The Softer Side

Most everyone who visits here knows the kind of music I like. 1. Heavy. 2. Loud. 3. Often fast. 4. Did I mention Heavy?

I don’t really get into lyrics. In fact, I own quite a few CDs or albums (large round disks made of vinyl with music embedded in them) in which the singing is in German or Japanese or Spanish or Portuguese. I’m perfectly happy with them.

One of my perennial favorites, which meets all the primary criteria, is “Fight from the Inside” by Queen. Now Queen is not a metal band, but this song has a serious case of the heavies. My only problem with it is that at 3:00 minutes it’s way too short. I used to have a tape I made for myself in which I recorded it four times, one after another, so that I could get a good fix.
Queen: Fight from the Inside

Black Sabbath is the prototype for this kind of music, and most of you will know of such songs as War Pigs, Iron Man, Paranoid, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Good stuff. But for an example of this type that you may not know, I’ve linked to Celtic Frost’s “Procreation of the Wicked.” If you don’t like metal you might just want to get a flavor and then go back to your regularly scheduled programming. If you’re like me you’ll get all goose-bumpy and play it over at least twice.
Celtic Frost: Procreation of the Wicked.

But do you know that I have a softer side? Yes, I do. The two songs linked below, Wasp’s “Sleeping in the Fire” and Ted Nugent’s “Together” are slow pieces that never fail to get to me emotionally.
WASP: Sleeping in the Fire
Ted Nugent: Together

The other two, “In This River” by Black Label Society and “Hurt” as sung by Johnny Cash, tear me up. I can only listen to them occasionally. They always leave me melancholy. I played them a lot in the days just before and after my mother died. That was March 21, 2010.
Black Label Society: In This River
Johnny Cash: Hurt

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Spooky Music

I heard “Werewolves of London” this morning driving in through a heavy fog on the Causeway bridge. That has to be, for me, the most recognizable Halloween song out there, followed closely by “Monster Mash.” However, both of those songs are funny rather than spooky, and that got me thinking. What are the actually spooky Halloween songs?

I thought of “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, and there were some elements of spookiness in that, particularly the riff by Vincent Price, but generally that song is a dance tune and not terribly creepy.

After some careful consideration, I decided to give my picks for best creepy/horror music. But maybe there’s something I’m not thinking of, so let’s see how your opinions differ.

Numero Uno: Alice Cooper, from the “Welcome to My Nightmare” era. In fact, the album, “Welcome to My Nightmare,” is the all time creepiest album out there. With song titles like “Devil’s Food,” “Black Widow,” and “Cold Ethyl,”, the last one about a man who freezes his dead lover so he’ll be able to have her with him always, you’ve just gotta see the horror elements. There’s even an awesome spoken word piece by Vincent Price in “Black Widow.” This is the music I play on Halloween.


Here’s Welcome to My Nightmare.

Numero Dos: Black Sabbath, from the early years. Especially the album “We sold Our Soul For Rock and Roll.” Most of the songs on this compilation album are about madness, horror, and evil. “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” “Black Sabbath,” “Paranoid,” “Am I Going Insane,” and “Children of the Grave,” are great examples. And don’t forget, “Iron Man” and “War Pigs.”


Here’s Black Sabbath.

So what do you think of my choices?
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Quirks

I’ve been tagged for the Six Quirks about me meme by Lisa over at Eudaemonia. I’ve given away quite a few of my weirdities before, including my lack of a sense of smell, but let’s see if I can find a few more to post.

First the Rules:
Link the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules in your blog.
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag 6 bloggers by linking them.
Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

So here are mine, all related to music.

1. There are literally some songs that I dislike so much that I can’t stand listening to them and will instantly punch the button on the radio to change to anything else, including a commercial or white noise. These include “Rock the Casbah,” “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” and anything by the Police or Sting.

2. Lana teases me a lot for liking “one” song by Michael Jackson, and that song is “Dirty Diana.” I’m sorry, but it rocks. And I’m going to go listen to it now.

3. Most of the time I actually pay no attention to lyrics in music. Lyrics can ruin a song for me but can never save a song that doesn’t have good music. For example, I like the music to “Tube Steak Boogie” by Z. Z. Top but won’t listen to it because the lyrics irritate me so much. I’m the same way with “The Boys are Back in Town.” There is no song that I’ll listen to just for the lyrics. But there are some good tunes that actually seem to be enhanced by good lyrics, such as “Ava Adore” by the Smashing Pumpkins.

4. Related to number 3 above, I buy a fair amount of music by bands that don’t sing in English. These included Warlock and Loudness in the old days, and Rammstein today. I especially like the lyrics better when they’re in German. German is the right language for heavy metal.

5. The right music will literally cause horripilation across my scalp and down my neck. The first song to ever do this to me was “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and The Shondells, when I was about 13. One that still does is “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin. “Simple Man” and “Saturday Night Special” by Lynyrd Skynyrd also do it.

6. Black Sabbath is the father/founder band of heavy metal because they were the first band to be all metal all the time. There is no arguing this point, and the original Sabbath lineup is still the greatest rock band of all time.

7. Bonus: The song that best combines incredible music and incredible lyrics is “Bullet the Blue Sky” by U2. The lyrics make up the best poem in rock music. (However, I sure do like the Sepultura version.)

I’m breaking the rules by not tagging anyone.