Cryptids

ISSUE #77

"Cryptid," as you may know, is a term for a creature that exists in folklore and legend but whose existence is not scientifically proven or accepted. Some things that are cryptids: Bigfoot, Nessie, the Jersey Devil. Things that are not cryptids: vampires, giant squids, the Burger King. Things that feel like they should be cryptids, but are somehow real: opossums, salamanders, pangolins.

Cryptids are captivating because they suggest that some mysteries still exist right under our noses. Whether the mystery is actually interesting, who's to say? They usually exist as some animal-human hybrid. Take an animal, slap the word "man" at the end, and bingo, you got a cryptid. Mothman? Yes. Monkeyman? Sure. Shrimpman? Why not. Plantman? Close; more specific. Try Birchman—that's more like it.

Werewolves stretch the definition here: while they're present in folklore, they've been almost entirely co-opted by the Halloween Industrial Complex (of which I am an admitted cog) and dumped with the likes of zombies, mummies, and Frankenstein. So the jury's out; I included them because otherwise I'd barely have any songs to work with here.

For this playlist, I collected songs that I would say are "about cryptids." It's a short history, from "Woolly Bully" to a surprisingly cogent example from Sufjan (who would've guessed?). One noted omission is the "Flying Purple People Eater," because that song gives me a headache, and this is not a Chuck E. Cheese. Nay, madam, not even close; this is a respectable newsletter, one that would never do something so vulgar as to fill a playlist with the "Monster Mash" twelve times in a row.