Helloween - Halloween

A little out of season, perhaps, but this band ~ at times ~ makes a nice bridge from the humorous stuff.

Back in the late eighties, most metal liked to think of itself as either cool, badass, or sexy ~ with the exception of a small number of bands that were out and out clowns. One of the things that lost Helloween some fans (and won them, to tell the full story), was that, even when doing one of those three things, they didn't take themselves all too serious.

Witness the band's near-title-track, Halloween, from their 1987 release Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1. Or, rather don't. This epic tale of a holiday is rather sanitized of most humor in the butchered 5:03 video edit that is available as an independent MP3 or, apart from the imagery, in the video itself.

What you don't get, when you miss the full thirteen minutes and nine seconds of the cut on the album, is at least some of the humor... these two verses were cut out from the tune:

"Someone's sitting in a field,
Never giving yield
Sitting there with gleaming eyes
Waiting for big pumpkin to arise

Bad luck if you get a stone
Like the good old Charlie Brown
You think Linus could be right
The kids will say it's just a stupid lie"