Day 5: Name That Tune

It’s funny, this year I didn’t hear a single one of my summer songs. Maybe that is why it never really felt like summer to me. Oh sure, there were other reasons, but I’m choosing to believe it was because I never heard my summer anthems. Oddly enough, I did hear quite a few of my October favorites. I heard Werewolves of London several times. I heard Van Morrison’s Moondance and even Thriller during the dog days of summer. It was weird.

When people think of holiday music the first thing they think about is always Christmas. I don’t blame them. I think the same thing. Most people know that I love October/Halloween/Fall and say, oh if only there were Halloween songs you’d be pretty happy. So I get all excited and start to tell them that there are and begin listing them, then their eyes glaze over and they go “huh?” I mean, October songs don’t always give you the warm fuzzies like Christmas songs, but then again I find some Christmas songs downright scary or depressing so I don’t think they have any call criticizing my holiday music choices.

Have you ever actually listened to the lyrics in Christmas music? Santa is a straight up creeper in Santa Claus is Coming to Town. The best Halloween monster wishes he was that creepy. Santa knows when you’ve been sleeping and he knows when you’ve been awake. Say what? Then there are flying reindeer. What kind of mutant freaks are those? Deck the Halls talks about costumes, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas straight up talks about Trick or Treating as the singers go door to door asking for figgy pudding and refusing to leave if they don’t get any. That is frightening. If trick or treaters don’t get candy we just egg or TP your house, but we certainly leave. I mean there are other houses to visit and candy to get, and who wants to die on the hill of figgy pudding?

Halloween songs tell it like it is. Superstition, Bad Moons on the Rise, Moondances, Monster Mashes, pipe organ serenades, October music is fun and instructional. Little Red Riding Hood tells a cautionary tale, as does Enter Sandman and Kid Cudi’s No One Believes Me. But my favorite will always be Thriller. As an elementary school tot I would zoom up and down the neighborhood with my Care Bear boom box listening to Thriller on my cassette tape. I’m pretty sure I was the only 6 year old who had the Vincent Price monologue down pat. I’m also sure I was the only 6 year old who had a crush on Vincent Price. I get really, really angry when they cut off his laugh when they play it on the radio. No one cuts off Vincent Price. NO. ONE!

I have always loved words, but Thriller is marvelous. I know it is music, and therefore already lyrical, but the wordplay makes me swoon. “the funk of forty thousand years” “grisly ghouls” “you see a sight that almost stops your heart” you can feel the song. It draws you in and you are there feeling that cold hand. Feeling your heart start to race.  At least mine does.  For the longest time the song confused me. Was the Thriller itself a monster? Or was it talking about movie thrillers? I think it’s about movie thrillers. I can convince myself of it either way and finally I just stopped caring and went back to enjoying the song. The music video doesn’t make it any clearer and it makes me laugh. Zombies doing a flash mob. Michael Jackson turning into a were-bunny or something. I feel bad for that poor girl. She truly looks terrified. 

Yup, I love my Halloween music. Do you have any favorites?

Day 4: Sounds of Halloween

Yesterday morning started out much the same as any other morning. Wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, leave the house, get in the car and go to work, except for the fact that as I was pulling out of the driveway I turned on the radio and almost ran over my front lawn. The very first song to play was Thriller by Michael Jackson and it is one of my October jams! I squealed  loudly in excitement and hit the brakes. I cranked the radio to 11 and started groovin'. Michael Jackson isn’t one of my favorites, and the video for this particular song gives me both the heebies and the jeebies, but there is something about Thriller that really gets my October/Halloween vibe….vibrating.

I have loved the song Thriller since I first heard it. It came out in 1983 but that wasn’t the version I fell in love with. My dear mother bought me a Halloween mix-tape from Hallmark called “Sounds of Halloween” which had a dude dressed as Dracula on the front looking like he was either about to beat-box or he really was a secret service agent in disguise who was checking his earpiece and unsuspectingly got his picture taken. Either way, it is all sorts of goofy and I love it. In the town I grew up in, the Hallmark store was in a strip mall a few doors down from Payless which in turn was a few doors down from Safeway. Payless was a treasure trove of decoration bliss and was where I first fell in love with the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but that is a story for another day. I don’t remember why mom was in Hallmark that day, but she came back with the tape and said she thought I would like it. Boy was she ever right. I’m still listening to it 30 some odd years later.

On one side of the tape is spooky Halloween sounds like witches cackling and cat people hissing, chains clanking and monsters roaring, it's both amazing and wonderful. On the other side is a bunch of famous Halloween songs sung by knock off bands. The third song is Thriller and I actually prefer it to the Michael Jackson version. If I could have the knock off with Vincent Price doing the monologue it would be the perfect song. 

Anyway, little 6 year old me was in love. I popped that mix-tape into my Care Bear cassette player, hooked it to the handlebars of my tricycle and motored around the neighborhood with it playing on repeat. Well, it played and when the song was over I hit rewind and played it again, and again, and again. I got really good at knowing just how long to hold the rewind button down before it went too far back into Ghostbusters (which is another favorite, but it is no Thriller). You really haven’t lived until you have seen a little girl with pig tails flying by on her tricycle singing about “grisly ghouls from every tomb who are closing in to seal your doom.”

But back to present day, I really got to moving and grooving to Thriller out on the open road and I got some chuckles from other motorists. The monologue is my favorite part of the song and I love the way Vincent Price pronounces the words. He has such amazing rounded tones and perfect diction. Until I looked up the lyrics a few years back, I never knew that the word “y’all’s” was even in his speech. I heard another alternative version of the song and heard them say that and I got mad because they were changing words and not doing it right. Imagine my surprise when I saw y’all in the original lyrics and then heard Vincent say it. I had somehow glossed over that fact. Now I get such a huge kick out of such a proper gentleman pronouncing dire tidings and using y’all’s. Ah it's the things that amuse me.

Unfortunately the radio station cut off Vincent’s laugh at the end which made me sad cuz I can cackle with the best of them, but I was pretty thrilled (no pun intended) that my morning started off so great. It got even better when I left for work at the end of the day. The very first song that came on the radio when I started up the car was Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” which is another favorite October tune. Sometimes you just need to howl and this song gives you the perfect excuse. The lyrics are absurd (how exactly does someone “do” a werewolf of London), some disturbing (if involves a poor little old lady who doesn’t come to the best end) and some pretty cool(a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vick’s and his hair was perfect), but it’s the howling that I really enjoy.

My mother bless her heart, knew how much I loved my Halloween mix tape, so a about a decade or so ago, she bought me a Kidz Bop CD of Halloween songs, once again, from…..Hallmark. She was so pleased. I was pretty excited too. I put it on and the first song was tiny kids singing Werewolves of London and it creeped me out so bad I immediately took it out of the CD player, put it in the case and Frisbeed it into the garbage. It was like the Children of the Corn were singing me a lullaby and it was all sorts of awful. I never told mom what happened to the disc. I just made noncommittal happy noises when she asked how I liked it, then went right back to playing my mix-tape. Ahhhh.

Ok, I just paused in my writing to watch all 13 minutes of the Thriller video again. You know, it has always bugged me, what exactly is a thriller? Is he talking about a movie? Cuz I’m pretty sure that is what he means, but it’s kinda unclear. Six year old me figured thriller was the name a monster. Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, Thriller, it makes sense....to a six year old. If there can be a Sharknado there can be a Thriller. And what on earth is Michael supposed to be in that video anyway? I get the zombie. He actually makes a super duper zombie. He has weird Gumby stick legs that move independent of his body. It is kinda cool, but what is his other monster? I’m pretty sure it is supposed to be a werewolf, but to me he looks like a werebunny or werecat. He has freakishly long whiskers and ears. It’s just weird. And coordinated dancing zombies are my favorite. I am totally certain that I could outrun them. And if they got too close all I’d have to do is play some sweet tunes and they would get distracted. I’d survive that kind of “thriller” no problem.

Ahh, two of my favorite October songs to bookend my day. What a treat indeed, and it isn’t even the 31^st yet.

Day 1: Its' the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Everyone, EVERYONE!!!!! It’s finally October. It’s HERE!!!!! The fun begins today. (steps away from the computer and runs around in circles screaming with joy) Usually I would wax lyrical about something amazing and fallish. I would talk about my decorations or my plans for the month or regale you with how I am pretty positive there is a werewolf that lives in the abandoned house on the other side of my backyard fence, but for now I will put a pin in those things and share with you something kinda Christmassy (GASP) that I appropriated for October.

For the past 4 months or so, thoughts of October would keep popping into my head, and then this song would play. The closer October got, the more this ear worm would wiggle and jiggle and boogie in my brain until it’s all that I could hear. Mostly I would just hum the first part of the song and then get lost in an October reverie, but as I was putting my October bedding on last night I thought up some new lyrics and the song got that much better.

So without further ado, I bring you the newest fall song, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” October style. Just try getting it out of your head. I dare you. No disrespect to Andy Williams, but to be fair, the song was mostly October related anyway. I mean, who tells ghost stories at Christmas……other than me. ;)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. With the kids trick or treating and everyone meeting to drink pumpkin beer, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

It’s the hap-happiest season of all with those cider press parties and caramel hot toddy’s when friends come to call it’s the hap-happiest season of all.

There’ll be parties for hosting Marshmallows for roasting and apple bobbing out in the cold There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Halloweens long long ago. It’s the most wonderful time of the year There’ll be much corn maze going and pumpkins’ll be glowing when loved ones are near Yes it’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Day 17: Monstrous Melody

Ok, so after acknowledging that we have hit the halfway point I am now starting to panic. There are still so many wonderful October things that I have not done yet. I can feel the icy, turkey laden grip of the eleventh month closing around my windpipe. Not yet November, it isn't your turn.

I still have to go to the corn maze and I need to attend Pumpkin Palooza. I haven't watched all my October movies, not even close. I haven't carved my pumpkin yet and I haven't made my official visit to the pumpkin patch. I still haven't unearthed all the October décor from the labyrinth that is our garage, my specially laid aside October books have not yet been read and my orange lights just burnt out. This is not the October magic that I was promised.

On the plus side, I just bought a bag of candy corn today. I found pumpkin spice Hershey kisses and they are DIVINE. I got to watch Toy Story of Terror on TV and it was wonderful and I at least started to decorate some of my pumpkins. So I guess things aren't as dire as I made out. But I do have a grievance. A big one actually. Where is all the October music? Is it some ploy this year not to play anything pertaining to the season? I heard summery Caribbean music today and some radio personalities were talking about Christmas. To add further insult to injury, WalMart  has their Christmas section up. I almost staged a protest. All this moving on to November and December, but NO October music. Sure, my TV show talked about Halloween carols, but that is as far as it has gotten.

There have been no pipe organs playing the Bach Toccata. No Werewolves of London. No Monster Mash. The DJ's haven't even mentioned Rocktober once. It is like October music has ceased to exist. Where is Thriller or Somebody's Watching Me? Ghostbusters or almost any of the Harry Potter theme music. I feel cheated. The closest I have gotten to October music is the cricket choir and some howling neighborhood dogs.

If I don't hear my October music by the end of the week, I am going to start staging a one woman flash mob and do the Thriller dance in the middle of the supermarket. I will karaoke Purple People Eater while in line at the DMV. I may even sing some Sam the Sham in the candy aisle of the drugstore if I have to. Well, maybe not that last one, I might get arrested for being creepy. But you get the point. Where is the musical holiday spirit? I have been playing Peter and the Wolf in my room. But that doesn't count.

This weekend, I use my self bestowed powers as October spokeswoman to proclaim it a two day October musical fest. Dig out those spooky recordings, crank up the volume on the hi-fi and call your local radio station until they block your number. Get those October tunes a playing. Violin, pipe organ, creaking chains, four part harmony, I don't care. I want to hear Monster Mash across the nation! This is October after all, and what better cause for celebration is there!

The Sound and the Fury or the Perfection of Pipe Organs: OT Day 8

October music holds a special place in my heart. There are as many varieties of October music as there are ways to describe this special month. In other words, there is a bit of something for everyone. There is classical music, rock music, pop music, choir music, instrumental only, spooky, pastoral and everything in between. No matter my mood for the day, there is a bit of October music to accompany it.

For the changing of the seasons there is Vivaldi. For the spooky there is Thriller or the theme music from either Psycho or Jaws. If you want something based on mythology/fairy tale, try Warren Zevon with his Werewolves of London or Sam the Sham and Li’l Red Riding Hood. Maybe you are feeling romantic, try Van Morrison’s Moondance. The movie Fantasia and its accompanying soundtrack are a perfect October treat. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the Waltz of the Flowers fit quite nicely with falling leaves and Halloween. Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King is a personal favorite. I even like the new techno-ish version done by Trent Reznor for the movie The Social Network. Then there are the silly songs, the theme from Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, and Purple People Eater.

Aside from the fact that I listened to a Halloween tape from Hallmark pretty much year round, my other favorite album as a kid was Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev. If I wasn’t playing the Halloween tape, I was listening to Peter. It is good lurking music in parts and it gave me goosebumps. I’m pretty sure that that particular arrangement is 50% of why I am scared of werewolves. The other 50% comes from some truly awful monster movies, but that is a story for another day. My mother continually asks me why I can’t listen to nice music. I tell her that no one should have to listen to Elvis as much as she does and we agree to disagree. She rolls her eyes but keeps silent when I break out my bagpipe CD (also good music for October) and I keep the snorting noises to a minimum when I hear Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog. Which if it wasn’t Elvis and didn’t sound so dorky, might actually make a good October song since it does talk about howling in a round about fashion.

I love words and language, if you haven’t guessed by now. I love how they sound and how they meld together to make pictures in the mind. Music does the same for me. Especially classical music. It is amazing what words one can hear when language is taken out of the equation. I have already mentioned that I love violins. They are truly one of October’s special instruments. But I also love the pipe organ. Never mind the fact that they are monestrous contraptions, that only a few people can play, or even choose to. They can fill a room with their sound like no other instrument I have heard.........short of a fog horn, but that doesn’t count.

A few months back, when I was out on a late night grocery run, I happened upon the most wonderful radio program. It actually was a dark and stormy night and as soon as I turned on the radio, my vehicle was filled with the melodious sounds of the pipe organ. Did I mention that I LOVE pipe organs? I can’t remember the song that played, but it was suitably spooky to match the evening. I drove around and around the dark countryside just listening to the wonderful music. Eventually all good things must come to and end, but I found out that this particular radio program happens every Sunday night. In this age of internet and fast information, I could go to the stations home page and find out exactly when the show airs each Sunday, but I choose to let it be a surprise. So far I haven’t missed a show. Somehow I always find myself in the car in the dead of night, listening to organ music. Really, I think I was born into the wrong time. I love pipe organs, gothic architecture, old books, old tombs and the list goes on.

When I had the chance to travel Europe, some of my favorite places were the cathedrals. I really wish that we had more places like them around here. These grand structures took years to build. Not months. And they are still standing. When you walk into such a place, you can’t help but fall silent and feel how tiny and young you are in relation to the rest of the world. Then when such a place is suddenly filled with the sweet sounds of a pipe organ.....my mind almost goes into overload from joy.

October is a very good month for pipe organs and I love it when movies make use of them. It always adds an extra layer of enjoyment for me. Look at the Phantom of the Opera. He wouldn’t have been half as cool if he was playing a clarinet. Sorry to any clarinet players out there, but it is true. Lurch from the Addams Family plays a pipe organ and so does Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. When he started playing the keys with the tentacles of his beard I let out this little rapturous squeak right there in the theater. A pirate, on a ship, in a storm, with tentacles for a beard, playing a pipe organ that he somehow had built into his stateroom. Swoon!

If I could, I would have portable speakers affixed to myself somehow and have someone play me a live action Rebecca theme song set to a pipe organ. How much cooler would it be to go to the Post Office to get stamps if your transaction was punctuated by furious pipe organ playing. Oooh or the DMV. That would really be something.

My very very very favorite bit of pipe organry is one I have talked about before, the Bach Toccata and Fugues in D Minor. I have no idea what-so-ever what a fugue is, let alone fugues plural. I know that with the internet or various other resources I could have an answer in seconds, but I like the mystery of it all. Perhaps a fugue is a little imp who jumps up and down on the air bellows and gives the pipe organ an extra umph to make it to D minor. Perhaps the fugue is a certain pedal that the organist stomps on extra hard. I don’t know and I don’t care. Ok, I care a little, but not enough to look it up. I just know that it is in D minor and I love it to bits, and that is enough for me. So for those of you who have never heard it, I heartily suggest you visit YouTube and give it a listen. For those of you who have heard it, I applaud you and now you will get a chance to see it through my eyes.

Whenever I hear this bit of music I am immediately transported to a grand yet dark stone cathedral. A few candles are burning and flickering in the draft off in the periphery of my vision and aside from a few pigeons in the rafters I have the entire place to myself. I sit down on the cold stone floor, look up past the stained glass and trace the ornate archways and buttresses with my eyes. Then it starts.

A heavy door somewhere in the cathedral shuts with the resounding clonk of sturdy wood and heavy hinges. There are the rapid footfalls of some mysterious person echoing across the darkness. Then there is the scrape of a bench and the crack of knucles. The music begins suddenly, breaking through the silence like a whip, demanding ones undivided attention. A few lingering high notes shoot straight up to the ceiling announcing the fact that music has entered the space. While a few deeper notes follow them to test the width and length of the hall like sonar. They are richer and bolder and finish their topography of the cathedral as quickly as the first. Then a deep base builds and is unleashed that fills the place completely like a bullfrog expanding its chest. The music takes a deep and audible breath in, and then a sharper and higher breath out.

From the long sustained notes of the deep, a cascade of more playful sounds break off and run freely. Little notes that bounce along the floor and ceiling looking for a bit of fun like puppies suddenly turned out of doors. While they frolic, a cascading melody rolls across the floor like water, only to be called back by the deeper more sustaining notes.

And then it rains. Sound sprinkles down in a pleasant shower joining the deeper waters that have formed a rather large pool, the murky depths of which you don’t feel safe exploring. Now the playful notes are calling to and taunting the deeper, more stately sounds. They poke and prod and dance around while the older notes complain. As they move back and forth a slender sound joins the fray and turns into a beautiful waterfall that cascades down the stained glass window to the stone floor below. The grand space begins to fill with water, chairs, lecturns and hymnals all begin to float, as do you along with the candles which have long since been extinguished. As you float you notice that the waters are turning various hues as the sun begins to steal its way across the glass, making the waters shimmer. All have blended by now, rain, puddles and pool, and you are floating in the sound higher and higher toward the ceiling. Up and up you go, higher and faster and soon you are up and out and over the bellfrey sliding along to a gargoyle.

The music diminishes as you slide down along the drainage system courtesy of the gargoyle and find yourself sodden and back on the street. The waters have claimed the music for their own inside the cathedral and this special concert has come to an end. Or at least that is how I see it in my minds eye. I really do encourage you to take a listen. It is a short piece, at least on my tape. What do you hear/see when you listen to it? What are some of your favorite October songs?