Halloween hitlist…

THERE are so many weird and wonderful ways people celebrate Halloween…

So many strange traditions, odd customs, and rare rituals that differ not only between continents and countries, but between postcodes and households.

But no matter how eccentric your means of marking this supernatural season, there is one thing that is essential at every celebration… music!

So whether you are sacrificing a lamb, lighting a few fireworks, or bobbing for apples, stick to this hit-list and everyone at your vam-party will think you are the bat’s pyjamas.

Boys from the County Hell –  The Pogues

Why not kick off the freaky festivities by inviting a more-than-usually drunk and depraved Shane MacGowan into your house?

Nothing encapsulates the lawless chaos of Halloween like a murderous gang of punk-folk lunatics proclaiming “We’ve a thirst like a gang of devils, we’re the boys of the County Hell.”

Sympathy for the Devil –  The Rolling Stones

Yes, its the one time of the year when the world takes recess from one of the most vigorous, persistent, and over-the-top hate campaigns ever perpetrated. That’s right, I’m talking about the perennial persecution of the big man with the red horns.

So extend some empathy to the epitome of evil this Halloween, flick on the Stones and lend Satan your sympathy.

Ghost Riders in the Sky –  Johnny Cash

Legend has it when Cash met the grim reaper to find out who was the real man in black, the Reaper asked the Arkansas man to sign his scythe. With a voice like the devil, if the devil ate a wheelbarrow-full of gravel, Cash describes a cowboy’s nightmare as he witnesses a demonic cattleherd charge across the sky. It’s biblical in an apocalyptic way. Yippie-yi-o.

Witchy Woman – The Eagles

Witchy Woman shares a similarly mysterious and hypnotic quality with The Eagles’ most iconic tune, ‘Hotel California’.

Sparks fly from fingertips and crazy laughter echoes through the song as a spellbinding temptress drives us towards a smoky madness.

I’d say she would have started some handlins…

Ghost Town –  The Specials

With a partially-toothed Jerry Dammers on keyboard looking like something that would have Bram Stoker waking up in a cold sweat, it seems like Ghost Town was always destined to be the quintessential Halloween anthem.

The creepy brass, the haunting flute, the nearly-comical choir
of la-la-las – any Alexa who fails
to produce this tune immediately when instructed to ‘play Halloween hitlist’ needs to be unplugged and any human hitlist compiler who omits inclusion of it must be dismissed just as quick!

By Emmet McElhatton