Jalacy J Hawkins was born on this day in 1929.
If a Martian arrived on earth, and the first thing you showed him was a clip of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins performing “I Put a Spell on You” the Martian might get the totally wrong impression of what pop culture was on this alien planet. They’d think it was normal. It was never normal. And thank God, although Hawkins himself ended up feeling a little trapped by the whole bones/skull persona he kind of tripped into and then never could shake. He felt it limited him. And it probably did. But “I Put a Spell on You” is so important, and inspired every weirdo who followed, as well as being chosen by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.
First, just the audio:
His performance is inSANE. He didn’t even need the skull and the bone in his nose to make an impression and stand out.
Like, what within him could even drive him to make the choices he makes there, and how did he get so free to actually go as far as he does?
There actually is an answer to this question. He was drunk. Everyone was drunk. The record producer brought in food and booze and they had a party and then recorded his sui generis masterpiece. Hawkins always said he didn’t even remember recording it, and when it became a hit he had to actually listen to the record to learn the lyrics and also learn his interpretation so he could repeat it live. It’s crazy.
He wrote the song, and saw it as a ballad, which is hilarious, considering the spontaneous end result. He loved opera, maybe even thought he could do opera – indeed, I’d love to hear him do it – he had one of the most unique and powerful voices in all of rock ‘n roll. You can’t even believe what he can do with it. Opera was not his destiny, however. He was very inspired by Paul Robeson, Mario Lanza, and wanted to sing those kind of big ballads, use his powerful pipes. He TOTALLY could have done it.
But instead … lightning was caught in a bottle that drunken night … and the sponteaneity that came out of him when he was drunk and in the studio was … I mean, you can’t go back from it. You can’t be like “Okay what a wild take, let’s sober up and do it like a ballad for real.” Of course not. Not when you have THAT on wax. He sounds POSSESSED. This was his reputation from then on. He was demonic, he did voodoo, he wove black magic, he slept in a coffin (a “bit” he would do during his live shows, emerging from a closed coffin in full regalia after being wheeled out on stage).
“I Put a Spell On You” was his signature song. It couldn’t be topped obviously. It wasn’t his only song. His catalog is really interesting. You can hear how he did get stuck in the wacko persona. Again, if you START with “I Put a Spell on You” … I mean, what the hell else are you gonna bring to the table?
“James Brown did an awful lot of screaming, but never got called Screamin’ James Brown. Why can’t people take me as a regular singer without making a bogeyman out of me?”
Dude, you’re the one who performed “I Put a Spell on You” like that. Nobody asked you to! You can’t just ask us to FORGET about it. Although I sympathize with his frustration at getting pigeon-holed. Still. Nobody FORCED him to sing the song like that. I know I keep saying this but … listen to that thing!
I love his cover of “Monkberry Moon Delight”:
He opened up possibilities for weird performance-art personae in rock ‘n roll, which became a big part of ’60s/’70s rock. Marilyn Manson is an heir to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. I could go on and on. He lived a long life. He seemed to have been a compulsive bigamist. He had a role in Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train as the hotel clerk, resplendent in a red suit.
“I Put a Spell on You” is probably one of the most-used songs in movie soundtracks. Or at least, it’s up there.
There is literally nothing else like it.
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