Real Gone Music – An Xperience Column – by Tony Mastrianni.

Spooktacular REAL GONE MUSIC Limited Edition Albums Remastered for Halloween

Dean Gitter: “Ghost Ballads” (Limited Clear with Orange Pumpkin Swirl Vinyl Edition)

Shaking things up a bit here for Halloween, Real Gone Music delights in exploring all cultural manifestations, ghostly and otherwise, of the holiday. And in doing so, they are following a tradition centuries old, if not as old as mankind itself. This 1957 album on the Riverside label takes you back to Merry Olde England for a collection of 12 ballads concerning the supernatural, many of them taken from Francis James Child’s legendary book, “The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,” and lustily sung by folklorist and balladeer Dean Gitter. One interesting thing to note about these songs: unlike, say, Hollywood’s version of ghosts who “live” to scare the living, many of the poor souls in these songs have come back to soothe the grief of their loved ones. It makes for a very different “spin” from your typical Halloween record, and a most haunting listen. And you get to gaze at legendary New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams’ amazing album cover art while you do! The label is pressing this one in clear with orange pumpkin swirl vinyl, limited to 900 copies, complete with the informative original liner notes on the back cover. A bittersweet Halloween treat. Philly Joe Jones Sextet: “Blues for Dracula” (Limited Dark “Coffin Velvet” Purple Vinyl Edition)

When both Miles Davis and Bill Evans label you their all-time favorite drummer, you are granted immortality that stretches even beyond the lifespan of a vampire! But legendary stickman Philly Joe Jones gets it both ways on the must-hear title track to 1958’s “Blues for Dracula,” on which he does his best Bela Lugosi impression! The personnel on this album further attests to the soaring esteem in which Jones was held by fellow jazz musicians; imagine assembling a line-up of Johnny Griffin, Jimmy Garrison, Julian Priester, Nat Adderley, and Tommy Flanagan on your first record as a bandleader! The company has resurrected this jazz classic for a dark “coffin velvet” purple pressing limited to 750 copies. Be boppin’ this Halloween!

*** You may also want to check out these other classic ghoulish Halloween limited edition reissued remastered LPs from Real Gone Records at your local independent record stores.

Vincent Price: “Witchcraft-Magic—An Adventure in Demonology”

The Deadly Ones: “It’s Monster Surfing Time” (all analog limited Bloody Pumpkin color vinyl edition)

Heins Hoffman-Richter a.k.a. Rod McKuen: “Music to Freak Your Friends and Break Your Lease”

And finally…

Danny Elfman: “Corpse Bride Soundtrack” (2-LP Set)

It’s not too soon to put Tim Burton and Danny Elfman on the short list of the greatest director-composer collaborations in history, right up there with Hitchcock-Herrmann, Spielberg-Williams, Leone-Morricone, and Demy-Legrand. And Elfman’s score to this 2005 stop-motion animated gem is one of his best, displaying his amazing versatility and boundless emotional range with numbers that range from somber chamber music (“Victor’s Piano Music”) to darkly macabre yet somehow jaunty pieces (“Remains of the Day”). And let’s not forget the swing jazz homages performed by Bonejangles (a.k.a. Elfman) and His Bone Boys as bonus tracks (or should that be bone-us tracks?)! They have exhumed this fantastic soundtrack in blue moon with purple and black ghost splatter vinyl with a full-color insert!

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