America 250 Rocktober Song #20: "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)" by Type O Negative

Somehow I haven't featured a song from a New York artist in this America 250 Rocktober.  So let's do it.  Brooklyn's Type O Negative was one of the premier American goth/doom metal bands in the '90s.

"Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)," off of the band's third album, 1993's Bloody Kisses, is an 11-minute musical and emotional journey.  There are slow parts, creepy parts, rocking parts, wicked solos, and two choruses, one of which anthemically shouts "Loving you was like loving the dead!"  The song is supposedly a facetious take on dating a goth chick, with references to various horror characters, and if you know that and listen to the lyrics, the song is pure satire about goth culture.  My favorite anecdote about the song -- and I say that like I know more than one anecdote about the song -- is how it was written.  Lead singer, songwriter, and one-time Playgirl centerfold Peter Steele drove a garbage truck before he was able to become a full-time musician, and he said this about writing the song:  "I was waiting in line for three hours to dump 40 cubic yards of human waste at the Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station, and I wrote the song in my head. I'm not kidding you."  More like Brown No. 2, am I right?  But seriously, it's a great song, all 11 minutes and 14 seconds of it, and a great addition to any Halloween playlist.  Oh, and Rolling Stone ranked it #64 on its 2023 list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs.