TRACK #238:

Dead Heat by Philip J. Settle

My personal pick for Favorite Addition to the Playlist: 2019 has got to go to Philip J. Settle’s rockin’ 80’s, four-to-the-floor Title Track, Dead Heat.

Shindig Radio personality and Showdown Shogun himself Graham C. Schofield brought this glaring omission to my attention just before the season started. And I couldn’t believe I had totally forgotten about this track.

How had this track, this Title Track of all things – particularly one as awesome as this –  to a movie I thoroughly enjoy – eluded The Shindig for so long? I love Dead Heat, but I must admit, it’s been some years since I’ve just sat down and watched in it’s entirety…

And this track isn’t just a Title Track, it’s also a Sweet Song, so you gotta stick it through to the end credits to be treated to this dozy, which I definitely would have loved to have taken a go at on any one of our Title Tracks episodes of the Podcast.

All good things eventually reveal themselves to The Shindig and we can thank a dutiful rewatch from Graham for bringing this champion of Title Tracks home, where it belongs.

Playlist fans can now rock out to this tune, which is kind of an Indirect Title Track; one of those song where they definitely say the name of the movie incessantly, but aren’t quite talking about the movie at all really.

Playing off the films double-entendre, Philip J. Settle settles for steering this hot rod of the track toward the racing side of a dead heat, and it works out just fine.

If you’ve never seen this Treat Williams/Joe Piscapo/Kolchak The Night Stalker/Vincent Price zombie-gore bonanza, I say correct that as soon as possible.

With out of control FX from Steve Johnson’s XFX team and additional work from the likes of Todd Masters and Rick Lazzarini, Dead Heat is an 80’s gore/make-up/creature tour de force.

I first saw Dead Heat after my first day of work at an old video store called “Mike’s Movies” in Boston. I had just been introduced to a co-worker (and eventual good friend) named Malachi (I know, right?) and was tasked with assisting him in creating a small shelf of Halloween recommendations to be placed near the entrance for October. What a first day, huh?

We each split up grabbed a handful of titles from the impressive selection that store had to offer. He came back with some selections you might imagine, probably along with some foreign shit (he loved weird old foreign shit.) But it was one cover in particular (and the only one I 100% remember) that caught my attention.

“Piscopo? An Uzi? What the fuck is this?” I asked “This is a horror movie?”

“No.” He replied. “It’s so much more. You gotta see this.”

So we proceeded to get higher than shit that night, and became fast friends while watching his hero, Treat Williams, become the Dead Heat. And Malachi was right. Cause you gotta see this.

So, it seems only fitting then, that 2 days before Halloween, from a small Halloween shelf on the other side of the country, Dead Heat joins the ranks of Halloween Shindig. This one’s for you Malachi!

Lady…I’m fuckin’ dead.