WALK AMONG US - The Misfits

YEAR: 1982

LABEL: Ruby

TRACK LISTING: 20 Eyes, I Turned Into A Martian, All Hell Breaks Loose, Vampira, Nike a Go Go, Hatebreeders, Mommy Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight (Live), Night of the Living Dead, Skulls, Violent World, Devil's Whorehouse, Astro Zombies, Braineaters

IMPRESSIONS: This album, the band's first full-length album release, is rightly considered the granddaddy of horror-punk. And the Misfits are Glenn Danzig. Period. There is no Misfits without Glenn Danzig. As with pretty much anything recorded by the Misfits, this album is sure as shootin' perfect for Halloween listening. The album cover also features colours I strongly associate with Halloween: purple and green. I think I can trace this connection back to the mid-1970s when, as a kid at my grandmother Nanny's row-home on Terrace Avenue in Pennsauken, I (and my cousins Jimmy and Kathy) were given boxes of "Halloween cookies" which I remember came in a purple and green box. These were small chocolate chip cookies (about the size of Famous Amos' cookies) but were shaped and carved-out as the heads of Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, the Mummy and the Wolf Man. I've never been able to track down a photo of these cookies online but somebody somewhere must know what they are and I'd love to see them again.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: 20 Eyes, I Turned Into A Martian, Vampira, Hatebreeders, Mommy Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight (Live), Night of the Living Dead, Skulls, Devil's Whorehouse, Astro Zombies, Braineaters

FACT SHEET: WALK AMONG US is the Misfits' first album although its their 8th release; however everything before were EPs. Glenn Danzig mostly made the album by remixing pre-existing songs and adding extra guitar. Most of the songs had been recorded in the New Jersey towns of Fair Lawn and Boonton. The live track "Mommy" was from a concert in New York City at the Ritz. The iconic album cover features the "Bat-Rat-Spider" creature from the sci-fi camp classic film "THE ANGRY RED PLANET" as well as flying saucers created by Ray Harryhausen from "EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS". The original album pressing featured a pink background and pink logo on the cover but was corrected to a purple background with a pink logo; finally the cd version has been standardized to a purple cover with a green logo which I think works best; purple and green have always been associated with Halloween in my mind as much as orange and black for the odd reasons stated above. This version of the Misfits features Glenn Danzig on vocals and guitar, Jerry Only on bass and background vocals, Doyle on guitar and background vocals and Arthur Googy on drums.