Halloween Spooks Outside My Window

1. Symphonie fantastique, Night on Bald Mountain, Chion’s Requiem, and the War of the Worlds broadcast recording.

   Then, at dawn, Gorecki 3.

2. The George W. Bush playlist (real, honest to goodness soulless music! Or at least music that has had the soul sucked out of it. Bleh! Bleh!):

   John Fogerty: Centerfield
   Van Morrison: Brown-Eyed Girl
   Stevie Ray Vaughan: The House is Rockin’
   The Knack: My Sharona
   Blackie and the Rodeo Kings: Swinging from the Chains of Love
   etc.

3. I always listen to Thriller on Halloween.

4. Henry Cowell — The Banshee!
   Turn out the lights and let ‘er rip.

5. Andreissen–Trilogy of the Last Day
   Lizst-Totentanz
   Peter Maxwell Davies–The Devils
   PMD–Antichrist
   Birtwistle–The Triumph of Time
   Stravinsky–L’histoire du soldat

6. The only scary piece I know:

   Sciarrino: Infinito Nero

   Yipes!

7. The whole of Albert Ayler’s album Witches and Devils should be enough to scare most of the moral majority but the one album (CD) that should win the award is Roky Erickson’s solo album, The Evil One. The titles include:

   1 Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)
   2 I Think of Demons
   3 Creature with the Atom Brain
   4 Wind and More
   5 Don’t Shake Me Lucifer
   6 Bloody Hammer
   7 Stand for the Fire Demon
   8 Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play
   9 If You Have Ghosts
   10 I Walked With a Zombie
   11 Night of the Vampire
   12 It’s a Cold Night for Alligators
   13 Mine Mine Mind
   14 Sputnik
   15 White Faces

   And if your in the mood for some cinema….The Films of Kenneth Anger Volumes I & II should do nicely. Party on baby!!!

8. Well, when you have only ten songs to play (at 10:00 AM, called the “10@10”), sacrifices must be made (in previous Hallowe’en 10@10, there has been Zevon, some of the soundtrack from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “I Want Candy”, whether by Dr. Strangelove or Bow Wow Wow).

9. For me, the Thanksgiving must is Arlo’s Alice’s Restaurant. Surprised that KFOG didn’t include Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London.

10. Nationalism ascendant:

    Whereas on American Labor Day (September 3), WETA/WGMS-FM, in Washington, D.C., played absolutely no American classical or popular music; today, Halloween, the station is playing Edward McDowell’s Hexentanz (two times), Bill Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost Rag, and George Gershwin’s Cuban Overture.

    Apparently, no time — or spirits — for Charles Ives’s Halloween or Unanswered Question (both of which our Oakland Youth Orchestra played for Herbert von K., in Berlin, years ago.)

    [This no doubt means that the next three or four days will be with absolutely no American classical music on WETA/WGMS.]

    http://weta.org/fm/playlist_archive.php?sdate=9%2F3%2F2007&cal_month=9&cal_year=2007&cal_showprev
    =06%2F01%2F2004&station=WETA

11. (before anyone else jumps on this)
    Personal list, played this morning or later this afternoon:
    JS Bach: Tocatta & Fugue in d minor (ignoring the “Phantom of the Opera” syndrome, it’s just plain ominous)
    George Crumb: Black Angels (Concord Quartet VoxBox recording)
    The Who, Boris the Spider
    Frank Zappa, You Can’t Do THAT on Stage Anymore, Vol.6, the 1984 Hallowe’en show
    Bobby “Boris” Picket, The Monster Mash (like you cannot have Christmas without Silent Night, or Thanksgiving without “Over the river and through the woods”)

    And from KFOG, San Francisco (played at 10AM):
    1. Marilyn Manson – This is Halloween
    2. Rolling Stones – Dancing With Mr. D.
    3. Oingo Boingo – Dead Man’s Party (BEST OF SET!!)
    4. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put a Spell on You
    5. Donovan – Season of the Witch
    6. Michael Jackson – Thriller
    7. David Bowie – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
    8. Johnny Otis – Castin’ My Spell
    9. Fleetwood Mac – Black Magic Woman
    10. Concrete Blond – Blood Letting

    BONUS TRACK: Ministry – Every Day is Halloween

    (NP: Morton Feldman: Why Patterns? (I need to concentrate on work right now))

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