TODAY'S HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE IS REPORTED JOHN ENTWHISTLE'S FIRST CRACK AT SONGWRITING. The song appeared on the Who's 1966 album "A QUICK ONE" and, according to Pete Townshend, was Jimi Hendrix's favourite Who song. The sixth inductee into the Batty Halloween Hall of Fame is. . .
BORIS THE SPIDER by THE WHO.
Apparently the song came about when John Entwhistle was out drinking with Rolling Stone's bass player Bill Wyman; the two bassist were making up silly names for animals and Entwhistle contributed "Boris the Spider". After that, the song was supposedly written start to finish by Entwhistle in six minutes. So, being the sixth inductee is rather appropriate. Boris is waiting for you to give a listen over in the box on the right.
WELL, TODAY'S EPISODE IS ACTUALLY 4 EPISODES.
Once again, we delve into the Doctor's 50th anniversary by watching the classic DOCTOR WHO story "THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS" broadcast from January 3rd to January 24, 1976. The story was written by Terrence Dicks and Robert Holmes but due to their displeasure at the story's realization they insisted a pseudonym be used: Robin Bland. That sobriquet is unfair, though, because this is indeed a rip-roaring gothic horror story which is obviously an homage to Hammer Horror. This Frankenstein of a script has the Time Lords sending the Doctor and Sarah Jane to the planet Karn where the sacred flame which aids the Time Lords in their regenerations is dying. The fire is kept by the Sisterhood of the Flame; a group of witchy priestesses who think the Doctor is trying to steal the last of the flame and capture him. There is also a mad scientist named Solon ensconced in a spooky old castle who has possession of the brain of an executed evil Time Lord named Morbius. Solon is planning to craft a new body for Morbius but he needs the proper head in which to place the brain. . . and since Lou Costello doesn't seem to be around it looks like the Doctor's it!
In Paul Cornell, Martin Day & Keith Topping's delightful "THE DISCONTINUITY GUIDE", they list all the myriad influences on this story: "Frankenstein films. . .The Hunchback of Notre Dame. . .H. Rider Haggard's "SHE". . .The Island of Dr. Moreau, Donovan's Brain, They Saved Hitler's Brain, The Old Dark House, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Forbidden Planet (the name Morbius)..." Indeed, the shadow of Hammer Horror films as a whole hangs heavy over this story. There is a hunchbacked assistant Condo who looks very much like a similar character in Roman Polanski's "THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS". And perhaps my favourite moment of all comes at the very beginning. The Doctor and Sarah Jane make their way to Solon's castle through a torrential downpour; the rain is falling down in buckets as the door is opened and the Doctor asks if they can spare a glass of water!
ONLY A RECENT VIEWER OF BOB'S BURGERS, I CHOSE THE VERY FIRST HALLOWEEN EPISODE OF THE SERIES: FULL BARS.
First aired October 7, 2012, "Full Bars" finds the kids rejecting their usual trick-or-treating route in favour of a boat ride over to the island of "wealthy people" where the rumour is they give out FULL BARS of candy instead of those tiny little "fun size" jobbies. Meanwhile, Bob and Linda are cornered into attending Teddy's annual "Black and Orange" Halloween party where a murder is committed! This show was a lot of fun and seemed very much like a classic Halloween episode I'll revisit again and again. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the burger of the day is "Jack O'Lentil".
MY FIFTH INDUCTEE IS APPROPRIATELY THE COOL GHOUL. In 1958, Philadelphia record label Cameo-Parkway was having a great deal of success with acts ranging from Chubby Checker to Bobby Rydell. Also at the time, the "Shock Theater" package of classic Universal horror films was being released to TV stations for the first time and WCAU-TV's John Zacherle was getting national fame as groundbreaking TV horror host Roland (later name-changed to Zacherley the Cool Ghoul). Always savvy Cameo-Parkway decided to take some of their biggest hit records, remove the vocals, write new spooky lyrics and put out a Zacherley album. Little did they know that the single would go to #7 on the Billboard Pop Charts. That's why my fifth inductee into the Batty Halloween Hall of Fame is...
DINNER WITH DRAC PT. 1 by ZACHERLEY
As a teenager, my mother had watched Zacherley on SHOCK THEATER and she had told me stories about it. Then when I was still in single digits, I magically came across the Zacherley "MONSTER MASH" LP and it's become a favourite of mine. "Dinner With Drac" is a song that most people have heard of -- even if sometimes they mistakenly attribute it to Bobby "Boris" Pickett! John Zacherle is still going strong, bless him; still making appearances at the Chiller Theater horror convention every year. No one deserves to be in the Hall of Fame more.
OH MY! IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED! In an effort to thwart my Halloween madness, those creeps at Arkham Asylum for the Insane have managed to declare me loopy!
But they will never keep me from completing the Halloween Countdown. They may THINK they've gotten me caged . . . but the slumbering Old Ones will set me free. Oh, yes. And then, when I am once more unleashed on a sleepy world, I shall continue the mind-blasting horror that is the Countdown to Halloween. Ia! Ia! Yog Sothoth!
A FAVOURITE HALLOWEEN STAPLE OF THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS HAS BEEN THE HALLOWEEN HAUNT PODCAST.
And once again, that creepy creep The Halloween Haunter is providing us without another October's worth of haunted folklore, tales and poems relating to the Halloween season. As usual, you can download each episode of the podcast for free on iTunes by searching for The Halloween Haunt podcast by the Halloween Haunter or else visit his own website where you can here all the podcasts for free as well. Add some spooky fun to your October.
ONE OF THE HAPPIEST ACQUISITIONS OF THE PAST YEAR WAS MY PURCHASE OF THE WARNER ARCHIVES DVD OF THE COMPLETE "GHOST STORY/CIRCLE OF FEAR" SERIES.
This practically unknown early-70's horror anthology show was executive produced by horror movie gimmick-meister William Castle and developed by horror icon Richard Matheson; it aired on NBC and, initially, was hosted by Sebastian Cabot puttering around the famous Essex House. This was during the Fall of 1972. Oddly enough, over the New Year break, the program was completely overhauled: the name of the programme changed to from "GHOST STORY" to "CIRCLE OF FEAR" with new opening titles and the swift disappearance of Cabot and the Essex House. In the New Year winter of 1973, the new "CIRCLE OF FEAR" seemed to display a slight increase in quality as there seemed to be a higher ratio of good stories to clunkers. The absolute best episode of the entire series is the one I'm watching today: "EARTH, AIR, FIRE AND WATER". Directed by Alexander Singer and written by science fiction great Harlan Ellison and legendary Star Trek scribe D.C. Fontana, this is an absolute fantastic episode. Critic John Kenneth Muir describes it on his blog as "a genuinely upsetting and highly unnerving hour" and "deeply scary in a cerebral way". It is absolutely superb and I'd stack it up against the best horror anthology programmes.
The story concerns a spooky old cavernous store front in which a group of "artistic" ultra-seventies young men and women set up shop to sell their artwork; one woman works with jewels and precious stones, one woman paints, one man sculpts in metal, one man cultivates plants, etc. This free and easy, communal art colony existence is suddenly interrupted when a large chest is discovered fill with a collection of large glass jars; each a different colour. Almost as if hypnotically controlled, each artist reaches for a particular jar and, from that moment on, becomes inseparable from it; to the extent of carrying the jar around with them to the dinner table.
Starting with the jewelry worker (Brooke Bundy - Diana Taylor of TV soap GENERAL HOSPITAL), each person begins acting more and more obsessed with their work -- their appearance slowly alters as they become more and more unresponsive until finally they disappear completely. No one seems to take much notice as they themselves are also becoming more and more obsessed with their own work and jar. It becomes evident that inside each jar is something like a Lovecraftian "old god" who takes a person over to escape their captivity.
The episode becomes more and more creepy as the minutes tick by. The jars themselves are extremely eye-catching props and I'd love to find a whole set of them in some antique store! I'm jealous! I want my OWN jar! Also in the cast is Tyne Daly (later one half of "CAGNEY & LACEY"), Frank Converse, Joan Blackman, Tim McIntire, Scott Marlowe, Oliver Clark and veteran character actor Dabbs Greer.
SURE IT'S GROSSLY OVERPLAYED AND WE'RE ALL SICK OF HEARING IT. That's what happens when something begins so ubiquitous it gets played every single Halloween without fail. However, if you're tired ears can be convinced to listen to it as if it were new and fresh, it's hard to deny the song's iconic status. That's why the fourth inductee into the Batty Halloween Hall of Fame is. . .
MONSTER MASH by BOBBY "BORIS" PICKETT
We all know it by heart. There's not much new to say about it. Other than the fact that it took me until the early 1990s to realize the background singers were singing "Tennis shoe"! And when I did I was in my car and nearly drove off the road laughing. So, if you need to hear it once again, it's over there in the box on the right available for another listen. Give it a try. You might just rekindle the song's charm in your heart. Oh, and one more word on a personal note: the album cover up there is NOT the original and NOT on the cover of the cd I own. However, I chose the rather tasty Michael Kaluta cover because this was the LP version of the "MONSTER MASH" album which was owned by a friend of mine who sadly committed suicide when he was 16. I can't ever see this album cover without thinking of him.
HEY, IT MUST BE CANNIBALISM DAY HERE ON THE COUNTDOWN.
This Halloweenie episode is taken from the shamefully neglected NBC series FEAR ITSELF created by Mick Garris in 2008 as a sort-of continuation of Showtime's MASTERS OF HORROR series for commercial television. An Angel clued me in to this series earlier this year since I'd never heard of it. However, the complete series (it only lasted one season - shame on you NBC) has some really REALLY great episodes in it. This is one of the best.
"SKIN AND BONES" tells the story of Grady, a ranch owner, and a hunting party getting stranded in a blizzard for ten days. After search parties have been called off until the weather clears, an emaciated Grady stumbles into the compound. But where are the other men? It soon becomes clear what happened to them. The frostbitten Grady, with blackened fingertips and earlobes, is put to bed to recover but, despite saying he's hungry, doesn't seem to want to eat any stew. During the night, a horse is slaughtered and ripped apart by . . . some animal? Eddie Bear, a native American ranchhand, tells the family that Grady bears all the hallmarks of being possessed by the spirit Wendigo who enters starving men to save their lives only to force them to turn cannibal to feed the Wendigo's hunger. This episode is filled with excellent make-up and special effects and produces a genuine sense of fear and menace and it's only drawback is that you wish it went on longer. Perfect Halloweenie viewing.
BACK IN THE EARLY 90's, MY COUSIN LORAN AND I WENT TO LAUREL HILL CEMETERY.
I've posted the photos and told a little about it here. As part of my Halloween Countdown, I thought I'd talk up the Halloweenie events Laurel Hill is planning for the entire month of October. Themed ghost tours and other events (such as the showing of the classic 1968 film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD right in the cemetery at beginning right as the sun goes down on October 5th!). Readers in the general area of Pennsylvania and New Jersey may want to drop by for a ghostly tour of a breathtakingly beautiful cemetery and sculpture garden during October! Here is a link to the Laurel Hill Cemetery site with complete details of their October events.
THE THIRD SONG I'M INDUCTING INTO MY HALLOWEEN HALL OF FAME is also a song I first heard on the exact same Dr. Demento Show in 1978 on which I heard David Bowie's "PLEASE MR. GRAVEDIGGER". The song was written by Rupert Holmes (best known for his number one hit single "The Pino Colada Song") in 1971 and recorded by an unknown group at the time. In order to gain some publicity for the group, Holmes suggested that the song be about something which was guaranteed to get it banned from radio play. Agreeing, the group signed a one-song contract with Holmes to create it for them. Holmes took inspiration from the number one song "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford which prominently features workers in a mine and combined it with the 50's hothouse film "SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER" adapted from the Tennessee Williams play starring Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor; the film featured strong suggestions of cannibalism. Combining these two themes, Holmes wrote the song which is my third inductee into the Batty Halloween Hall of Fame:
TIMOTHY by THE BUOYS
The song deals with a mine cave-in (one of my favourite subjects for a song, natch) in which three miners are trapped. When they are rescued, however, there are only two miners. As the first person singer wails in the chorus: "Timothy? Timothy? Where on earth did you go? Timothy? Timothy? God, why don't I know?" The song made barely a ripple when first released until savvy listeners picked up on lyrics which describe the singer as "hungry as hell" and then, after being rescued, singing "stomach was full as it could be" and "nobody ever got around to finding Timothy" and radio DJ's began to receive multiple request to play the song. After a while, radio stations twigged and banned the song which, after gaining such notoriety, only produced a higher demand. "TIMOTHY" miraculously spent eight weeks on the Billboard Top 40 charts in 1971 reaching as high as #17! Here the gruesome goodness for yourself over in the box in the right hand column. Bon appetite and see you tomorrow for more music.
OVER AT MY AUDIO BLOG, I'M CELEBRATING HALLOWEEN TOO. All this week you can hear the deliriously demented monster surf sounds of that wacky Russian rock and roll band "Messer Chups"!
The perfect sounds for this Halloween! Just click on this link and it'll transport you to the moon's lunar observatory where Dr. Janos Rukh will serve up a trick or treat bag full of Messer Chups madness! But remember . . . it'll only be there for one week. Next week there'll be some more Halloweenie music for your enjoyment.
WHAT COULD BE MORE HALLOWEENIE THAN A SCARECROW?
A scarecrow wandering around murdering people, that's what. And this is what we get in today's Halloweenie episode of SUPERNATURAL: SCARECROW. Our favourite monster hunters Dean and Sam Winchester stumble across a picturesque little town which seems to be adjacent to a road where strangers disappear every year. Alongside the road is an apple orchard with a really creepy scarecrow in it. The town itself is famous for its harvest and its yummy apple pies. Unfortunately, a young couple who had car trouble have disappeared right after leaving town. Is there something the townspeople aren't saying? And does that scarecrow get down off his stake and perambulate? Well, obviously from the picture above I'd say that's a big 10-4, good buddy. And it's left to our pal Dean (with precious little help from Sam, I might add) to sort it all out.
This episode makes particularly good October viewing due to the incredibly sinister and spooky orchard with it's baskets of picked apples and nearly bare tree branches. You can almost feel the autumnal chill in the air as you watch. The ground is carpeted with fallen autumn leaves and a persistent ground fog adds to the atmosphere. Then there's that terrific scarecrow monster makeup which is genuinely scary. All this and a 1967 Impala which I swear I'm gonna marry someday!
NOW IT'S TIME TO INDUCT THE SECOND SONG INTO THE BATTY AWARDS HALLOWEEN HALL OF FAME. Today it's a song I first heard on the Dr. Demento Show; it was the annual Halloween episode of 1978 and this next stunned me because it was a previously unknown-by-me song by an artist I was very familiar with. And it perfectly captured the Halloween vibe. The second inductee into my Halloween Hall of Fame is. . .
PLEASE MR. GRAVEDIGGER by DAVID BOWIE
From David Bowie's self-titled 1967 album, this song derives from the earliest of early Bowie eras. This was before he found his style and was doing singles which frankly sounded like Anthony Newley records. This album contains novelty and bubblegum pop songs like "The Laughing Gnome" and "Love You Til Tuesday". However, lurking somewhere amongst all this rather forgettable fluff is the magnificence that is "PLEASE MR. GRAVEDIGGER". No instruments. Just Bowie singing a cappella while he digs a grave in a thunderstorm. Part Halloween hoot and part murder ballad, the song is both funny and a little disturbing. Give it a listen over in the box to the right.
