A medium, seances (real and faked), murder: these are the makings of a decent Netflix movie. But these are some of the elements of an opera called The Medium. Written in 1946 by Gian Carlo Menotti on commission for Columbia University, this opera contains my favorite Halloween song. 

There are a lot of classical pieces that make for great Halloween music. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote what is possibly the best Halloween instrumental song: Tocatta and Fugue in D minor. If we want to pull in a choir, we have “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. (In college, the choir sang this with the university orchestra. There were only five or six first sopranos singing the highest part. We were standing right next to this HUGE gong. It stood taller than my five feet five inches. When it was played for the first time at dress rehearsal, we all jumped and screamed.) 

Opera brings us many songs of death, murder and ghosts. The Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor ( Death Count) is used in the movie The Fifth Element. It is sung by the Diva, the big, bald, blue singer. My personal favorite, though, is a little-known piece from The Medium.

Since it is October, I thought I’d look at the Ozzy Osborne song, Mr. Crowley. This has led me down all sorts of rabbit holes, let me tell you. Before we look at Ozzy and the song, I think we need to spend a little time looking at Aleister Crowley. 

Aleister Crowley
To begin with, many of us are pronouncing his last name incorrectly. Even Ozzy does. It is properly pronounced like the bird “Crow” with a “Lee” at the end. 

Often billed as “the wickedest man in the world,” and assumed to be a Satanist, Aleister Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley in 1875 in a small English town to very religious and very wealthy parents. Before the turn of the century, he changed his name to Aleister because it fulfilled his requirements for a name that would be famous.

He was a poet, used opium, climbed mountains, and invented religions. Mostly, I think, he had too much money and not enough to do. He may have been a British spy during WWII. He wrote a lot, but how much of what he wrote is truly is debatable. Was he a Satanist? Probably not. He wanted people to think that, however. His credo was “Do what thou wilt.” He sounds to me like a deeply unhappy person desperately searching for meaning and a purpose. 
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However, at the moment, we are dealing more with the persona of the Wickedest Man in the World rather than Aleister Crowley the person. It is this persona that has had a lasting impact on rock music and heavy metal. 
Let me be very clear. I am NOT saying that rock and heavy metal are Satanic or the work of the Devil. But there are influences. When Alice Cooper, Ozzy, or the grandfather of “Shock Rock” Screamin’ Jay Hawkins used theatrical tricks to seem satanic, they were doing it not just to shock, but also to appeal to the puerile instincts of adolescent boys. And if these actions annoyed the boys’ parents, so much the better. 

Mr. Crowley and Ozzy Osborne 
The song, Mr. Crowley came into being as Ozzy and his band were working on his first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz. He noticed a tarot deck that had been designed by Crowley in the studio. He’d been reading about Crowley and thought there was a song there. A lot of the imagery in the song are direct references to incidents in Crowley’s life:

     Mr. Crowley, what went wrong in your head?
     Oh, Mr. Crowley did you talk to the dead?
     Your lifestyle to me seemed to tragic
     With the thrill of it all
     You fooled all the people with magic
     You waited on Satan’s call
     Mr. Charming, did you think you were pure
     Mr. Alarming, in nocturnal rapport
     Uncovering things that were sacred
     Manifest on this Earth
     Conceived in the eye of a secret
     And they scattered the afterbirth
 
     Mr. Crowley, won’t you ride my white horse?
     Mr. Crowley, it’s symbolic of course                                                                            
     Approaching a time that is classic
     I hear maidens call
     Approaching a time that is drastic
     Standing with their backs to the wall
 
     Was it polemically sent?
     I wanna know what you meant
     I wanna know, I wanna know what you meant.
 
The white horse is a drug reference. Apparently, Crowley’s afterbirth had been scattered and he tended to close letters with “Polemically yours.”
 
Ozzy wasn’t the only singer who was influenced by Crowley. A young David Bowie was an acolyte, as was Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Page even went so far as to buy Crowley’s estate in Scotland on Loch Ness. (I wonder if they saw Nessie?) And Satanic imagery abounds in the work of the Rolling Stones who even did a song entitled Sympathy for the Devil. 
 
Heavy metal owes a debt of gratitude to the distorted memory of Edward Alexander Crowley. 

There aren’t many songs that have been hits in two different decades for two different groups, are made into a movie and an off-Broadway show, and are referenced in at least two additional songs. You would think such a song would be one amazing piece of music! And while I do love the song, by no stretch of the imagination would I call it amazing.

Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine tells us the sad tale of a young man who can’t seem to get a girlfriend. So he swallows his pride and visits a Gypsy fortune-teller. She reads his palm and prescribes Love Potion Number 9. He drinks it down, and, after a bit of temporal confusion, begins to sexually assault everyone he sees, ending with an officer of the law. He’s lucky he didn’t get arrested! (Remind me of why I love this song? ‘Cause put like this, it’s coming across as a little pervy.)

I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth
You know that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth
She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine

I told her that I was a flop with chicks 
I've been this way since 1956
She looked at my palm and she made a magic sign
She said "What you need is Love Potion Number Nine"

She bent down and turned around and gave me a wink
She said "I'm gonna make it up right here in the sink"
It smelled like turpentine, it looked like India ink 
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink

I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine

I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink

I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
An alternate ending the Clovers used is: I had so much fun that I'm going back again,
I wonder what'll happen with Love Potion Number Ten?
 
I looked for funny stories about how this song came to be written and came up with nothing. The song-writing duo of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller were hard-working, professional songwriters. This was what they did, and they were very, very good at it. They were also instrumental in giving us what we think of as the R&B sound. 

They composed the song in 1959 and it was recorded by the Clovers, a R&B/doo-wop group. That version went to #23 on the Billboard charts. This is the version with the cool deep voice singing, “I took a drink.”
The following year, 1960, Johnny Tillotson recorded a song called “Poetry in Motion” that contains this lyric: Poetry in motion, all that I adore/ No number nine love potion could make me love her more.

This brings us to 1964 when the song was recorded by the Searchers, a Liverpudlian group following the rise of the Beatles. They took the song to #3 on the charts. This is the version with the cool guitar solo in the middle.

in 1992, Love Potion #9 the movie came out starring Sandra Bullock and Tate Donovan. It is just as forgettable as it sounds. (Although I liked Anne Bancroft as Madame Ruth.) The movie uses the Clovers’ version as well as Carole Davis over the closing credits.

Three years later, in 1995, Smokey Joe’s Café: The Songs of Lieber and Stoller opened off-Broadway. “Love Potion #9” is in the second act. Two years after this, Smokey Joe’s original cast recording won a Grammy award.

More of "#9"
So, there are the two hits, a movie, an off-Broadway musical review, and one mention. Where’s the other mention? We get to move forward in time to 2013, and across the seas to Korea. T-ara, a female K-pop group, recorded a song called “Number Nine” that looks to be referencing “Love Potion”:

You put me
in so much pain
Do you remember us back
when the stars were shining?
You hateful person,
who has stolen my heart
Hey, it hurts
so much right now
(Number nine)
Only you can make me laugh
(Number nine)
Only you can make me cry
(Number nine)
You are my tuxedo mask
The hero who protected me
But you left me, and I hate you
I need you, number nine,
number nine, number nine
Don’t leave me
Did you forget me number nine,
number nine, number nine
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all of my heart,
where are you?
Come back to me number nine
Stop playing
games with me
It’s hard being played with
Do you remember
the days when
we made the figs
bloom into flowers?
It hurts so much right now
(Number nine)
Only you can make me laugh
(Number nine)
Only you can make me cry
(Number nine)
You are my tuxedo mask
The hero who protected me
But you left me, and I hate you
I need you, number nine,
number nine, number nine
Don’t leave me
Did you forget me number nine,
number nine, number nine
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all of my heart,
where are you?
Come back to me number nine
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
When I close my eyes and
open them, I’m still here alone
I’m in the dark in the dark
I’m dancing in the dark
I need you,
don’t leave me
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all
of my heart, where are you?
Come back to me number nine
 
That’s quite the song. I like the Sailor Moon (tuxedo mask) reference.
 
I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about Love Potion Number 9, or favorite versions, let me know in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you.

I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.
​
Thanks for reading! Until next time!

I think that Alan Menken is a brilliant composer. He has written Broadway musicals, and some of the best of the Disney musicals. A perfect example of his brilliance: “Heaven’s Light/Hellfire“ from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

When the musical came out, I had two 11-year-olds and a six-year-old. We were very careful about what the kids watched—violence was not encouraged. Things like Mel Brook’s Men in Tightswas fine, because the more questionable humor went right over their heads. But, while we were sitting in the theater watching Hunchback, I was more than a little horrified by “Hellfire.”I could not believe that these images were in a Disney movie.

It is now one of my favorite Disney villain songs.

This One is a Little Bit Different
This blog is going to be a little different than earlier ones. As far as I am concerned, there must be a reason for each key and timing change, and it is an important part of the performer’s job to interpret and figure these reasons out. It is somewhat irrelevant whether this is what the composer intended or not. So, for this blog, I am going to look at the process for digging into a song. 

I am going to talk a lot about keys and relative minors in this. So, let me try to give a quick explanation of terms. A key is the framework of a song; that’s all. It’s a specific set of notes that we have decided to work with. This framework can sound happy or commanding—that’s usually going to be what we call a major key. Within that same framework, we can decide to make a slight switch going to what is called the relative minor key. It’s a relative because it is using the same framework, but now can sound sad or brooding. We can also decide to change the framework completely! This is called a key change. 

Timing is just a change in rhythm. If you are tapping your foot, you may find that you’ve gotten a little off. That might not be you, that might be a change in the music itself.

(I am not going to talk about the characters, who they are, what their motivations are. I am assuming that you are familiar with the main characters. If not, you should check out the Disney animated and the live-action musical available on YouTube.)

“Hellfire” and Interpretation 
To really understand the full impact of “Hellfire”, we need to start with Quasimodo’s “Heaven’s Light”.
So many times out there(we’ve already had Quasi’s solo called “Out There”,expressing his desire to leave the bell tower.)

     I’ve watched a happy pair of lovers walking in the night. 
     They had a kind of glow around them.
     It almost looked like heaven’s light.
     I knew I’d never know that warm and loving glow,
     Though I might wish with all my might.
     No face as hideous as my face
     Was ever meant for heaven’s light.
     But suddenly an angel has smiled at me
     And kissed my cheek without a trace of fright.
     I dare to dream the she might even care for me, 
     And as I ring these bells tonight
     My cold dark tower seems so bright.
     I swear it must be heaven’s light.
​
Quasimodo’s solo is in the key of F major. Quasi is also a tenor, a higher male voice. This is used to signify both his relative youth and to establish him as the hero. Heroes are almost always tenors. 

We then hear the bells ringing. These would be calling people to Mass in the cathedral below. There have been a couple of quick timing changes—one while the bells are ringing and one as the choir starts. The thing about these Latin chants is that they were first done before standard music notation was thought up. Timing was not something that they worried about, so by giving us a quick timing change, Menken instantly makes the chant sound old and authentic.

As the choir of priests begins to sing the key—the framework—abruptly changes. We have gone from the literal high note of the song to a lower key to accommodate the lower voice of our Frollo. (And while heroes are almost always tenors, baritones and basses, the lower male voices, are usually bad guys.) And we have gone to a different idea. Now we have the Mass being sung. But while the people partaking in the Mass are turning their thoughts to God, Frollo’s thoughts are far lower. 

Here is also where things get complicated. We need to deal with some Latin. The priests start the Confiteor, which is a pretty standard prayer in several denominations. It is the confession of sins, admitting the wrongs that one has done.

     Confiteor deo omnipotenti– I confess to God almighty
     Beatae Mariae semper virgini. – To blessed Mary, ever virgin
     Beato Michaeli archangel– To the blessed archangel Michael
     Sanctis apostolis omnibus sanctis– To the holy apostles, to all the saints

​At this point, Frollo starts to sing (to try and make it obvious who is singing what, Frollo will be in a bold font, the priests will be italic, and the translation will be in the standard mode):
 
     Beata Maria, - Blessed Mary
     You know I am a righteous man.
     Of my virtue, I am justly proud.
                 Priests: Et tibi Pater– And to you, Father
     Beata Maria, you know I’m so much purer 
     than the common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd.
                 Quia peccavi nimis– that I have sinned
      Then tell me, Maria, why I see her dancing there,
      Why her smoldering eyes still scorch my soul.
                 Cogiattione– in thought 
 
At this point, I think we have made the shift from a major key to its relative minor. This means that while the framework remains the same, we have had a shift in tone.
 
     I feel her, I see her, the sun caught in her raven hair 
     Is blazing in me out of all control
                 Verbo et opera- in thought and deed
     Like fire, hellfire, this fire in my skin.
 
So, here we have the juxtaposition of the priests singing about humbling themselves and admitting their sins,while Frollo is singing about his pride and how much better he is than everyone else. Earlier, in Heaven’s Light, Quasi has put Esmeralda on a pedestal; she is an angel. Here, Frollo sees her in a very different light. It is at this point that we get another key change. 

To me, this key change mirrors the depth of Frollo’s lust for Esmeralda. In the Off-Broadway live production of Hunchback, Patrick Page, the actor portraying Frollo, took that point to hint that Frollo’s lust for Esmeralda had taken him to masturbation, a sin in his eyes. An important side note: in the Off-Broadway version, and in the book, Frollo is an archdeacon of Notre Dame. This is a high church official. In Disney’s animated version, Frollo is a Judge. When interpreting this song, it is important for the singer to decide which characterization they are taking.

As the church service continues, Frollo begins to justify his actions:
     It’s not my fault
            Mea culpa– Through my fault
     I’m not to blame
            Mea culpa– through my fault
     It is the gypsy girl, the witch who sent this flame.
            Mea maxima culpa– through my most grievous fault
     It’s not my fault,
            Mea culpa– through my fault
     If in God’s plan
            Mea culpa– through my fault
     He made the devil so much stronger than a man.
            Mea maxima culpa– through my most grievous fault
 
While everyone else is admitting their sins, Frollo is coming up with reasons why he is not at fault. And here we have another shift. We are keeping the same framework, but going from the minor back to major, just as Frollo is asking a rather large favor from the Virgin Mary.
 
     Protect me, Maria, don’t let this siren cast her spell,
     Don’t let her fire sear my flesh and bone.
     Destroy Esmeralda and let her taste the fires of hell
     Or else let her be mine and mine alone.
 
Now we segue back to the darker sound of the minor key: 
 
     Hellfire, dark fire. Now, gypsy, it’s your turn.
     Choose me or your pyre. Be mine or you will burn. 
 
On the wordsYou will we had a quick timing change. This is repeating the earlier melody of the bells calling the people to Mass. But where that was calling the people to God, this is offering Esmeralda the choice of giving herself to Frollo or death at the stake.
 
We haven’t heard the priests for a while. They return with the Kyrie. This is another prayer. Kyrie eleison translates as “Lord have mercy.” Each time the choir begins the Kyrie, the timing changes. Each time Frollo sings over them, the timing changes back to what he was singing, showing the complete disconnect between the two.
 
                 Kyrie eleison
     God have mercy on her
                 Kyrie eleison
     God have mercy on me
                 Kyrie eleison
     But she will be mine or she will burn!
 
This is a fabulous song with so much to pull out of it! Does every song need this amount of study to be able to sing it well? NO! I would never put this much thought into “The Purple People Eater.” But some songs have layer after layer and can keep surprising you. This is one of those songs. In fact, one of my students, looking at her last year in high school, has decided that "Hellfire" is going to be her senior solo for the school choir. (Says a lot about her experience in high school.)

I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about "Hellfire", or favorite versions, let me know in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you.

I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.

Thanks for reading! Until next time!

In a 2004 survey of its listeners, Jeremy Vineof the BBC2 radio announced that “Saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand, walking through the streets of Soho in the rain, he was looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook's, going to get a big dish of beef chow mein,”had won as the most popular song opening, beating out Rock Around the Clock, among others.

Werewolves in London
Warren Zevon studied modern classical music with Igor Stravinski, who people might know from Rite of Spring(shown here from the 1931 Disney movie, Fantasia.) His early career had him leading the band and playing piano for the Everly Brothers. It was from Phil Everly in 1975 that he got the idea for “Werewolves of London.” Everly had seen the 1935 film Werewolf of Londonand suggested to Zevon that he should write a song with that title.

Writing the song took all of 15 minutes. Recording it took much, much longer. First, Zevon didn’t even record or perform it himself. Jackson Brownestarted performing the song and getting good reception for it. So, in 1978, three years after writing the song, Zevon started recording the song. Most of the budget for the album they were laying down went into this one track. Zevon and his lead guitarist were fine, they just couldn’t get the drums and bass guitar on track. Finally, after 59 takes and the addition of Fleetwood Mac’sdrummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, they achieved the sound they were looking for.

I saw werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of SoHo in the rain
He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fooks
For to get a big dish of beef chow mein
Ah-hooo, werewolves of London
Ah-hooo
Ah-hooo, werewolves of London
Ah-hooo
 
You hear him howling around your kitchen door
You better not let him in
Little old lady got mutilated late last night
Werewolves of London again
 
Ah-hooo, werewolves of London
Ah-hooo
Ah-hooo, werewolves of London
Ah-hooo
Hunh
 
(solo)
He's the hairy-handed gent
Who ran amok in Kent
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair
You better stay away from him
He'll rip your lungs out, Jim
Hunh, I'd like to meet his tailor
Ah-hooo, werewolves of London
Ah-hooo
Ah-hooo, werewolves of London
 
Ah-hooo
Well, I saw Lon Chaney walking with the Queen
Doin' the werewolves of London
I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walking with the Queen
Doin' the werewolves of London
I saw a werewolf drinkin' a piña colada at Trader Vic's
His hair was perfect
Ah-hooo
Werewolves of London
Heh, draw blood
Ah-hooo
Werewolves of London
 
Warren Zevon 
He was taken from us much too soon, in 2003 at the age of 56 from mesothelioma. He had worked with everyone from the era of pop/rock: all the members of Fleetwood Mac and theEagles, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, and Bruce Springsteento name only a few. 
 
Sometime after Zevon’s death, Jackson Browne had this to say about the song: "It’s about a really well-dressed, ladies’ man, a werewolf preying on little old ladies. In a way it’s the Victorian nightmare, the gigolo thing." 
 
I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich MusicFacebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about Werewolves of London, or favorite versions, let me know in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you.

I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.
​
Thanks for reading! Until next time!