MP staffers select their favorite scary music. No "Monster Mash" allowed.
Jesse Fox Mayshark:
Some Goth, some blues, some spiders and psychos and witches and devils. Songs I like to listen to in the dark.
"Peek-A-Boo"—Siouxsie and The Banshees (Siouxsie belongs here by birthright. Equal parts catchy and eerie.)
"Bela Lugosi's Dead"—Bauhaus (But of course...)
"This Corrosion"—Sisters of Mercy (The ultimate Goth dance tune—go for the extended remix.)
"Lullaby"—The Cure ("The spiderman is having me for dinner tonight...")
"Boris the Spider"—The Who (Did John Entwhistle invent Goth?)
"Venus In Furs"—The Velvet Underground (No, John Cale did. Even without Lou Reed's S&M lyrics, it would be scary for Cale's viola alone)
"Waking the Witch"—Kate Bush (Is it fairy tale or autobiography? Only she knows for sure.)
"Please Mr. Gravedigger"—David Bowie (An early Bowie novelty, spoken word and weird.)
"Moon Over Bourbon Street"—Sting (He wanted to star in Interview With the Vampire. Instead, he wrote a song about it.)
"Hymn 23"—Psychic TV (Actually, the entire album—Dreams Less Sweet—is so unnerving that a friend once insisted I remove it from the tape deck during a late drive on a dark, dark night.)
"Nebraska"—Bruce Springsteen (Forget Marilyn Manson, this is the real deal. For six verses, Springsteen is Charlie Starkweather. "They wanna know why I did what I did/ Sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world.")
"Careful (Click Click)"—Wu-Tang Clan ("Something in the slums went rum-pa-pum-pum..." Part nursery rhyme, part gangsta chant.)
"A Psychopath"—Lisa Germano (A stalker song, from the victim's point of view. "A baseball bat, a baseball bat beside my bed..." The tape loop is from a real 911 call.)
"Psycho Killer"—Talking Heads (It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for.)
"Excitable Boy"—Warren Zevon (Scared the hell out of me when I was nine. Now I think it's funny—mostly. "He dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones...")
"Kim"—Eminem (The most realistic murder ballad ever. Unquotable. Nearly unlistenable.)
"Knoxville Girl"—The Louvin Brothers (We got trouble, right here in river city.)
"Country Death Song"—Violent Femmes (Gordon Gano's voice could raise the dead. Or, in this case, add to their number.)
"Little Sir Hugh"—Steeleye Span (A traditional folk tune—child murder in merry olde England. "Out came the thick, thick blood/ Out came the thin..." Brrr.)
"My Mind's Playing Tricks On Me"—Geto Boys (Gangbanging drug-slinger takes on Ol' Scratch. Guess who wins?)
"Hellhound on My Trail"—Robert Johnson (He sold his soul. And something's coming to collect.)
"Shining Moon"—Cowboy Junkies (From their very spooky first album, Whites Off Earth Now. Margo Timmins is all seductive menace—"I don't want that girl around here/ Keep her away.")
"High Water"—Bob Dylan (From his new album. Dylan returns just in time for the apocalypse.)
"Hall of the Mountain King"—Edvard Grieg, from Peer Gynt. (When I was a kid, my sister and I would turn out the lights, put a candle in the middle of the living room floor, put this on the record player, and dance around in circles watching our shadows on the walls. Happy Halloween!)
Mike Gibson:
"Black Sabbath"—Black Sabbath, from their first album. (Tony Iommi's roaring detuned six-string sounds like one of those huge, creepy pipe organs gone horribly awry. When Ozzy breaks down into hysterics at the end of the first verse, I'm already heading for the light switch.)
"Dead Skin Mask"—Slayer, from Seasons in the Abyss. (The proto-speed mavens lessen the tempo but not the intensity level on this inexorably grinding dirge, a nod to serial killer Ed Gein. What better Halloween get-up than a dead skin mask?")
"I Wanna Be Your Dog"—Iggy and the Stooges, off the Stooges. (The groove is eerie enough, but Iggy's possessed monotone on this track absolutely scares the bejeezus out of me.)
"Crossroads Blues"—Robert Johnson. (Mayshark and I both came up with R.J. Since he's the editor, I settled for this one. No matter, all of Johnson's performances crackle with a netherwordly aura. If dread had a soundtrack, it would surely be Johnson's Complete Recordings.)
"Mailman"—Soundgarden, off Superunknown. (Chris Cornell's bottomless yowl sets this thud-rock gem ablaze. Lyrics elucidate the dark fantasies of a seething malcontent: "I know I'm headed for the bottom...but I'm riding you all the way.")
"Riders on the Storm"—the Doors. (What the hell was Jim singing about here? I dunno, but it disturbs me.)
Joe Tarr:
In Dreams: These songs give me the creeps. Why do I keep listening?
"I Put a Spell On You"—(No, not the Marilyn Manson version, not the Nina Simone version, not the CCR version, and not even the Diamanda Galas version, but the original by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. His screeching and moaning style was reportedly inspired by the Japanese soldiers he saw being tortured during World War II.)
"Just See My Holly Home"—Bonnie Prince Billy (Boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl kill everyone they come near, boy and girl have babies, boy and girl make "baby stew." At least it's got a catchy melody.)
"Down by the Water"—PJ Harvey (Supposedly about an abortion, Harvey, in a tortured whisper, sounds as though she's pleading to God, the devil and the spirit world all at once.)
"House Carpenter"—Clarence Ashley (Married woman's old lover comes back to tempt her, she leaves hubby and kids and sails away with him to find out he's the devil, just as his ship sinks. Ashley's banjo playing makes you think he's witnessed it all.)
"9th & Hennepin"—Tom Waits (Written while Tom was caught at a donut shop during a pimp turf battle. Key lyric: "You take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here." They're not sweet.)
"Insane Asylum"—Willie Dixon and Koko Taylor (Is love enough to keep you out of the loony bin? Or will it drive you there?)
"Death Valley '69"—Sonic Youth with Lydia Lunch (Gives you a taste of what it would have been like to be among Charles Manson's murderous gang—not a good feeling, but it is a rush.)
"Where Did You Sleep Last Night"— Nirvana (Is it a murder ballad, a suicide ballad or a train wreck ballad? Either way it gives me the creeps, thanks to Kurt Cobain—who was on the edge of his own grave and whose wail is as haunted as any old blues singer he was emulating. You don't want to sleep where he did.)
October 25, 2001 * Vol. 11, No. 43
© 2001 Metro Pulse
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