Maestro
relatively new father, (giving it my best go)
a fang of old things, rather than the new...
Patricia
Emily
1940's Harley Davidsons
The theremin
York peppermint patties
Vampires
Ghoulies
My Fang Club
Psychedelia
Old music
Transylvania
Film noir
Renaissance art
Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman
Clara Rockmore
Lydia Kavina
Vincent Price.
Well...My own of course
Naz Nomad & The Nightmares
Scott Walker
Elvis
Siouxsie
Masters Of The Backsides
Lords of The New Church
Prokfiev
Link Wray
Gun Club
Sisters of Mercy
Lee Hazelwood
The Bags
Jim Morrison
Martyn Jacques
Rusty Warren
Chris Isaak
The Dimmed
The Doomed
There are so many
Stranger on the train
Touch of evil
Dracula (of course)
Bride of Frankenstein
Mostly horror, you get the picture.
The Young Ones
Top of the Pops
TCM
Many and varied are the books which have found their way into my subconscious when writing songs, more so than the straight quotation of lines used as lyrics, as I've always tried to keep away from doing that. From Poe, Stoker, H.G. Wells - to Kerouac, Hammet, Chandler, etc., to name but a few. I've also always enjoyed a good Biography. There are a few exceptions: a biography of James Dean by David Dalton influenced me to write the song Plan 9 Channel 7 based on the relationship of Vampira and James Dean in his early days of Hollywood. On reading Ann Rice's 'interview with the Vampire' in 1976, I penned the song which became known as 'The Dog' but was actually about the strange vampire child Claudia, described in Rice's book. The idea of an adults mind trapped in a child's body was too fascinating to resist. There is also one more I can think of, with 'The Phantom Chords', which is 'Swamp Thing', written about a character in a Kerouac book, called 'Doctor Sax', who in turn is probably influenced by the character 'The Shadow', with his large black slouch hat and cape like overcoat of which I have always been a fan of the 1930's/40's radio shows - but that's another story.