Self Help Radio 102618: Halloween 2018 - Voodoo!

(Original image here.)

Voodoo!  What is it?  I dunno!  But it makes me think of scary things!  Like witch doctors & voodoo dolls & bubbling cauldrons & potions & tinctures!  Voodoo!  Should I have given that stranger a lock of my hair?  I'll admit I was kinda flattered!  But now it feels like I have a piercing ulcer & I get strange pains up & down my back!  Voodoo!  Oh shit is this show culturally insensitive?  But it's Halloween!  Good thing almost no one knows it exists!

Two hours worth of voodoo songs + a couple of interviews with insane people + a song written by Jenny Adkins specifically for the show.  It sounds like something you might want to play at your Halloween party - especially if you want the guest to get a move on.  It's this year's Self Help Radio Halloween show & I had a blast putting it together.  It's as fun as it is scary as it is ridiculous as it is fun.

What happens on the show is noted below.  The show is at the Self Help Radio website.  There's a username (SHR) & a password (selfhelp) you'll need to listen.

Does anyone know how long a voodoo doll's power lasts?  Asking for a friend.

Self Help Radio Halloween Voodoo Show

"You've Got Me Voodoo'd" Louis Armstrong _The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1946)_
"Voodoo Woman Blues" Jimmy Witherspoon & Jay McShann _The R&B Years 1946: Volume 2_
"Voodoo Blues" Jumpin' Joe Williams with Red Saunders & His Orchestra _The OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957_

introduction & explanation

"Voodoo Pappadollar" Poison Girls _Statement: The Complete Recordings_
"Voodoo Doll" The Interiors _Voodoo Doll_
"Supernatural Voodoo Woman (Part 1)" The Originals _Game Called Love_
"Oh You Voo Doo Doo Doll" Sheldon Allman _Sing Along With Drac_
"Voo Doo Woman" Smiley Smith _Horror Hop_
"Voodoo Woman" Simon Stokes & The Nightwalks _Beat It! Killer Tracks From The Roarin' 60s_

interview with voodoo opponent Father Jude O'Doole

"Voodoo Doll" Amelia _All Them Chicks At The Hop! Vol. 1_
"Voodoo" The Revillos _Rev Up_
"Voodoo Idol" The Cramps _Psychedelic Jungle_
"The Curse Of The Voodoo Doll" Joan Gerber _The Story Lady_
"Voodoo Lady" Ween _Chocolate & Cheese_
"Psychic Voodoo Doll" Deadbolt _Halloween Hootenanny_

perhaps a secret of voodoo is revealed - or is interrupted

"Mr. Voodoo" Jenny Adkins _Mr. Voodoo_
"You Do Something To Me" Johnny Mathis _Rhythms Of Broadway_
"Voodoo Plan" The Headliners _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 5: 1965_
"Voodoo Woman" Koko Taylor _I Got What It Takes_
"This Is Not Voodoo" Brother Russell _Radio Jihad_
"Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya" Dr. John _Saturday Night Fish Fry: New Orleans Funk & Soul_

interview with children's television hose Mr Spooks

"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" Angelique Kidjo _Oremi_
"Voodoo Voodoo" LaVern Baker _Great Googa Mooga_
"Voodoo" Josie & The Pussycats _Stop, Look, & Listen: The Capitol Recordings_
"Voo Doo" Rachel Sweet _Blame It On Love_
"Voodoo Hurt" The Mar-Vels _Magic Doo Wops, Vol. 1: Halloween Songs_
"The Voo Doo Walk" Sonny Richard's Panics with Cindy & Misty _These Ghoulish Things: Horror Hits For Hallowe'en_

conclusion & goodbye

"The Voodoo Man" The Del Vikings _The Swinging, Singing Del Vikings_
"Voodoo" The Ivies _Voodoo_
"It's Your Voodoo Working" Charles Sheffield _ The Real Excello R&B_
"Voodoo Woman" Curtis Knight _Voodoo Rhythm & Blues & Burlesque Grind_
"Voodoo" The Combinations _Whip! Wobble & Grind! 1962-1964_
"Voodoo Woman" Bern Elliott & The Fenmen _The Beat Years_
"Voodoo Medicine Man" Jerry & Jeff _Le Beat Bespoké 4_

Whither Voodoo?

(Image from here.)

Every year around Halloween-time, Self Help Radio stay out all night & scares itself silly in order to create the best Halloween experience in audio.  Whether it's ghosts or vampires, zombies or werewolves, whether we're wandering around haunted houses or graveyards, whether we're contemplating death or mere nightmares, there are now few Halloween themes Self Help Radio hasn't explored.  This year it's one we've been thinking about for a while: voodoo!

& not the voodoo that's a religious practice of many, but the stylized version of voodoo we scare ourselves with as we do with the likes of monsters & graveyards.  These are perilous times, when deciding on a costume for Halloween must take into account possible offense.  So too Self Help Radio issues this caveat: it's all for fun, it's all made-up & playful.  So many people have sung about voodoo as a metaphor, the bulk of the songs this week will do that.

This week you'll hear what Self Help Radio's been keeping in its gris-gris tomorrow at noon over at the Self Help Radio website.  Every enough to plan for Halloween next week, but not too early, like the Christmas music we're starting to hear even now.  Frankly, that's more frightening.

Preface To Halloween 2018 - Voodoo!: Religious Persecution

This article on the Huffington Post seeks to dispel myths, misunderstandings, & outright lies about voodoo.  (Which apparently is supposed to be spelled 'vodou.')  It starts off like this (if you don't want to click):

Voodoo isn’t accurately portrayed in most movies, TV shows, & books. Even some documentaries & non-fiction books are misleading. Voodoo isn’t a cult, black magic, or devil worship. People who practice Voodoo are not witchdoctors, sorcerers, or occultists. Voodoo isn’t a practice intended to hurt or control others. Most Voodooists have never seen a “Voodoo doll” (unless, like you, they saw it in a movie).

Voodoo isn’t morbid or violent. Voodoo isn’t the same everywhere. Not everyone who practices Voodoo does it in exactly the same way or agrees on exactly the same things.

& you know what?  I'm cool with that.  I'm not going to do a radio show this week that attempts to clear up misconceptions about voodoo.  & you know why?  Because it's Halloween!

Self Help Radio has done shows about monsters, vampires, werewolves, & mummies.  Those things don't exist.  We've done shows about haunted houses & hell.  There's no such thing as ghosts & there's no such thing as hell.  But that didn't stop the fun!

That's the thing that makes people fear Halloween: they believe in things like demons & ghosts & monsters.  It's certainly the most childlike of holidays because when you're a child you not only fear such things but there's a part of you that really, really wants the world to be like that.  The world of Stranger Things is pretty terrifying, but those kids are having the time of their lives.

Now, I doubt anyone who practices vodou (or even voodoo) will hear or find this show of mine, but I hope they'll take it in the spirit of Halloween.  I want the shows to be more fun than scary.  & of course I want them to be a little scary.  That's part of the fun!

Halloween's A-Coming

That's right, & I had almost forgotten I created a page last year which has links to all the Halloween episodes.  I guess I need to add graphics, which I'll try to do after this week.  But if you want to have some Halloween shows for your Halloween, here's the place for that.

Black Cats! Death! Graveyards! Haunted Houses! Hell! Monsters! Mummies! Nightmares! Vampires! Werewolves! Witches! Zombies! Clowns! (Clowns?)  All kindsa scary stuff for your enjoyably frightening Halloween.

Here's that link again!  I'll clean it up a bit as the week wears on.

Eyes & Ears

Feeling uninspired, feeling tired, needing to get to bed because I have a radio show in the morning, I will forego trying to say anything interesting & instead share with you a poem chosen at random (I used random dot org & everything) which I wrote on March 17, 2000, called "Eyes & Ears."

Enjoy.

hey it's cold, suddenly, hard to smoke in the rain, under an umbrella i
swear i'm in a club.  i hate clubs, they depress me, i feel too old, even
in an old person's clubs, they have them, it's true, i saw richard thompson
in one just this week, walkers, hearing aids, wheelchairs, heart
medication, pillows.  i promised i'd go see the frogs tonight, it's a
corporate blowjob music festival in austintown, i'd rather eat glass, i
won't go anyway, the frogs will return, if they don't, it's only right &
natural that i seek them out. think someone will cut my hair instead, see,
when i have hair, if it's not longish, it looks like i'm wearing a wig,
there's a scar on my forehead, it's how i monitor my receding hairline, me
& whisky & a razor, i'll have no hair in the morning.  i always do this
when it's cold, cut my hair, shave my face, wear a jacket & a shirt, used
to be more or less healthy, now i smoke & drink too much, bet i breathe
heavy, bet i can't run up ten flights of stairs.  wouldn't matter, one
supposes, if it weren't constantly being brought up, age i mean, it's
everywhere, youngsters with their loud dreams & crappy rock & roll, i met
some sixteen year old lesbians the other week, i'll end this on a funny
note, i met some sixteen year old lesbians, three of them, cute as hell &
wearing comfortable clothing, making me uncomfortable.  i noticed their
age, it was at the video store, i had to set up a membership & i shouldn't
have because they were too young but i was drunk, we can drink up there,
it's one of the reasons i work there, i was drunk & so i set them up, & i
said wow sixteen are you all sixteen, & they said yeah, & i said, wow
that's half my age, & one of them said, earnestly, that's too bad, but the
cutest one said, bright-eyed, but it's good for us.

That's a story I didn't remember.  Crazy.

The corporate blowjob music festival was of course SXSW.  I did go see the Frogs after all.