For most people their experience with Huey Lewis and the News’ hit track “Hip to be Square” was due to it being used in American Psycho. It was already a great song before that film came out and continues to remain so, but now it’s taken on an even dark comedic tone.
I used to listen to this song non-stop when it first came out. Now, whenever I listen to it I start seeing Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman dancing to the song while dressed in a plastic raincoat. But before that it was always a catchy song and, dare I say it, a very hip one.
I actually prefer the band’s “Power of Love” track, but this song has to be next in line when it came to my favorite track from the band.
I’ve wondered what my younger self would think about this song now being associated with American Psycho. The answer I always get is that my younger self would think it was cool and hip (ok, ok stopping it there).
Quite the extreme reversal from #4 to #5 but then my taste in music between junior high and high school was pretty much all over the place. I could be listening to the latest teeny bopper, LAtin-freestyle dance track one month then I’m picking up that hard rock or metal song that I knew my parents would never approve of (especially my mom).
Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” was one such song though I was surprised that my Dad actually liked it as much as I did. My first memory of ever hearing “Welcome to the Jungle” was watching the latest and last Dirty Harry film with my dad. It was The Dead Pool and this song was used as a sort of soundtrack in the fake horror film in the film. I’m not sure if my dad liked the song because it was in a Dirty Harry flick or he just liked it because he grew up in the 60’s and 70’s listening to hard rock.
I don’t think my dad was too keen on the Guns N’ Roses look though. Even then he knew the hair metal, glam look was no bueno.
So, “Welcome to the Jungle” was my initial introduction to Guns N’ Roses and pretty much opened up my ears to a whole new spectrum of music. I never abandoned the R&B, dance pop and freestyle songs from junior high and even years later, but hard rock and metal soon joined the LP (and later CD) rotation.
This is the song that ushered me from junior high and straight into high school. Again, much of the music that kids my of my age in 1986 just fell in love with The Jets’ ballad “You Got It All”.
There was something very earnest about this song even for a kid. There’s nothing cynical about the message in the lyrics and it helps that the group’s lead vocalist, Elizabeth Wolfgramm, just killed it. Here’s the kicker….Elizabeth was just 12-years old when she sang this song with the rest of the group (literally her brothers and sisters). Even 28 years since having first heard of this song it still resonates in this cynical man’s heart.
“You Got It All” definitely brings back fond memories of being a kid and just entering those teenage years when anything was possible. I don’t want to be that cliched old man who rails against the music of today’s youth, but one must admit that this song from The Jets has more heart and soul than most of what kids these days are listening to.
Now, you kids get off my porch while I listen to my stories!
This question was brought up by a song which debut during my freshman year in high school. That song was Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It to My Heart”. A question that probably still perplexes teens today as it did over twenty years ago.
Dayne was part of the freestyle and dance pop wave that was hitting the U.S. during the mid-80’s. Their songs was easy to digest, made one’s feet start a-tappin’ and one couldn’t help but want to go out and start dancing. Well, I wasn’t one of them but I still love this song. Dancing was the sort of activity that I wasn’t so keen on during my first two years in high school. Hell, it’s still not something I go out of my way to do, but I’m not as gun shy when at an event where dancing is a possibility.
I think what attracted me to this song was the video itself. Taylor Dayne made for a fine figure of a woman and she definitely came off a quite fierce in this song’s video. It might be due to the huge hair plus the bangs crimped up, but this video and Dayne still works even two decades removed from seeing it for the first time.
Though I will say that the acid-wash jeans jacket and pants her back-up dancers wear don’t quite make the cut. I’m so glad I never owned a pair even when they were “popular” back in the day.
Anyone who grew up during the 80’s knows this song. The moment they first heard the song it burrowed it’s way deep inside. Then the music video arrived and we saw the awesomeness of Cameo’s Larry Blackmon. His unique vocal stylings matched only by his personal look. The over-the-top hi-top fade hairstyle right up to the bright red codpiece became as much a part of the group’s identity as their funkadelic sound.
1986’s “Word Up!” became the group’s biggest hit and whether one was a fan of R&B and funk didn’t matter. This was a cool jam for all listeners and some heavy rotation of the video on MTV (yes, Virginia, MTV actually showed music videos back in the day) made sure everyone knew what’s the word.
Cameo definitely helped define what was good about the 80’s.
Lisa Marie has been doing such a great job with her featured theme sets that I think it’s time I tried my hand in doing one.
I’ve been doing themed features but never one that would go day-to-day towards a set goal. I think the easiest one for me to start on would be 27 Days of Old School. When I say “old school” I mean as in jams. These were songs from my youth right up to the mid-90’s. Most on this list tend to be from the 80’s with a few bleeding into the 90’s, but in the end they were songs I grew up listening to. Some will range from straight up R&B to pop to dance and right up to heavy metal.
To start things off what better way to begin and have the number 1 label than what I consider Michael Jackson’s greatest song (and my favorite of his many tracks): 1982’s “Billie Jean” from his second solo album Thriller.
“Billie Jean” is such a great song. Even if one didn’t understand what he was singing about there’s no denying the fact that this song had one of the greatest bass lines running from start to finish. David Williams’ bass line that’s became recognizable to fans of this song both new and old. Whether one was a fan of Michael Jackson or not they know this bass line.
In the past, I have always taken the opportunity on Halloween to feature some song or compilation respectful towards the pagan roots of the holiday. Halloween is, after all, a celebration of all those things traditionally taboo in a society which derives its moral perspective from Christianity.
Not this year. In honor of the late, great Dave Brockie, who passed away earlier this year, I offer you the grand finale of the most epic B-side horror-comedy album in the history of heavy metal. On Beyond Hell, GWAR are forced to retreat underground when their fortress in Antarctica is nuked and overrun by a global military task force (“War is All We Know”). They happen to stumble their way into Hell, and decide to spend their time in exile overthrowing Satan and claiming his armies to reconquer Earth. “The One That Will Not Be Named” is their final confrontation with Satan:
We’ve crossed creviced chasms vast,
And endless plains of unshaven ass.
Our time in Hell draws to the last!
We call upon the Master of the Pit:
“Have you got a toilet? I must take a shit!”
“Open your gates, Lord of Hate,”
“Or your front porch is gonna get it!”
“Very well, I’ll use my sword.”
“It’s very good as smashing doors.”
“We call you out!”
“Overrated Overlord!”
The root of all evil and hatred and shame,
So many victims, so many names,
But they are all the same.
“Ereshkigal!”
“Charun!”
“Helel ben-Shachar!”
“Lucifer! Satan! We know who you are!”
He is the one who will not be named
He is the one who will not be blamed
The realm of the sun we have left far behind,
And damned in the darkness we’ve groped with the blind.
Cannot remember time.
“We summon the Lord of Hell”
“So come forth now! I have your smell!”
“Cologne?! Cheap shit, and lots of it!”
He is the one who will not be named
He is the one who will not be blamed
He is the one that is turning the screws
The Lord of the Underworld. Let’s give the Devil his due!
(Lucifer): Welcome, GWAR, to my domain.
It’s nice to be called on by so many names.
What’s this I hear about you kicking my ass?
(In the live show, this is where Oderus fights a guy in an eight or nine foot tall Satan costume and chops his head off, drenching the audience in fake blood.)
He is the one who will not be named
He is the one who will not be blamed
He is the one that is turning the screws
The Lord of the Underworld. Let’s give the Devil his due!
We crossed chasms vast…
and endless ass…
Our time in Hell draws to the last.
The Legions of Hell lay broken and shorn.
The brothers of GWAR have slain through the storm.
The gate, it is riven. The Master is slain.
The fortress of GWAR is now ripe to reclaim.
We wasted Hell in the name of GWAR!
Though we really don’t know where we are…..
One cannot think of horror and not bring up Richard Donner’s The Omen. A film made during the turbulent late 1970’s when the world was literally on the brink of ripping itself apart. The Omen was a film that told the tale of the birth of the Anti-Christ which would herald the coming of the Apocalypse. Outside of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist there wasn’t a film during this era which put the fear of God’s Judgment on the faithful than The Omen.
It helped that it’s own film score was determined to hammer the point of it’s blasphemous subject matter by taking one of the most holy rituals in Roman Catholicism and inverting it to praise Satan instead of the Virgin Mary. Jerry Goldsmith took the rite of consecration and came up with what one could call the rite of desecration for a purported Black Mass.
One must say that “Ave Satani” was all the creation of Jerry Goldsmith and a fellow choir-master in London. This was a work of art created to accompany a film that some would label art as well, but for some whose own faith has superseded all thoughts of art appreciation “Ave Satani” was very real and was a real danger to one’s eternal soul.
I will say that it’s an effective use of the Gregorian chant and more than just a tad hair-raising.
Ave Satani
Sanguis bibimus Corpus edibus Sanguis bibimus Corpus edibus Sanguis bibimus Corpus edibus Rolle corpus Satani, ave Sanguis bibimus Corpus edibus Rolle corpus Satani, ave
Ave, ave, versus Christus Ave, ave, versus Christus Ave, ave, versus Christus
Ave Satani Sanguis bibimus Corpus edibus Rolle corpus Satani, Satani, Satani
Latest Horror Song of the Day comes courtesy of one Phillip Glass who was tasked with composing the film score for the film adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden”. The film would become Candyman.
“It Was Always You, Helen” becomes the film’s overarching theme throughout the film. Unlike other horror themes before it, the one created by Glass for Candyman highlighted the Southern Gothic backstory of the title character and the origins of the Candyman legend. It’s been called a minimalist score, yet it’s selling the film score short, especially this theme. While Glass has become famous for his work within the minimalist music movement he actually created a very symphonic score, albeit one which focused on subtlety over bombastic.
While listened on it’s own doesn’t evoke any sort of shivers up one’s arms and back, this theme will bring about such feeling of supernatural dread when paired with the film. It’s a shame that Phillip Glass doesn’t do more horror film scores because this theme and the score for the film shows that he has a knack for it.
It’s that time of year again for the gang here at Through the Shattered Lens. October has become a sort of official month for the site with much of the posts and articles being related in some manner to all things horror (or close enough to it).
To start off 2014’s Horror Month here at Through the Shattered Lens I’ve chosen a wonderful and creepy piece of horror film music courtesy of the Master himself, John Carpenter.
It’s a great piece of atmospheric music that more than adds to the encroaching horror that is the film’s title. John Carpenter has done most of the soundtracks to his films and his use of electronic keyboards and synthesizers have become such a unique signature in all his films. The last couple years have seen a sort of revival for Carpenter’s type of electronic/synthesizer compositions. One recent film which made great use of this particular style was Jim Mickle’s Cold In July.
The theme to The Fog remains a favorite of horror fans and its influence on filmmakers today is a nice testament to well-earned classic status.
Through the Shattered Lens 