Monday, October 4, 2021

Halloween Song: Stray Cats - “Cry Danger”


Here’s a brand new Halloween song profile.

Stray Cats celebrated their 40th Anniversary in style with their 2019 release 40, as original members Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker, and Slim Jim Phantom picked up right where they had left off 26 years earlier. Some might think the trio should have expanded on the rockabilly sound that endeared it to the MTV crowd, but there was no denying 40 was fun. Particularly on “Rock It Off,” “I Attract Trouble,” and “I’ll Be Looking Out For You.”


“Cry Danger” is the song to pick for a Halloween party playlist. By the time Setzer offers the first line “A wicked wind is blowing, and I blew in with it,” his twangy guitar playing, along with the pulsating Rocker/Phantom rhythm section, has the listener totally hooked. Setzer assumes the role of a drifter coming back to his hometown, only to find something’s gone wrong. In addition to his deserted former house and the empty streets, the ground beneath him is shaking.


His companion feels the same trepidation. “In the witching hour, she whispered ‘Please beware’ and I heard the devil say, ‘You’re not going anywhere.’” The lyrics don’t spell everything out, but since Setzer previously noted, “We rode a reckless highway/I took it all too fast,” maybe that’s not really his hometown they’ve arrived at. 

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