Halloween Countdown: October 12 - the devil is not rocked

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the hottest musical act of 1973 --- SATAN & HIS 3 DEVILS!

Because "Satan and His 3 Skeletons" didn't sound quite as groovy...
Inspired by the classic sounds of rockabilly and the delicious taste of Underwood's potted meat product, SaH3D are the pioneers of the red-hot "diabolic rock" craze. They play to packed houses up and down the entire length of the Jersey Shore, and teenyboppers and music critics alike can't get enough of the band's unique mix of dime-store costumes, slap bass, and infernal evil.

As is the way with demonic pacts, however, a tragic reckoning is not long in coming -- in this case a dispute between talent and management. Frontman Ricky, tired of Mr. Holman's Colonel Parker-esque accounting practices, takes a long ride with the band's manager out to the moonlit countryside to discuss the matter....

"Apart from my ferocious appetites for hookers and blow, I mean."
...but Eustace "Mr. Sixty Percent" Holman turns out to be a tougher negotiator than anticipated, and evokes the dreaded "I will smear you into red paste under my Buick De Soto" clause on Ricky.

He saw the Reaper in the dashboard light.
With the situation between the disputing parties resolved, Holman zips back to the club, hoping that either Sammy Hagar or Gary Cherone have no prior obligations for the evening and can fit into a skintight devil costume. Imagine Holman's surprise when he discovers that Ricky is apparently alive and well and performing like a man posessed....

Honestly, between the heat, the smoke, and the noise, every club venue feels like Satan's domain to me.
Seriously, the kid is on fire this time out, and even Holman can feel it...

"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
Having rocked his murderer into the grave, Ricky tops off the set by vanishing into a cloud of sulfuric smoke and hellish laughter, while his befuddled bandmates are left to muddle on through the encore with an off-key instrumental rendition of "Free Bird." (The Horned One does not hold a monopoly on ultimate evil.)

The story ("The Devil Will Get You If You Don't Watch Out") from The Witching Hour #40 (March 1974) ends with a explanation from the sexy witch narrator that it wasn't really Ricky at the end, but actually one of the witch's relatives from "the Low Countries -- the very, very Low Countries." If I understood that right, what she is saying is that the instrument of unholy vengeance is actually a session musician from Luxembourg. Scary, indeed.