebels, Scary Thieves, and even last year’s Abstractions, are all bands to whom this could apply. Why I’m choosing to say it about Mighty High, I couldn’t say. I guess it just didn’t occur to me to say it until now.

And it’s not because I’m wearing blinders, necessarily. I mean, I definitely am, just look around here. This is some serious hyper-fixation. It’s a tunnel that itself has tunnel vision. But that’s not why I’m not just stumbling across Mighty High for no reason. No one is stumbling across Mighty High.

They were a one-album-and-done rock outfit out of Nashville form by former Dickey Betts and Allman Brother’s bassist Jerry McCoy. But like I’ve said before, even with that one musical shot at the big leagues, they managed to find room for a song called Halloween. And while they may not have gotten themselves pulled up into the majors, having a song called Halloween gives you a good shot of getting pulled up into The Shindig.

And their Halloween is the kind of Halloween Song that I think is particularly interesting. It’s from a weird one-off band that doesn’t seem like they should be singing about Halloween, at a time when no one is really asking anyone to do that. They’re similar to Number One Ensemble in that that regard. You sort of expect an 80’s metal band to have a song about Halloween. In fact, it seems kinda weird if an 80’s metal band doesn’t have a song about Halloween. But a band like Mighty High? It doesn’t just feel like it’s outta left field, it feels like a hockey puck that flew into the stadium from the other side of the fence. And I like it so much more for that.

After a point in this new century here, there either just became too many bands, or it became too easy to release music and now you have bands that have made their entire identity Halloween and it’s annoying and so are their Halloween songs. It’s not what I’m looking for. It might be what you’re looking for, but it’s not what I looking for. I’m looking for Mighty High.

As a result, I don’t know if it’s the kinda song you need to hear. It’s certainly the kind of song I needed to find and add to this list, but I don’t know if you needed to hear it. That’s up to you.

Just recently stumbled across a playlist on Spotify called The Greatest Halloween Playlist Ever. It wasn’t, of course, but I couldn’t not look through a playlist making such a bold assertion, so I figured I’d give an assessment beyond just a reflexive hand wave.

It was 15 hours long, I’ll give ’em that. That’s not the usual slouchy offering. And there was plenty of quality referential and inclusive pulls represented, a good many of which you’ll find right here on The Shindig.  But honestly, the padding was beyond the pale. Represented, of course, were the usual suspects; Maneater by Hall and Oates, Zombie by The Cranberries and dozens of other songs that seem like they’re vaguely Halloweeny but actually have no business being on a Halloween playlist. But wait, Gallows Pole by Zeppelin? Yep, for some reason that song and so many others that you might add when you don’t know there’s Denise Jannah or Run, or Bill Ervin. But wait, none of those songs are even on Spotify. I suppose that illustrates the inherent problem of making that claim on such a streaming service and why Halloween Shindig has its own specific player.

But beyond those, we get Maxwell Silver Hammer? Long Black Veil? Fuckin Bullet With Butterfly Wings? 15 hours? You only have 6 songs with the actual word “Halloween” on this list. Fuck, you don’t even have the song Halloween by the band Halloween, get the fuck outta my face with this playlist. Greatest ever. It’s not even the best one on Spotify, a place I’d argue is incapable of hosting something even approaching greatness. So the Greatest? Not even close buddy.

It’s bold claim, one I don’t even presume to make about Halloween Shindig. Most complete? Eh, more complete I might say, but even still we’re coming up short. As of this post, we got no ICP, no Type O Negative, we don’t have that shitty Muse song or anything from that Kim Petras album everyone seems to love so much. Nor do we have any of the innumerable “Halloween” songs from the last 10 to 15 years that hold no interest to me. And that’s not to mention all the stuff I still have in the bullpen that’s on the way like Tyte Stone or David Vorhaus or even songs from Japan or John Capedeville that may never even make the cut. So yeah, after 430 songs, even we still have holes that completists could point at and say “yeah, but what about this one?”

But that’s just completist hand wringing. This person’s talking Greatest. Even then, I wouldn’t call Halloween Shindig the greatest, not at all. I think that’s far too personal a distinction. I’m sure one person’s Greatest Halloween Playlist contains absolutely no Monster Raps. I don’t wanna be at their party, but I’m sure they exist. Likewise, I guarantee no one’s Greatest Halloween Playlist contains a song by Butch Patrick, much less 2 of them. But that’s kinda the point. You can come here and cherry pick from this Halloween tree for your own Halloween ends (no puns intended) and move on.

So, with all of that said, I dunno if the Greatest Halloween Playlist Ever needs to have Halloween from Mighty High. In fact, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t. But if you’re out here running around acting like you have the Greatest Halloween Playlist Ever, then you probably should have Halloween from Mighty High. Just sayin’.