Spooky songs...

I used to love Halloween.  When I was a kid, a friend and I used to go to different neighborhoods trick or treating and we'd come home with huge bags of candy.  When I lived on an Army post, we'd get a lot of kids the dogs would go nuts.  Now that we're in the sticks, no one comes to our door in costume. But it's still a fun holiday, even if it's been years since I last carved a pumpkin.  So today, I'm going to post about spooky songs...  But I promise to refrain from posting the most obvious ones because that would be boring.

Naturally, I had to post this "spooky" song by Atlanta Rhythm Section.  It's a cover, of course, but since I grew up in the 70s and 80s, it's the version I'm most familiar with.  This guy seems to enjoy his spooky woman, even though she always keeps him guessing.  It's my guess she has a cluster B personality disorder and if he marries her it will lead to divorce.  But I will admit, having a girlfriend with a spooky personality makes for good songwriting.

I wouldn't necessarily think of Three Dog Night's cover of "Mama Told Me Not To Come" as a Halloween song, but I was reminded of it this morning.  It's basically a song by Randy Newman about a straitlaced guy who attends his very first wild party.  As he observes all the drinking and smoking going on around him, he sings "Mama told me not to come".  This song is complete with weird sound effects.  I love Randy Newman's songs, even though he's not the best singer in the world and I can usually tell his work by the piano accents.  He puts a very distinctive stamp on his music, but he has a great sense of humor and is very witty.

"Witches, Witches, Witches" is a song by Andrew Gold.  I always liked Andrew Gold for his late 70s era music, but back in the 1990s, he put out a Halloween album which my brother-in-law purchased for my niece.  I happened to be staying with them at the time and she played that cassette tape over and over again.  This song is the one I remember best.  I actually think the kids on the chorus are annoying, but Andrew Gold was supposedly a big Halloween fan.

"Green Eyed Lady" by Sugarloaf is another song about a weird woman... Maybe it's not really a Halloween song, but it does have a spooky sound.

Okay, so "Time Warp" is sort of an obvious Halloween song... but I couldn't resist.  I remember the first time I saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show.   I went with a bunch of friends who were William and Mary students and we all went to Norfolk, VA and caught the movie at the Naro Theater.  They had actors acting out the scenes and people with throwing toast and shit.  It was hella fun and I was completely sober the whole time.

Happy Halloween!