69 comments — live from bluesky
Joe Quinlan 🇵🇸 🇮🇪 · 1 · 1d ago Maybe somebody put a spell on HIM.
so many great covers of this song...
And this was born kareoke.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iak...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=82cd...
I love the film "stranger than paradise" by jim jarmusch. screamin jay's music gives wonderful atmosphere.
Every other time he sang was “just a tribute!” 😁
I don't know about one of the most important songs in rock history....
This is mostly fabricated, but it sure makes for a good story.
Great song
That explains it, he was channeling the devil
It's a great record.
Been there, playing my Hammond at 4am in the dark...everything flowing out mechanically and automatic.
He had some mean Juju coursing through those veins
I really liked Alan Price's cover of that song.
Apparently he fathered a large number of children, so he probably couldn't remember begetting all of them either
I saw him at a small club in the 80s ( I believe) and he put on a tremendous show with a pick up band. The guy held that room in the palm of his hand.
It was the song me and my husband danced to at our wedding.
That’s pretty special my dear!
Not our 1st dance at our wedding, but definitely a track.
Thanks, now we're all searching thee one female coverversion ;)
Per the blues: "No ain't that a man!".
He kinda looks blacked out still if we’re being honest.
Hawkins didn't do the best interpretation though, Alan Price did.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=V0uU...
No, no, no. Interesting vocal delivery but absolutely no colour, no soul. Does he sound burned by love or desire? Too tidy.
He sounds like a jealous man trying to control his anger & be reasonable.
And failing.
He isn't simply singing the song, he's believing it.
I'm sorry if you can't pick up on that - it may be his accent.
The Doc Ellis of music.
He appeared in Rage in Harlem performing that tune sleeper movie Gregory Hines,Forrest Whitaker, I think Danny Glover but hey Gregory Hines makes the movie better anyhoo Good movie .
CCR has a fantastic cover
Mr. Hawkins was quite a package. Some of you might be his children.
www.npr.org/templates/st...
Great listen, but unfortunately jayskids.com appears to no longer be active.
Poor baby 💔🙏🏻🎶🎶🎶🙏🏻♥️
It turned out very well. One of the few times alcohol helped. But Eric Clapton recorded a whole album and didn't remember. He heard a song on the radio he liked. They had to tell him that was he. "If you remember the sixties, you haven't lived it", they say.
It is frightening to listen to.
He was screaming because that man had a hard life!
open.spotify.com/track/3sLhMS...
He put a spell on himself
So you're saying someone put a spell on him?
Ironic, you could say he was under the spell of alcohol while recording that
Still prefer Nina Simone's version. She knew exactly what she did.
Always loved that song!!!
I Put a Spell on Myself" doesn't have the same ring to it.
Whoa!😳
Novel quote: “The popular music scene had simply run itself to death.
Here, seventy-year-old veteran rockers and dope-smoking outlaws well beyond the tooth limit have preserved more subversive power than all those advertising puppets of the last three decades put together.”
The grandfather of Goth. Brilliant
He is also in the movie "Mystery Train". Great movie! Joe Strummer is in it too.
The whole band was wasted.
Screaming Jay was meant to appear as a support act for Nick Cave in, I think, the late 1980s. Flew all the way to Sydney, collected his payment in cash and flew straight back home. Respect 🫡
A spell perhaps?
Someone must have put a spell on him
that's how you can tell he's a real poet
Weird
When you're in the zone while doing art, you blink out of existence for a bit. You'll know you're back when it's several hours later and you suddenly remember you have a physical form that needs upkeep.
youtu.be/82cdnAUvsw8?...
Wow! My husband is a blues musician. Old-school blues. A guitarist that used to play with him apparently said he was a very scary man. Great song though!
If it has to be explained, then you just don't understand.
Not quite.
The song was written to be his track. He just wanted it to be a smooth R&B song and the studio wanted it to be a wild voo doo fit to keep up with his image, because he had a smoking skull prop for his concerts. So the execs brought him and the band in to discuss recording the track and
They stuffed them full of ribs and steak & got them drunk as hell & laid it down. None of them recalled recording the track. Hawkins had to listen to his own track to learn how to perform it. He got paid $300 to emerge from a coffin at a concert & sing it all wild, and THAT shit made him famous. 👍🏻
Thank you. With SJH the stories beneath the top lines are always the more interesting
If you deep dive black music history in America you'll find a whole lot of that.
Can't leave out Herb Slotkin, who co-wrote the song with Hawkins.
The excellent podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs has an episode about this song. Check it out! 🤓
500songs.com/podcast/epis...
And there's a funny postscript about Screamin' Jay Hawkins in this episode 😂
500songs.com/podcast/epis...
And Andrew Hickey is on Bluesky @andrewhickey.500songs.com
So a Robert Johnson possession…?
Like Rip Van Winkle, his return was a joke.
That is so RnR
Not quite true, but close and he was still a bad ass.
Cool. I was not aware of this.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Put_a...
My introduction to Screamin' Jay was "Freak Night" on Arsenio Hall!
My favorite song my him is “Constipation Blues”.
The good shit 💩 😖😫
I bet he remembers recording it.
Mandatory Halloween dance mix :) Robert.....had it(bought and paid for) until external hard drive said FUCK YOU can have it back for 1700$....discovered I have a internal soft drive :) Robert
whenever I'm asked about my fav rock artist, I say "Screamin Jay Hawkins" and everyone says "Who?"
Sounds on brand. He was great.
I LOVE ANNIE LENNOX'S RENDITION OF THAT SONG TOO...SHE SANG THE HELL OUT OF IT !!
IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD IT..IT'S HERE ON YT.
AWESOME !!
Vuodun
Sounds like bullshit, mate.
Great story! But possibly is a “story”