Halloween is here!! And that means it is time for your annual Spooky Track of the Day.
In years past this hoddle has highlighted songs from Queen, Vanilla Fudge, Dusty Springfield and someone else who I can’t quite remember.
All the parties at Halloween love to fill their playlists with these kinds of songs. It’s the one time of year Warren Zevon gets any love. And, of course, we get sick of Monster Mash by the time October 31, 11:59pm rolls around. We also get the occasional Maneater, Monster Mash, Thriller, I Put a Spell on You, and the theme song from Ghostbuster.
But why - WHY - do we not talk more about Alice Cooper? He is the king of shock rock, after all!
And today’s TOTD pays tribute to that.
When I first picked up Killer I was overtaken by the record’s cover jacket, a leathery snake with its tongue extended against a blood-rec backdrop and alice cooper’s name scrawled against some sort of port-a-loo reenactment.
The record terrifies me to this day. But it’s incredible nonetheless. I knew Alice Cooper through the School’s Out kind of things, but when I started collecting records I wanted to explore more of his stuff. I bought the band’s self-titled debut, then the follow up - Killer.
They are two of my favourite records. I remember playing them in my Stamford, Connecticut, apartment years ago. And I wonder why, sitting here now, I haven’t played them in at least a year. I tried recruiting a couple friends to go to an Alice Cooper show at Jones Beach, New York, with me a few years ago. I was unsuccessful.
I don’t care, though.
Today belongs to Alice Cooper. The man who performs with snakes, guillotines, blood and gore. Sure, today’s TOTD might not bring anyone to the dance floor but who cares? Most of us at hoddle headquarters will be watching the World Series anyways, and those that aren’t will be listening to Alice Cooper’s record From The Inside.
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Also I know the airwaves always play Werewolves of London, but can we seriously consider it to be the scariest song Zevon wrote? NO - LISTEN TO ME. Is it scarier than Carmelita, which romanticised a strung-out lover in Echo Park or Zevon’s own demise in Keep Me In Your Heart, or the horrors of terror that he penned in Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, or the atrocities committed in Excitable Boy? So why do we fascinate on the word “Werewolves”? Can we just play every song the man’s ever written?
Fitzie’s track of the day: Killer, by Alice Cooper
And now for your links:
The Athletic ($$): “Tottenham’s Djed Spence was adjusting his boot. Was what happened next a breach of ‘fair play’?”
Consequence of Sound: “Alice Cooper and Criss Angel Teaming Up for “Welcome to Our Nightmare” Las Vegas Show”