As it's Halloween, here's a final batch of horror film-inspired songs, starting with the Scream Queen herself. No, not Jamie Lee Curtis...
Next up, a track from the new Nick Lowe album, his first in eleven years. Apparently, he's spent the time catching up on movies like this...
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets - A Quiet Place
I couldn't let this series close without mentioning "the most amazing motion picture of our time", starring Michael Landon, presumably before he found God in Highway To Heaven...
The Cramps - I Was A Teenage Werewolf
Up into the hills next, for an encounter with some inbred yokels... have you ever been to Holmfirth?
Irena Dubrovna discovered she was descended from an ancient tribe of Cat People who metamorphose into black panthers when aroused. Just like Manimal!
The original version of Cat People was released in 1942. Forty years later, a saucy remake roped this guy in to contribute to the soundtrack...
David Bowie - Cat People (Putting Out The Fire)
Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was banned during the video nasties scare of the 80s, so it became something of a holy grail to teenage horror fans like myself, desperate to see it. When it was finally re-released in 1998, I rushed out to see it. The film does contain one of the most disturbing scenes I've ever seen... yet it's nothing to do with the infamous chainsaw, or even Leatherface himself. Instead, the bit that got me was the dinner party scene when they fetch Grandpa down from the attic...
The Tyla Gang formed in 1975 following the dissolution of Sean Tyla's previous band, Ducks Deluxe. I suspect there's more than a whiff of bandwagonary going on here...
Tyla Gang - Texas Chainsaw Massacre Boogie
The other classic horror film banned throughout my adolescent video shop days was Mark Kermode's favourite: The Exorcist. Hard to believe it's 25 years since the censors finally allowed me to watch that...
Curtis Mayfield - Sweet Exorcist
The less said about the 2005 remake of House of Wax, starring Paris Hilton, the better. The 1953 original though, with Vincent Price, was one of the first mainstream Hollywood movies to be filmed in 3D. I generally hate 3D movies, but I reckon it'd be worth seeing this one again with the glasses on.
I found a whole bunch of songs named after this flick. Here's a smattering of wax on wax...
Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club - House of Wax
Nothing beats a good haunted house story for me though. And that one to beat in that genre is the 1963 version of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, known simply as The Haunting.
Here are some post-Shane Pogues... so no way as scary as they used to be.
And here's some Shane, in case you're missing him, along with Sinéad. I'm missing them both.
Shane MacGowan with Sinéad O'Connor - Haunted
Sadly, I couldn't find any songs named after the best haunted house movies of the 21st Century, the Paranormal Activity flicks, but I'm closing today with the film that got me hooked on horror movies back when I was a kid. I was obsessed with the Amityville Horror, reading all the books, watching all the films, and even looking favourably upon Lovebug Starski...
Was expecting this one to turn up in one of the volumes. Maybe I missed it (or maybe you're saving it for next year?)
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/6VumcMBSBrM?si=Fm0jiPi-XO8bwM_z
Erm... that's the video at the end of the post. (Not the TOTP "live" version though.)
DeleteSo it is! I was just looking at the song titles in the fetching shade of brown. No need to save it for next year then!
DeleteNick Lowe is a treasure. As you say, 11 years between albums. He did release singles along the way that I eagerly picked up. Was a little disappointed to see all of those songs collected on the new album. It meant only a few actual new songs for some of us. Still, he could be sitting on a beach somewhere in retirement. I will always take what I can get from the man. - Brian
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