7.08.2007
William Castle's Ghost Story
William Castle William Castle's Ghost Story LP (Peter Pan, 1972)
Any list of important, genre-defining directors must include William Castle. He is to horror films what John Ford is to the western. Sure, there is Herschell Gordon Lewis and Ed Wood. Yes, there is Tobe Hooper and George Romero. Love 'em all. But none of those guys ever made a kid's record! (Okay, HGL made a kid's movie, but Castle still has the "tingler" over him.)
Though the front cover has tag that warns "the very young or tender-hearted" to stay away and the back says "This recording is definitely not recommended for children under eight years of age," it was released on Peter Pan Records, probably the biggest producer of kid's records at the time. Why the warning? Scary stories, I guess. Are they scary? Christ, I'm too old to figure that one out. I will say that the story telling and sound effects/music on this are much better and much creepier than your standard haunted house record.
The cut I am singling out is called Lobotomy & the Shock Treatment. The "song" description reads "Mansfield House's psychedelic night club features an unusually mad/mod group called Lobotomy & the Shock Treatment. Their admirers wind up in straight jackets."
This one I picked up with a bunch of movie soundtracks. An old fellow came into the bookstore and asked if I wanted to buy some records. We made arrangements for me to pick him up at the Pancake Circus and we drove to his storage unit. He unlocked his storage and rolled up the metal door and inside were shelves of records, about 10,000, all cataloged and organized. In the front was a small sofa and a coffee table. On a shelf was a stereo. As I went through the records, the man explained that he kept a couple hundred in his apartment and would rotate stock, so to speak. He also would come out to the storage unit when it wasn't too hot or wet and listen to records. Most of the records were soundtracks or movie related. He had some records by singers from the 1940s and a fair number of exotica and lounge music. I dug up all the Italian, Science Fiction, and noir soundtracks I could find, as well as some exotica and the William Castle record. The old man nixed about 50%, we set a price and back to Pancake Circus. I tried phoning him six months later and the line had been disconnected.
Lombotomy & the Shock Treatment
(Originally posted August 11, 2005. I don't like to repost stuff but, dammit, it's 105 here in Sacramento and 90+ in my apartment. I need to get the hell out of here. So you get some retreds til next week...)
# posted by Scott Soriano : 20:05
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Glorious. It would be great if the whole of this album was made available somehow.
# posted by 
: 04:47
: 04:47
hey scott, the link seems to have been removed : is it normal? i'd love to hear that...
# posted by : 08:23
: 08:23
I watched dozens of horror films as a kid, but recall watching the pilot for GS in (it's true) an old hotel or dormitory with a group of people on a stormy night, and it scared us all. Maybe it was the setting, I'm not sure, but I don't recall this being a juvenile TV show in any way. And the full LP can be easily found elsewhere online. You just use this nifty browser named Google, but apparently some people need hand-holding to use it. Happy hauntings!
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# posted by : 20:00
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