Wait until next year

Friday Jukebox Halloween Special!!! Well, I figured half the internet would be posting Monster Mash videos or similar. If you want some really fun/cool retro Halloween tunes you should check out the links on the WFMU Rock ‘n’ Soul Ichiban site. But I thought I’d just throw up a song I love with Halloween in the title, that isn’t really that Halloween-y sounding.

I’m a committed Ryan Adams fanboy. He is capable of moments of great beauty and some of his bleaker, sadder stuff is some of my favourite music, as I’m generally speaking a bit of a miserable sod. But I think he is also capable of being a lot of fun, and doesn’t get enough credit for that. He doesn’t always take himself seriously. This song is a great example of that. It is a little silly (this is a rare song that gets away with a “Guitar solo!” shout in the middle) but is also really poppy, catchy and the sort of song to just set me up for the day. He just can’t help but write great melodies and great hooks.

Thinking about what he has released this year, I think this sense of irreverence is what makes his 1984 EP so great and his ‘main’ LP release Ryan Adams less so. To excuse the pun, he makes a great heartbreaker, but he loses something when he isn’t a little goofy too. His music needs those contrasts.

Anyway, Halloween. We have an orange Halloween-themed bucket full of sweets and I’m primed and ready for any Trick-or-Treaters. We had a few last year, and they all seemed bemused when I tried to have a chat with them, or feigned being scared by their outfits. I guess they were just used to knocking on a door and being handed sugary goodness and moving on to the next home. We’ve set a 9pm deadline. After that time we won’t be answering the door, and all the sweets are ours.

Bonus video time. Here is the original footage used for the Halloweenhead video. Watch Åke Blomqvist take you through A Finnish disco lesson: