recording was completed on the first take

“Bela Lugosi’s Dead” was strongly influenced by the band’s interest in reggae and dub , styles in which the bass and the drums play prominent roles. The recording was completed on the first take. It was also the first time that Murphy had sung into a studio microphone, although he was sick with a cold when he recorded the song. Kevin Haskins’ drumbeat was based on a bossa nova style. Daniel Ash explained the inception of the song: “I was talking to David (J, bass) on the blower one night and told him I had this riff, using these trick chords that had a very haunting quality to it. He went: ‘It’s so weird you should say that because I’ve got these lyrics about Bela Lugosi , the actor who played a vampire. ‘ ” David J further elaborated: “There was a season of old horror films on radio, and I was telling Daniel about how much I loved them. The one that had been on the night before was Dracula [1931] . I was saying how Bela Lugosi was the quintessential Dracula , the elegant depiction of the character.” Ash elaborated about the chords: “My riff has these mutant chords – they’re not even minor chords – but it’s rooted in an old Gary Glitter song, slowed right down. I didn’t realize that when I was doing it.” Ash also explained how he was able to achieve the echo effects for the song: “…David had this old HH echo unit, which would crap out on you all the time. We hooked up the guitar and snare drum to this echo unit and I was just sliding the HH amp thing to trigger all these echoes as the song went through.” David J explained the song’s recording process: “We didn’t really talk about what we were doing. Daniel started scratching away on the guitar, Kevin started his rhythm and there was this atmosphere building. I came in with those descending chords and Peter was just prowling up and down, slowly, like a big cat.”