"I saw — with shut eyes, but acute mental vision — I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together." - Mary Shelley
Victor Frankenstein's abominable "wretch" creeps about the hallways of the musical canon with spooky frequency. Since the novel was first published in 1818 the creature has been the inspiration for myriad tunes, some of which are embedded within the ravines of this article. The novel achieved a second publication after being popularised, among others sources, in a stage production by Richard Brinsley Peake (1823) and has since been recreated using every artistic endeavour available.
The story follows the exploits of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientist with a taste for the 'unhallowed arts' of galvanism. From the depraved depths of the ill-fated, Frankenstein brings forth a creature doomed by the curse of emotional isolation. Far from the beautiful being Frankenstein hoped to make, the "vile insect" was an abhorrent, eight-foot fiend racked with the countenance of Milton's Belial. To forge the "daemon" Victor "collected bones from the charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame." He collected gruesome shanks of animal and human from the "dissecting-room and the slaughter-house". This reanimation of muted flesh brought forth a succession of tragedy.
Immanuel Kant first coined the term "Modern Prometheus" when referring to Benjamin Franklin and his experiments with electricity. These experiments led to the invention of the lightning rod and 'positivity' and 'negativity' as a device to describe charge. Shelley uses the term as a metaphorical allusion throughout the novel. Prometheus was the Titan from Greek mythology who created man and gave us fire. Shelly sees this bestowing of 'carnal light' as the catalyst for horror. Fire leads to the hunt, murder. Prometheus stole fire from the Gods as Frankenstein stole the divine power of creation to deliver his monster.
What has that divine creativity spawned in the form of music? Below we deliver the Top 5 howling Frankenstein songs:
Top 5. Frankenstein Tracks:
Popularised in Wayne's World, Cooper's track tells the story of a cannibal rapist with the insatiate desire to 'drink the wine from your fur tea cup'. Wow - I didn't realise how shit this song was - it's staying in the list though.
Released in August 1962, Monster Mash has been a staple Halloween soundtrack ever since. The song follows a mad scientist whose creation, late one evening, rises from a operating slab to perform a new dance. This jig swiftly becomes "the hit of the land" when the scientist throws a jamboree for the other monsters. It's been covered by everyone from The Beach Boys to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band but "Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?" - unlucky Dracula.
This track got its name after Edgar Winter spliced together 100s of different bits of tape, which he had recorded himself on multiple instruments, echoing Frankenstein's own horrific jigsaw. The track also stands out for featuring some of the worst dressed men in musical history. Never have we witnessed four men looking like Noel Fielding's rainbow tampon, and thought they looked alright - so no change here then.
This tenacious musician has made a million different allusions to the Modern Prometheus in his work. Any number of his amazing mixes cater for the monster-obsessed music lover. We strongly suggest you get over his blog right now and download one of his Bloody Halloween Mixes.
Steven Tyler disclosed that the band saw Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein late one evening following a recording session for their album Toys in the Attic. He became inspirited by a gag scene where Igor instructs Dr. Frankenstein to “walk this way” and then shuffles in an amusing manner (which the doctor mimics). Tyler thought the phrase was great, and he and Joe Perry used it as the title of what became one of the band’s best-known songs.
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