Well, duhr… Frankenstein is one of those quintessentially overplayed classic rock songs in that so many people know the riff and so few know the actual name of the song (let alone the artist performing it). And it really is one lumbering monster of a track, featuring Edgar Winter on about 8 zillion instruments (organ,…
Well this one is a HUGE surprise, huh? I’ve made no attempt at obfuscating my love of Maiden. They’ve been my all-time favorite metal band since 1983, when I bought Piece of Mind on cassette and wore that sucker completely out. That’s all I needed. My brother had The Number of the Beast on vinyl…
When I think of Halloween, I immediately conjure up images of dystopian futures in which sadistic android overlords called Machmen torture remaining humans by forcing them to compete in a survival games against rape and murder robots in an arena called “The Park”, while the Machmen sneer and enjoy the carnage from Zom-Zoms, a nearby…
An old cowpoke went ridin’ out one dark and windy day… I think it’s practically impossible to have grown up in post-World War II America and not have heard some iteration of Stan Jones’s 1948 cowboy classic Ghost Riders In The Sky in some capacity. It’s been covered by dozens of big name artists, from…
Mojo Nixon is singing about UFOs, big rigs, and barbecue. Do I really need to sell this any more? Mojo freakin’ Nixon + alien encounters + 12 wheels of interstellar transport + smoked meat = ESSENTIAL Halloween tuneage. I first heard UFOs, Big Rigs, and BBQ waaaaaay back when, while playing the first-person shooter ‘Redneck…
It’s just one of those things, man. I seriously can’t stand Phil Collins. Nothing personal against the guy, but his No Jacket Required album made the calendar year 1985 a living hell for me. Sussu-freakin-sudio indeed. His voice makes my skin jump clear off my body and run straight up a tree. He did the…
The haunting Scottish ballad “The Daemon Lover” ensares you with a tragic tale of a woman being visited by a past lover… who is later revealed to be The Devil. He tempts her away from her child and husband with promises of land, riches, lurid promises of dark enchantments… She kisses her child goodbye, and…
‘Cause I really always knew that my little crime Would be cold, that’s why I got a heater for your thighs And I know, I know it’s not your time But bye-bye And a word to the wise, when the fire dies You think it’s over but it’s just begun Baby, don’t cry You had…
One of these days I’m really going to have to talk about Sting’s 1985 debut album The Dream Of The Blue Turtles because not only is it one of my favorite all-time albums based on the quality of the music alone, it was one of those “Got Me Through High School” records that I ridiculously…
It’s metal. It’s Pirate metal! It’s Scottish Pirate metal!! It’s Scottish Pirate metal with a Keytar!!! Not only is Keelhauled a perfect Halloween song to get you in that dress-up-and-gut-a-deserving-swine mood, it pretty much has one of the catchiest sing-along choruses ever recorded. I know we don’t all have Sid Meier-esque daydreams about raiding towns…