Halloween isn’t just for pagans and children. Or the children of pagans, whom I guess you’d have to call pagan children. It’s also for adults who don’t want to grow up, a denial that beats at the heart of rock music. A time when we dress up like monsters or ghouls, or even hockey players and beg strangers for candy, throwing rotten eggs at them if they refuse or offer something like raisins or pennies. Perhaps the real purpose of Halloween is to cull the archives, looking for the scariest, spookiest tunes and then deciding the ideal order in which to hear them. The perfect excuse for a playlist. Which is not only a list, a tremendous thing by itself, but a list you can play. How can you beat that?
My original playlist ran to 100 songs; the kind editors at Suite 101 politely hinted that if I was interested in publishing a full-length book I should speak to Alfred.
Knopff that is.
So, for space considerations, I’ve reduced the list to ten songs – the original list was perfect; if you’re not happy with the abridged version it isn’t my fault.