Five Alternative Scary Songs to Listen to for Halloween

FIVE ALTERNATIVE SCARY SONGS FOR HALLOWEEN

It’s pretty widely accepted that Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “Monster Mash” is the Halloween anthem, pretty much worldwide. And deservedly so; the song captured the spooky spirit of the Halloween season in a catchy and influential way.

There are a number of other songs that we’ll call “the usual suspects” as well; songs that are pretty much always played at Halloween parties and show up on every other Halloween ditty compilation.

With that in mind, here is a list of five “alternative” Halloween songs. The only criteria is that they have to contain some of that creepy Halloween spirit that makes a great addition to the season, and they have to be, well, different…that is, you won’t find the likes of “Ghostbusters”, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” or “Addams Family Theme” here.

What you will find, hopefully, are a few minstrels of the macabre, contributing chilling choruses to your autumn nights. And some of these are even danceable.

5) The Charlie Daniels Band – “The Legend of Wooley Swamp”

Pretty much everyone knows that “other” Charlie Daniels Halloween canticle, the one about the red fella who goes down to Georgia on a soul-stealin’ mission. But how about this ultra-creepy little carol, an ode to the ghost of a greedy old man by the name of Luious Clay? Clay, it turns out, is known to get up and walk around. After a group of bad guys dig up Lucius’ 13 mason jars full of cold hard cash and leave ol’ Lucius for the alligators, he retaliates from beyond the grave. And does so with a voice as loud as thunder, so we’re told.

And remember, if you ever go back into Wooley Swamp, well, you better not go at night. That’s the rumor, anyway.

4) Jan & Dean – “Dead Man’s Curve”

OK, so this song isn’t a little known secret or anything – it hit as high as #8 on the Billboard top 100 back in 1964 – but it isn’t one of the songs you hear ad infinitum every Halloween. Why that is isn’t entirely clear; it’s a spooky, extremely well crafted (co-written by Beach Boys melody genius Brian Wilson) and memorable ditty, after all. And it’s been covered numerous times, by artists as varied as The Carpenters and Blink 182. It’s generally more thought of as being part of the “Teen Tragedy” song boom of the time period, but it’s just as easily at home playing in the background of your hoppin’ Halloween hullabaloo (say that three times fast).

3) Alice Cooper – “Former Lee Warmer”

Alice is pretty much the king of Halloween music, in a way; his “Welcome to My Nightmare” is one of the most played three or four Halloween songs, in my estimation. You could choose any number of his songs for the list, including such melancholic, uplifting little ditties as “Years Ago” and “This House is Haunted”. But there’s something about this bizarrely lovely song. Former Lee appears to be the dirty little secret of his family tree, and one of the saddest, creepiest moments comes when Alice discloses that Former sometimes works up the nerve to look out the window and wave at his father’s grave.

Alice has stated that he doesn’t recall making the album Dada, home of this impressively unusual song. That makes it even a little more odd, perhaps. For a bonus Halloween treat, watch the fan-made video on YouTube one late fall night. Pretty nifty.

2) Tom Waits – “Oily Night”

This song might make some of your party-goers take pause for a moment and stare at the speakers. The best way to describe “Oily Night” is simply…weird. It’s full of strange sounds, odd percussion and a super deep voice repeating the refrain in a mantra of darkness. If you listen to it and think, “Whatever, this isn’t scary”…well, hey, at 3 AM, open the windows, turn off all the lights, lay on the couch and turn it up. Should make for a pretty memorable experience. Or just the strangest nap you ever took. So, either way.

1) Jim Stafford – “Swamp Witch”

Why this 1974 song isn’t played everywhere on repeat every October is beyond me. It’s got everything a Halloween fan would want; great, mysterious lyrics, steeped in folklore-ish atmosphere, spookified music and vocals. It’s brilliant. Stafford drawls out the story of Black Water Hattie and the Black Bayou with convincing ease; you might be reaching for the light switch or waking up your significant other by the time you get to this lyrical moment:

They never found Hattie and they never found her shack
And they never made a trip back in
'Cause a parchment note they found tacked to a stump
Said “Don't come looking again.”

Happy listening! And HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Paul Counelis is a writer for Rue Morgue and Halloween Machine, and is an author. His newest release is Spook Sleuths: The Legend of Old Man Gooch and is available, along with five other new titles by other Fear Front Publishing writers, here at The Fear Front Publishing Website.

Five Scary Songs That You Don't Hear All the Time

Who hasn't had the desire to curl up on a rainy night and let the ambiance of creepy music fill the room? Here are five (perhaps somewhat lesser known) great songs for just such an occasion, or really for any night at all where you want to submerge yourself in the darkness and let the music of the night wash over you. Or, you know, just 'cause they're cool songs.

NOTE: These are all best played through headphones for full feartastic effect.

FORMER LEE WARMER - Alice Cooper
Coop is no stranger to a great scary song. In fact, he has tons of them in his repertoire; it's what he's known for. From the Vincent Price spoken word prologue of Black Widow to the angsty, crazy eyed relentlessness of The Ballad of Dwight Frye to the off-kilter carnival music box notes of the bizarre Years Ago, he's always been a master at crafting a song to make the hairs of your arm stand up and scream. Former Lee Warmer is an amazing example, with its bizarre lyric about a particularly unnerving family member and a deceptively lovely refrain. It sure is pretty...except the whole thing has an underlying motive that becomes fairly apparent once he croons out the words, "When I hear him play in his twisted key / That's the way he calls to me..."

Bob Ezrin and Dick Wagner helped our hero Alice with the song composition, which features some sweeping melodies and nifty chord changes. Incidentally, it's off an album (Dada) that Coop himself says is probably his most terrifying...because he doesn't remember recording it. Give a listen here:

SWAMP WITCH - Jim Stafford
Before good ol' Jim Stafford was being handed gold records for his soundtrack work on Clint Eastwood and Disney flicks, he penned this amazing ode to "Backwater Hattie", an old witch who lived "back in the swamp where the strange green reptiles crawl". From the outset of the haunting opening chord, strummed plaintively with an eerie effect, there's little doubt what Jimmy was going for...he was writing a campfire folktale set to one of the spookiest melodies this side of Alice himself.
Stafford had his first hit with Swamp Witch in 1973, somehow charting in the top 40 despite the fact that it legitimately sounds like it was recorded in the black bayou. To be honest, this is one of those things that sent goose pimples up my arms as a young lad, and now even a picture of the 45 record my mother used to have (maybe still does) is a bit foreboding, I won't lie.

BRRRR. Kids, ask your parents what this is.

Stafford went on to have even more chart success, hitting #3 in winter of '74 with Spiders and Snakes. For me, his immortal contribution to horror and pop culture is in the form of this truly swamp dripping little ditty about a collective sleepy little Okeechobee town who believes they've been cursed by a witch. Let Old Hattie send you to bed with this sweet little melody in your soul here:

THE LEGEND OF WOOLEY SWAMP - The Charlie Daniels Band
So, this is a bit of a cheat based solely on our criteria of being somewhat lesser known. Then again, when people think of horror songs associated with the Eddie Van Halen of the fiddle, Mr. Charlie Daniels, the one most would think of first is The Devil Went Down to Georgia. But this song here, a modest country hit and bigger pop hit in the summer of 1980, gets the job done plenty well, thank you very much. When I played Stafford's Swamp Witch for my buddy Gil in the early nineties, he responded by showing me a couple country creepers that reminded him of Stafford's little glade driven gem. One was David Allan Coe's The Ride, about a feller who hitches a ride in a Cadillac driven by the apparent ghost of Hank Williams, and the other was Daniels' tale of a miserly old coot named Lucius Clay who hides his riches in "13 rusty Mason jars" somewhere near his house in the backwoods area of Wooley Swamp.

Now, there's no way that our talented pal Charlie and his gang weren't influenced by Stafford's marshland masterwork. It's just way too similar in terms of tone and setup to be coincidental. When the music drops off into an eerie quiet, punctuated by Charlie's best ghost story rasp, it feels like a definite bookend to the tale of Old Hattie. The Legend of Wooley Swamp is a MUCH more directly darker song lyrically, with a group of boys from Carver's Creek congregatin' near Clay's house in Booger Woods (yes, really) in order to feed the old man to the alligators and steal his buried cashola. Needless to say, it doesn't work out to well for the youngins, and now the ghost of Lucius is enough to keep others at bay; at least, if YOU ever go out to Wooley Swamp, well, "Ya better not go at night". Reckon the chronicles of Clay and the Cable Boys right here:

NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE - Roky Erickson and the Aliens
Hey, have you ever seen the documentary You're Gonna Miss Me about this really troubled musician who borders on genius and has to deal with his demons? No, not Daniel Johnston...the other guy.
You haven't?? Then do so immediately! But until then, to hold you over, let's talk a little about Roky's ode to, well, vampires, in the form of this super creepy, guitar wailing, vocal shriekin' evil ballad in E minor. Now, this aint Roky's only trip to Scary Town, Population: Roky. Oh, no. On the insidiously titled album The Evil One (Plus One) that boasts this eerie creeper, songs like Two Headed Dog, I Think of Demons, The Wind and More and Don't Shake Me Lucifer are all legitimate hair raisers in their own right, made all the more ominous when armed with the feeling that Roky was actually tapping into something. But there's something about Night of the Vampire that makes it really stand out, and it's an easy call...Erickson's otherworldy vocal delivery. He sings some of the strangest lines ever written for rock with such a "matter of fact" straightforward assurance that it makes you wonder a little if he truly knows of which he speaks.

Give a listen to his foreboding (but exhilarating) monument to menace here:

THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED - Alice Cooper
Two Alice songs. Yup...deal with it. Besides the fact that I'm a bit symmetrically OCD (self-diagnosed), I get bugged when I hear people say things like, "Alice Cooper USED to be awesome." Sure, Alice fans know the truth. And yes, there's very little use in defending Alice's Desmond Child excursion of the eighties. But here's the deal...Alice has had some great moments in his "modern" era. This super uncomplicated, amazingly crafted 2003 paragon to the paranormal proves it. Over a bare bones musical track, Alice alternates between whispering and warbling out the spooky (but sweet) paean to a departed loved one who still appears to live in his house with him. It's a quiet, almost playfully mournful track (how can that even be a thing?) but the result is very, very...heavy.

Wielding lyrics like, "Then I feel your lips touch mine just like we used to do / I'm so happy all alone being here with you", Alice achieves a feat of small profundity (how can THAT even be a thing?) by creating a depth that wavers between macabre and empathy. It's quite effective, and just one more way that Alice validates the notion that he's keeping Halloween alive, honey...365.

Alice's anthemic apparition aria available here: