If You Have Ghosts

The JTL Halloween playlist gets its final ten tracks — plus one!

Ah yes, Halloween 1970. Back when the mere promise of a marshmallow on a string was enough to make me reveal that I was not actually Casper the Friendly Ghost — and back, apparently, before I’d grown a right arm. Good times, in any case.

I’m almost positive that the hair in the lower left-hand corner belongs to my friend Peter; this was definitely the wood-paneled basement of his parents’ house, and that definitely looks like his blond mushroom cut. Peter was my first real friend; we’d met in a Burns Park sandbox the year before this photo was taken, and he would go on to be the one who first played Goofy Greats and KISS for me. He was also the first friend of mine to hang out in record stores, and if that weren’t enough to make him legendary in my book, he also wore a “Dirty Old Men Need Love Too” t-shirt to fourth grade on a couple of occasions. I last saw him in 1979, and often wonder what became of him.

I always think about Peter at this time of year, not only because of KISS’s Halloween legacy and the above photo, but also because we ran in the same trick or treating posse for much of elementary school. Peter always seemed to have our neighborhood fully cased ahead of time — he knew which houses were giving out the full-sized Hershey bars, and which houses were proffering sandwich bags of such ostensibly “healthy” fare as granola, banana chips or carob-dipped raisins, the latter being the most diabolically disappointing “treat” ever created. So I’d like to dedicate the fifth and final installment of this year’s Jagged Time Lapse Halloween Jams playlist to my old pal, wherever he is…

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If you’re just joining us, the witch-filled first part of the JTL Halloween Jams playlist is here; the monster-riffic Part Two is here; giant monsters show up in Part Three; and the nightmarish, hoodoo-tastic Part Four can be found here. And if you do the Spotify thing, you’ll be able to find all of these (plus today’s ten new additions) pieced together in one big ghoulish goulash at the end of this entry. There’s no real theme binding this latest batch of tracks together, beyond the fact that they’re Halloweeny, I love them all, and they’re guaranteed to liven up any undead bash. Enjoy!

Roky Erickson — If You Have Ghosts

One could easily fill an entire Halloween playlist with Roky Erickson songs, both because the former 13th Floor Elevators frontman wrote a number of tunes inspired by his love of horror and sci-fi B-movies, and also because the demons he regularly dealt with often made themselves known through his lyrics. “If You Have Ghosts,” one of my favorite tracks from Roky’s brilliant 1981 solo LP The Evil One, definitely hails from the more troubled part of his brain, but there’s also clearly a sense of humor lurking in lines like “I don’t want my fangs too long.”

Ghost — Witch Image

Swedish band Ghost — who covered “If You Have Ghosts” about a decade back — are one of my favorite bands of the 21st century, with Tobias Forge’s demonic brand of pop metal owing as much to ABBA as it does to Black Sabbath. “While you sleep in earthly delight,” Forge sings on this anthemic track from 2018’s brilliant Prequelle, “Someone’s flesh is rotting tonight.” And it’s just so true, maaan…

Hoodoo Gurus — Death Ship

I became completely obsessed with the Bermuda Triangle back when I was about eight; from there, I became fascinated with other nautical legends, like that of The Flying Dutchman. Australia’s Hoodoo Gurus — a band I loved so much in college that my own band covered at least three of their songs — served up a nicely rocking tribute to the ghostly man-of-war on Stoneage Romeos, their brilliant 1984 debut.

Jan Terri — Get Down Goblin

The music of Chicago legend Jan Terri definitely falls under the “acquired taste” heading — it almost defies description, but once you’ve fallen under her unique spell, you’ll keep coming back for more. For those unfamiliar with Terri’s oddball oeuvre, this infernally catchy Halloween number is a perfect place to start.

Whodini — Haunted House of Rock

When the conversation turns to old-school rap, people unfortunately seem to forget just how great Whodini were. The Brooklyn trio released some of my favorite hip-hop hits of the ‘80s, including “Magic’s Wand,” “Friends,” “Funky Beat,” “Freaks Come Out at Night” and this block-rocking answer to “Monster Mash”. Not even the late, great Bobby “Boris” Pickett could have dropped lyrics like this:

The invisible man
Where could he be? We know he got inside the party free
One of these days they're gonna catch him red-handed
If not for sneakin' in free
For being a booty bandit

The Frantics — Werewolf

A wonderfully atmospheric single from 1960 — and from Dolton Records, the same label that was releasing tracks by fellow Pacific Northwest instrumentalists The Ventures — “Werewolf” is the perfect mix of Halloween camp and lycanthropic dread. Beware the full moon!

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins — Little Demon

Screamin’ Jay’s “I Put a Spell On You” is rightly revered to this day, but far too few people are hip to what a fantastic singer he was. He could put his powerful, operatic baritone to great use on standards like “Temptation” and “Deep Purple,” but he could also completely, brilliantly off; on 1956’s jumping “Little Demon,” he let loose with a veritable torrent of impeccably-enunciated jive in tribute to a demon so powerful, “He even put pretty hair on Grandma’s bald head.”

Misfits — Skulls

Hair or not, Grandma better hide her head when the Misfits come around, because New Jersey’s greatest horror punks are in the skull collection business. “The corpses all hanging headless and limp/Bodies with no surprises,” sings Glenn Danzig, as he prepares to demonstrate that a face peel isn’t just something you get down at the salon.

Dusty Springfield — Spooky

A 1967 hit for Classics IV, “Spooky” has been covered numerous times since then — and quite frankly, I prefer just about every other version I’ve heard to the Classic IV one. (I even bought the Atlanta Rhythm Section’s cover of it back in 1978!) But my all-time favorite rendition is this sublime, gender-swapped one by the late, great Dusty Springfield, which for some reason was relegated to the UK b-side of her 1970 single “How Can I Be Sure?”

Robyn Hitchcock — Bones in the Ground

Originally released on 1984’s Bells of Rhymney EP, and later added to expanded CD versions of I Often Dream of Trains, “Bones in the Ground” is one of my favorite Robyn Hitchcock songs. The lyrics are full of Hitchcock’s typically surreal imagery, but they also contain a darkly jovial acceptance of mortality, and the vaguely medieval-sounding acoustic arrangement always conjures up amusing mental images of skeletons dancing a minuet.

Trollo Bun — Borley Rectory

Bringing our Halloween festivities to an end is this mellow guitar instrumental I wrote and recorded on my trusty old Tascam Porta-2 back in the early 2000s, when I was making music under the solo moniker Trollo Bun. I thought the music had a vaguely spooky and ethereal feel, so I named the tune after Bosley Rectory, the infamous “Most Haunted House in England,” about which I read everything that I could get my hands on back in my elementary school days. It’s not available on Spotify, of course, but you can enjoy it here via YouTube…

And, as promised, here’s the complete Spotify playlist featuring all 50 songs that I’ve, ahem, “curated” for your Halloween grooving pleasure. Play it loud, and be safe out there this weekend, boils and ghouls; don’t take any apples with razor blades in ‘em…

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