Macabre and moving

What would Edgar Allan Poe have to say about a world in which we walk in fear of a serial sniper, sit seemingly perpetually on the brink of war and live in a general cloud of post-9/11 uncertainties?

He already said it, before even the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln scarred the national psyche, says rocker Lou Reed. To the former Velvet Underground leader, Poe’s probings of the recesses of the human subconscious in such works as “The Raven,” “The Telltale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” seem to have anticipated modern horrors.

“He’s, to my mind, more relevant than ever,” says Reed, one of the stars of a Halloween Poe performance tonight at UCLA’s Royce Hall. “That’s why he’s a world-class legend. And that’s why his work endures; it’s very intriguing interior psychology -- about compulsion and obsession. I don’t see how you could miss the connection.”

It’s a connection Reed hopes to bring to life as one of the performers in tonight’s “Never Bet the Devil Your Head.”

The show is the brainchild of Hal Willner, who, beyond his work producing albums and the music on “Saturday Night Live,” is also known for creating spoken-word albums with William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg as well as high-concept artist tribute projects honoring avant-garde filmmaker and music collector Harry Smith, Nino Rota, Kurt Weill and Thelonious Monk.

This show, also featuring Harry Shearer, Will Ferrell, Catherine O’Hara, Karen Black, Howard Hesseman, Chloe Webb and others, is the second annual Poe event at UCLA and follows New York editions Willner produced in 1995, 1998 and 1999.

For Willner, the show last year -- just seven weeks after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- affirmed not just Poe’s relevance but also the merit of a body of work that’s about more than fears.

“Last year there was talk that maybe it wasn’t the right time for this,” Willner says. “On the other hand, what better time is there? This is one of our great writers, and the tone of his pieces is not just dark. What’s art for? Healing. I find Poe very healing, incredibly magical and spiritual, gets you centered.”

Like most people, Willner, 46, and Reed, 60, each first encountered Poe in Vincent Price movies and grade-school memorizations of “The Raven.” But they both explored further and found much more to the body of work.

“It’s interesting how Poe is so associated with Halloween, but so many of his poems are so romantic,” Willner says. “The stuff reads so beautifully and adapts to music so well. I always loved it.”

They first teamed on Poe when Reed was one of the participants in the 1995 Halloween show in New York, reading “The Tell-Tale Heart” at an event that included Ginsberg, Abel Ferrara, Diamanda Galas, Gregory Corso and Deborah Harry. Reed was then recruited by maverick theater director and designer Robert Wilson to collaborate on a stage work built on Poe material. Titled “POEtry,” the ambitious effort included classic Poe works and Reed’s barbed reinterpretations and musical adaptations. It premiered to critical praise in Hamburg, Germany, last year and then played in New York.

Willner, who produced Reed’s 2000 album, “Ecstasy,” signed on to produce “The Raven,” an album drawn from the theater production, with Reed joined by a cast including Willem Dafoe, Elizabeth Ashley, Steve Buscemi, Amanda Plummer, David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Ornette Coleman and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Two versions will be released: a two-CD set of music and spoken-word pieces and a single-disc condensation with heavier emphasis on the songs.

“It’s been rewritten since the time of the play,” Reed says. “This could be staged as well. It’s a pretty amazing cast of actors and actresses. Some of the things in it don’t exist in Poe. The speech Amanda gives, ‘Imp of the Perverse,’ is not in Poe at all. There is a thing called ‘The Imp of the Perverse,’ which is a piece he wrote, but the piece in here is just in the style of Poe ... seeking to communicate to a contemporary audience.”

So far it seems to be working.

“I performed ‘The Raven’ recently at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle -- 22,000 people in a stadium, and they loved it,” Reed says of his reworking of Poe’s most familiar poem. “I talked to some of them afterwards and they remembered it from school, but not like this. They could relate to this one.”

Willner notes that Reed’s hardly the first to take liberties with the original material.

“Remember films like ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Spirits of the Dead’ -- they were all adapted, the endings changed, characters added,” he says.

Willner, in fact, is encouraging the performers to bring their own spins to the Halloween show, as he does with all such projects.

Reed will be doing “The Raven” as well as performing his song “Perfect Day” (a new version of which is on his upcoming album) and the ‘70s song “Candy Says,” backed by New York band Antony and the Johnsons. Shearer, who voices many characters on “The Simpsons,” will lend his talents to “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Spooky ambience will be added in the show with performances by Pamelia Kurstin, a master of the theremin, and goth-drama band the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black -- sharing a stage for the first time with its namesake actress.

The anything-can-happen sense is typical Willner, who is currently collaborating with Robert Wilson on a one-woman show for Danish actress-singer Ulla Henningsen -- and he’s not afraid to acknowledge Poe’s dark allure.

“I’m just lucky,” Willner says, “to get the chance to put my unhappy childhood out to the world -- my childhood obsessions.”

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‘Never Bet the Devil Your Head’

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA.

When: Thursday, 8 p.m.

Cost: $40-$50.

Info: (310) 825-2101.

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Poe picks

Favorite Poe stories and poems, as selected by Hal Willner and UCLA show co-producer Janine Nichols.

Stories

“The Cask of Amantillado”

Talk about adding injury to insult. A funny tale and it reads out loud really well.

“The Imp of the Perverse”

The drive in ourselves to do the things we shouldn’t, like killing, committing suicide, telling the truth, telling lies, etc. Very festive.

“Ms in a Bottle”

We always love a good sea story. This one doesn’t end too well. I guess most good sea stories don’t. Poe won 50 bucks in a story-writing contest for this one.

“Hop Frog”

A great revenge story, “Gulliver’s Travels” meets “Death Wish.”

“Morella”

Truly a spooky masterpiece. A lesson in metempsychosis. If you ever thought that you became your mother, check this out.

“William Wilson”

One of Poe’s tales with a moral, very stylish piece, mucho violence, relentless. Louis Malle made a great short film of this story.

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Poems

“Eldorado”

Beautiful poem about the fruitless search. Would love to hear Dylan read this.

“For Annie”

Just dark as hell, but incredibly beautiful. Not a standard.

“The Bells”

Allen Ginsberg did a hell of a version of this; it sounds likes its title.

“Annabelle Lee”

We did all have to memorize this in school, but they were right on this one.

“Alone”

Haunted childhood. So much said in few words.

“The City in the Sea”

“Lo death rears itself a throne / in a strange city ... alone.” All right!