Thursday, October 29, 2015

Jamaican Halloween Spooktacular 2015 - Track Twenty One - Mad Man Party

The thin line between sanity and insanity is one that hopefully many of us never step over.  In this day and age, treatment of mental health disorders is not a laughing matter and since I'm not a trained psychiatrist or even a licensed therapist I won't get into specifics because quite honestly, that goes beyond my scope of understanding.  God knows how I was able to bullshit my way through Sociology when in college because trying to understand the human mind and the dysfunctions of such is enough to personally drive me insane.  Regardless, where would the modern horror film be without homicidal maniacs?

Let's get to today's tune!  "Mad Man Party" is the twenty-first, and second to last track in the 2015 Spooktacular and it's from one of my favorite early to mid-80s DJs Peter Metro.  Recorded and released as a single in 1986 on the 10 Roosevelt Avenue label and produced by Harry "Harry J" Johnson.  This tune, like a good deal of Peter Metro's early work, is definitely meant to be comical and takes a decidedly lighthearted tone in describing the unsettling behavior exhibited by some of the patients at Kingston's notorious Bellevue Hospital...

"I sight a mad man drinking ink and glue
who wears two plastic bag and say them shoe
I sight a mad man who eat bamboo
it look like cane but it hard to chew...
Search through the garbage when you feel hungry
eat a rotten mango and a dirty patty
Sleep anywhere when you feel sleepy
talk to yourself when you get lonely
Wear up your clothes until they get dirty
walk naked inna Kingston city..."

The introduction and the "maniacal laughter" embellishments on this track are courtesy of one of Amicus Studios' best horror anthology films, Asylum from 1972.  I discovered this film last October when I scooped up as many of the Amicus films on DVD for some marathon viewing and this was one of my favorites and I had filed away the bit of dialog in the back of mind for a future Spooktacular that required something madness related.

Peter Metro - Mad Man Party - 2015 Jamaican Halloween Spooktacular Track Twenty One

1 comment:

Christofari said...

Yes, yes, YES.
Madness and classic Dancehall; a marriage made in ... well, maybe not!
LOVE the bookend FX, too - I was a devout Amicus fan back in the day. Good times.

Thanks again, John, for really rattling our bones this year.
Hearty Halloween greetings to you and yours, and as always, my undying gratitude and admiration