If you missed my humble return to the airwaves last month, fear not! A new episode of Dancing Barefoot airs this Tuesday, October 3, from 3-5pm PST. Listen live on kchungradio.org, or follow @thedancingbarefootshow on Instagram to see when a recording becomes available.
What’s the plan this time? Well. October 3 is not exactly October 31, but there’s no use fighting against spooky season celebrants; Halloween starts now. Grab a PSL, light a black candle, and get ready to “Monster Mash” “Over at the Frankenstein Place” because “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” Read on for a sample of the playlist!
• “I Put a Spell on You” — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Everyone from Nina Simone to Creedence Clearwater Revival to Bette Midler has covered this song, but nothin’ beats the original. (I will play Nina’s version too, though.) Goth kids, take note: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was exploding out of coffins live on stage when baby boomers were still literal babies. His 1958 album At Home With Screamin’ Jay Hawkins sandwiches “I Put a Spell on You” between renditions of Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris” and the African American spiritual “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.” As they say in the movie, “It’s Screaming Jay Hawkins and he’s a wild man, so bug off!”
Speaking of goths…
• “Release the Bats” — The Birthday Party
I’ve seen Nick Cave nine times in concert (I think), and on two of those occasions I was with my mother. She has good taste and an adventurous streak that keeps me on my toes, but I don’t think Nick Cave’s old band, The Birthday Party, would be her cup of tea. Years before Nick Cave wrote “Into My Arms” and donned a Gucci suit, he wrote “Release the Bats” and performed shirtless in teensy leather pants. Leather pants wouldn’t scare my mother — she’d probably just run out of patience with this dorky, debauched display. Still, for many of us, “Release the Bats” is a classic. Rawr! BITE!
Speaking of mother…
• “Your Mother Should Know” — The Beatles
A friend and I have an ongoing conversation about songs that don’t give us the full-blown creeps but kinda make us ~sonically scared~. I think it started when I said something dismissive about a Paul McCartney song and my friend stepped in to defend it by describing it as almost “haunting.” I felt something click in my brain.
“Oh my god it’s like something weird you’d hear at Disneyland!” I yelled.
I’m devoting a chunk of show time to some of the other sonically scary songs we’ve discussed: one is about dreams, one is about Andy Warhol, and one is about songs “Your Mother Should Know.”
(I don’t hate Paul McCartney; I respect anyone who can write a song that lands like a punch in the gut. I just find it’s infinitely more satisfying to make fun of Paul than it is to make fun of Ringo.)
Again, speaking of mother…
• “Riders in the Sky” — Tom Jones
…Your mother should know Tom Jones. A video of him and Little Richard recently inspired me to go on a two day This Is Tom Jones bender that left me with pressing, unanswerable questions such as “Why did this happen?” Tom Jones’ performance of “Riders in the Sky” transported me back to singing the song in an elementary school music class—an experience that I’m sure left me quite sonically scared. YIPPEE AYE AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
And finally, speaking of elementary school nostalgia…
• “The Monster Swim” — Bobby “Boris” Pickett
While researching music for this show, I thought it would be cheeky to play every “Monster Mash” surf rock rip-off and exclude the novelty mega hit we’ve all heard. I quickly learned two things: (1) there’s no point trying to deny how much “Monster Mash” friggin’ rules, and (2) the most blatant surf rock rip-off is Bobby Pickett’s “Monster Mash” follow up, “The Monster Swim.” I’ll play them them back-to-back on Tuesday so you can enjoy the sound of diminishing returns. (But please, enjoy this video of Bobby Pickett lip syncing the hell out of “The Monster Swim” on American Bandstand.)
See you Tuesday!
🙌🕺🤘