aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#062: The Misfits – ‘Last Caress’ (not on label ’80)
Dear friends,
I’m just back from Turkey: gorgeous golden brown – if you could see me, I’m sure you wanted to dance around me!
Now, something completely different for you today: „Horror Punk“ – I have it on good authority that you’ve been waiting for this desperately for quite some time now!!
I don’t know all too much about The Misfits, it must be said – they were there rather briefly: founded in 1977 in New Jersey by Glenn Danzig (now, at least the name should ring a bell, right?) disbanded in 1983, then Danzig went all Heavy Metal … which never was my cup of tea.
But in their time, The Misfits managed to release some singles which today are considered to be absolute classics (in that genre), they go for totally ludicrous sums on discogs. Quite a lot of the ‘high-profile bands’ say that The Misfits’ output was really influental to them. As I say, I don’t know all of their stuff, but what I know is ace!
The ‘Beware EP‘ was released in 1980 and it combined the previously released singles ‘Bullet‘ and ‘Horror Business‘. Now, ‘Horror Business‘ was originally backed by ‘Children In Heat‘, but the band withdrew from putting it on the EP, instead they replaced it by the gem below, which was previously unreleased.
But: I have to warn you. You see, the thing with ‘Horror Punk‘ is – one of its aims is to offend the easily offended, by and large. Just like Sid Vicious did when wearing that stupid swastika shirt all the time. So if you want to listen to the below in the office or with your kids in the room: you should not do this perhaps, because the lyrics are, well, ‘disturbing’, let’s put it this way ….
A lot has been written about whether and/or how much they have to be taken seriously, but I mean: come on! This is all bollocks, it’s just music, and the music is absolutely great, so don’t put too much into the lyrics here: Glenn Danzig is not Morrissey, nor did he ever want to be.
mp3: The Misfits – Last Caress
Now, some very kind soul put up an absolutely stunning video which features this song (he used ‘Last Caress‘ as the background music to it), it really has to be seen to be believed: I do urge you to look at it, first because it is bloody marvellous and second it features me (@ 1:24 minutes): it was filmed in the dancing school I went to in the mid 80’s (our class wasn’t that bad, you have to agree) and I remember that we danced to Bill Haley’s ‘Don’t Knock The Rock’ from 1956 on this occasion:
Well, did you ever have so much fun? If not, I strongly recommend other Misfits-tunes, particular favourites of mine are ‘I Turned Into A Martian‘ and ‘Hybrid Moments‘.
And finally, in the unlikely case that you are in the possession of the original ‘Beware‘ 12“ EP, it’s now worth about € 1.200,-. Me, I only have one of the many unofficial 7“ releases, on blue marbled vinyl though, for what it’s worth. Then again, I never ever had € 1.200,- to spend on a single …
Enjoy,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 