FRIDAY RANDOM TEN - HALLOWE’EN EDITION

SWMBO’s Scary Nails: this year’s edition. Check out them hand-painted thumbnails!

Not only is it Friday today, it’s the day before Hallowe’en, that most sacred of days to people in the party supplies, costumery, and candy businesses.

Eunoia, AKA Old Phat Stu, left a comment with a Hallowe’en-related question: “Elisson, you often blog about various Jewish holidays, so I was just wondering what’s your equivalent of Halloween?”

There’s a two-pronged answer to that. If you’re referring to the semi-pagan, semi-Christian holiday that is a vague amalgam of Samhain and All Hallow’s Eve - a holiday that is involved with witchcraft, demons, sorcery, the Spirits of the Dead, and all that goyische narrischkeit (non-Jewish foolishness), the answer is “no” - we Jews have no equivalent. I remember my Hebrew School teachers telling us that we shouldn’t go out trick-or-treating because Hallowe’en was a Christian holiday at best, a pagan, superstitious celebration at worst, certainly nothing any self-respecting Jewish kid should have anything to do with. Nevertheless, given the completely secular nature of Hallowe’en in the U.S., we just ignored our teachers, costumed ourselves, and cadged candy from our neighbors just like everyone else.

But if you’re referring to a holiday on which people dress up in costumes and exchange gifts of food, the answer is “yes.” Our version is called Purim, a holiday that celebrates the deliverance of the Jews of Persia from a plot to annihilate them - a story that is related in the Book of Esther. It has nothing to do with ghosts and Evil Beasties, however.

Now that we’ve answered that question, it’s time to check out the assorted musical randomosity of the Little White Choon-Box. What’s playing today?

1. Barbara’s House - Philip Glass, Notes on a Scandal
   
   
2. Alice Childress (iTunes Originals Version) - Ben Folds
   
   
3. Sand Mandala - Philip Glass, Kundun
   
   
4. Gun Street Girl - Tom Waits
   
   Fallin’ James in the Tahoe mud
   Stick around to tell us all the tale
   Well, he fell in love with a Gun Street girl
   Now he’s dancin’ in the Birmingham jail
   Dancin’ in the Birmingham jail
   
   Well, he took a hundred dollars off a Slaughterhouse Joe
   Bought a brand new Michigan twenty gauge
   He got all liquored up on that roadhouse corn
   Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette
   A hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette
   
   He bought a second hand Nova from a Cuban Chinese
   And dyed his hair in the bathroom of a Texaco
   With a pawnshop radio quarter past four
   He left Waukegan at the slammin’ of the door
   Left Waukegan at the slammin’ of the door
   
   I said, John, John, he’s long gone
   Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
   I said, John, John, he’s long gone
   Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
   
   He’s sittin’ in a sycamore in St. John’s Wood
   Soakin’ day old bread in kerosene
   Well, he was blue as a robin’s egg and brown as a hog
   He’s stayin’ out of circulation till the dogs get tired
   Out of circulation till the dogs get tired
   
   Shadow fixed the toilet with an old trombone
   He never get up in the morning on a Saturday
   Sittin’ by the Erie with a bull-whipped dog
   Tellin’ everyone he saw, “They went that-a-way, boys”
   Tellin’ everyone he saw, “They went that-a-way”
   
   Now the rain like gravel on an old tin roof
   The Burlington Northern pullin’ out of the world
   Now a head full of bourbon and a dream in the straw
   And a Gun Street girl was the cause of it all
   A Gun Street girl was the cause of it all
   
   Get ridin’ in the shadow by the Saint Joe Ridge
   And the click clack tappin’ of a blind man’s cane
   And he was pullin’ into Baker on a New Year’s Eve
   With one eye on the pistol and the other on the door
   One eye on the pistol and the other on the door
   
   Miss Charlotte took her satchel down to King Fish Row
   Smuggled in a brand new pair of alligator shoes
   With her fireman’s raincoat and her long yellow hair
   Well, they tied her to a tree with a skinny millionaire
   Tied her to a tree with a skinny millionaire
   
   I said, John, John, he’s long gone
   Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
   I said, John, John, he’s long gone
   Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
   
   Bangin’ on a table with an old tin cup
   I sing, I’ll never kiss a Gun Street girl again
   I’ll never kiss a Gun Street girl again
   I’ll never kiss a Gun Street girl again
   
   I said, John, John, he’s long gone
   Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
   I said, John, John, he’s long gone
   Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
   
   
5. Big Bang Baby - Stone Temple Pilots
   
   
6. Damn Bugs Whacked Him, Johnny - Minus the Bear
   
   
7. Back In The U.S.S.R. - The Beatles
   
   This is the version from the White Album, the one with which most of us Old Goats are familiar.
   
   
8. Heroin - Velvet Underground
   
   
9. Too Much Too Young (Live) - The Specials
   
   
10. Act III: I Can Keep Still - John Adams, Nixon in China
    
    

It’s Friday. What are you listening to?