Last Updated on 05/12/2020
Samhain is a Celtic festival that has been Christianised, commercialised and converted into what we now know today as Halloween. It was believed that on the eve of 1st November, what the Celts believed to be the beginning of the new year, the worlds of the living and the dead were at their closest. As a result, to mark the event and to prepare for the new year, Celtic priests got dressed in animal anatomy, lit huge bonfires and told fortunes. Of course, I’m no Celtic priest, so I’m guessing that a cow skull wouldn’t look too flattering on my person. Also, based on my persistence of putting £20 on Nottingham Forest to get promoted each season, nor am I much of a fortune teller. This being the case, I’ll tap into the storytelling tradition instead and give you five spooky stories of musicians and their interaction with the supernatural.
5. Jimmy Page and the Occult.
Jimmy Page rocked onto the music scene during the mid-1960s and quickly became one of England’s most desired session guitarists. He’d then rocket to fame as a key member of the Yardbirds (who’d previously boasted line-ups featuring the seriously gifted Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck) before jumping ship and founding one of the most famous bands of all time, Led Zeppelin. Rolling Stone call Jimmy the third greatest guitarist of all time, Gibson rank him in second. But at what cost did guitar hero status come to Jimmy?
Well, would you believe the rumour that, to achieve such acclaimed greatness, all members of Zeppelin took Faustian measures and sold their souls to the devil? B******t, I know, but you’ll always get those few willing to suspend their disbelief for a story. The poignancy of this rumour indeed became pretty established during Zeppelin’s career when disaster struck three members of the band. Lead vocalist Robert Plant tragically lost his son, drummer John Bonham died choking on his own vomit and Jimmy developed a very debilitating drug addiction. And did the rumours stop there? Not on your nelly. Televangelist (a.k.a. person with nothing better to do than to milk money from the suburban God fearer) Paul Crouch took things one step further when he insisted you could hear Satanic messages if you played Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” backwards. Recently, Jimmy put this accusation to bed when during his visit to the Oxford Union he quirked: “it’s hard enough writing the music one way round”.
Like with most rumours, however, there are some spooky semblances of truth. Jimmy did, after all, absorb himself into Aleister Crowley’s occultist readings and was transfixed by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society committed to evoking the presence of deities. He even bought Crowley’s former home in Loch Ness, before deeming it too haunted to live in, and had a Crowley quote printed on Zeppelin III (1970).
4. Kendrick Lamar and Tupac’s Ghost.
That’s right. Kendrick Lamar insists that the ghost of Tupac stopped over at his mum’s house whilst he was still living with her at the age of 21 (there’s still hope for us, eh?). Well … ghost, vision, apparition, technically Kendrick describes his late-night visitor as a “silhouette” of the 90s West Coast rapper. Talking about his encounter on Home Grown Radio, Kung Fu Kenny mentions that it occurred after a late night working in the studio and that he was so tired he couldn’t even make it to his room, simply passing out on the sofa instead. Delirious with sleep, Tupac suddenly appeared.
“Keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t let my music die”, the ghost proclaimed.
Apparently that scared the s**t out of Kendrick. Looking back, he reckons that the event was sparked by his mum a few days prior telling him that he was born only a day after Pac. Different years, but similar birthdays. Of course, the reasons run a little deeper than that. Unsurprisingly, Kendrick adored Pac. In an interview with GQ, when asked to give his four biggest influences, Tupac is first on the list. Looking at Tupac’s discography, there is a lot of overlap between his work and the manner in which Kendrick takes to the mic. Deeply personal accounts of their time on the streets pathe their tracks, but both are also conscious of a greater meaning to life that exists beyond neighbourhood politics.
A little while later, “HiiiPower”, the first single released from Section.80 (2011), was released. Don’t think that Kendrick forgot about his late night visit. On the single’s official music video, he recognises how much of an impact the event had on him. Who knows? Maybe if it wasn’t for Tupac’s ghost, Kendrick might’ve later on in his career disconnected with the man in the struggle. He certainly seems to think that channeling Tupac’s message into his own work has grounded him. No surprise then that he also conducts his own invented interview with a 1994 Tupac on “Mortal Man”, a must listen to track on To Pimp a Butterfly (2015).
3. Blondie and Ted Bundy.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I suppose you’ll know all about Ted Bundy, the 70s serial killer responsible for a series of kidnappings, rapes and murders that happened across America. He stalked young women and lured them into a false sense of security with his charms and handsome looks. In fact, Ted was recently portrayed by Zac Efron in the film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019). He’d try anything to gain the trust of his victims, but one method that he perhaps used more than most involved luring women into his ‘68 Volkswagen Beetle. Introducing the VW into the National Museum of Crime & Punishment, ex D.C. police deputy chief Wyndell Watkins labelled it a “death wagon”.
But there may well have been more than one car used by Ted. Indeed, Debbie Harry swears to have been in another driven by the serial killer. The “Heart Of Glass” singer recalls how she was trying to find a taxi late one night in New York’s Lower East Side, making her way to a party, when a man driving a little white car approached her, asking if she wanted a lift.
Speaking to Sunday Times magazine, Debbie says that “I got in and the windows were rolled up except an inch and a half at the top. I realized there was no door handle, no window crank, no nothing. The inside of the car was totally stripped out. The hairs on the back of my neck just stood up.”
Luckily Blondie managed to escape by opening the door from the outside and quickly put the event out of mind. It was only years later when Ted was caught and his face subsequently put on the front cover of the papers that she made the connection between him and her past.
People have since tried to scrutinise Debbie’s claims, many arguing that Bundy was never knowingly based in New York, and that evidence suggests he was in another part of the country at the same time. However, whatever the case, whoever the driver was, Blondie’s story is still acutely spine tingling. Don’t get into strangers’ cars, kids.
2. The Stranglers and the Men In Black.
The Government’s after you, especially if you’re going to start talking about any witnessed UFOs or encountered extraterrestrial life. Such a statement is bread and butter for conspiracy theorists gifted with the ability of turning even a used muller yogurt into evidence that some of those who live among us come from a land far, far away. Why think Plymouth, when you can think Pluto?
That’s what the Stranglers did for their fifth studio album, The Gospel According To The Meninblack (1981). It is a chilling album, inspired by drug-fueled beliefs that the world was originally ruled by alien overlords who were now back for a quick visit and a cup of tea. The album itself is fabulous, featuring songs like “Waltzinblack”, “Second Coming” and “Hallow to Our Men”, whose intense instrumentals create a paranoid, sinister atmosphere. In fact, the band were so committed to the Meninblack concept that they insisted on getting everyone to call them Hughinblack, JJinblack, Daveinblack and Jetinblack. See if you can work out the secret code to that one.
What’s perhaps more interesting than the album, however, is the story behind the making of it. Legend has it that the Meninblack will disrupt any investigation into UFO or paranormal activity. The Stranglers and their close ones were spared no expense. Recording sessions at Giorgio Morodoer’s Musicland studios were sabotaged when a contracted engineer came in to fix a cable rack. He’d instead blow the power supply of a recording console of which there were only two in Europe. Afterwards, a random riot sparked during the Stranglers’ visit to Nice University, leading to their arrests despite being innocent of any crime themselves. A tour later that year around America then saw all their equipment stolen, an accidental cocaine overdose hospitalising a roadie, and the group’s tour manager suddenly passing away.
Hugh Cornwell looks back at the time with Jim Drury, saying that: “It was only when we stopped with the Meninblack did the light start shining again”. Don’t f**k with aliens. Simples.
1. Harry Nilsson and his Haunted House.
It is a shame that the American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson is perhaps one of the lesser recognised voices of the late sixties/early seventies period. Rolling Stone accurately call him a “pioneer of the Los Angeles studio sound, a crucial bridge between the baroque psychedelic pop of the late Sixties and the more personal singer-songwriter era of the Seventies”. This comes as no surprise, however, as Nilsson throughout his career had little desire to face audiences and talk show hosts. As a result, Harry would be better appreciated by music insiders. After the release of his first LP Pandemonium Shadow Show (1967), he had an endless list of A-list admirers, namely the Beatles who repeatedly labelled Nilsson as their favourite American artist.
Nor was Harry solely revered for his music talents. He was also reportedly exceptional company on nights out, famously a ‘Hollywood Vampire’ that would go on long alcohol-fueled sessions with the likes of Alice Cooper, John Lennon and Keith Moon. He would eventually suffer a fatal heart attack, aged 52.
However, our final Halloween story does not concern itself directly with Harry, rather the events that would spiral at his London residency whilst the musician was away. Flat 12, 9 Curzon Place, was a Mayfair apartment bought by Nilssen, situated on the top floor of a beautiful eighteenth-century building. The interior was also incredibly stylish, getting a full makeover courtesy of Ringo Star’s design company. Ringo or Robin, as they were called, went to exquisite detail in order to please Harry and disturbingly went to the extent of etching a hangman’s noose onto the bathroom mirror. Why? I don’t know, but disturbing indeed given that the bedroom next door would be the place where both Cass Elliot and Keith Moon would pass away. The true tragedy of this story is that, in 1974 and 1978 respectively, the pair would lose their lives as a result of trying to change them for the better. Cass suffered a heart attack, which her shock diets had made her susceptible to, and Keith was victim to an overdose of Heminevrin, a drug he was taking to alleviate withdrawal symptoms from alcohol. Although Harry never openly believed in the rumours that the flat was cursed, he’d never live in the London accommodation again, selling it quickly to Moon’s bandmate Pete Townsend.
Stay tuned for Halloween, as we’ll be releasing a tailor made playlist fit for all of your pumpkin carving, trick or treating and witch hunting needs!
