This Nostalgic Life #22
Sort of spooky toys edition.
Welcome to this edition of This Nostalgic Life where we’ve got a double-dose of Halloween nostalgia for you! In our Special Feature, Mick relays the tale of what his evening was like way back on October 28th, 1989, and Eric lists the top 10 Halloween Music Video Countdown! All of this plus the usual We Got the Beat column and Recommended Reading links await, so let’s go!
October 28th, 1989
by Mick Lee
You know how there are just certain days from your past that you remember more than others? Well October 28th, 1989 is one of those days for me. It was a Saturday, which meant cartoons in the morning, but it was what went on that night that made it memorable. Let me tell you about it.
I’ve talked about the yearly Harvest Festival we had every year at my elementary school. Well, in 1989, the Harvest Festival fell on Saturday night, October 28th. So all day long I was eager with anticipation of that night’s event. It was also the night of WCW’s first Halloween Havoc pay-per-view event, which admittedly, put me in a disadvantageous position of possibly having to choose one or the other to enjoy that evening. So my morning hours were wracked with nervous feelings. Not enough that I couldn’t enjoy my usual Saturday morning cartoons, but it still played on my mind throughout the day. Normally, I can make my mind up quickly about things, but this was different. This particular day offered a very hard decision to make.
But as the cartoons ended and the afternoon started to roll around, my Dad made an offer. Since he would be going to the Harvest Festival with us so he could play bingo, he wouldn’t be there to watch TV. He suggested that we set the timer on the VCR and record Halloween Havoc while we were out! Now keep in mind, this was still the era before we had one of the cable black boxes that allowed us to get all of the PPV shows at no additional charge. At that time, I was allowed to order every other wrestling PPV, and this was the show. I skipped WWF’s Summerslam that year because I had gotten The Great American Bash in July. So we got the PPV ordered and the time set so I wouldn’t have to miss Halloween Havoc after all. With that set, I could turn my attention to the Harvest Festival.
So I spent the afternoon playing with Construx toys while I counted down the time left before time to go to the Harvest Festival. You know how I know I was playing with Construx? Because I was already trying to build what my interpretation was of the Thunderdome cage that was to be featured in the main event of the wrestling show that night. As it turned out, I wasn’t that far off.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I really can’t remember my Halloween costumes from through the years. While that is true, I actually do remember my costume from 1989. I went as a convict. It wasn’t the most creative idea, but at least I had a costume. Time was getting close, so I got the costume on, but I still had a little time before we would be leaving.
It was in that short amount of time that I watched the only episode of the TV show “She’s the Sheriff” that I would ever watch. Since She’s the Sheriff was a syndicated show, and since it had already ended its first run, I probably had to have been watching it on my local Fox affiliate. I can’t tell you what episode it was that I saw that day, and since there are no full episodes on Youtube for me to embed, you’ll just have to make do with a video of the opening credits for the show.
So we finally got to the Harvest Festival and my first order of business was to take my Mom to the showcase and show it off to her. Our school had a big showcase display right across from the office in the main hub of the school. Back then, the top three classes at school all had a part of the Harvest Festival to handle. The 7th graders got to put on the yearly haunted house, the 6th graders were in charge of The Disco, or The Batcave as it was called in 1989, and we 5th graders had to put together the showcase. The theme for that year was antiques, and my Mom had donated her grandmother’s kitchen knife to be put on display with the other relics. The showcase wasn’t really anything special, but since we worked on it, I had to show it off.
Once I got tickets to the games in the gym, it was time to say bye to the folks and go run with my friends for the night while all the parents went to the cafeteria to play bingo. I used to think that would be so boring until I had kids of my own, and then it turned out that the bingo was the highlight of my night when taking my kids to these things.
My friends and I ran around and played games, toured the haunted house, and made several trips to The Bat Cave. Not to dance mind you, but to hear the music and hang out in the darkened room. No self-respecting 5th-grade boy could be seen dancing awkwardly in front of the girls.
But even as I was having all of this fun, my mind kept drifting back to home and the hard-hitting NWA action I was missing out on. The Festival was starting to wind down so I made my trip to the “general store” to buy some old-fashioned candy and got ready to go home to see how things were turning out in the wrestling battles.
The flaw in my plan was realized when we got home and the show was still going. So not wanting to get spoiled on anything prematurely, I waited until it was over, rewound the tape, and started the show!
I had been highly anticipating the Halloween Havoc show because the NWA had done such an amazing job building up not only the rivalries but the theme of the show itself. It had a Halloween setting and had an advertised main event of a Thunderdome cage match pitting Ric Flair and Sting against Terry Funk and The Great Muta. The promotion for the cage itself was fantastic as they boasted it would be the largest cage in history and would be electrified to make sure the competitors stayed inside.
But not only was the main event something I was really looking forward to but there were also several other key matches that night as well. The first meeting between The Road Warriors and The Skyscrapers was dubbed as The irresistible force meeting the immovable object, The Steiner Brothers taking on the mysterious tag-team only known as Doom, Lex Luger meeting Brian Pillman, and other matches.
It was hard staying awake that night to take it all in, but I fought my way through it, and watching that show capped off a great night in my young life.
After all of these years, it’s funny to think back about how a school event and a wrestling show could make such a lasting impression on me. But I think it has more to do with the current state of life we find ourselves in. So much responsibility with jobs, families, and the like, that sometimes our hearts ache to just go back, even if just for a little bit. And that’s what Retro Ramblings is for me. It’s my chance to go back, even if just briefly, to a simpler time. Thanks for taking a minute to make the trip with me.
And just for the record, here’s my ratings for the Halloween Havoc ’89 matches from that night:
Tom Zenk vs. Mike Rotunda – 2 stars
The Samoan Swat Team vs. The Midnight Express & Steve Williams – 3.5 stars
Tommy Rich vs. The Cuban Assassin – 1/2 a star
The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Dynamic Dudes – 3.5 stars for the crowd atmosphere
The Steiner Brothers vs. Doom – 3 stars for the mystery
Lex Luger vs Brian Pillman – 4 stars
The Road Warriors vs. The Skyscrapers – 3 stars for the spectacle
Rick Flair & Sting vs. Terry Funk & Muta Thunderdome Cage Match – 4.5 stars for the whole experience
My 80’s Halloween Video Countdown
by Eric Vardeman
It’s the Halloween season, one of my favorite times of the year! What better way to celebrate than with an 80’s video countdown. While there are some music videos out there that are totally creepy and/or downright terrifying (see anything by Aphex Twin, NIN, or Tool), videos from the 80’s were mostly campy and corny when they were trying to be creepy or spooky. They were TOTALLY entertaining though and some were even big budget productions. Here are my top then 80’s videos with a modicum of creep or spook to them. Enjoy!
10. “Peek-A-Boo” by Siouxsee and The Banshees
The music was built on the sample of another song played backwards so it has an odd, droning feel to it. Pair that with Siouxsee’s unique voice (and the fact that she sang every line into a different microphone) and lyrics that are a little dark and vague and you’ve got the makings a song that’s weird and a little creepy. The video is where the true weirdness is that lands it on list. Close-ups, quick cut shots and men bird stepping in plague masks. I couldn’t name another song by this group if I had to but I was always a fan of this song.
9. “Send Me an Angel” by Real Life
OK. So this video had great creepy potential. A mysterious woman lost in a dark forest? Check. A wolf man on horseback roaming said forest? Check. Spooky fog rolling in? Check. Even the background vocals during the chorus are a little creepy (and, for some reason, remind me of the movie Excalibur). What kills it, though, is the happy, smiling band. Wut? I mean…the “story” in the video doesn’t match the song lyrics (not uncommon for the early 80’s) but the shots of the band don’t match AT ALL. By the end of the video, the band clips are almost comical. The song still has a great, spooky vibe though.
8. “A Nightmare On My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
There’s not a single creepy or spooky thing about this song or video. But it’s based on A Nightmare on Elm Street so how can it not be on the list, right? Jeff and the Prince were actually sued by New Line Cinema for copyright infringement forcing the label to destroy a music video produced for the song and the duo to have to claim no association to the movie franchise. The song samples Charles Bernstein’s musical motif from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
7. “Dream Warriors” by Dokken
Unlike “A Nightmare On My Street”, this song was actually associated with the Elm Street franchise as the theme song for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Along with the band, it stars Heather Langenkamp and Freddie Krueger himself. George Lynch, guitarist for the band, said it was the corniest videos he had ever been a part of (you can see him smiling and smirking in several shots) saying “we help this chick defeat Freddie with heavy metal? I mean, c’mon.” While Dokken was one of my favorite bands (and Lynch one of my guitar heroes) I have to agree with him. It’s a great song though. The movie was a little “meh”. Not near as good as the first two.
6. “Torture” by The Jacksons
The video was probably best known for Michael not being available and the use of a wax dummy in his place throughout. Incredibly cheesy and totally noticeable. The creepiest part of the video, however, might be the sheer amount of rhinestones and spikes on all their outfits. All kidding aside, Michael or no Michael, it’s filled with PLENTY of creepy sets and images. And I do love this song. And the album.
5. “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell
This video is creepy from start to finish. The camera angles and POV, all kind of creepy imagery, multiple references to Alfred Hitchcock and a zombie-like creature at the end. It’s a creepy song, to boot. The video speaks for itself. Just give it a watch.
4. “The Wild Boys” by Duran Duran
This song is, hands down, my favorite Duran Duran song of all. It’s based on a novel of the same name by William Burroughs. In the book, packs of adolescent humanoids ravage the civilized nations of the Earth. When wholesale slaughter erupts, the battle continues underground where the survivors evolve into The Wild Boys. The video had a million-dollar budget (the largest ever for a video at the time) and a heavy Mad Max feel. Lead singer, Simon Le Bon, had a near death experience during filming when his head got stuck underwater while he was strapped to the windmill apparatus.
3. “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” by Chris De Burgh
This was one of my favorites from the early 80’s when I first started listening to mainstream music and watching videos. The song is the story of a man trying to cross the river Styx on a boat manned by the Grim Reaper. It’s dark, foggy and spooky. It’s even got De Burgh dressed like some kind of Dracula character. How much more Halloween can you get than that?
2. “Bark at The Moon” by Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy’s first music video ever. It was partially filmed at a sanitarium outside London (creepy in and of itself) and Osbourne’s wolf man makeup and hair took 6 hours to apply. This is easily one of my favorite songs from the Ozz man. Two songs in this list feature guitar heroes of mine. Earlier in the list we had George Lynch of Dokken and here we have Jake E. Lee playing for Ozzy. It took me FOREVER to learn all the guitar parts in it and, quite frankly, I still don’t have them all down.
1. “Thriller” by Michael Jackson
I mean, c’mon. Like this wasn’t going to be number one? Jackson’s record company refused to finance the video because they felt like the album had peaked and it would be a waste of money. The song and video were an absolute smash and doubled the sales of the album. The day this video debuted on MTV, it showed every half hour. A million copies were sold on VHS making it the best selling video tape of all time. If you’ve never seen it I question your life choices. If you have let’s watching it again, shall we? For an added bonus (and a chuckle) look up Vincent Price’s outtakes from his part of the song. They’re fantastic.
So…which one was your favorite? Leave a comment and let me know. Happy Halloween, everyone!
In 1984: This week, "On the Dark Side" by John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band, peaks at #7. One of my absolute favorite songs from the 80's, the band performs the song as fictional American rock band Eddie and the Cruisers, released as a tie-in to the 1983 film of the same name. When initially released in September 1983, the song peaked at No. 64 while the film itself, a box office failure (personally I loved it), was pulled after three weeks in the theaters. When the film was released to home video and pay cable outlets in early 1984, the film as well as the song received renewed interest and the single was relaunched with much better success.
In 1990: "Black Cat" from Janet Jackson moves into the #1 spot this week. It's the sixth single and third #1 song from her massively successful Rhythm Nation 1814 album. The song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, making Jackson the second artist (after Donna Summer) in history to receive Grammy nominations spanning five genres (pop, dance, rock, rap, and R&B). The song also made her the first female artist to have a Grammy nominated number-one song which they had solely written and produced.
Playlist: This Week In 1984
Playlist: This Week In 1990
In every edition of This Nostalgic Life, we like to share a curated list of nostalgia-themed articles, stories, and posts that we’ve come across recently. It gives you a chance to discover great content and remember things from your past that you may have forgotten. With that in mind, here are some things we wanted to share with you this week. (All links will open in a new tab.)
The Totally Reay (and Totally Not) Fears of Our Youth (Nostalgia Nation)
5 Worst Halloween Treats (Retroist)
A Brief History of Halloween Decorations (A Shroud of Thoughts)
Halloween Games You Might Remember From the ‘80s (Rediscover the 80s)
Retro Channel Surfing - Halloween Edition (The Retro Network)
Thank you for joining us for another issue of This Nostalgic Life. Be sure to leave us a comment about anything in this issue that connected with you and we can discuss in the comments section. See you next week for another nostalgia-packed issue!