Buttkickin' Halloween Songs: "Trick or Treat" - Fastway (1986)

Knock, knock, knockin’ for a sweet surprise
It’s a trick or treat
See my face true up in the skies
If ever we should meet

Maybe you’ll see
Someone’s put a spell on me…

You know right about now, I’d be gushing with effusive, ecstatic, and electrifying elevated elation (I’m about to be sued by the Stan Lee Estate) regarding the “Start of the Spooky Season” and how Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs are back, baby!

That’s right: our annual Halloween selections that are literally guaranteed to catalyze and evolve your haunted playlist to the next level of gosh-darn creepy awesomeness is back for another year. And as such, I’d normally be going on and on about it for endless paragraphs before going into the actual song itself.

Except that as I submit this, my first selection for the season, it is October 12th. So where the hell have I been?

Las Vegas, mostly. Boots and I spent five days out there to see Metallica opening weekend at the Sphere. More on that as time permits, but let’s just say I still have chills from how immersive and revolutionary the Life Burns Faster residency was. And is, at least through March anyhow.

So let’s just pick up the thread today, nearly two weeks late, and get kickin’ the tires, lightin’ the fires, and other tough-guy talk cribbed from Tarantino screenplays.

As always, we kick off our annual selections with a barnstormer, and this one is a thick slice of 80s hard rock/metal meets Halloween Terror. That’s right, we’re starting with Trick or Treat from the entirely unheralded but utterly kickass band Fastway.

Trick or Treat is the signature tune from the exceedingly entertaining 1986 horror film of the same name. Not even kidding, we saw that in theaters when I was 15 and I thought it was an absolute blast. It starred Marc Price as Eddie Wienbauer, a heavy metal outcast kid in your typical 80s conformist milieu. Tony Fields (then a Solid Gold dancer!) portrayed Sammi Curr, Eddie’s rock idol, whose death in a car crash utterly shatters Eddie’s world. Until Sammi somehow manages to come back… and that’s all I’ll say about THAT movie except if you want a fun, goofy, often spooky 80s horror flick, Trick or Treat will foot the bill nicely. It even has cameos from both Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons, both playing against type. Go check it out.

Anyway, Fastway performed all the songs on the soundtrack, including the title song we’re showcasing today. And this is an unabashed anthemic rocker from 1986, with catchy sing-along choruses, crunchy guitars, and fist-pumping rhythm. Lyrically it’s goofy and silly but that actually works for the song’s benefit. Nothing is being taken seriously here. This is Halloween Rock.

So crank that sucker already. We’ve got two and a half weeks until All Hallows Eve, let’s make every moment rock as loud and ridiculously awesome as Trick or Treat.