SPOOKYSONGS

You’re Dead – Norma Tanega

If you aren’t watching the SyFy series What We Do in the Shadows, stop reading this and go watch it, right now. All of it. Easily the funniest show on television right now. It is based on the movie of the same name, which is also incredibly funny. The show takes it to another level though. So so good.

Lol.

“You’re Dead” by Norma Tanega serves as the opening theme of the show (and the “theme” of the movie). The odd meter of the song lets us know we’re in for something slightly off-kilter. And also, dead and out of this world.

Tanega was born in the late 1930s. In the 1960s she was a camp counselor, where a record producer just happened to catch her performing for the campers. Her first single “Walking a Cat Named Dog” was a huge hit in 1966, making it to #22 on the US charts and performing very well elsewhere. The album “Walking a Cat Named Dog” featured “You’re Dead”.

The song starts with Norma telling us “Don’t sing if you want to live long, they have no use for your song – You’re dead, you’re dead, you’re dead and out of this world”. I’m not quite sure what she’s getting at other than “don’t get too full of yourself, you’re dead to “them”.

Further verses warn the listener not to fall for their dirty tricks, you’re dead to them. Each verse gets a bit more sinister as we go along, leading to: “Hear the unloved weeping like rain / Guard your sleep from the sound of their pain”. This could be about the burdens of show-biz, but I think it’s about being a zombie.

Pictured: Zombie?

This song goes well with other folksy Spooky Songs like “Season of the Witch” and “Ghost Riders in the Sky”.

Norma Tanega did not have any other hits, but wrote some obscure songs for her one-time girlfriend Dusty Springfield. She became a painter and a sculptor for the remainder of her life. Sadly, lost her battle with colon cancer in 2019 and is now dead and out of this world.

Here’s Laszlo the vampire telling you all about being a vampire in the modern world: