It was great to spend a couple of hours the other day with David Phillips, the Dartmoor Storyteller. You will find an article by him elsewhere in this paper. David came into the Torbay Hospital Radio studio to talk to us about his work as a paranormal investigator and very interesting it was too. You can still listen to the show if you would like to by following the link below.
Photo of Paul Harding, David Phillips and Hugh Edwards (Co-Presenter)
Anyway, our meeting got me thinking about songs of a spooky nature. David had sent a list of selections, many of which were of this type but I thought I would take a deeper dive into the subject. The obvious place to start is Ray Parker Jnr and Ghostbusters the theme from the film of the same name.
Taking $300 million at the box office, it was a huge success, spawning several sequels including Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire which hits the cinemas shortly. On the back of the movie, the theme song was a huge hit, reaching number two here in the UK. Parker seemingly only had a few days to write the theme and after seeing a TV advert for a local service, he was inspired to write the song as a kind of advertising jingle. The question remains, ‘Who ya gonna call?’
Many folk's songs have a spooky element to them, including ‘Kitty Jay’ by Seth Lakeman which revolves around the occupant of Jay's Grave, the Kitty in the song title. Strangely the story inspired another song by a band with local roots, Wishbone Ash. Their song is "Lady Jay" from their 5th studio album, “There’s the Rub.”. The band originated from Torquay and Martin Turner, the band’s bassist wrote the lyrics to “Lady Jay” based on the legends of Jay’s grave. Apparently, Turner visited the grave near Manaton, up on Dartmoor with some friends on a windy winter's night and in his words found it "A very weird, spooky experience".
More recently another local band Muse has considered the afterlife in their 2021 song, Ghosts (How Can I Move On), where the song sympathises with those who lost their loved ones during Covid. Matt Bellamy, the lead vocalist and songwriter, told the Guardian that the song serves as a tribute to the struggle to find closure in a world still engrained in memories of those who are no longer with us. It is a beautiful piano ballad, with heartfelt lyrics. I think what you can see is that songwriters look at the subject in many differing ways and this produces a wide variety of differing styles and genres when the music eventually is released.
Another songwriter and artist with local connections is Kate Bush. Now Kate has never shied away from a difficult subject. A good example is ‘Watching You Without Me,’ where she chronicles the story of a shipwrecked woman who hasn’t figured out she’s passed on to the other side yet. The woman then returns home and tries to talk with her family, but they can’t hear her. It is a very emotive song from her ‘Hounds of Love’ album.
Okay, so just one more to think about, totally different to Kate Bush, Muse or Seth Lakeman is the multimillion-selling ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. I think most people can remember the video which was both cheesy and creepy in equal amounts. Now MJ himself was not exactly scary, but add narration by actor Vincent Price, through in an evil laugh and you have classic horror on your hands. The video was so famous that the American Library of Congress, added it to its National Film Registry, the first time a music video had been included. I probably should have saved this article for Halloween, but after speaking with David Phillips these songs were rushing around my head like a group of restless spirits. Sleep well!
