31 Days of Halloween Hits: "Boris the Spider" by The Who

by Julian Spivey
As we welcome October with its cool breezes, and - now socially distanced - festivities, we often think of scary movies, pumpkin patches and killers in masks. Rarely, if ever, do you hear anyone say what they’re looking forward to most about the season, is the music. Granted, Halloween music has nowhere near the mega-market that Christmas music has, but it seems that quality trumps quantity in this particular situation. With songs like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” Halloween season is a heavy hitter when it comes to music! 
 
That’s why we’re celebrating 31 Days of Halloween Hits here at The Word for the entire month of October. Every day we’re going to bring you a great song that fits right in on your Halloween playlist. Some are songs specifically written for the holiday, but others are great selections you can listen to year-around but have a great theme for the spookiest of all holidays. Some of these songs you’ve certainly heard and some are lesser known that we hope to familiarize you with. 

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Photo: Disky Label

If you’re anything like me you probably don’t concern yourself much with things like ghosts and ghouls and vampires and werewolves and the like but have one little spider crawl up your leg and all Hell is going to break loose.
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Maybe the greatest song ever written and recorded about spiders is The Who’s “Boris the Spider,” off their 1966 album A Quick One.

“Boris the Spider” was The Who bassist John Entwistle’s time to shine – he’s one of the all-time greatest rock bassists – but he didn’t feature a whole lot in the band’s writing or on vocals. “Boris the Spider,” a fun little song about those creepy crawlies, was said to be Entwistle’s very first composition altogether.

According to a 1971 issue of Crawdaddy, the song was written after Entwistle had been out drinking one night with Bill Wyman, the bassist of The Rolling Stones (because evidently famous rock bassists hang out), and the two were making up funny names for animals when Entwistle thought of “Boris the Spider” and wrote the track in just six minutes.

The verses tell of a spider in the narrator’s home crawling up the wall, appearing above his head and the scariest of incidents for those afraid of the creepy crawlies – ending up out of sight in one’s bedroom. It’s interspersed with the simple three word chorus “Boris the Spider” sung in basso profundo by Entwistle giving the song a black comedy feel to it.   

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