Halloween

Happy Halloween. As per the on-off-on tradition, this is set to be a pretty quiet night with maybe a few horror flicks and maybe a fire if it’s cold enough. No costume, no effort, no nothing. I picked up candy ahead of time, though, and I’ve been culling through more Halloween novelty records than I would ever care to admit. I was going to make a mix for today, but I just gave up when I realized that I wasn’t doing anything and that this mix would either have to be completely campy, “wolfman’s tea party”-type songs or just a compilation od really fucking creepy ghost stories and far creepier sound effects. I never really thought sound effects records could bother me until I listened to one the other night with track titles like “red hot poker in the eye”, “grave digging, wet”, “premature burial” and of course, “At the dentist”. Seriously, it’s enough to make you squirm in your chair. So instead I opted for an assortment of stuff.

When I was in elementary school we had a teacher named Mr. Worth who was notorious for his storytelling. He was a 6^th grade English teacher and he was a great teacher. He taught us The Iliad, which was then and remains one of my favorite stories of all time. He would get so into telling us these stories as we read an adaptation of the text, that his classes were legendary, and upperclassmen were known to actually stay on campus for lunch from time to time to sit in and listen to him talk to a bunch of sixth graders about Rhesus the Thracian, or Achilles battling the river Scamander in front of Troy. It was impressive, to be able to draw a crowd of high schoolers to listen to a sixth grade lit class. I mean, the man could talk to us for two whole days about the inventories of the ships the Greeks took with them.

Every Halloween, though, is where Mr.Worth really put on a show. We would get called into the auditorium to watch a few raggedy movies (for some reason, the Charlie Brown special I posted yesterday and a 3-D Three Stooges clip stand out in my memory) and to listen to Mr. Worth tell us all a ghost story. I think that's why Halloween was always my favorite time

Anyway, this first story is for anyone who has ever doubted the creepiness of Vincent Price or Russian Folktales. It’s a story about the Baba Yaga and treatment of labor. It’s a real Russian Folktale, so if you don’t like it take it up with them. Creepy imdb fact: Price was born on the same day as Christopher Lee and the day after Peter Cushing.

"The Baba Yaga" - As read by Vincent Price (sendspace file)

Boris Karloff, like Vincent Price, is one of those guys who was genuinely capable of scaring you simetimes just with the sound of their voice, but both of them were by all accounts famously genteel and accommodating to their fans. It's strange to think that even now I think of him primarily of the narrator and voice of the Grinch That Stole Chistmas TV special, but I think that might do the most justice to his character. In any case, that might change, because his reading of these stories is eerie enough without the late 60s horrow score. Say what you will, but there hasn't been a great sounding horror movie in ages.

"Call at Midnight" - As Read by Boris Karloff (sendspace file)

and to round out my favorite of these guys is Fred Gwynne. I wouldn't even call Fred a horror guy, really. I'm sure Lee of Lugosi belongs higher on this list than he, but I grew up an ardent supporter of the Munsters over the Addams famile, so here we are. Besides, Lee is still alive and Lugosi unfortunately was long ago overshadowed by his personal problems. Tom Waits has a great story about Fred Gwynne from when they met on the set of The Cotton Club, but it's not worth telling without the audio so give me until next year to find it again.

"Herman Says Hello" - the Munsters

This next song is probably one of the more tasteless things I found in the past few days that isn't a Cannibal Corpse song or anything. Mostly because it's about the most famous serial killer and sounds much like "Werewolf Watusi". My apologies to any actual werewolf victims there might be out there, but I can think of at least 9 dead prostitutes that might take offense to this one. In any case, according to AMG this guy has played with more people from the British music scene of the 60s that he might as well be Johnb Mayall or Alexis Korner. Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins, Jimmy Page, Mitch Mitchell... It's amazing this guy couldn't make it with any of these guys. Oh well.

"Jack the Ripper" - Screaming Lord Such

and of course there's gonna be a Danzig track. I've heard enough of the Misfits these last few days to not need to hear them again until next Halloween. So ehre's a song that was originally recorded by them but was held over until the first Samhain record. I think I like this version better.

"Archangel" - Samhain

I probably won't post again until thursday at the earliest, but we'll see. In any case, have a great Halloween.