Sandman Slim Author Richard Kadrey’s Infernal Play List: Ten Hellish Songs
Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim noir supernatural series has been going from the strength to strength while picking up a legion of devoted readers. In their mixing of noir, urban fantasy, pop culture, horror, and hardboiled fiction, the novels manage to be endlessly inventive and high-octane. Zombie plagues, vampires, angels, the Devil, and more populate Kadrey’s Los Angeles.
In his brand-new installment, Devil Said Bang, protagonist James Stark has to figure out how to run Hell while also trying to get back out of it—again. Plus there's the small matter of surviving. Because everyone in Heaven, Hell, and in between wants to be the fastest gun in the universe, and the best way to do so is to take down Lucifer, a.k.a. James Stark. Not to mention the serial killer on the loose…
Omnivoracious asked Kadrey if he’d like to do something a little different as a guest post, and this is what he came up with…
The Infernal Hit Parade by Richard Kadrey
In my new Sandman Slim book, Devil Said Bang, there’s a jukebox in Hell. James Stark, the book’s protagonist, has filled it with songs about Hell and the Devil because they’re the last things any self-respecting Hellions would ever want to hear. Fortunately, Stark and I have similar musical tastes. Here are ten of my favorite songs about the Lucifer and the Abyss. These aren’t the absolute ten best songs ever but more a list of personal favorites. The kind of songs you can have your mp3 player without someone calling the cops, a priest or a hospital.
Me and the Devil Blues by Robert Johnson—Forget Slayer’s odes to Hell. Forget Faust and Don Giovanni. The classic Devil song was written by a slight Mississippian who was dead at 27. Robert Johnson’s ode to darkness is a skeletal, fragile, mournful thing that can be read more than one way. You can listen to it as a man who’s literally sold his soul to Lucifer (a famous part of the Robert Johnson legend) or as a metaphor for a man giving in to his worst impulses. The Cowboy Junkies cover version comes at the song from a very different angle. Johnson’s wailing despair becomes something snaky and strangely seductive, as if it’s more about a consensual S/M relationship than abuse.
Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones—Here we have a completely modernist portrait of the Miltonian Lucifer. Not a big surprise from a band with art school leanings. What could have been another minor key Sixties “Let’s scare the Straights” novelty song turned into something more sinister and interesting. Sympathy for the Devil all about the repetitive, hypnotic rhythms that form its foundation. It sounds almost as if the Stones took a recording of a dark invocation ceremony and laid guitar and vocals on top. The band Laibach did an interesting cover that’s nothing like the original. Laibach’s Devil feels like something from the soundtrack to Passolini’s “Salo” as performed by Deathklok.
The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band—Another classic Devil tune about a violin contest between the Dark One and a mortal. However, this Devil isn’t all-powerful, but a fallible, egocentric fiddle poseur. The good news is that if you want a more talented violin-plucking Lucifer you just have to jump back a hundred years to Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1.
Don't Shake Me, Lucifer by Roky Erickson—Roky Erickson, well known for his Sixties-era acid binges has seen Hell, outer space, the dark inside of his own skull, and a lot of places in between. Don't Shake Me, Lucifer feels more like a song about the world—and Roky’s mind—coming apart than Lucifer himself. Madness is the Devil. The Devil is madness. And it’s all rock and roll.
Up Jumped the Devil by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds—There isn’t a more sinister, relentless, and unrepentant hellbound tune in all of pop music. You could look at Up Jumped the Devil as a cautionary tale but there’s nothing cautious about it. The singer is damned, he knows it, and he’s going to make the best of his time on Earth. The song is like a musical version of serial killer, Dr. H. H. Holmes’, famous confession, “I was born with the devil in me.... with the Evil One standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since.”
Aloha From Hell by The Cramps—Why look at Hell as a place of torment and damnation? Why can’t it be a swinging vacation destination? If Disney can take a bunch of diseased, ruthless, murderous Pirates of the Caribbean and make them into fun family outing, why can’t The Cramps take Hell and turn it into a Beach Blanket Bingo gogo girl party?
Born with a Tail by Supersuckers—This is one of the most gleefully blasphemous songs you’ll ever hear. Eternal damnation turned into a poppy country rock anthem. This is the sunny version of Nick Cave’s Up Jumped the Devil, a damned soul tune sung by a guy who can’t wait to get to Hell because the parties down there are harder, faster, and louder than anything on Earth. If the Church of Satan is looking for a recruitment song, this should be it.
Ave Satani by Jerry Goldsmith—This is a guilty pleasure, pure Hollywood horror movie cheese. The Latin-chanting choir sounds like the chorus of an infernal opera and as hokey as it is, somehow it works. The sound is a mix of a perverted Mass, with the jittery feel of Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna, mixed with a dash of Mars from Holst’s The Planets. Mike Patton’s band, Fantomas, did a sort of speed metal version of the song that’s as manic as Goldsmith’s original is elegiac.
Dead Heaven by Gary Numan—The last song about Hell is about Heaven, a Heaven long past its expiration date. Next to Robert Johnson, Dead Heaven the grimmest song of the bunch. Numan sees Heaven only in terms of horror, despair, and death. The song is as savagely sacrilegious as anything Slayer ever played but a lot more listenable because it has one of Numan’s catchy slightly off-kilter choruses.
hope h. on September 11, 2012 at 03:36 PM
No ac/Dc? I think at least the first few bars of hells bells is hell worthy if not Satan specific. Also I would think having to listen to inagoddadavida(sp?) On a continuous loop a particularly heinous punishment for people who piss off the management
Lori S. on September 11, 2012 at 10:11 PM
I confess a weakness for the Jane's Addiction cover of "Sympathy." It's downright spooky to my ears.
Alex on September 11, 2012 at 10:45 PM
Thanks for skipping the obvious heavy metal ones. I always thought metal was cheesy, err, as hell.