It is mid-August, and at this time of the year--Summer is coming to a close. The hot days are coming to a close, soon. Parents are out shopping for school supplies. School is about to start back up. Back in my school years, I remember the one thing that caught my interest in the months following the beginning of a school year, Halloween.

Now, I've written a couple articles on Halloween on retrojunk.com and have recently planned on writing the third installment of "A Typical 90s Halloween", but since it quite hasn't hit that time, yet.. I'm going to be analyzing a fun part of Halloween and Fall... the sounds and music that stick out in our heads during this time of year.

I recently created a Spotify playlist simply titled "Fall Tunes" with all of the tunes that I associate with Halloween for some reason.

DON'T FEAR THE REAPER - BLUE OYSTER CULT

Since John Carpenter's movie "Halloween" first came out in 1978, the only song that really sticks out from the soundtrack is "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. This song also gained a whole new fan base when Rob Zombie used it in his remake of Carpenter's classic film

GOD OF THUNDER - KISS

Another track from Rob Zombie's remake of "Halloween". This song is great. Many people have mixed feelings about KISS, but in all honesty-the only times that I have seen KISS live were near Halloween and hearing this song does nothing but evoke good memories of my high school years' Halloweens.

BLACK NO. 1 - TYPE O NEGATIVE

This song/band is a great symbol for Halloween. Type O Negative was one of the top Goth bands in the 1990s and wrote many songs about darkness and vampirish activity. In Detroit, there is a club called Leland's City Club which is a hangout for many wannabe "vampires" and "goths" and this song always takes me back there. Around the fall of the year, my friends and I will head out to City Club and stay until 4 AM and celebrate the season.

LOVESICK FOR MINA - CRADLE OF FILTH

Can any of you Horror movie fans recall 1931's "Dracula"? This song reminds me too much of that film for the fact that Dani Filth states he is "Lovesick" for Mina. Mina was the character that Bela Lugosi fell in love with in the film. Great song. I recall jamming some of Cradle Of Filth as I drove through a graveyard one night a couple years ago with some friends. Spooky...but all out of celebration.

HELLRAISER THEME - CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

In the Fall of 2008, I worked for my city's annual Haunted House and we had it in the old theater that they were about to tear down--so of course, we themed the whole house off of horror films. With all the chains and nails I could find, I was given my own room to recreate a scene from Clive Barker's "Hellraiser". I wish I had photos of the haunt to share with y'all, but this theme was played over and over and over and over and I probably have memorized every single note of the song.

EVERYBODY SCREAM FOR WOLFENSTEIN - ROB ZOMBIE

This song is actually one of Rob Zombie's more rare songs because it was never really on one of HIS albums. It was featured on the "House Of 1000 Corpses" soundtrack. This song just reads horror and Halloween all over it and if you remember your teen age years with being filled with Mr. Zombie's music and films, then your Halloweens were always awesome.



NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN - THE MOODY BLUES

This song was featured in the remake of "Halloween II" also by Rob Zombie. The song's eeriness and echoing vocals makes this song of one of my top favorites for the Halloween season. The scenes in the movie in which it were played gives a false peace to the scenes and is the beginning of the hell the characters are about to endure.



CITIES IN DUST - SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES.

Great tune here, folks with the fall season written all over it. Much love to Siouxsie and her vocals as she belts out sounds of the damned. This tune was a runner up to be in Rob Zombie's remake of "Halloween II" but didn't quite make the cut. When I heard it was supposed to be in the film, I looked it up and immediately fell in love with it.



HALLOWEEN - MISFITS

"Bonfire's burning bright. Pumpkin faces in the night. I remember Halloween!" Who can forget that opening lyric to one of the Misfits' most popular songs, "Halloween". It was first released on Halloween in 1981 and remains a favorite of punk rock fans world-wide.



SATURDAY NIGHT - MISFITS

"Saturday Night" is an awesome Murder/Love ballad about killing your date. It was released by the Misfits with former singer, Michale Graves (who really put the horror punk in the Misfits, if I should say so, myself). It's a horror song with a 50s twist on it. One of my favorite love songs of all time.

NIGHTMARE WORLD - THOSE POOR BASTARDS

"Nightmare World" is the first track on Those Poor Bastards' "Abominations" album. Those Poor Bastards are labeled as Gothic Country and if you are a fan of anything country that goes bump in the night, they are right up your alley. This track is a big sample of what most of their music sounds like. Dreary, gospel, bible belt influenced dark music.

THIS IS HOW WE DO THINGS IN THE COUNTRY - SLIM CESSNA'S AUTO CLUB

This tune in particular is a taste of the creepy country life. Made by Gothic Americana band, Slim Cessna's Auto Club. Song about death and despair and flat out telling about the wicked ways of country living that many have never seen, nor know nothing of.

I would love to make a Part 2 of this. Please leave comments and share your ideas. Thanks for listening and most of all, reading!