Customer Reviews

Ghostly Sounds (Record R0018)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This record has an incredibly deep-rooted seat in my entire recollection of the mood surrounding my childhood. Halloween was the part of the year my brother Chad and I looked forward to all year, and it seemed to always be lurking around the depths of my subconscious. When I was about eight, my demented mother who lived for scaring the hell out of her children, picked up Ghostly Sounds at the mall a few days before the big day. Oh, how she loved the reaction she got out of us. I clearly remember thinking those sound effects were far too haunting to be faked, and the tormented soul narrating the whole thing was as frightening to me as he was an object of pity; for the horrors he beheald in person I could only imagine! This album was way ahead of its time and wonderfully well produced. I still have a rough time getting to sleep when such topics as the goblin song, monsters, scare parents, and threaten and yell creep into my mind to rampage all night long. Strange what that record did to me, I still get crazy goosebumps everytime I think of it. Actually, I still can't listen to the goblin song part of it. 26 years old, and this record still haunts me to this day. The mood of it seeped into my brother and I's nighmares and horriffic nights without sleep literally for years. I can't see how it was innocently made for children to giggle at and forget, because "lasting impression" is seriously an understatement here. Gershon Kingsley, the producer, certainly knew his way around the mind of a child. As much as it scares the ... out of me though, I love it dearly. That mood it puts me in to even think about, let alone remember, is invaluable and priceless to me. Ghostly Sounds was a very important influence in my development of interests and hobbies over the years. Check it out if you haven't heard it yet, or play it for your poor kids. Don't forget to crank it up while they hide under the bed, covering their ears as their imagination takes them places they never knew were there to begin with and probably wish they hadn't discovered. They'll thank you later.

My mother first heard about sound effects and Halloween-oriented records back in 1984 when I was ten years old; she was immediately charmed with the idea (Halloween was her favorite holiday, as it remains mine today), and one day came home from the local K-mart or wherever toting the ominous-looking "Ghostly Sounds", complete with the cheesy yet remarkably unsettling artwork of George Peed on the cover. We put it on---and were immediately disgusted. Instead of being a collection of sound effects and creepy music, which was exactly what a person needs to haunt their house come Halloween, we found some extremely nervous-sounding cat telling a long, rambling story for the full length of both sides of the record. The first story ("Ghostly Sounds") was at least passable, but the second side took the idea to a ridiculous extreme, even for a children's record, with a story called "The Ghosts From Outer Space." Even at ten, this crap was preposterous. So we quickly shelved the record, and moved on to other more interesting digs---finding the definitive gem of the medium (if such a thing can be said of sound effects records), Walt Disney Studio's 1979 release "Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House" about a week later, and making that the more-or-less official haunted house record every year around the house (although we would continue to buy others).

For years it collected dust in my record collection, until one day about six years ago I unearthed it and, feeling nostalgic, gave it a listen. And you know what? I'm charmed. It could be the deep-seated desire to revisit my childhood, but the record's actually not that bad (if you're into this sort of thing; I've become something of a minor collector of these records over the years, a weird little mini-obsession no one seems to understand)! Not in that "it's so bad it's good" kind of way either! Even the goofy clyde telling a long, rambling poem that basically fizzles out at the end is still accentuated by the weird sound effects and background music that only could have come out of as distorted and half-realized time as the 80's was. I still put it on to this day, and, since October of '2000 is with us at the time of this writing, I've brought it out with the rest of the collection, to stand alongside Vincent Price's "A Hornbook for Witches," "Alfred Hitchcock's Ghost Stories for Young People", "A Night In A Haunted House/A Night In A Graveyard," and others too numerous to mention (although I'm still partial to that old Disney record). I listened to it only last night myself---with only the slightest reservation about the other person listening in the room, smiling doubtfully at me.

If this kind of jazz is your bag, buy this record!

I found a copy of this record 10 years ago and I have used it (dubbed onto tape) for haunted houses ever since. It's one continuous track of storms, screams, and other sounds without the goofy "Happy Halloween" messages or stupid music that you find on some haunted soundtracks.