On last week’s Open Mic Adventures post, Ponty noted that there aren’t many Halloween songs, while Christmas enjoys an embarrassment of riches in that regard.

That got me thinking:  I should showcase my Halloween song here on the blog!  Fortunately, I played it—“Ghostly“—back on Tuesday, 18 October 2022.

I wrote “Ghostly” back in 2014, right before I recorded my debut EP, Contest Winner EP, on which “Ghostly” appears as the fourth track.  It’s one of my weirder songs, as it’s in 3/4 time and in the key of C minor, and the lyrics are a bit unhinged.  It’s about a man losing his mind over the haunting memories of his lost love, and it’s the only song I know that uses the phrase “ectoplasmic remembrance.”  Indeed, it might be the only song ever written with the word “ectoplasmic,” but I’m not willing to make that bet:

Like most of my songwriting from that era (and even now), there is a clear influence from 1950s doo-wop, as the second pre-chorus demonstrates with the call-and-response vocals and the classic late 1950s/early 1960s chord progression (Eb, Cm, Ab, before departing to D major to G7).

The main chord progression is delightfully weird:  Cm to Ab, then to D and G7.  The G7 points back to the C minor nicely, and the D points to the G, but that transition from Ab to D is a head-scratcher—and I love it!

So, how does “Ghostly” stack up as a Halloween song?  Tell me what you think in the comments!

Happy All Saints’ Day!

—TPP

Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures:

• “Open Mic Adventures I: Oingo Boingo’s ‘Just Another Day’“
• “Open Mic Adventures II: Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’“
• “Open Mic Adventures III: Joanie Sommers’s ‘Johnny Get Angry’“
• “Open Mic Adventures IV: KISS’s ‘I Still Love You’“
• “Open Mic Adventures V: ‘There’s a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VI: Journey’s ‘Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VII: ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VIII: Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’“
• “Open Mic Adventures IX: Journey’s ‘Faithfully’“
• “Open Mic Adventures X: ‘Time Warp’”
• “Open Mic Adventures XI: Spooktacular Supergroup Covers ‘Monster Mash’“