Beatles home recordings, mega-rare Who material, country boxes, Late Night with the Devil, Spanish Dracula, Boris Karloff's coffee, Chu Berry Mosaic

Sunday 10/25/26

Late Night with the Devil (2023)--which I watched yesterday--has the look and feel of the 1970s as The House of the Devil (2009) has the look and feel of the 1980s. Two horror films that do a great job of situating you in a specific time and place. The latter in particular is easily revisited.

These Ghoulish Things on the Ace label: one of the best vintage rock and roll compilations. Perfect for all your holiday party and spooky listening needs. Even has a couple radio spots for Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "The Monster Mash." Ace is a classy and thorough label. They also gave us--or me, anyway; can't imagine many other people on this planet care, given that it's quality--those three sets that collect all of Little Willie John's pre-1966 material.

Upgraded versions of John Lennon's Santa Isabel composing tape for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and some of the Kenwood home recordings of the song have come available. Can be swapped into the It's Not Too Bad bootleg--one of my all-time favorite albums which I wrote about for Rolling Stone--in their relevant spots.

Started Saturday by watching the 1931 Spanish version of Dracula again, which is in my horror film book, something I worked on for many hours this past week. The George Melford Dracula is like the film version of a B-side, with the Tod Browning/Bela Lugosi Dracula on the A-side. You're (pleasingly) deep in the horror film bracken if you know this Spanish offering, shot on the same sets at night after Browning, Lugosi, Karl Freund, Dwight Frye, etc., had gone home.

Two episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater are based to some degree on M.R. James’s 1904 story, “The Mezzotint”: “Wishes Can Be Fatal” (1976) and “The Figure in the Moonlight” (1978). “The Mezzotint” is one of the most enjoyable reading experiences in horror literature. It’s like hanging out with close friends.

Watched 1963’s enjoyable Twice-Told Tales, which which brings together Vincent Price and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The latter was a better American horror writer than Poe and no horror actor was more engaging than Price in this period. It’s an omnibus film, so you get three Hawthorne tales, only one of which is from his story collection of the same name published in two volumes, the first in 1837, the second 1842.

Also watched 2007's ineffectual Murder Party and 2010's Devil which was somewhat better. The idea of the simple Mexican with his simple beliefs serving as play-by-play commentary up in the booth is pretty offensive, though. The main security guy reminded me a little of one of the rangers at the Bunker Hill Monument. The cat being named Sir Lancelot in Murder Party just made me want to watch Bresson's Lancelot du Lac from 1974.

The most viscerally scary American movie to me is 1962’s Carnival of Souls. There’s a big thing about it in my horror film book. I see that TCM is playing it at 2:30 AM EDT on 10/30. Pretty much the ideal time to watch Carnival of Souls, though you’re unlikely to sleep afterwards. That movie messes me up.

Halloween (1978) screens at 9 at the Brattle on Monday. That's late for me. I don't know if I'll be able to get there. But maybe if I've done lots of work (and run many stairs) and am moving in stellar rhythm at a quick and unceasing pace I'd be able to have that carry me to Cambridge.

What a muddle the official releases of the Who's "complete" Leeds concert from 1970 make for; I wonder if there are a dozen people who know what they're lacking (which isn't even consistent across those official releases). So many unnecessary excisions. The only official set that won't do you wrong is the original six-track album. If you want the whole show, you must go elsewhere.

The perfect Halloween film: William Castle's masterpiece, House on Haunted Hill (1959), with Vincent Price. It can also be watched time and again. Actually had a limited release about a week before Christmas in 1958. The look, the dialogue, the mood, the wit, the architecture, prime Price, Elisha Cook, Jr. getting soused because he's so scared, the guns in the little coffins, the acid pool, the both old and modern dark house.

Newhart premiered on this day in 1982. I love the show but it's hard for me to watch it because it makes me think of how much I want my version of that life in Rockport. I don't mean the inn keeping, though it's also a haven for inns. I mean in the quintessential coastal New England spot that is to me more beautiful than anywhere on earth and what heaven would be like for me if it has to do with who you were and what you loved the most. If I had the life I want and deserve, I'd watch Newhart--that first season--in Rockport regularly.

Delacroix in his journal (1822-1863): “O shameful philanthropists! O philosophers, without heart or imagination! Do you think that man is a machine like the rest of your machines? You deprive him of his most sacred rights on the pretext of saving him from work which you pretend to consider beneath his dignity, but which is, in fact, the very law of his existence.” Could have been talking about AI.

Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu “in color”: sacrilege. And not the kind in the spirit of the Halloween season.

"Butter-Nut has found a way of making coffee richer without being bitter." One's day will in some measure be improved by watching/playing a scene with Boris Karloff as he hawks Butter-Nut Coffee in 1966.

Some downloads over the past couple days: a Sly and the Family Stone bootleg of a Portland show from 10/24/69, Tarantura's Cleveland 1969 Led Zeppelin set, Bear Family's Candy Kisses and Hello, I'm Red Simpson boxes from George Morgan and Red Simpson respectively, the recent-ish nine-disc live box from Rainbow, Temple of the King, a live disc of the White Stripes in Bologna in 2005, A Ceremony of Carols: Britten at Christmas from King's, Debussy: The Complete Etudes (Alain Planès; 1997), Prokofiev: Rare Original Solo Piano Transcriptions (Alexey Zuev; 2026).

Great number: Red Simpson's "It Ain't Even Halloween" from 1976. Talk about an off-kilter Halloween cut! She gets around more than a zombie wired for speed when she's been drinkin'!

Also put together this unofficial boot (sounds redundant, but I think it works here) of mega-rare Who material. This includes insanely rare renditions of "Run Run Run" and "Don't Look Back" from 2/28/68 at the Fillmore West, as well as a snippet of "I Can See for Miles" from the same night, and "Call Me Lightning" from Montreal on 3/27/68, and an audience tape fragment of the band's 4/6/68 Fillmore East show with "Pictures of Lily." Live performances of "Pictures of Lily" are special. I think it's a masterpiece of a song.

Letter written and sent yesterday:

Greetings, sir. I've been out of touch for a while, but you have been on my mind of late. I have been working on my book that collects my jazz writings, basically my version of Whitney Balliett's Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz, and this has meant being deep in the weeds of all these essays I've written about Mosaic sets over the years.

I think the first may have been Classic Chu Berry Columbia and Victor Sessions for The American Scholar which unfortunately was handled by an editor there who knew nothing of or about jazz, which I've set right again. I just wanted to tell you I have the utmost respect for you and Mosaic. The art that has been preserved and presented and what that adds to lives. My life. To those in the know. So little in this world is done right at this point, but Mosaic always does it right. 

I am much looking forward to the upcoming Louis Armstrong set. That will be so exciting. 

One other quick thing--I have this story that I'm going to be sending to people. I'm not sure when. Each year at Christmas, I try and make a present of a new work of fiction for the season to a group of individuals. That's not the main reason I wrote the work, because the work is the work, but there's that aspect.

I have this story that I've worked on for longer than anything else in my life. It goes back like five years. It's only (which is kind of a misleading "only") 1600 words long. But it is very special and I'm confident in saying unlike anything one has ever seen. I don't know if it will be this year's Christmas story or not, or instead something that is sent when it's sent, but I would like to send it to you as well, if that's okay. 

It's very early on this Saturday, which means it's time for me to work, but I did want to reach out and I hope all is well with you and yours.