An Addams Family Dinner Party
My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a playlist around some theme. This week, Kiley Fox assembles 12 songs that would be at home with The Addams Family. Read Kiley’s thoughts on each song and listen along to the Spotify playlist on top and/or the YouTube playlist at the bottom of the post.
The Addams Family is my royal family. They encompass my values, my interests, my dreams, and overall are everything I want from my life. Oft seen as the top billing as scary families go, I think their depth goes much further than spooky and kooky. They are inclusive, loyal, fierce yet loving, inspirational, adventurous, wholesome and progressive. They love each other deeply and protect their right to be who they are even if it doesn't fit in with societal norms. You know they throw the best parties too, because they would invite so many different kinds of fun and interesting people and creatures. This is just a short list of what I imagine would be played at an Addams Family dinner party.
1. “Poor Edward” by Tom Waits
Tom Waits would be one of the Addams' favorite musical artists. Hell, he probably is related somehow. Waits has that aura of the old-world side show loneliness about him and often so does his music. The entire “Alice” album would fit perfectly on this list. From start to finish it is a masterpiece of storytelling and carnival-like whimsy. It's my favorite album by Tom Waits. I chose “Poor Edward,” because it feels most like something that would show up in a Charles Addams cartoon.
2. “Aquarium” (from Carnival of Animals) by Camille Saint-Saëns
You know that song that we all associate with the mysterious and magical that feels like it's in every movie? It's this one. It is one song in a greater symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns. Again, every song in it is a stunner, but this is the one I imagine hearing in my head as I walk through the Addams house. It's fantastical, macabre, and yet not threatening. This is how I see the Addams Family.
3. “Lose Your Soul” by Dead Man's Bones
Dead Man's Bones is probably my favorite thing that Ryan Gosling has done, and that's saying something because I do think he's a talented actor. Together with director/producer Zach Shields, they made an album perfect for Halloween with its haunted, ghostly, cool autumn night vibes. The children's choir in this one has such an uplifting role in that cursed treasure way. This might be the most impossibly cool song for the spooky season there is. I chose this one partially because in my head, this is how I get the Addams kids in here.
4. “Flesh 'N Blood” by Oingo Boingo
Perfect for the GHOSTBUSTERS II soundtrack, and at home on any spooky playlist. Danny Elfman is another guy that probably has some of that Addams blood in him. While pretty much any Oingo Boingo would be fitting, I chose this one for its celebratory message of inclusion and togetherness. Ultimately, the Addams Family brand is one of love and support for anyone that feels like they don't fit in the normie world. In fact, I wrote about that very message for Neon Splatter earlier, and you can find it here.
5. “Where Monsters Fear to Tread” by Casey Redmond
I love the folk horror feel of this song. Folk horror has the residue of timelessness. Something that has and always will exist in the shadows of this Earthly plane. The Addams are the same.
6. “Riboflavin- Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood” by Don Hinson & The Rigamorticians
Damn if this doesn't have 1964 The Addams Family TV Show all over it. Kooky, swinging, wholesome, monstery, and positive, it is all the same wonderful aspects of the original show. I can picture Gomez dancing to this as he happily tells guest he can accommodate them.
7. “A Trip to the Moon Score” by David Short
The Addams have an affinity for the moon. They love to moon bathe and have tried on occasion to visit there. We talk about this very episode on our podcast, You Rang: An Addams Family Podcast. The thing I love most about this selection is that since it is from 1902, it predates the 1964 family and would have been something they were probably very familiar with.
8. “Airship Pirates” by Abney Park
A lot of people give me grief for listening to steampunk music, but I know I'm in good company. At the very least, the adventurous Gomez and tinkering Pugsley would enjoy Steampunk. The Addams have pirate treasure all over the house like it's dust. They also speak lovingly of pirate relatives. You know they'd have a jolly time partying to this song.
9. “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora
Something we don't talk about enough is how the original Addams TV Show played a lot with the popular culture of the day. Things like robots, space travel, adventure tales, apes, and classic monsters can all be found in the original series. We know both Gomez and Pugsley especially, have a fondness for gorillas. I'd like to think that Pugsley is the original “Tarzan Boy.”
10. “Cannibal Beach” by Aurelio Voltaire, featuring Black Flamingos
You had to know Aurelio Voltaire would show up here somewhere. He's who the family would call to perform at their party. “Cannibal Beach” has those good ‘60s horror beach party feels. When I hear this, I see the family doing the Watusi as the Creature plays guitar.
11. “Devil's Dance” by John Williams (from THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK) Performed by Gil Shaham & Jonathan Feldman
If ever I heard a theme for Anjelica Huston's portrayal of Morticia, it would be this. Aggressively demonic, yet sexy and alluring. The thing about Morticia is that at the core, she's the scariest one of the bunch. She's the mother demon. She is quiet and demure until she is not. You do not want to find out the “not.” It is so fitting that the master John Williams wrote this about witches.
12. “Danse Macabre, Op. 40” by Leopold Stokowski & Camille Saint-Saëns, featuring Sidney Sax
Regal, spooky, exquisite, bombastic, sophisticated, also it's in the very name “Macabre”, this is the opus of the Addams Family legacy. I bet they played this at the same party where they danced the “Mamushka.”
If you enjoyed diving into the Addams Family world with me briefly here, please consider giving the You Rang: An Addams Family Podcast a listen. We cover the Addams Family universe thematically and sometimes nonsensically. Currently, we are going one episode at a time of the original TV series, but we also publish bonus episodes and one-offs that dig deeper into the Addams Family lore and whimsy. Thanks for taking this mixtape trip with me. Stay spooky and kooky, fiends!
You can find You Rang: An Addams Family Podcast on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.
