The
ubiquitous
Skull logo
of The Misfits:
derived
from the 1946
serial The
Crimson Ghost
In
January of 1977,
after singing
in several garage
bands that mostly
played Black
Sabbath songs,
twenty-one year
old Glenn Danzig
decided it was
finally time
to create something
serious and
original.
As a tribute
to Marilyn Monroe,
he named his
musical project
after her final
movie, The Misfits.
The first complete
Misfits lineup
featured Danzig
on electric
piano and vocals
with his old
band mate Manny
Martínez
on drums. After
a month of practicing,
Manny suggested
that his friend,
Jerry should
audition for
bass. Jerry
had
only been practicing
the instrument
for two months.
Glenn wrote
songs inspired
by horror movies,
and both he
and Jerry began
to wear ghoulish
make-up.
Glenn and Jerry
discovered a hauntingly
frightful image
of a skull on an
old poster for The
Crimson Ghost,
a movie
serial
made in 1946, and
the grinning, Grim
Reaper-like face
became their logo.
Through 1979, the
band refined the
horror elements
of their music and
imagery to create
a new genre of music
known as Horror
punk. The seminal
influence of The
Misfits is still
evidenced in psychobilly
and goth-glam.
One of the legendary
stories of the Misfits'
legacy was their
arrest on grave-robbing
charges in New Orleans
(which they denied
and were never convicted
of).
Glenn Danzig disbanded
The Misfits in 1983
and went on to create
darker music in
his new bands Samhain
and Danzig, while
Jerry reformed The
Misfits in 1995
despite his embracing
of Christianity.
Although The Misfits
never achieved the
acclaim or the popularity
of Glenn Danzig's
later bands, The
Crimson Ghost's
startling image
from a by-gone era
continues to be
one of the most
often-seen reminders
of the popularity
of goth culture.
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