BS: Like all good ideas, this came to me at the most inopportune time – driving to work.
TC: And you drove off the road?
BS: The things I do for my art.
TC: We appreciate your sacrifices.
BS: I wish my insurance saw it that way. Enough about my driving skills…
TC: Ya, let’s get into it. If you didn’t figure out who the horror icon was for the October 4th playlist, it was Mr. Fredrick Krueger.
BS: So glad you used his Christian name. I don’t think they ever referred to Freddy Krueger as such in the entire Nightmare franchise, but ya can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. So, when I pitched you the initial idea of the Horror Icon Playlist – what was your take? How did you approach the task?
TC: I thought it was a fun idea that really tapped into a few of our shared passions. As far as my approach, it’s honestly been a little bit of fighting against the most obvious, on-the-nose choices, and a little bit of divine inspiration.
BS: That has been the hardest part of this project – not being too obvious. I like that we laid down some ground rules when it came to the playlist:
- Songs can’t be in the movie
- Songs can’t directly reference the movie
- The songs need to tell the story, but not make it overt
The genesis of this idea came from hearing “Devil Inside” by INXS and thinking: This would totally be on Regan MacNeil’s playlist. Then, I immediately thought against it because it was such an obvious joke. Yet, that kernel of wisdom stayed with me throughout the day.
TC: And frankly, sometimes the obvious joke is too good to pass up, but I’m proud of the choices we made on this one and I think it really works.
BS: A really good example of going for the obvious is “I’m on Fire”. We originally talked about using “Fire” by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, but when The Boss came on I knew we had to make a change.
TC: Absolutely, and I think part of what makes it such a great choice is how relatively quiet and calm that song is. The Arthur Brown song sounds like a guy is legitimately on fire. That’s less funny.
BS: Y’know, I hadn’t even thought of it like that. I did think of Hot Fuzz when we first pitched “Fire”, which could have been some fun misdirection. We also learned a valuable lesson about not recalling songs simply by their lyrics… looking at you “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago. Yes, we were ready to put in a Broadway musical number in our Freddy Krueger playlist. Ultimately, I learned how wrong I was and panicked looking for a second song for the ‘list; fortunately, there was Radiohead.
TC: And don’t think we won’t possibly put a song from a musical in one of our future lists. “Memory” might show up in a Pet Sematary playlist.
BS: Damn straight. Fun fact: did you know John Mellencamp wrote a musical with Stephen King based on a supposedly haunted cabin Mellencamp bought?
TC: Is that true? That’s awesome.
BS: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
TC: Can we talk about the three songs on the list that directly reference Freddy’s look?
BS: This was all you! When you threw out “Undone (The Sweater Song)” I couldn’t stop laughing.
TC: Freddy’s just got such an iconic wardrobe. It felt like all three elements – the hat, the sweater, and obviously the knife glove – needed to be commented on by our song choices.
BS: I love when someone takes a song and uses it in such a way that voids any and all meaning the song has. You did that with “You Can Leave Your Hat On” – that was such a sexy song.
TC: I regret nothing.
BS: Regrets? I have a few. Namely, I feel like I really should have rewatched A Nightmare on Elm Street to get some of the sequencing right. I fear someone will flame us in the comments that Freddy’s long arm scene comes after Nancy’s bathtub scene.
TC: That’s possible, but all reader engagement is good engagement, right?
BS: Beggars, in this case, can certainly not be choosers.
TC: I hope we got the sequence right, but, regardless, that big arms moment had to be a song. That scene is too iconic.
BS: That’s a really good point. We spent most of our time bouncing back and forth from thinking of clever songs and distilling A Nightmare on Elm Street into its iconic moments.
TC: Songs with the word “dream” or “dreaming” were obviously on our radar right away, but I love that the only one we actually used also references the car. I also love that it’s cheesy as hell.
BS: We damn near broke the internet looking for songs with “dream” in the title. Again, like “Undone”, I was cracking up when you dropped that Billy Ocean classic as the closer for the list. Well done, my friend.
TC: Thank you, but I’m just glad you had this idea in the first place. We already have a decent set of playlists lined up and bits and pieces of several others. This has been a fun creative exercise.
Popocalypse 