I’m posting selections from my personal Halloween playlist on BlueSky right now, with a new theme daily. I thought I’d share each themed post here this month. I feel like I’ve done this before, but I can’t find the post and it was so long ago.
These are far from comprehensive, and there are still albums, songs, and soundtracks that I would like to purchase eventually. I didn’t include some artists that I still play on my list but have engaged in heinous bullshittery. I also didn’t include the Cranberries’ “Zombie.” I’m firmly on the side of it being a horror song, but people feel very strongly about it being on Halloween music lists, because it definitely isn’t a party song (like Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is definitely not a Christmas song).
There are all kinds of music genres here, from musical theater to rap, because I’m more interested in content than genre.
Yesterday, I posted the Vampire list and today I posted the Devil/Demon list, so I’ll do both today here.
Vampire:
“Uninvited” – Alanis Morissette
“Love Song for a Vampire” – Annie Lennox
“Blood Like Lemonade” – Morcheeba
“Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)” – Concrete Blonde
“Transylvanian Concubine” – Rasputina
“Masquerade Ball”/”Save Me” – Jorne Lande and Trond Holter (whole Swing of Death album, really)
“Nosferatu” – Blue Oyster Cult
“Love Bites (So Do I)” – Halestorm
“Bleed” – Fractured
“Master of the Living and the Dead”/”Dracula’s Soliloquy” – Possessed: The Dracula Musical
“Possum Kingdom” – The Toadies
“Damned and Divine” – Tarja
“Vampire” – Xandria
“Within My World” – Dracula concept album
“Total Eclipse of the Heart” – Bonnie Tyler
“Solar Midnite” – Lupe Fiasco
“Bela Lugosi is Dead” – Bauhaus
“Creatures” – Delain
“Enter” – Within Temptation
“First Blood” – LVCRFT
“Vampires Will Never Hurt You” – My Chemical Romance
“Vampire” – Bap Kennedy (added by a recommendation in the replies)
Apparently, today was the day that Jonathan Harker was seduced by Dracula’s wives in his castle. To celebrate, here’s the song I wrote for the for-fun Dracula musical that I’m working on.
I.
I was not the first, But I’m the eldest of wives. We did not come on our own. We were torn from our lives.
He’s a nobleman born. Under chaos he thrives. I was a peasant girl lost, and under pale moon revives.
All I can remember Are the palest of knives, And under his firm palm how a peasant girl thrives.
We are Dracula’s wives, His three women scorned. With him we have yearned. With him we have mourned.
Soon you will see, As all his wives do, How he stirs in your blood When you’re his wife, too.
II.
I he stole from my bed As his empire fell. He brought me to heaven, and saved me from hell.
All the warriors he killed, All the fires he’d quell. While his enemies would bleed, Our desires would swell.
I’m more from his world Than my sisters could tell. I know it pains him to see His grand home now a shell.
We are Dracula’s wives, His three women saved. With him we have danced. We him we have craved.
Soon you will see, As all his wives do, How he conquers a will When you’re his wife, too.
III.
He left his home once north To find me fairer-skinned And encircled me close In his frigid cold wind.
Though I prayed to the saints Under him I have sinned. Though I searched for the light, Beneath him it has dimmed.
I begged him to stop, But my lord simply grinned. So my pleas have gone quiet, My denials I rescind.
We are Dracula’s wives, His three women kept. With him we have dined. With him we have slept.
Soon you will see, As all his wives do, How he shackles a heart When you’re his wife, too.
come on down to the river the current runs red and the algae blooms sweet come on down to the river nothing more refreshing in the sweltering heat
come on down to the fresh mountain spring just a trickle left but the last one clean come on down to the fresh mountain spring the clearest damn water that you’ve ever seen
come on down to the old deep well a drought’s piercing through the dry cracked fields come on down to the old deep well the trumpets all sound and the scroll’s unsealed
come on down to the dark gutter drain the bodies sink low and the corpse fluids rise come on down to the dark gutter drain where waste-streaked gods swallow all of our lies
come on down to the river for an old-time spiritual revival song come on down to the river the end times are coming and it won’t be long
I made a casual resolution that I’d like to write a Dracula musical, just for my own enjoyment, because I like my collection of them. This lyric has been clattering around in my head for a while.
is this a dream? or am I awake? does the lord come for my soul to take?
the twilight grows damp my vision goes dim the sunset downs dark all I see is him
i try to awaken but the whispers insist
the scarlet eyes the scarlet eyes the scarlet eyes in the mist
cool on my skin hot to the touch have i ever known love to desire this much?
lights in the shadow salt on my tongue sin in my heart yearning unsung
i try to remember why i should resist
the scarlet eyes the scarlet eyes the scarlet eyes in the mist
I’d been holding onto a few lines of this for ages and only came up with a song to go with it today.
Loosely inspired by Ezekiel 37, the Valley of Dry Bones, should have a lovely, rough folk beat, like Bishop Briggs’ “River.”
–
RATTLIN BONES (EZEKIEL 37)
Rattlin bones Rattlin bones Get up and dance You rattlin bones Can bones yet live? You rattlin bones Rise up in the name of the Lord
Skeleton fingers On skeleton hands Counting the time For the skeleton band Skeleton feet With skeleton toes Tapping along To the feast of the crows
Rattlin bones Rattlin bones Get up and dance You rattlin bones Can bones yet live? You rattlin bones Rise up in the name of the Lord
Tendons on bone Muscle to skin Build up the bodies To the flesh that they’re in The breath of life A song in the air To dance in the dust Of the flesh that they bear
Rattlin bones Rattlin bones Get up and dance You rattlin bones Can bones yet live? You rattlin bones Rise up in the name of the Lord
The graves are all open The souls are all free Teeming the valley For all souls to see The multitude sings Stomps thousands of feet Unsettling the dust To the living hearts’ beat
Rattlin bones Rattlin bones Get up and dance You rattlin bones Can bones yet live? You rattlin bones Rise up in the name of the Lord
I posted a simpler, cleaner version of WE ARE THE ENEMY last year, but I’ve revisited the first version and decided that, though it has some similar lines, it has a few different kinds of things to say. I’m battling a lot of feelings that are bigger than me, so big I can barely put them into words. I decided to borrow, for now.
WE ARE THE ENEMY 2.0
Truth, justice, and the American way Heroes fly with stars and stripes, red and blue and white It’s all okay at the end of an American day How we do it doesn’t matter if we’re right.
God bless America, we’re right, so we must be good And if we’re good, we can’t be wrong And if we can’t be wrong, we do what we should We do what we should, with an oath and a song.
We are the villains in too many stories And not just those of those we condemn We think power makes us strong And strength gives us the right to win.
That because we are strong, we must be good That because we are good, we must be free But look at what we do, look at what we’ve made of you and me We are the enemy.
Holding the unfinished in steel claws While buildings crumble to the ground Our words are sacred, absolute oaths Never to be torn, burned, or bound.
All without words spoken, without the mark Can fall to the conviction of our words Our deeds are counted by the cruelties dealt Cards we call good, the right of the sword.
I never thought I’d see the day I never thought I’d see the day When there were people we didn’t need to save Sacrificed because they had the wrong name Because they didn’t play the right game Or didn’t resist wrong the right way.
I never thought I’d see the day Until the day I knew it had been here all along Trails of tears, trails of blood Stepping on the bodies of innocents To climb to the top and tell ourselves It’s our day, our sun Because we’re the ones casting the shadow We never put down the sword or the word There was never depth too low for us to go As we cursed those casting shade in the shadow we made.
Because here I thought we were trying Instead of lying and calling it truth Instead of executions called justice out of court Instead of pride for an American way That’s always been the American way.
I knew we were bad. I thought we were better.
We are the villains in too many stories And not just those of those we condemn We think power makes us strong And strength gives us the right to win.
That because we are strong, we must be good That because we are good, we must be free But look at what we do, look at what we’ve made of you and me We are the enemy.
I haven’t gotten many songs written this year, because I’ve felt too strongly for anything to coalesce into something substantial. But I managed to put something into words, things I’m afraid of saying, but it’s done. The sickness hasn’t quite left my chest yet, but it’s done.
WE ARE THE ENEMY
We thought we were heroes We tried to be We wanted to be We said we were good We said we were free Free to be good Free to be bad We could choose the we that we wanted to be We made the choice We decided not to see We made it from the start We were and are and ever will be We thought we were heroes We are the enemy.
We’re the heroes of our story The greatest country In the smallest world Built with blood money Grown from flesh seeds Of brown cocoa And black coffee Of corn and cotton under a chopped cherry tree We deny responsibility If it wasn’t personally When under other names Still degradation of humanity We thought we were heroes We are the enemy.
Never villains of our story Inconceivable that we’d ever be Treason to even claim Unpatriotic, unthinkable treachery That means we won’t listen No longer have to hear No longer have to see We’re villains if our villains do the same things We condemn the evil deeds In a mirror, cry deniability If we say it enough times We think everyone will believe We thought we were heroes We are the enemy.
Stab a knife in the high ground And dig two graves One the bed we made The other the dead we laid Layers and layers tall We say they make us feel small And that the bed we made Isn’t comfortable at all There’s only so many times To deny that we fall And to pretend that we would never Have been a villain, too, through it all.
If we say it enough times We think everyone will believe In what we say Instead of what they see We thought we were heroes We are the enemy.
Amanda M. Blake 