SOUNDTRACK: “Grim Grinning Ghosts (The Screaming Song)“ Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride (1963).
When producer/musicians John Congleton was a guest DJ on NPR, he played some expected and then some very unexpected songs. The most surprising (although it does make sense) was this song from the Disney Haunted Mansion.
Maybe this song is the reason why he likes the dark so much.
It’s a fun bouncy song, like most Disney stuff it’s hard to believe anyone was really afraid of it, and yet as a kid, that voice and those sounds could certainly be frightening. The song has all kinds of sounds in it–keys, tubular bells, xylophone, hammered percussion marimba, and a lot of backing vocals. And of course the amazing vocals (and laughs) Thurl Ravencroft and others. There’s also great effects with analog tape. He also points out that the chord progression is quite chromatic: A to B flat to B which is jagged and close together and not easy to listen to.
Congleton says (listen around 34:50):
The vocals are done by Thurl Ravenscroft, who was the voice of Tony the Tiger and the Grinch. I mean, This is Tom Waits before Tom Waits. When I was a kid, I was so attracted to this song, but I was scared of it. The record would sit with my other records and I would see it in there, and I would be like, ‘Do I have the bravery to listen to it right now?’ And sometimes I would, and I was mesmerized by it. But the then I grew up, and I went back and listened to it, and was like, ‘This is brilliant. This is really, really well done.’ I never in my entire life heard background vocals that sounded as tight as that. Never in my life. The harmonies are the tightest harmonies I have ever heard ever. And it’s like, this is for a silly kid’s record — but they were committed to making something special. Everything about that song is incredible to me.”
And yes, it is a silly song, but the recording is really impressive.
[READ: April 20, 2017] Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?
It has been almost two years since I read Book 3. The fact that I’ve had book 4 all this time and simply not read it was not a good sign. And, ultimately, I found this story ending to be strangely annoying, vaguely compelling and ultimately unsatisfying.
This book mostly follows young Snicket on his solo mission. He awakes in the middle of the night to see his chaperone S. Theodora Markson sneak out of their room. He follows her to a warehouse where she steals something and then to a train. She boards but he is unable to.
The train used to make stops in town but it no longer does and Snicket jumps on board at the only place he can think of). While he’s hanging on the outside of the train, Moxie drags him in through the window. That’s about the first third of the book. It was nice to have another character for him to talk to.
Then a murder happens (this is a pretty violent series for kids). And the blame is laid at the wrong person’s feet.
I was pleased to see the return of Mimi and Harvey Mitchum, the bickering officers who spend more time fighting with each other than solving crimes. They are always good for comic relief, even if their bratty son is more awful than comical.
By the half way point, all of Snicket’s kid friends join in the excitement. Which boils down to: working independently of each other, they have tried to lure Hangfire onto the train to ensnare him. But because they worked independently, they wind up not fooling anyone.
Perhaps my favorite scene was in the middle of the book where Snicket accosts Ellington Feint–she is my favorite character. She reveals a secret of her own. And then–shock–Snicket meets Hangfire face to face. Well, face to mask. And, given what we’ve just learned, the deal they make it pretty shocking.
With new information on hand, Snicket tries to get Ellington to join the V.F.D.–if they will have her–which seems unlikely.
And then comes the big showdown. Hangfire is unmasked. Or is he? Or is she? The real murderer is revealed and arrested. Or is he Or is she?
And then comes the revelation of what the Bombinating Beast statue actually does. And I found that very silly and rather unsatisfying.
Evidently everyone on the train does too–it seems that Snicket has made everyone unhappy.
The very end of the book adds even more questions than answers.
If you try to connect the end of this book to the beginning of a Series of Unfortunate Events, you can’t).
I enjoyed the few book references (and the references to librarians whom I did not know were librarians), but I felt the book lacked so much of what was in the previous books–no interesting recipes, no fun reading tips between the taxi drivers, no frivolity. The whole “lone wolf” aspect of the story just takes the fun away from character interaction.
So, I was a little disappointed overall with this series, and I had to wonder if the series was really intended for kids. I would think that kids would get really frustrated with the whole “that’s the wrong question” conceit (I know I did). Even the jokes (that may not be jokes really) about people’s names, would go over their heads.
The artwork by Seth is once again fantastic and noirish, though, and the book looks beautiful.
I definitely didn’t enjoy this as much as Unfortunate Events. Although honestly I can’t have disliked it that much as I read it all in a few hours–it was fast read, at least!
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