Dead-icated to Vampira...
Vampira- Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen Flying Dreams
Halloween (She's Coming)- The Dead Elvi Graveland
Flying Saucer Attack- The Rezillos Can't Stand The Rezillos
Dig It Up- Hoodoo Gurus Stoneage Romeos
The Ballad Of Dwight Fry- Alice Cooper Love It To Death
Skeleton Man- Frank Black & the Catholics Pistolero
When I Was Dead- Rudi Big Time
Jack The Ripper- John Cale Happy Halloween! All Haunted Hits!
^The Ghost In You- The Psychedelic Furs Mirror Moves
She's A Monster- The Stems Violets Are Blue
Halloween Girl- Blue Ash Around Again
Graveyard Rock- The Joneses Someone Got Their Head Kicked In
Where The Wolfbane Blooms- The Nomads Outburst
Haunted House- Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs Greatest Hits
*The Dog- The Damned Strawberries
*Do the Vampire- Superdrag Head Trip In Every Key
*Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)- Concrete Blonde Bloodletting
*Night Of The Vampire- Roky Erickson and the Aliens The Evil One
Dead Rock and Rollers- Detention Dead Rock and Rollers 7''
Sweet Death- The Monochrome Set The Independent Singles Collection
The Ripper- The Headboys The Headboys
An Ugly Death- Jay Reatard Matador Singles '08
She's Dead- Tuff Darts Tuff Darts
Monster Island- The 3-D Invisibles Love On Mars 7"
>Teenage Head- The Flamin' Groovies Groovies Greatest Grooves
Kill It (Before It Multiplies)- The Panics The Panics 7"
I Saw My Death In A Dream Last Night- The Barracudas Drop Out
Frankenstein- New York Dolls New York Dolls
Halloween- Dream Syndicate Days of Wine and Roses
^Power Pop Peak: #59 Billboard Hot 100 5/12/84
*SacroSet: Vampiresongs
>Power Pop Prototype: 1971
Halloween has always been a big night in the Love household, both the one I grew up in and the one I live in now. One of my earliest Halloween memories was an Indian costume my mother put together for me when I was five or six. My "war paint" consisted of magic marker my dad drew on my face. We later found out that magic marker on skin was toxic, but I thought it was really cool at the time. Even so, I was a shy kid and still very nervous about going to the party at Kennedy Elementary School that night. Then, when I was anxiously looking at myself in the mirror I started to think about my new hero, Chief Jay Strongbow. Cousin Rich introduced me to wrestling earlier that year and Chief Jay was my favorite. I was already glued to the TV screen for several hours of Saturday morning cartoons, so it wasn't a big deal to stay through the afternoon for wrestling. Andre the Giant and Haystack Calhoun were a little scary but something about Chief Jay spoke to me. Anyway, thinking of myself as Chief Jay Strongbow rather than a generic "Indian" gave me the confidence to go to the Halloween Party and even participate in the costume parade. I think that's when I first started to love Halloween.
Over the years, I had used Halloween as a "Girlfriend Litmus Test," much the way Steve Guttenberg's fiancee in Diner had to pass a Baltimore Colts trivia challenge for the marriage to proceed. If the girl didn't like Halloween or would only dress in some lame dignity-saving costume (like the perennially boring "Black Cat") she'd be gone by Thanksgiving. So, when I invited Jaime to a Halloween Party at my house in Brookline, MA shortly after we started dating, I doubt she had any idea how much was at stake. This was the second of third Halloween party my roomates and I had thrown and we were starting to get a reputation. One year I came as Jesus, complete with a six foot cross that I kept accidentally bumping into people saying "I forgive you" each time. Anyway, Jaime passed with flying colors- she came as Laura Palmer (sheer skin tone pajamas, soaked prom-style hairdo, deathly pallor make-up with blue lips, wrapped head to toe in a huge sheet of plastic) as in "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" from Twin Peaks which was my favorite TV show that fall. How awesome is that?!?
Fast forward several years to Sonoma where our annual Halloween Party for our friends and their kids is a must-attend event. This is mostly because we rock, but also because we've always lived in perfect Halloween neighborhoods- high density housing, away from busy through streets. My son Jack was the kind of kid that started planning his Halloween costume in January (one of my favorite pictures of him is in his high chair as "Count Jackula" in vampire makeup and cape). This year three-year old Jack was a Wild Thing from the Sendak book and he and his friend Mason were on a rampage through the neighborhood. After managing to wrangle all the kids together for the fourth of fifth time, we were heading for home and came to a house with the light on and the door open. Jack and Mason were in a hurry so they went right up the front steps and into the house before Jaime and I could stop them. Our neighbor had left her post for a minute to re-stock her candy bowl and these two little boys walk through her living room and right into the kitchen, followed by their horrified parents spouting apologies. She was a good sport about it though so the story has become Halloween folklore.
When the kids got older they didn't want to have the party anymore, so we started trick or treating like everybody else. This is the first year Jack didn't go with us, choosing instead to hang out a friend's house (closely supervised). My daughter Nica and her friend Anne even got to go out in the immediate neighborhood by themselves this year. This left Jaime and I at home handing out candy (our neighborhood still attracts hundreds of trick or treaters). I still try to keep it interesting though by showing a movie with my LCD projecter and putting speakers in the front windows. Since we have lots of young kids coming, I try to not get too intense and screen a black and white classic. Last year it was Carnival of Souls, this year Romero's classic Night of The Living Dead. So, never fear, or better yet, fear, because Halloween still lives at the Love's House!
Here are download links (Right click and "Save Target As") for the ALL KINDSA GIRLS HALLOWEEN SPECTACULAR!
Hour 1
Hour 2
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