Halloween music: Freaking out the trick-or-treaters
If you live in the type of ’hood where trick-or-treaters come to your door, you’ll likely want to take precautions not to end up on the wrong end of a trick. In addition to giving great candy, we suggest supplying some audio treats that are a bit more obscure than “Thriller.”
“House of Mirrors” David McCallum
You may recognize this off-kilter instrumental thanks to DJ Shadow sampling it on his track “Dark Days.” But the 1967 original, with its introductory groans and building organ, lends to a feeling that you’re running from a terrible monster.
“Cherub” Butthole Surfers
This song from these Texas weirdos has a quality that almost makes it seem like a glimpse into the haunted thoughts of a psychopath. Gibby Haynes laughs ma- niacally against nauseous guitars and screams things like, “I see bodies!”
“I Walked with a Zombie” Roky Erickson
A lot of Halloween music is just downright silly — “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” “Monster Mash,” etc. Though this title sounds like it could fall into that trap, it escapes that fate, mostly because Erickson actually comes across like he believes that he did, in fact, walk with a zombie.
“Me and the Devil Blues” Robert Johnson
Another narrator who sounds like he believes his otherworldly subject matter, this track is violent, morose, and proves that delta blues is way scarier than metal. Johnson is one of those artists, like Glenn Danzig, where if you play anything by him, it can terrify any visitor.
