Belle and I were super excited when we were told we could take over the MSM blog for three whole days to celebrate our favorite Holiday and make a Super Spooky Halloween Playlist for you.

1. Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus - The Ultimate Halloween song in my mind. It’s Bela. It’s Bauhaus. It’s dark. There is no single song better for doing the Goth Sweeping Away the Cobwebs Dance. It’s freakin awesome. “The bats have left the bell tower. The victims have been bled.”

2. Dead Souls – NIN/Joy Division – For the purpose of this post we are going to go with the NIN cover from The Crow Soundtrack. Because a Halloween post without Eric Draven is just sacrilegious in the extreme. The Crow takes place on Devil’s night, which in Detroit happens to be the night before Halloween. Perfect song choice for the movie as Eric really is a dead soul. I love the original but I have to say, the NIN version is simply amazing. And The Crow is quite possibly my favorite dark love story.

3. Stretched On Your Grave – Sinead O’Conner – I LOVE this song. It is so evocative and the violins are just hypnotic. The lyrics are actually an anonymous 17th century Irish poem “Táim shínte ar do h’uaigh” and was translated in a book called Love Poems of the Irish. It is haunting and very very dark and gives me chills every time I hear it.

“The priests and the friars
They approach me in dread
Because I still love you
My love and you’re dead
I still would be your shelter
Through rain and through storm
And with you in your cold grave
I cannot sleep warm”

4. There’s A Light – Rocky Horror Picture Show – No Halloween playlist can be complete without the entire soundtrack to Rocky Horror Picture Show. Really. It’s a law and stuff. This is a fun one. You can sing and sway back and forth with the chorus and wave your flashlights around. Just don’t put the newspaper on your head until they get OUT of the car, mmk? Noobs

5. This Is Halloween – Danny Elfman – This one is pretty much an “duh” moment, right? If you somehow have missed out on the story of Jack Skellington The Pumpkin King and his Lady Love Sally you have been living under a rock and even my awesome Halloween powers will not save thee.

6. Grimely Fiendish – The Damned – We are digging a little deeper as The Damned are a bit more off the beaten path. Originally a Punk band, The Damned began to veer more into the Goth arena. Especially as their Lead singer Dave Vanian had a penchant for dressing in vampire garb. The song is inspired by a children’s comicbook villian in the 60 in the UK. It’s a perfect choice for Halloween!

7. The Ghost In You – The Psychedelic Furs- Taking it down a notch in the camp factor is my favorite all time Furs song. It swirls in your brain like mists on a moor =)

8. Peek A Boo – Siouxsie and the Banshees – Classic Goth Tune. That I named a cat after.

“Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo
Golly jeepers
Where’d you get those peepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?”

9. Dead Mans Party – Oingo Boingo – When it’s time to get down and drink your purple Zombie punch this is the song you want to be listening to while shaking it! Danny Elfman is of course the singing voice of Jack Skellington and really the man just oozes Halloween goodness.

10. Every Day is Halloween – Ministry. WORD! This is my motto =) Every day should have skellies and ghosts and spooks and vampires and creaky doors and spooky castles. And mini Snickers!

And now, Ladies and Gents, I give you the appropriately named Devilish Southern Belle with her 10 songs!

For my ten songs, I chose some of my favorite bands, obviously, but also chose them based on the type of music.  I’ve got metal, industrial, classic rock, and post-punk.  Some could even be considered pop.  Spooky transcends musical genres, after all…..

1. Black No. 1 – Type O Negative. This is not my favorite song by them, but it is probably their most popular one.  And with lines like “she’s got a date at midnight with Nosferatu”, it is PERFECT for Halloween.  In fact, seems I remember seeing this video on a Halloween edition of Headbanger’s Ball, but it has been too long and I am too lazy to go clarify.

2. Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love CCR, and I can remember bouncing around to this one and singing along LONG before I knew what horror was.  And I was tickled to hear it in An American Werewolf in London.

3. Black Magic Woman – Santana. Ah, Santana.  “Black Magic Woman” has long been a favorite.  I’ve always loved the lyrics, but this song moves me more musically than anything.  I love how the vocals and spooky lyrics don’t overpower the instruments.  I love how they come together in what sounds like a perfect blend of mysterious, tropical, and laid back, with particular attention to exotic percussion.  Then?  The tempo speeds up, the music gets louder, and just takes over, finally fading.

4. Witchy Woman – The Eagles.I get my love of  The Eagles from my Mom.  I think I know every song by heart, and this one is a favorite.  Oh boy.  The first chords of this song clang like an alarm bell to me, and I guess that’s pretty fitting because the dark lyrics are so obviously about the perils of drug use.  But since we’re here for the spooky, we’ll just take it at face value and go with it!
5. Legend of Wooley Swamp – Charlie Daniels Band. “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” would have been the obvious CDB choice for a playlist of this nature (and it’s on here somewhere), but I wanted to put this one out there since it’s not as well known, and it’s a great ghost story with themes of greed and retribution.
6. Am I Demon – Danzig. Anything by Danzig would be a good fit for a Halloween playlist, really, I just happen to like this one a lot!  I think Glenn Danzig has an incredible way with his lyrics, and I couldn’t even begin to tell you how talented this man is.  That’s a post for another time

7. Now I’m Feeling Zombiefied – Alien Sex Fiend. My list has to include some zombies, and some industrial music.

8. Would You Love a Monster Man – Lordi. Gwar does the dressing-up-in-scary-costumes thing better, but I have to hand it to Lordi for their monster get-up.  And?  I just love this song.

9. Mr. Crowley – Ozzy Osbourne. LOVE the dark, heavy feel of this song.  Love that it’s about Aleister Crowley, a well-known occultist (but according to his wiki page was also a writer, mountaineer, poet, yogi, and possible spy”) dubbed “The wickedest man in the world.”  And I will never tire of hearing the late, great Randy Rhoads on guitar.

10. Attack of the Ghost Riders – The Raveonettes. a.  I love the rockabilly sound of this one.  b.  I couldn’t find Rollins’ “Ghost Rider” from The Crow soundtrack.  And this song is just made of win!

**And just so we’re clear….Starr and I both agree that the entire Crow soundtrack needs to be on here.  I don’t know if we did that or not, though!

*** Starr here – DAMN SKIPPY on The Crow. Of course I am watching it as I type this so I guess I am just a *bit* of a fangirl

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