Peter Murphy is coming to get you.
I’ve loved Halloween ever since I can remember. I think I enjoy it even more than Christmas. There’s something about the creativity and imagination it inspires. I also get a kick out of that little chill that comes from being scared of something you don’t really have to be afraid of. It’s cathartic I think.
Thinking back on Halloween makes me feel like a kid again, when I guessed the number of pumpkin seeds in a jar and won a jack-o-lantern at school, went trick-or-treating dressed as a pirate, came home and ate candied apples, went through the haunted house and felt the dead man’s eyes and guts (grapes and macaroni). Plastic vampire teeth and those little wax harmonicas that used to drive my dad batty. Sitting in the dark with my best friend and a flashlight, telling ghost stories.
Now that I’ve grown up it isn’t quite the same of course. I don’t dress up as anything for Halloween (although last year, I put on skull make-up for El Dia De Los Muertes for a parade in Austin). I mainly just get in the mood by playing awesome songs, and maybe that’s what I like best about Halloween when you get down to it: There are a lot of really cool scary songs. It seems to bring out the best in so many musicians.
Here are some videos for Halloween, things I really like. No “Monster Mash” here. I like things a little darker than that.
And just for good measure, a list of Halloween favorites (Let’s see your list of scary songs):
The Legendary Pink Dots - “Hellsville,” “Needles (Version Sirius)” and many more…
Meat Beat Manifesto – “She’s Unreal,” “Oblivion/Humans.”
Doleful Lions – “The Rats are Coming, the Werewolves are Here”
Handsome Family – “When that Helicopter Comes,” “So Much Wine.”
Bauhaus – “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” “The Dog’s a Vapour.”
Concrete Blonde – “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song),” “Jonestown.”
Elysian Fields – “Hearts are Open Graves,” “Rope of Weeds,” “Queen of the Meadow,” and a lot more…
Tones on Tail – “Burning Skies,” “Movement of Fear.”
Peter Murphy – “Funtime”
The Shroud – “The Passion of Lovers is for Death” (Bauhaus cover–I like this version better)
NWA – “Natural Born Killaz”
The Cure – “Lullaby,” “Hanging Gardens,” “Other Voices.”
The Smithereens – “Blood and Roses”
Alan Parsons Project – “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and basically the entire Tales of Mystery and Imagination album
