Dick Wagner, a guitarist who was a key figure in the early pre-punk and American glam movements, utilizing his talents for such luminaries in the music world as Alice Cooper, Lou Reed and KISS, has died at the age of 71 of respiratory failure. Wagner had been battling ill health for many years prior to his death.

Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Wagner rubbed elbows later on after the first wave of hard rock music that came from that state’s seminal city Detroit, when Wagner was recruited to play on Alice Cooper’s seminal solo release, Welcome to My Nightmare, a record in which Wagner was heavily involved (with producer Ezrin) with Cooper, eventually sharing songwriting credits. (A highlight is the ambiguous and haunting “Only Women Bleed.”) The 1975 release became a benchmark in Cooper’s career and also showed the embryonic strains of a solo career that would stretch currently into its fourth decade. The muscle and confidence of Wagner’s playing (he had huge shoes to follow after Cooper had been in a band with Glen Buxton earlier, whose playing was signature up and down all over the band) put him as one of the mid-70s post Detroit-rock/pre-first wave of punk music’s heavyweights. In fact, for the next few decades following his successful debut foray with Cooper on record, Wagner became involved heavily with the shock rock singer thereafter, appearing on various subsequent albums and tours.

Every Halloween, when it comes to entertainment, most people immediately think of horror films…but what about music? Over the years many artists have attempted to bring the “shock” back into rock.

So, if you are hosting a Halloween party this year, here are some performers that will help you turn it into a heavy metal Halloween.

Bob Ezrin, who has produced some of the more seminal music records of our age, Pink Floyd‘s The Wall and KISS Destroyer to name a few of the more higher profile ones, celebrates his 64th birthday today.

The Canadian-born Ezrin, employs a style which is mired in a magisterial, booming, bombastic one, which gives a larger than life sonic quality to the records he produces. Kind of a cross between Sir George Martin and producers who have made opera house acoustically styled classical albums, Ezrin has taken many genres, mainly the rock and roll one and turned it on its collective ear, bringing a kind of aural respect to the genre, and the result of which has spawned some of the all-time great albums.

Happy Birthday today to Alice Cooper, the master of “shock rock,” the man whose early goth impetus coupled with a foot in the musical blues, and his larger than life persona, which made him a superstar to the masses in the early 1970s and a true elder renaissance man in the current hard rock and heavy metal circuits.

Having fan bases which stretch wide and in a way are compartmentalized by certain eras of his, not unlike say Miles Davis and his different approaches to the genre, Alice Cooper has always kept a common thread for what he does best — being an enigmatic front man who propelled his band (originally called Alice Cooper, a name reportedly in which was acquired from a Ouija board excursion) to galaxy heights, sounding a doomy, bluesy, Doors-style approach ala Black Sabbath, but making themselves in a way more accessible to a wider audience instantly, due to Alice Cooper’s sly wink he uses at himself and the audience.

Amazon is currently offering over 300 Classic Rock songs in MP3 for just $0.69 each right now: 300 Classic Rock Songs For $0.69 Each.

Click the link above and browse the list of tunes, which contains tracks from artists like Aerosmith, Kansas, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, Dio, Heart, Billy Joel, Bad Company, Janis Joplin, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Alice Cooper, Yes, Cream, The Doors, Van Halen, and many more!

MP3 songs usually sell for $.99 to $1.29 each, so 69 cents is a great deal! No word on when the sale ends, so grab the songs you want now at the discounted price. Also, all this month, Amazon is offering up 2,000 albums for $5 each in MP3 format, so be sure to check out that hefty selection, too.