Trick or Treat Hallowe'en Celebrated in Story and Song (1979)

I watch my fair share of horror in October, heck even year round. But my love of Halloween has never been about the blood and guts. For me it's always been about the magic of Halloween night. Dressing up as anyone (or anything!) you want and going door to door for treats. And even though you know it's all pretend, there's still that thing in the back of your brain that wonders if you'll cross paths with a real ghost or monster.

And that brings us to today's Saturday treat: Trick or Treat Hallowe'en Celebrated in Story and Song. I didn't have this one when I was younger but did stumble across it on the amazing Scar Stuff blog many years ago and fell in love with it. It may seem a bit cheesy today but I think it perfectly captures what I love about the Halloween season.

Here are the liner notes (also taken from Scar Stuff)

"The Celts celebrated New Year's Day on November 1st. It was a logical choice, for the harvest was in and the cold white silence of winter was approaching. The Druids began to celebrate this day to honor Samhain, the Lord of the Dead. Honoring Samhain usually meant sacrificing horses and human beings in his name. When the Romans conquered Britain in 61 A.D. they outlawed the sacrifice and the celebration. This didn't prevent the Druids from continuing the practices, but it did cut down on the publicity.

Since those primitive times, our folk music and folk lore have been overloaded by songs and ballads of apparitions, ghosts, witches, demons, goblins, and other unwelcome personalities. [...] From the thousands of old songs, we have chosen an LP-full. We've enlightened these by a few erudite explanations. We have enlarged these by the use of supernatural sound effects. And we have given the whole a twisted ending worthy of the holiday. If you guess the ending before it arrives, score one for your paranoia. We didn't guess the ending -- it happened suddenly and unexpectedly in the studio, and has never been explained. [...]

If any of this is understandable, blame Samhain... he wrote this collection of notes while I watched".

If you're still a kid at heart when it comes to Halloween, give it a listen and see if it doesn't bring back some of the holiday magic for you. You can click the album cover to drop it in your treat bag or you can listen to the whole thing on YouTube.

Be sure to Trick or Treat at the participating Countdown blogs by clicking below!