Screamin' Jay Hawkins

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Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Screamin' Jay Hawkins in concert
Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin
Background information
Birth name Jalacy Hawkins
Born July 18, 1929(1929-07-18)
Cleveland, Ohio
Died February 12, 2000 (aged 70)
Paris, France
Occupation(s) Musician, Songwriter, actor, producer
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Jalacy Hawkins, best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins (July 18, 1929 – February 12, 2000) was an African-American musician, singer, and actor. Famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as "I Put a Spell on You" and "Constipation Blues," Hawkins sometimes used macabre props onstage, making him perhaps the first shock rocker.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early career

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Hawkins studied classical piano as a child and learned guitar in his twenties.[2] His original career goal was to become an opera singer in the footsteps of Paul Robeson.[3] When his initial ambitions failed, he began his career as a conventional blues singer and pianist.

He served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific theater during World War II, primarily as an entertainer. Although he claimed to have been tortured for some time as a POW, stories of the circumstances of his actual capture vary. According to the documentary, I Put a Spell on Me, upon liberation he blew his chief tormentor's head off by taping a hand-grenade into his mouth and pulling the pin. Hawkins was an avid and formidable boxer.[citation needed] In 1949, he was the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska.[citation needed]

In 1951, he joined guitarist Tiny Grimes for a while, and recorded a few songs with him.[3] When Hawkins became a solo performer, he often performed in a very stylish wardrobe, featuring leopard skins, red leather and wild hats.

[edit] "I Put a Spell on You"

His most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You" (1956), was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. According to the AllMusic Guide to the Blues, "Hawkins originally envisioned the tune as a refined ballad."[3] The entire band was intoxicated during a recording session where "Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune with utter drunken abandon."[3] The resulting performance was no ballad but instead a "raw, guttural track" that became his greatest commercial success and surpassed a million copies in sales.[4][5]

The performance was mesmerizing, although Hawkins himself blacked out and was unable to remember the session.[5] Afterward he had to relearn the song from the recorded version.[5] Meanwhile the record label released a second version of the single, removing most of the grunts that had embellished the original performance; this was in response to complaints about the recording's overt sexuality.[5] Nonetheless it was banned from radio in some areas.

Soon after the release of "I Put a Spell on You", radio disc jockey Alan Freed offered Hawkins $300 to emerge from a coffin onstage.[4] Hawkins accepted and soon created an outlandish stage persona in which performances began with the coffin and included "gold and leopard skin costumes and notable voodoo stage props, such as his smoking skull on a stick – named Henry – and rubber snakes."[4] These props were suggestive of voodoo, but also presented with comic overtones that invited comparison to "a black Vincent Price."[2][5]

[edit] Later career

Hawkins had several further hits, including "Constipation Blues", "Orange Colored Sky", and "Feast of the Mau Mau". Nothing he released, however, had the monumental success of "I Put a Spell on You". In fact, "Constipation Blues" has been described as "gross".[6] In Paris in 1999 and at the Taste of Chicago festival, he actually performed the song with a toilet onstage.[7]

He continued to tour and record through the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Europe, where he was very popular. He appeared in performance (as himself) in the Alan Freed bio-pic American Hot Wax in 1978. Subsequently, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch featured "I Put a Spell on You" on the soundtrack – and deep in the plot – of his film Stranger Than Paradise (1983) and then Hawkins himself as a hotel night clerk in his Mystery Train and in roles in Álex de la Iglesia's Perdita Durango and Bill Duke's adaptation of Chester Himes' A Rage In Harlem.

His 1957 single "Frenzy" (found on the early 1980s compilation of the same name) was included in the compilation CD, Songs in the Key of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files, in 1996.[8] This song was featured in the show's Season 2 episode "Humbug". It was also covered by the band Batmobile.[citation needed]

In July 1991, Hawkins released his album Black Music for White People.[9] The record features covers of two Tom Waits compositions: "Heart Attack and Vine"[10] (which, later that year, was used in a European Levi's advertisement without Waits' permission, resulting in a lawsuit)fact, and "Ice Cream Man" (which, contrary to popular belief, is a Waits original, and not a cover of the John Brim classic.[citation needed] Hawkins also covered the Waits song, "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard", for his album Somethin' Funny Goin' On.)

When Dread Zeppelin recorded their "Disco" album, It's Not Unusual, in 1992, producer Jah Paul Jo asked friend, Screamin' Jay, to guest. Hawkins turned in his usual fantastically weird vocal performance in songs, "Jungle Boogie" and "Disco Inferno."

Hawkins also toured with The Clash and Nick Cave during this period, and not only became a fixture of blues festivals, but appeared at many film festivals as well.[citation needed]

Hawkins died on February 12, 2000 after surgery to treat an aneurysm.[11] He left behind many children by many women; about 55 were known (or suspected) upon his death, and upon investigation, that number "soon became perhaps 75 offspring".[12]

[edit] Influence

Although Hawkins was not a major success as a recording artist, his highly theatrical performances from "I Put a Spell On You" onward earned him a steady career as a live performer for decades afterward, and influenced subsequent acts.[2] He opened for Fats Domino, Tiny Grimes, and the Rolling Stones.[2] This exposure in turn influenced rock groups such as Screaming Lord Sutch ,Black Sabbath, Arthur Brown, The Horrors and Alice Cooper.[2]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Selected singles

  • 1956 "I Put a Spell On You" / "Little Demon" [OKeh 7072]
  • 1957 "You Made Me Love You" / "Darling, Please Forgive Me" [OKeh 7084]
  • 1957 "Frenzy" / "Person to Person" [OKeh 7087]
  • 1958 "Alligator Wine" / "There's Something Wrong With You" [OKeh 7101]
  • 1958 "Armpit #6" / "The Past" [Red Top 126]
  • 1962 "I Hear Voices" / "Just Don't Care" [Enrica 1010]
  • 1962 "Ashes" / "Nitty Gritty" w/ Shoutin' Pat (Newborn) [Chancellor 1117]
  • 1966 "Poor Folks" / "Your Kind of Love" [Providence 411]
  • 1970 "Do You Really Love Me" / "Constipation Blues" [Philips 40645]
  • 1973 "Monkberry Moon Delight" / "Sweet Ginny" [Queen Bee 1313]

[edit] Albums

  • 1958 At Home with Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Okeh/Epic) - other editions entitled Screamin' Jay Hawkins and I Put a Spell on You
  • 1965 The Night and Day of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Planet) - also entitled In the Night and Day of Screamin' Jay Hawkins
  • 1969 What That Is! (Philips)
  • 1970 Because Is in Your Mind (Armpitrubber) (Philips)
  • 1972 Portrait of a Man and His Woman (Hotline) - also entitled I Put a Spell on You and Blues Shouter
  • 1977 I Put a Spell on You (Versatile—recordings from 1966-76)
  • 1979 Screamin' the Blues (Red Lightnin'--recordings from 1953-70)
  • 1983 Real Life (Zeta)
  • 1984 Screamin' Jay Hawkins and The Fuzztones Live (Midnight Records) - live
  • 1988 At Home with Jay in The Wee Wee Hours (Midnight Records) - live
  • 1988 Live & Crazy (Blue Phoenix) - live
  • 1990 The Art of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (Spivey)
  • 1991 Black Music For White People (Bizarre/Straight Records/Planet Records)
  • 1991 I Shake My Stick at You (Aim)
  • 1993 Stone Crazy (Bizarre/Straight/Planet)
  • 1994 Somethin' Funny Goin' On (Bizarre/Straight/Planet)
  • 1993 Rated X (Sting S) - live
  • 1998 At Last (Last Call)
  • 1999 Live at the Olympia, Paris (Last Call) - live with one studio new song

[edit] Multi-artist samplers and budget compilations

  • 1962 Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Lillian Briggs (Coronet)
  • 1963 A Night at Forbidden City (Sounds of Hawaii)
  • 1988 Screamin' Jay Hawkins- I Put A Spell On You (Elvira Presents: Haunted Hits LP)
  • 1990 Screamin' Jay Hawkins- I Put A Spell On You (Elvira Presents: Haunted Hits CD Re-Release)
  • 1994 Screamin' Jay Hawkins- Little Demon (Elvira Presents: Monster Hits CD)
  • 1996 Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Frenzy (Songs in the Key of X - The X Files)

[edit] Films

[edit] Documentary on Screamin' Jay Hawkins

  • Screamin' Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell On Me (Nicholas Triandafyllidis, 2001)[1]

[edit] As an actor

  • American Hot Wax (As himself, 1978)
  • Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 1989)
  • A Rage In Harlem (As Himself, 1991)
  • Perdita Durango, also known as Dance with the Devil (Álex de la Iglesia, 1997)
  • Peut-etre (As club singer, Cedric Klapish 1999)

[edit] References

  1. ^ BILL CRANDALL, "Original Shock Rocker Screamin' Jay Hawkins Dead at Seventy: Screamin' Jay Hawkins dies in hospital near Paris," Rolling Stone (February 14, 2000).
  2. ^ a b c d e Jeremy Simmonds (2008). The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches. Chicago Review Press. pp. 427-428. http://books.google.com/books?id=S3y7tocgPzgC&pg=RA1-PA427&dq=Screamin%27+Jay+Hawkins&lr=. Retrieved on 2008-12-04. 
  3. ^ a b c d Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine (2003). All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues. Backbeat Books. pp. 226. http://books.google.com/books?id=-ENtazHbVc4C&pg=PA29&dq=I%27m+Just+Wild+About+Harry+Philip+Furia&ei=DGjfSMv0DZKQzQS99NHCCA&sig=ACfU3U3zuoxu-idZ96EtjUkaDeR7KI9X_A. Retrieved on 2008-12-04. 
  4. ^ a b c Edward M. Komara (2006). Encyclopedia of the Blues: A-J. Routledge. pp. 415. http://books.google.com/books?id=-w-uGwm_LhcC&pg=PA415&dq=Screamin%27+Jay+Hawkins. Retrieved on 2008-12-04. 
  5. ^ a b c d e Ed Sikov (1996). Laughing Hysterically: American Screen Comedy of the 1950s. Columbia University Press. pp. 17. http://books.google.com/books?id=iKC1arHPsTsC&pg=PA17&dq=Screamin%27+Jay+Hawkins&lr=#PPA17,M1. Retrieved on 2008-12-04. 
  6. ^ Vladimir Bogdanov, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, and Chris Woodstra, All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (Backbeat Books, 2002), 513.
  7. ^ Patricia Romanowski Bashe, Holly George-Warren, and Jon Pareles, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century (Fireside, 2001), 419.
  8. ^ Cesare Rizzi, Enciclopedia della musica rock (Giunti, 1996), 249.
  9. ^ Edward M. Komara, "Hawkins, Screamin' Jay," Encyclopedia of the Blues (Routledge, 2006), 415-416.
  10. ^ Peter Buckley, The rough guide to rock (Rough Guides, 2003), 207.
  11. ^ Ashyia N. Henderson, Contemporary Black Biography (Gale Group, 2001), 83.
  12. ^ Feature: Screamin' Jay Hawkins, All Things Considered, 1 January 2001.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamin%27_Jay_Hawkins"
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