Dokken - Dream Warriors

Boo! Sorry to have frightened you so badly there. I just can’t help getting into the spirit of things, given the fact that October is slipping away so quickly. It’s the most wonderful time of the year for your average rock and metal fan, after all (not for the first time, Andy Williams; you’ve got nothing on the spooky season). Here at Rock Song of the Week, we never let an opportunity to celebrate that most skeleton-riddled of holidays pass us by in the traditional way. This usually means we’re sitting in our living rooms with the lights off to deter visitors, with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a tiny bag of Haribo in the other.

So, who remembers Dokken? If your memory is about on par with Dave Mustaine’s about the 1980s, you might be surprised to learn that the big-haired, bigger riffing glam metallers are still knocking about to this day, albeit with a few line up changes along the way. They formed in 1976 in their earliest iteration, breaking up and reforming a few times but retaining the services of founding member, guitarist and vocalist Don Dokken throughout. They had a few pop-infused ballads that did tremendously well in the charts and plenty of other songs that did just about fine; their ex-bassist also voiced Johnny Cage in the 2011 Mortal Kombat game, so there’s a pub quiz fact you might hear at an incredibly niche pub.

1986 is the year we’re focusing on in particular, however. The release of the second best Nightmare on Elm Street film, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (I will hear no arguments at this time about Wes Craven’s New Nightmare being the best one, because it is) allowed the band to record a brand new song for the soundtrack. They came up with the rather appropriately titled Dream Warriors, a huge slab of glam metal goodness that features the Prime-Time villain himself, Robert Englund’s Freddy Kreuger. All harmonic choruses and widdly guitar solos, it rocks the pants off of pretty much any of the time-period slasher soundtracks with a panache that only the most devout heavy metal bands can manage. Plus, it’s so 80s that you might start growing shoulder pads and a cocaine addiction after just one listen.

So whatever you get up to on Halloween night proper - be it dressing up as some obscure SNL character and having to explain your costume all night at a party, or wishing that the entire concept of children didn’t exist - make sure that you dial in to this very tune on this very page and make it your own personal soundtrack. Stay safe, stay spooky and, above all, keep it rocking. I think I can trust most of you to manage at least two out of those three.