Macabre Eroticism: The Work of Glenn Danzig, Part I: The Misfits

The Arbo Files

Photograph by Joseph Cultice. Retrieved: https://www.revolvermag.com/music/how-gods-kill-30-glenn-danzig-looks-back-danzig-iii

I am a walking
Screaming hell
A thing of torture to behold
This vivisection
Splits my soul
A thing of torture to behold

— “Brand New God” (1994)

Something evil scratched and clawed its way into existence on June 23, 1955. That spawn was named Glenn Allen Anzalone, the third of four boys born to a Lodi, New Jersey television repairman and former Marine who served in World War II and Korea. Decades later, Glenn Anzalone would legally change his name to Danzig. Although the reason for the change is murky, it would appear that a twentysomething Glenn had a deep fascination and appreciation for the once-German port city of Danzig (today’s Gdańsk, Poland).

While still an Anzalone, Glenn grew up in a fairly religious household, with his parents being rare Protestants in a mostly Italian and Roman Catholic town. This was not the only thing that distinguished the Anzalone brood. Their son Glenn earned a reputation as a troublesome loudmouth as a youngster. Though small in stature, young Glenn would scrap with anybody.

Beneath this tough exterior was a sensitive soul, however. Glenn was an avid reader. First it was comic books. His favorites included Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, and the Sub-Mariner. Next, Glenn discovered the gory and (relatively) extreme horror and crime comics of E.C., with Tales From the Crypt being a personal favorite. Later, in the 1970s, Glenn would discover the far more adult world of Italian and Japanese comics. Of the latter, Danzig has said in multiple interviews that he prefers the work of Go Nagai, especially his Devilman series.

Devilman tells the story of Akira Fudo, a high school student who, thanks to his sinister friend Ryo Asuka, becomes possessed by a powerful demon during a Black Sabbath ceremony. The demon, Amon, becomes a part of Akira to the point where Akira is no longer human, but a Devilman that is half-human and half-demon. Amon’s release into the body of a Japanese teenager does not sit well with other demons, specifically Lord Zennon. These jealous demons want out of their ice tombs, and Amon’s refusal to help them means that war is declared. Devilman is about an apocalyptic war between demons and Devilman, and Tokyo is the battlefield. Devilman is a classic horror manga (and later anime) that contains an insane amount of gore, nudity, and other anti-social elements.

Comics were not the only thing that informed young Danzig. Poetry played a large role in his development too, with Danzig preferring the Gothic sensuality of poets like Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and the criminally overlooked Australian poet Christopher Brennan. Brennan’s “Lilith,” specifically the stanza, “She is the night: all horror is of her, heap'd / shapeless, on the unclaim'd chaotic marsh /or huddled on the looming sepulchre / where the incult and scanty herb is harsh,” would directly influence the lyrics for the 1988 song “She Rides.”

“She rides
Let loose upon the world
She is the night
And my loneliness n bondage
She's black
And sin runs down her back
She rides
From the daylight in chains…”

Photograph by Alison Braun/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Poetry, comic books, and late-night TV, specifically horror movies from the 1940s and 1950s, laid the foundation for Danzig’s later art. Music, however, proved to be the biggest influence. At age eleven, Danzig became a roadie for a local Lodi band. Next, he picked up the bass guitar and started singing in garage bands. Despite his lack of formal training, Danzig proved to be an in-demand singer with a baritone range and sultry style reminiscent of Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison. Danzig loved both singers, and he also loved 1950s and 1960s pop, early heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer, and the soulful sounds of Roy Orbison. Eventually the need to make music proved too strong. After trying to become a professional comic book artist, which required a sojourn to New York City and the Tisch School of the Arts, Danzig returned to New Jersey and co-founded The Misfits in 1977.

1977 was the year when punk rock exploded. Over in England, The Sex Pistols became infamous for their disrespect towards the monarchy, their profanity-laden television interviews, and their chaotic live shows. In New York, The Ramones continued to influence new bands, many of which took punk rock energy and combined with it with arthouse sensibilities. True to their name, The Misfits did not quite fit in with either of these scenes. Four dudes from New Jersey, The Misfits started recording and doing gigs in New York City (primarily as Max’s Kansas City) by early 1978. In that year, The Misfits got a contract with Blank, an imprint of Mercury Records. Blank gave the boys free studio time in New York. With this, The Misfits produced their first full-length: Static Age. Not released until 1996, Static Age features some of the best known and beloved Misfits songs, including “Last Caress,” “Bullet,” and “Hybrid Moments.”

“Bullet,” the band’s second single, began its life as a poem that Danzig wrote in 1974. A violent and depraved sexual fantasy concerning the Kennedy assassination, “Bullet” exudes the feverish mania of punk rock during its halcyon period.

“President's bullet ridden body in the street
Ride, Johnny, ride
Kennedy's shattered head hits concrete
Ride, Johnny, ride
Johnny's wife is floundering
Johnny's wife is scared
Run, Jackie, run
Texas is an outrage when your husband is dead
Texas is an outrage when they pick up his head
Texas is the reason that the president's dead
You gotta suck, suck, Jackie, suck…”

The grotesqueness of “Bullet” is surmounted by the sheer horror of “Last Caress,” which uses a cozy-type melody from the 1950s to recount the exploits of a serial killer.

“I got something to say
I killed a baby today
And it doesn't matter much to me
As long as it's dead

Well I got something to say
I raped your mother today
And it doesn't matter much to me
As long as she spread..”

Contrary to the popular belief that The Misfits only wrote songs about horror movies, Static Age shows a streetwise punk band deeply in-touch with urban monstrosities. Sex, murder, and loneliness all factor into Danzig’s early work. Yet, it is still true that the nerdy boy from Lodi tapped most frequently into the loves of his you for lyrical content. For every “Where Eagles Dare,” which is about a luckless loser trying to score with streetwalkers, Danzig penned songs like “Night of the Living Dead” and “Astro Zombies.”

“Well, I turned into a Martian (Woah-oh-oh)
I can't even recall my name (Woah-oh-oh)
Sometimes, I never hardly sleep at night (Woah-oh-oh)
Well, I turned into a Martian today…”

— “I Turned Into A Martian” (1982)

The band’s second full-length, Walk Among Us (1982), often considered the peak of The Misfits, is a punk rock gem that inspired an entire sub-genre. Horror punk is nothing more or less than Misfits worship, with bands using doo-wop vocalizations and rockabilly-style rhythms to craft fast-paced punk songs about vampires, creatures from outer space, and the like. More specifically, horror punk was born the moment Walk Among Us was printed, and Danzig’s lyrics provided the poetic impetus for this most low-status (and I mean that in the best way possible) genre.

Demon, I am, and face, I peel
See your skin turned inside out, 'cause
Gotta have you on my wall
Gotta have you on my wall, 'cause

I want your skull
I need your skull
I want your skull

— “Skulls” (1982)

Just as The Misfits created horror punk with Walk Among Us, their next album, 1983’s Earth A.D./Wolf’s Blood, bypassed the punk world totally and entered the realm of thrash metal. One could argue that this album is the first ever example of crossover, or the mixture of hardcore punk and thrash metal that would characterize a lot of underground music in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Once again, The Misfits were way ahead of the (wolf) pack.

Danzig’s lyrics on Earth A.D./Wolf’s Blood fit the music, as they are meaner, nastier, and not couched behind movie-inspired camp. The goofiness is gone.

“You check and see
Reality of the wolf
It's in the blood
I wanna be the fucking savior

Humans are weak
What else you fucking do
Humans are weak
I want your blood..”

— “Demonomania” (1983)

Earth A.D./Wolf’s Blood sees Danzig exploring more primordial horrors. “Death Comes Ripping” is a straightforward murder and dismemberment story, while “Queen Wasp” is about a woman-wasp hybrid that lives for sex and murder. Clearly something was afoot during the recording of this album. Danzig drove the band towards faster and harsher things, and that required greater complexity. From his perspective, Jerry Only and his brother Doyle (bassist and guitarist, respectively) were not yet capable of delivering what Danzig wanted. This, along with several fights between members and that one time in New Orleans when the band was arrested for grave robbing, spelled the end for The Misfits. The band called it quits in 1983.

The demon of creativity was not done with Glenn Danzig, though. A year later, Danzig had a new and much darker band. This band, Samhain, would blur the boundaries between horror punk, deathrock, and heavy metal. One of their albums would directly inspire Metallica, while another laid the groundwork for Danzig’s most successful project.

Stay tuned here at the Bizarchives for next week’s installment…