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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jan 9, 2023 20:22:28 GMT
Late 60s psychedelic band H P Lovecraft apparently had to get the OK from Lovecraft's estate to call themselves that. Their most well known (and by a country mile, best) song was this haunting-but-trippy little number - "The White Ship", seemingly based on, or at least influenced by, the Lovecraft tale of that name. Speaking of HPL, Metallica has three songs based on his stories: "The Call of Ktulu" (not sure why they went with that spelling; anyway, it's an instrumental), "The Thing That Should Not Be" (a mix of references to "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Shadow over Innsmouth," "At the Mountains of Madness," and "The Haunter of the Dark," at the very least), and "Dream No More" (still more Cthulhu). Sticking with the metal theme, Iron Maiden has the Crowley-inspired "Moonchild" (Crowley) and the Poe-inspired "Murders in the Rue Morgue," among others--really, around half of their songs seem to be about whatever Steve Harris happened to read or watch that year. |
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enoch
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 117
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Post by enoch on Jan 10, 2023 3:27:32 GMT
Iron Maiden's "Still Life" is supposedly inspired by Ramsey Campbell's "The Inhabitant of the Lake." Metal band Eternal Champion has the song "Sing a Last Song of Valdese" which is of course about the Karl Edward Wagner story of the same title.
Blue Oyster Cult's latest album has "The Alchemist" which is a retelling of the early Lovecraft story.
One of my favorites is "Cassilda's Song" by Stormclouds which sets to music the Robert W. Chambers poem about Carcosa. It would make a nice children's lullabye:
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Post by pbsplatter on Jan 10, 2023 13:34:45 GMT
Didn’t know that about the Maiden song! Delighted that my favorite metal band and favorite horror writer have overlap there. Maiden also did “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” which is heavy on the horrific imagery. When I was in high school and we studied Coleridge, my teacher would play the song for us in its entirety.
If we count some of Ballard’s stuff as horror (I don’t, but it’s certainly horror adjacent) we can add “High Rise” by Hawkwind and “The Atrocity Exhibition” by Joy Division and “Warm Leatherette” by The Normal.
Just prowled thru Wikipedia to loom for some others: lots of HPL influence in metal; more interesting is that Anthrax had a third King song, “Misery Loves Company.”
Blind Guardian has a song “Tommyknockers” based on, well, guess.
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 12, 2023 13:48:37 GMT
Black Sabbath's "Behind the Wall of Sleep" was inspired by Lovecraft, and "The Wizard" by Tolkien.
They were initially a blues-inspired rock band, under different names, like Polka Tulk and Earth. The name Black Sabbath they adopted from Mario Bava's famous film.
I missed out on Black Sabbath as a kid, for they were taboo and frightening, not compatible with my social background. Music for Satanists and junkies. They were not really Satanists, that was just a horror image. Like with us, reading our horror stories, and morbidly placing shocking covers on first row of our book shelves. But all and well they were darkly socially conscious. Geezer Butler, the bassist, said: “Satan isn’t a spiritual thing, it’s warmongers. That’s who the real Satanists are, these people who are running the banks and the world and trying to get the working class to fight the wars for them.”
If there was one absolute superstar rock group of the 1970s, I think it must have been Black Sabbath - for those who socially dared approach them. All of their first six albums are classic, and I like the seventh too. Groovy music, with neat melody structures. I had to mature, to be able to cope with the sound. Still grimy, and manic, but that's terrific.
The very first LP I bought was Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies. (Not nearly as scary as Black Sabbath.) Really not my kind of music, but as a kid I could not resist the green snakeskin sleeve. And it had an aura of mystery about it. I guess I was just a victim of vulgar capitalism, and decadence, when all comes around. Still, it was quite good music. |
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 12, 2023 14:06:34 GMT
There is a concept album called The Songs of Distant Earth by Mike Oldfield, based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It is a soaring, beautiful album, true to the spirit of Clarke's book, except for the last couple of minutes which are really PC cringe. One of my favorite Mike Oldfield albums. Stupendous! |
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 12, 2023 14:50:59 GMT
Just listened to The Songs of Distant Earth again, and I am not sure it holds up quite as well as I remembered. The great parts are still GREAT, but it kind of drags in between. Requires some patience. Works best as background music while doing other things.
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enoch
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 117
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Post by enoch on Jan 12, 2023 15:19:52 GMT
The very first LP I bought was Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies. (Not nearly as scary as Black Sabbath.) Really not my kind of music, but as a kid I could not resist the green snakeskin sleeve. And it had an aura of mystery about it. I guess I was just a victim of vulgar capitalism, and decadence, when all comes around. Still, it was quite good music. Very first LP I bought was Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare, which is pretty much a horror concept album with a couple of non-horror songs thrown in. Second was Blue Oyster Cult's Spectres because it had a song about Godzilla plus a couple about vampires. Now I purchase music based on musical taste, but back then I bought it if it reflected my morbid taste in reading material and movies. Not that it was wasted money -- all these decades later, those two albums remain among my favorites. |
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Post by pbsplatter on Jan 12, 2023 15:23:14 GMT
BOC's latest record has another song about vampires--"Tainted Blood," about a vampire who seeks self-destruction after his immortal love dies from tainted blood. The video is done like an old Poverty Row vampire flick--highly recommended.
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 12, 2023 15:30:33 GMT
Illustrating the title track on Black Sabbath's first album.  |
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Post by andydecker on Jan 12, 2023 16:40:30 GMT
The very first LP I bought was Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies. (Not nearly as scary as Black Sabbath.) Really not my kind of music, but as a kid I could not resist the green snakeskin sleeve. And it had an aura of mystery about it. I guess I was just a victim of vulgar capitalism, and decadence, when all comes around. Still, it was quite good music. Me too :-) At the time everything remotedly horror had an irresistible lure, also the articles in the usual music mags about the infamous show - which before MTV or video never was shown on TV - were so much better than the real thing, I fear. Strangely Black Sabbath never crossed my way in this regard. Don't have one album. I never was much into music all my life, but Cooper is one of very few artists I followed through thick and thin, good albums or bad ones, vinyl, CD and now digital. Recently I discovered some live concerts on Youtube from last year or so, and my only thought was: this guy is 74 years of age? I don't f*cking believe it. |
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Post by pbsplatter on Jan 12, 2023 16:43:23 GMT
The very first LP I bought was Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies. (Not nearly as scary as Black Sabbath.) Really not my kind of music, but as a kid I could not resist the green snakeskin sleeve. And it had an aura of mystery about it. I guess I was just a victim of vulgar capitalism, and decadence, when all comes around. Still, it was quite good music. Me too :-) At the time everything remotedly horror had an irresistible lure, also the articles in the usual music mags about the infamous show - which before MTV or video never was shown on TV - were so much better than the real thing, I fear. Strangely Black Sabbath never crossed my way in this regard. Don't have one album. I never was much into music all my life, but Cooper is one of very few artists I followed through thick and thin, good albums or bad ones, vinyl, CD and now digital. Recently I discovered some live concerts on Youtube from last year or so, and my only thought was: this guy is 74 years of age? I don't f*cking believe it. I saw Cooper live a year or so ago--and I can confirm that he's still got it! |
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Post by PeterC on Jan 12, 2023 17:09:05 GMT
Should there be a 'horror stories based on music' thread or has this already been done?
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Post by pbsplatter on Jan 12, 2023 18:06:35 GMT
There's a couple threads in the DIY section I think
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 12, 2023 21:05:56 GMT
The very first LP I bought was Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies. ... Me too :-) ... I had a classmate, and his very first LP was, also ... Billion Dollar Babies. Alice Cooper must have made a lot of money. That picture on the inner sleeve where Alice holds the baby really disturbed me, as a child. And I could not understand why its eyes had been painted like that. What was the purpose. I thought it looked like those band members were going to kill the bunnies and eat the baby or something. I quickly enough eagerly tore out all of the fan picture cards (ruining the album's collector's value), and soon lost them. And almost thought the giant billion dollar bill could make me rich. His shows were very cinematic, with special effects, and monsters, and that was probably a big part of his popular attraction. I think Black Sabbath was more bare on stage, concentrating all on the music. |
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 14, 2023 13:07:00 GMT
Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion. Not sure which song titles, if any, may be related to horror stories. Perhaps to Robert E. Howard? The songs hearken back to Medieval, Roman, possibly even Cimmerian times. Giger on both cover and centerfold of the album.   |
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