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On August 5th, 1980 The Misfits started recording at Master Sound Productions in New York; during these sessions (that lasted through September 5th) Bobby Steele began continuously missing rehearsals as well as not showing up for sessions. In his place The Misfits brought in Jerry's younger brother Paul, aka. Doyle. Doyle had been eager to join the band since he was around 14 but his mother wouldn't allow it and instead had been doing whatever he could for them in the interim.
Newspaper story about Doyle's middle school graduation (1978); republished in Ugly Things #12.
High school photos of Doyle from around the time he first joined The Misfits.
He began learning chords from Glenn and Jerry and rehearsing with them after he had received a guitar for his 8th grade graduation. Bobby laid down three guitar tracks for the 13 songs recorded at Master Sound Productions and later Doyle added guitar to 10 of those. In April 1981 three songs from these sessions would see release on the 3 Hits From Hell 7"; London Dungeon, Horror Hotel and Ghouls Night Out; the promotional poster for 3 Hits From Hell featured the "new" Misfits logo inspired by the lettering used on Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazine's logo.
Doyle's first show with The Misfits; photo by Joseph Szkodzinski.
The Misfits first show since July 10th, 1980 was on October 31st at Irving Plaza opening for early "shock rocker" Screaming Jay Hawkins; Bobby Steele was informed shortly before the performance that he was out of the band. The show was proceeded earlier that day by an appearance on The Uncle Floyd Show where The Misfits played along to the studio versions of Halloween and Vampira.
Clockwise from left; promo poster, front and back of the 3 Hits From Hell 7".
In yet another period of relative inactivity Glenn and Jerry recorded the song Archangel in March with plans to have Dave Vanian perform vocals on; Dave went to Jerry's house and practiced the song but never came back to record it. Archangel would of course is better known as a Samhain song appearing on their debut album Initium (August 1984). With the insistence of George Germain Glenn entered Mix-O-Lydian Studio in New Jersey in April 1981 to record two songs for a solo 7" single.
For whatever reason the Master Sound Productions sessions were unsatisfactory and the band did another session in June at New Found Sound (New Found Sounds). This time they recorded 8 tracks; two of which were previously recorded at Master Sound Productions.
Front/back cover of Glenn's solo single, Who Killed Marilyn?
Who Killed Marilyn?, Glenn's solo single, was released on August 5th, 1981, it would also feature the song Spook City U.S.A. as it's b side; both songs had already been recorded by The Misfits but like so many others languished on master tapes that gathered dust. Upon the singles release Glenn and Googy got serious pressuring Jerry and Doyle to get back to the band and get something going; the result were a handful of shows by years end. The band also went back to Mix-O-Lydian to record 6 songs all of which had previously been recorded; none of these tracks would see official release (until the release of The Misfits box/coffin set in 1996). Once again unhappy with the results The Misfits went back to Mix-O-Lydian this time recording 11 songs, all but two (Die, Die My Darling and Halloween II) had been previously recorded. This session resulted in The Misfits second 7" single, Halloween, released on October 30th, 1981; although Bobby had been out of the band since October 1980 it is his guitar that is heard on the single's b side, Halloween II.
Clockwise from left; front, back covers and lyric inserts for the Halloween single.
In the summer Glenn took 13 songs from the many different recording sessions and assembled a proposed Misfits album, it was given the Plan 9 catalog number PL9-01. He made several cassettes of the album and gave them to friends; 25 center labels were also printed up but that was the end of this planned Misfits vinyl. When Glenn contacted Slash Magazine to inform them of the upcoming Misfits release he was instead offered a one album deal through Ruby/Slash. In January 1982 Glenn took 12 previously recorded tracks and overdubbed guitar (as well as some vocals) onto them; these tracks would be used for The Misfits first official album, Walk Among Us (March 1982). As promotion for the album The Misfits hit the road on their first album tour beginning on March 28th, 1982 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
Center labels for proposed "Walk Among Us', PL9-01.
Clockwise from top left; front, back cover, lyric and photo collage sleeve from Walk Among Us LP.
The Misfits had been known for their fever pitch and often violent shows ever since the Horror Business era but on April 10th, 1982 it would reach a whole new level. The band was set to appear at the Elite Club in San Francisco along with Fear, The Flesheaters and [Sid Terror's] The Undead. The crowd was extremely rough from the get go and The Undead cut their set short because of their antics; which included throwing cans and bottles at the bands. Further agitating the crowd was The Misfits 45 minute set up time, they managed to make it into their third song before their tour manager, Ken "Rocky" Caiafa, ventured into the crowd to get at a group of troublemakers. This led to an altercation which almost left Rocky on the receiving end of a beer bottle, Doyle intervened and in an attempt to pull Rocky out of harms way using his guitar instead ended up smashing it over on of the offenders heads. This led to a bottle being thrown and hitting Googy, both he and Glenn leapt off the stage into the melee. Eventually The Misfits and The Undead ended up behind the locked door of the dressing room waiting it out until the police had it under control; the bands equipment was stolen and what wasn't stolen was destroyed. They band managed to finish out the remaining 5 shows of the California leg of the Walk Among Us Tour but not without further incident.
Photos by David Arnoff; many from
the collection of Maurice Nunez.
"I took these shots in the kitchen of someone’s flat where they were hiding out. Although hiding out must have been something of a challenge, looking like that. It’s the total opposite of the Misfits photo, which was three guys standing in a kitchen, but they could only ever be a rock’n’roll band."~David Arnoff
On April 15th Arthur Googy decided to quit the band after repeated disagreements with Glenn; this resulted in the band cancelling the plans to record a new EP (Earth A.D.) while they were in California. Googy stuck around for the remaining shows but left the band upon their return home. It wasn't all bad for the band during the west coast trip, on April 17th they managed to get a hold of Maila "Vampira" Nurmi and meet her face to face; she even dressed up and attended a Misfits instore autograph session. Arthur Googy is noticeably absent from photos of this instore appearance.
The Misfits were beginning their fifth year where they had began and ended so many others, looking for a replacement for yet another empty position; they had performed around 30 shows in roughly a year and a half's time (around 70 total since their first show on April 18th, 1977) and had finally gotten their debut album out as well as another 7" single and EP.
Up next...EARTH A.D.
This note was made possible by Misfits Central, James Greene Jr.'s book This Music Leaves Stains as well as various Misfits interviews. As always thanks to all the fiends (and photographers) that have provided all the photographic history.
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