The lyrics went like this...

White on white translucent black capes
Back on the rack
Bela Lugosi's dead
The bats have left the bell tower
The victims have been bled
Red velvet lines the black box
Bela Lugosi's dead
Undead undead undead
The virginal brides file past his tomb
Strewn with time's dead flowers
Bereft in deathly bloom
Alone in a darkened room
The count
Bela Logosi's dead
Undead undead undead





I got the first call over my cell, I was at the Starwood Festival deep in the magical woods, when I heard his voice. It was David J, the bassist from the seminal gothic rock band Bauhaus. David actually wrote the lyrics to Bela Lugosi's Dead. I remember seeing it on the big screen as the opening to cult vampire movie The Hunger, staring David Bowie, and the song floored me. It hit me like a wall of bricks connecting me to my funerary past but in some new culteral cool way. Anyway, David said he'd like to attend Kerouac Fest, "...The hotel looks fascinating." He had only one request, he didn't want to be housed in the Canopy Room of the second floor.

David stayed a few days here in the hotel, in the Mermaid Room. He really liked my mom's pancakes. On Saturday night he took the stage, and for our great delight, he played Bela Lugosi's Dead. It was magnificent.


(David appeared on releases from Porno for Pyros and Jane's Addiction as well as forming and playing bass and singing for Love and Rockets. He just wrote and directed the play Silver For Gold based on the life of Edie Sedgewick. You can check him out at www.davidjonline.com )


(David J. of Bauhaus, light painting by Adam Blai, taken in the Grand Midway Hotel, August 2008)