Customer Reviews

Do They Know It's Hallowe'En

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This song was created to make fun of the Bob Geldof "Do They Know It's Christmas" sing-along. It's a song begging the world to save the U.S.A. from the annual terror that is Halloween. The singers are all members of the alt rock community. It contains 4 versions of the song (full, radio edit, and two remixes). And purchases go to charity.

It's a great, sarcastic song and a poke in the eye to Geldof and all. Beck does a great job with his pseudo-serious singing. It's very catchy and has great lines like "Children on the street, begging for treats... Parents are hiding, our babies are sobbing.", "Dead dogs and broomsticks, pumpkins and flames. Ending this night, ending the shame!", and "They [the rest of the world] don't know what we endure once a year."

I've never been fond of the all-star charity ballad "Do They Know It's Christmas" -- it's always seemed very soppy and self-righteous.

So it was with glee that I picked up "Do They Know It's Halloween," a wildly tongue-in-cheek parody with an all-star cast of indie-rockers... and a few others too (Elvira anyone?). Rather than sounding like a mishmash, it sounds like a carol sung by the Addams Family -- weird, wonky and riotously funny.

It opens with Beck and Karen O, crooning, "Once a year on a spooky night/it's Halloween... and what a fright!", followed by Win and Regina of Arcade Fire, "Young boys and ghouls... in ghoulish disguise/they cover their skin, conceal their eyes." That kicks off a new-wavy little indie-rock tune, full of ghosts, ghouls, dark humor, trick-or-treating, and death by bobbing for apples.

There's also a brief interlude where David Cross assumes that it's all a joke... and as the horrified shrieks continue, he starts wailing, "Come out please! It's not funny anymore... OH MY GOD IN HEAVEN!"

It's followed up by a trio of reinvented or remixed versions. There's the radio edit, which basically has the middle part of it missing, followed by the "Disco D" remix, which is basically the same tune with scattered "Help us! It's too late...," hysterical pleas and ghoulish gloating. Finally there's "Th' Corn Gangg Remix," a creepy reworking with a dark, urgent sound.

How can you go wrong with a vocal cast like this? Beck, Karen O, Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, Postal Service, pop wunderkinds Smoosh, Feist, Rilo Kiley, Devendra Banhart and Peaches, with Elvira and Nardwuar as some non-singing extras. And it doesn't go wrong. Though each singer gets only a line or two before it switches to someone else, the vocals switch smoothly from person to person.

Among the highlights are Beck's faux-serious crooning, Peaches and Feist's creepy vocals, and that little freak-out interlude with David Cross. It's also written with macabre humor and a few subtle jibes at Geldof and Co. "Drowning in a bucket of apples bobbing/parents are hiding, babies are sobbing," goes one line, as well as "The writing's on the tombstone under the willow tree" -- what, did you expect a wall?

If Tim Burton ever made an indie-rock song, it would probably sound like "Do They Know It's Halloween," a bizarre and funny all-star parody. Thoroughly entertaining.

The lists of artists that participated in this song is too long to type, but suffice it to say it's impressive. I searched long and hard for this mix, and what not disappointed.

This is an "all-star" single released to benefit UNICEF, although most of the "stars" are people the general public has never heard of from the indy rock scene. Any resemblance to "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is purely intentional. "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" is a cute, humorous song about the dangers of All Hallows Eve. There are four different mixes of it. There aren't enough Halloween songs out there, and it's nice to have another one.