Friends” by The Police

By Michael S. Miller Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief mmiller@toledofreepress.com

Christmas is not the only holiday with a deep catalog of music. As the Halloween season embraces all things macabre, there are hundreds of records that can provide a bloody background to your costume party.

Here are my top 10 tracks about monsters, mayhem and murder.

by David Bowie: No mainstream artist has ever recorded a more disturbing record. This mainly spoken, singsong narra tive comes from a child murderer who confronts the title character for stealing a locket from the dead body of one of the killer’s victims. By the end of the record, Bowie is digging a grave for the gravedigger with the man’s own shovel. Guar anteed to haunt you for days.

by Jimmy Cross: This one is sick. A man sings about losing his girlfriend in a car accident. At the scene, he describes the carnage, then wails about her death. Driven to dementia, the last verse finds Jimmy digging up her coffin, opening the lid, climbing inside, then hysterically singing, “I got my baby back!” from inside the coffin . Yikes.

In a coolly controlled perfor mance, Elvis sings to his mama about a series of murders he has just committed, including his exwife and their baby. He spills the details of the killings as he makes his mom fry fish for dinner. By the end of the song, mama is no longer moving, and our boy Elvis is singing to her corpse. Could serve as the prequel to the Norman Bates story.

mer” by The Beatles: This light piano ditty is sung by Paul Mc Cartney with such good cheer, it is easy to overlook the song’s story. Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine, hammers several people to death, including a date, a teacher and a judge. Macca sings as if he can barely keep himself from laughing, but may be that’s not controlled humor; maybe that’s unleashed insanity. For more hand-tool mayhem, check out Roky Erickson’s “Bloody Hammer.”

non: This mash-up takes the soft, hopeful piano notes from Lennon’s “Imagine” and mixes it with an extended Vincent Price rap from the Michael Jackson record. The juxtaposition of the peace anthem with Price’s descriptions of “corpses terrorizing ya’ll’s neighborhood” is jarring and eerie.

Oingo Boingo: This Denny Elfman song served as the opening for “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” a scene in which Leatherface shears off assorted limbs and heads. This driving, relentless track is all the more spooky because it fiercely celebrates the non-negotiable fact of death. By the end, as the band chants “no one, no one, no one” over and over, you’ll want to call ev eryone you know and tell them you love them. Served as the template for “Remains of the Day,” Elfman’s song for Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride” flick.

This B-side about cannibalism, written and sung by guitarist Andy Summers, is creepy, creepy, creepy. “I likes to eat my friends, make no bones about it,” he sings, and then spends four minutes rationalizing slaying and cooking people. The Police often dabbled in such nastiness. Listen to “Murder by Numbers,” in which Sting describes an escalating penchant for killing, and “Once Upon a Daydream,” in which Sting’s pregnant girlfriend is pushed down the stairs by her father, with tragic results. The song ends after Sting murders the father and contemplates his choice between prison and suicide. Not for the faint of heart.

Band: Daniels sings of Lucius Clay, an old miser who buries his fortune in Mason jars around his swampy shack. Three young men beat Lucius, toss him in the Honorable Mentions: Scary “Bad Moon Rising” by Credence Clearwater Revival “Bloodletting” by Concrete Blonde “Days of Graduation” by Drive by Truckers “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult “Halloween” by Dave Matthews Band “Murder in the Red Barn” by Tom Waits “Strangler in the Night” by Albert DeSalvo “This is Halloween” from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” “Timothy” by The Bouys “Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon ������������� ��������������������������� �������������������������� ���������

“Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” by Lewis Lee “Cockroach that Ate Cincinnati” by Rose & The Arrangement “Grim Grinning Ghosts” by Barenaked Ladies “Haunted House” by Jumpin’ Gene Simmons “I, Monster” by Blue Wrath (from “Shaun of the Dead”) “Marie LaVeau” by Bobby Bare “Monster” by Fred Scheinder “Monster’s Holiday” by Buck Owens “Nature Trail to Hell” by Weird Al Yankovic “Zombie Jamboree” by Rockapella

swamp and steal the money. As they try to get away, they sink in quicksand, with Lucius’ beyondthe-grave laughter the last sound they ever hear. This is the only song on this list that managed to chart in the Top 40.

Poe is the undisputed Godfather of Halloween, and Walken, even at his nicest, is spooky, so this is a dream track. For seven minutes, Walken flawlessly reads the classic poem of the lost Lenore, with sound effects including wind, cawing, scratching guitars and unearthly moans. Tops even the James Earl Jones version

from “The Simpsons.”

oahs: It’s doubtful this song could be recorded and released today. Sam (of “Wooly Bully” fame) sings as a stalking Big Bad Wolf, toying with Red as he licks his blood thirsty chops. It was probably all in good fun back in 1966, but modern awareness of pedophelia and child molestation gives this song a dimension of creepiness that’s impossible to ignore.

Dishonorable Mention: “Halloween on Military Street” by Insane Clown Posse: Nasty, foul, disgusting, terrible and hilarious. The boys chronicle a wild trickor-treat adventure that includes a brush with every offensive topic imaginable. Parental advisory.

For a list of nearly 200 Halloween songs, e-mail Michael S. Miller at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Start the fog machine. Dim the lights. Bring in the coffins, tombstones, jack-o-lanterns and cobwebs. The University of Toledo’s Doermann Theater will be decked out for the Halloween concert at 8 p.m. Oct. 31.

The fun and frightful night will feature performances by the UT Wind Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Jason Stumbo, director of bands and assistant professor of music, and the UT Symphonic Band, conducted by Carl Collins, assis tant director of bands and visiting assistant professor of music.

“This shouldn’t be consid ered a boring classical concert. It’s meant to be fun,” Stumbo said. “We’re encouraging people to come in costume. I’m hoping a lot of people will bring their kids after trick-or-treating. We’ll have candy as well.”

The 70-member Symphonic Band will take the stage first.

“They’ll perform a piece called ‘Incantation and Dance,’ which starts out very chant-like and builds to a frenzied dance,” Stumbo said. “They’ll also per form ‘October,’ which doesn’t sound scary at all; it’s supposed to depict the month — leaves changing colors and falling.”

The 45-member Wind En semble will play “Waltz.”

Toledo Free Press photo by DM Stanfield

“We’re doing a song c alled ‘Ghost Train,’ which is based on the folk tale about a ghost train that rumbles through the night,” Stumbo said.

Another selection will be “Voodoo.” “This one is a lot of fun — there are theatrics involved,” Stumbo said. “Members of the ensemble get up and go into the audience.”

The free concert will last about one hour.

“When a lot of people think of the band, they think marching band. But we have concert ensembles as well. We’re trying to get the word out, and this is a good way to do it,” Stumbo said. — Vicki L. Kroll