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. “Werewolves of London” may have been the riotous goodtime on Warren Zevon’s Excitable Boy album, but it’s the lesser known “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” that’s truly the spookiest track on that album that features a trio of my favorite Halloween playlist songs. The song, written by Zevon and David Lindell, is about a Norwegian mercenary who becomes involved in the Nigerian Civil War and Congo Crisis of the ‘60s and the bloody tale of what happens when the CIA becomes aware of just how good of a hired gun Roland is. Roland is betrayed by fellow mercenary Van Owen, who murders him by blowing off his head at the behest of the CIA. Where the song truly gets spooky and ghostly is when the headless body of Roland wanders through the night looking for the man “who done him in” to get his revenge. Zevon’s co-writer David Lindell, whom Zevon met at a bar in Spain, was said to be an actual mercenary in Africa and gave Zevon the idea for collaborating on a song about a mercenary. “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” is truly one of the all-time great ghost tales ever recorded in song.
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