Halloween Music Mix Tape

The mix tape is dead and gone.
Long live the mix tape!

In addition to my "Make Your Own Halloween Special" tradition, I also try and whip together a Halloween mix every year to get me in the October/Autumn mood. I say "October/Autumn" because I don't always want a constant bombardment of heavy metal songs about demons. Sometimes I need mood songs that remind me why I like the long shadows of the early setting sun and leaves rustling in the cold breeze. That isn't to say that I don't have some metal on here. I mean c'mon... it comes with the territory.
But you will NOT find "Monster Mash," "Dead Man's Party" or "Flying Purple People Eater." At all. Ever.
Last year's songs tended to come from the genre films they reminded me of, and this list certainly has that too. But here's what I've been listening to this year as I commute and

Here we go:

1) The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash
Say what you will about remakes but every once in a while they get it right. John Carpenter's The Thing is one example.
And I love the Dawn of the Dead remake. There. I said it. I also LOVE the original Dawn of the Dead. They're two totally different films and styles. Love 'em both.
And I must say, the opening 10 minutes into the credit sequence of the remake of Dawn is a spectacular ride. The audience I saw it with in the theater erupted into applause when this song came on.
And movie aside, the song on its own is amazing.
It's Cash talking about the end of days, in his own fleeting days. Great stuff.

2) Voodoo - Black Sabbath
It was a toss up between "Voodoo" from Sabbath and "Voodoo" from Godsmack. I went with classic rock on this one. And it's sung by Ronnie James Dio.
FREAKING DIO!

3) California Dreamin' - Mamas and Papas
This one will probably make a bunch of you go "huh???"
The opening of this song is "All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray..." Perfect spooky autumn weather.
This song has a personal meaning too as I remember hearing it on the radio when upstate New York got hit with a freak snow storm in early October. The snow hit laid on the leaves. The weight broke the trees. The trees fell on power lines. And then the power went out. For days.
Leaving only a radio with 6 D batteries... and this song.

4) Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
There was this trend with 80s metal bands to put little spooky spoken intros in front of their songs. Iron Maiden, Grim Reaper and Motley Crue all did it. It's usually a British guy waxing on about good and evil and a battle of some type. It's my only "devil" song on the mix. And they're shouting AT the devil. Get thee behind me Satan!!!

5) Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
I'm gonna get some haters on this one. But hey, come on, when a song mentions demons, a phantom and a black parade all before it kicks into high gear how can you NOT like it?

6) Awake - Godsmack
Godsmack didn't make the cut with "Voodoo" earlier but here they are now. Why? Because of a little MTV show called "Fear." This was the theme song that played at the beginning.

Don't know "Fear?" It was awesome. Sort of a "Ghost Hunters" meets a game show, with some truth or dare lumped in.
Here's the description from Wikipedia:

MTV's Fear was an MTV reality show in 2000, that placed a group of 5 or more contestants in an allegedly haunted location and led them on a series of dares over two nights to explore whether or not the place was haunted.

It was great. The bastard child of the Blair Witch Project.
Anyway, this song will always remind me of that show.

7) Rob Zombie - I'm Your Boogieman
I know it's cliche, but Mr. Zombie has been on my Halloween soundtrack for years.
I chose this song as it's a bit more dancey and a bit less scary.

8) Marilyn Manson - This is Halloween
As you've heard me mention, I should like The Nightmare Before Christmas more than I do.
Well if you let Mr. Manson cover this Disney song, now I'm listening. Manson is great when he's not being TOO freaky, which is usually when he covers someone else's stuff.

9) Dangerous Toys - Scared
This... this is on here for novelty purposes.
This... this... is not a good song.
But it's so damn catchy.
I mean, here's the refrain:
"Hey now I think I like bein' scared, and I wish you all were there.
Man I really really think, really think that I think, I like bein' scared."

The songwriting boggles the mind, and yet the band is called Dangerous Toys and it's a song about being scared. C'MON PEOPLE! Take off that high brow hat and put on a pair of those blinking jack o' lantern antennae. Now stop thinking. Right now.

10) Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
I really like this song. But dammit if SNL hasn't totally made it so I'll never hear it the same way again. Damn you SNL and your more cowbell.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

As always, buy through the pretty Amazon links so I can get a nickel's worth of Halloween fun.
For those of you who missed it, HERE'S last year's Halloween Music Mix.