If you grew up in the 80’s or 90’s you probably remember author Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy, a collection of creepy folklore tales for kids. If you don’t remember the stories themselves, there’s a good chance you still have an occasional nightmare inspired by the accompanying artwork by acclaimed children’s illustrator, Stephen Gammell. Even if you’ve never read the books, just accidentally seeing the cover of one of them while you were innocently perusing the book store or library was enough to induce long-term psychological effects.

And if you got over the initial trauma of viewing the cover and dared to open up one of those books and read it? Well, let’s just say that some things can’t be unseen.

Gammell has illustrated countless “normal” children’s books over the course of his vast career, even earning himself a Caldecott Award for his work on the lighthearted Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman. But it is his work on the Scary Stories books for which he is most fondly (or not so fondly depending on much sleep you lost because of him over the years) remembered.

“Macabre”, “surreal”, “haunting”, these are the words that come to mind when you look at Gammells work. But it is also grotesquely beautiful and extremely powerful. Even out of the context of the books the pictures create an inescapable  sense of dread. 

These are the kind of images that work their way insidiously into the darkest corners of your psyche where they wait patiently, sometimes years, for just the right time. When you’re home alone on a blustery Autumn night, the house creaking and moanijng, and you find yourself jumping at shadows, only then do the ghouls and ghosts that inhabit Gammell’s grim landscapes come creeping back into your mind’s eye.

Considering the terror-inducing content, it is no surprise that the Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark series are some of most challenged books in recent memory. According to the ALA, they were the #1 most frequently challenged books for 1990-1999 and stayed in the top ten for 2000-2009 at #7. The most frequently cited reasons being “insensitivity, occult/Satanism, violence, (and being) unsuited to age group".

Gammell’s illustrations no doubt contributed as much as, if not more than, the text to garnering the books this dubious honor.

Harper Collins re-issued the books for their 30th anniversary in 2011, sadly replacing Stephen Gammell’s eerie illustrations with “safer” work by Brett Helquist of A Series of Unfortunately Events fame. Thus saving the next generation of kids from a lifetime of nightmares and their parents a lifetime of therapy expenses. 

(Little do my sweet, unsuspecting children know that I still have copies featuring Gammell's original artwork to spring on them when the time is right. Moooohahahahahaha!)

So as we near the end of Banned Books Week and the beginning of the Halloween season let’s take a moment to remember (and then immediately try to forget) the immortal artwork of Stephen Gammell.

But only if you dare…

(Seriously, don't say I didn't warn you.)

Bonus Track: Listen to the complete audiobook of 1981's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Collected from folklore and retold by Alvin Schwartz, accompanied by chilling illustrations from Stephen Gammell and narrated by actor George S. Irving.

It’s well documented that the story of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys is a dark one, filled with horrors both real and imagined. Child abuse, mental health issues, familial bickering all, in some strange way contributed to some of the most beautiful music of the modern era.

And although The Beach Boys will always be remembered for their sunny pop melodies, there have been a few occasions on which they have dabbled in the macabre.
 
They included a cover of “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett & the Crypt Keepers on their 1964 live album, Beach Boys Concert.

​Here they are performing the song live on the December 23, 1964 episode of the ABC variety series, Shindig!. Whatever your personal feelings towards Mike Love are in regards to the legacy of The Beach Boys, you have to admit it’s entertaining as hell to watch him ham it up in this clip.

It turns out The Beach Boys have a more than a passing association with “Monster Mash.” According to this 2014 Noisey article, before they broke big themselves, they backed Bobby “Boris” Pickett on one of his first live performances of the song.

And apparently it still holds a special place Brian Wilson’s heat, as he has used the song to sound check with his band at least as recently as 2009.

Brian Wilson has often been described as a mad scientist in terms songwriting and studio production, and nowhere does he embrace that persona more than in this 1970 demo recording. Intended be his spin on the concept of a Halloween novelty song, “My Solution” features a trippy spoken-word rap over a bed of Gothic synthesizers, laboratory sound effects, and some signature Beach Boys harmonies thrown in for good measure.

On the surface, “Never Learn to Love” the B-Side to The Beach Boys’ 1968 single “Bluebirds over the Mountain” wouldn’t seem to have any association with anything horrific, but it does have the dubious honor of being a rewrite  by Dennis Wilson of a song  by infamous murder conspirator and guru, Charles Manson called “Cease to Exist.” Manson was allegedly furious that his not only did Dennis change the lyrics to  his song, he also failed to credit him as a writer on the album, and as a result, threatened him with murder after its release. 

​It's clear that while much of the music of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys was about having fun in the sun, they were no strangers to the creepy, crawling things that come out long after the sun has set.

As Halloween draws near, I thought I would take some time over the next few weeks to delve into my collection and take a closer look at some classic horror-themed music from over the years.

Where better to start  a focus on Halloween music, than with a track from everyone’s favorite costume wearing, non sequitur spitting, horror-obsessed MC, Kool Keith? A founding member of  the seminal 80’s hip-hop crew the Ultramagnetic MC’s, Keith has become infamous for his use of horrific lyrics and his penchant for constantly reinventing himself with bizarre new personas over the years.

And although all of these personalities have their own unique traits, there is an undercurrent of  horror imagery that runs throughout his many incarnations. Whether it’s the psychedelic sci-fi horror of Dr.Octagon or the grisly lifestyle of urban mass murderer Dr. Dooom, it’s clear that Keith has an affinity for the genre.

In 1999, he released his third solo album, First Come First Served under the alias Dr. Dooom which was commonly regarded as a backlash to the unwanted attention he received from the white, indie rock crowd after the release of his first album, 1996’s Dr. Octagonecologyst under the name Dr. Octagon. 

There is a definite shift on this album away from tone and style from Octagon, which was a trippy, atmospheric work filled with dark, absurdist imagery and spaced-out scatalogical humor.

In contrast, First Come First Served was firmly grounded in gritty “reality” of the streets as typically depicted in 90’s gangsta rap, but with a twist. These were tales from the hood told from the point of view of Dr. Dooom, a trash talking “gangsta rapper” who also happened to be a cannibalistic serial killer who would not only murder, but also dismember and eat, anyone he had beef with. It is often interpreted as a satire of late 90’s hip-hop evidenced by Keith’s subversion of the standard gangsta rap structure including the album cover which parodies Pen & Pixel Graphics work for No Limit Records.

One of the albums signature tracks, "Apartment. 223", describes Dooom’s abode, a projects apartment, strewn with body parts in various states of storage and consumption as well as the various bizarre means by which he would dispatch of his victims and and prepare them as food.  Many of the details here echoed those of the Jeffrey Dahmer case which had gripped the nation less than a decade before.

To anyone familiar with the song, one of the most memorable parts is the hook, which consists of Dooom shouting “Apartment 223” followed by a eerie sample of legendary genre actor Peter Lorre saying “I’m very hungry,” repeated three times. Though by no means a “pop” song, you’d be hard pressed to not find the simplistic chorus stuck in your head after a few listens..

The song ends with another sample of Lorre saying,

“You look surprised...
You do not see anything on the table? (Chairs
Squeak against floor) Well wait until I get the box....”

NSFW:

I was always curious as to the source of these Lorre samples whenever I listened to the song, though admittedly I never put any real effort into investigating it. Then, a few years ago,  I stumbled upon the source while listening to Drop Dead!: An Exercise in Horror, a 1962 spoken-word horror album written and produced by Arch Oboler. By the early 1960’s Oboler was known primarily for his work in film, but he had pioneered horror and suspense in the theater of the mind on the old-time radio show Lights Out in the 1930’s and 40’s.

Turns out the sample is from a Psycho inspired piece on the LP called “I’m Hungry”. Performed by Lorre, it’s told from the perspective of a peculiar man who is talking to a female dinner guest. In the course of the conversation the narrator repeatedly states how hungry he is as he proceeds to take out a box, remove the head of a “pretty young girl” and cut into it with his “special saw” to get to her brains which he apparently finds delicious. Lorre’s performance is chilling. In under three minutes he is able to create a gruesome sense of dread that remains with you long after the record is over.

The first time I heard Lorre say “I’m very hungry” in it’s original context, I was immediately hit with a wave of recognition that filled me with nerdy glee as I realized that Keith and I both appeared to be fans of the same obscure 1960’s horror record. Since both works share a common theme, Lorre’s line is a perfect sample for the song and it’s clear that Keith was inspired by Oboler’s “psycho type” horror.

When you look back over his career, and his overall creative output, it’s easy to picture a young Kool Keith growing up in the Bronx taking in a steady diet of spooky records and monsters movies in addition to the real-life horrors of life on the street that were unfolding outside his window. It was the culmination of these elements that eventually led Keith to the creation of Dr. Dooom and in turn, the horrorcore classic, First Come, First Served.

For more info on Kool Keith, check out his official website: http://www.ultrakeith.net/