NOTES FROM THE
SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS
Rising out of a coffin dressed in the
height of voodoo fashion, with a snake
wrapped around his neck, a bone
UNDERGROUND
Jay recorded "I Put A Spell On You" as
a love song in 1949. 11 was a sweet bal-
lad." he says, "but it didn't do nothing
Then I was in Atlantic City in 1956, and
Spell Alligator Wine" "Constipation
Blues" and "Feast of the Mau Mau
Jay formally broke off contact with the
record company after they named his lat-
ERICKTER
chrome off of any trailer
hitch. Mail order only from
Am Rep Confessor,
through his nose and his pet skull Henry This guy says. We want to sign you with est album Black Music For White SCALE! Comprocals, attual
on a stick, Screamin' Jay takes the stage
in style. For over thirty years, the Guru
of Voodoo has assaulted audiences with
savage charm, singing wild incantations
about mojo love potions, goose toenails
and fleas from the knees of demons
Screamin' Jay lives by the motto "The
least expected is the most effective"
Half the audience used to flee the the-
ater in the late fifties when Jalacy J
Hawkins made his coffin entrance and
kids whispering 'worms, worms" drop-
ped elastic bands from the balcony
Even today, when he motors down the
highway, the Wildman of Rock seizes the
moment for maximum effect. "Every car
have has a police siren. I got the lights
they blink and everything." he says. "
flash the badge and all. One day they
put me away, but so far. I've been lucky."
Jay has had his share of bad luck,
though. An ex-girlfriend once stabbed
him in the chest and left him to bleed in
Hawaii "She was so strange, she didn't
know who she was," he says. "One week
she was a lesbian. The next week, she
was the world's greatest lover. And the
third week, she was Muhammad All,"
At sixty-two years old, Screamin' Jay
takes it all in stride, wearing some of the
most outlandish threads this side of
Mars. I want my uniform to be
so weird, it takes you a
half an hour to get over
it," he says. "There's a
bone in my nose.
there's a hand on the
edge of the piano,
crawling it ain't going
nowhere, it's still crawl-
ing. And, all of a sud-
den, there's fireballs
coming out of my hand."
Columbia Records to do Spell' again, People Despite the title, the music is
but this time, different"
The players were in for a surprise
when they walked into the studio. "They
had buckets of chicken, beef ribs,
chitings and a table full of every type of
alcohol imaginable, Jay says. "Amold
Maxim was in the engineer's booth and
he said, 'Fellas, this is not a recording
session. It's a picnic. Forget about the
songs, just sit down and eat and drink
and have a ball When I come back, we'll
make records
The result was inevitable, says Jay
"Everybody was drunk on that session.
Later when I heard the record, I did not
believe it was me." The primal grunts
and snorts of the song's climax were
deemed cannibalistic and spliced out
Though banned from radio, "Spell" was
quite successful, and the passionate
shrieks of that inebriated session have
been covered by David Bowie, Alice
Cooper, Manfred Mann, The Crazy World
of Arthur Brown, Nina Simone and Cre-
dence Clearwater Revival, to name a few.
Despite his haunted rock hollerings,
opera was Jay's first calling, and his rich
baritone reveals its influence. He was
once called "The Pavarotti of the Blues
by Tony Burke, editor of Blues
and Rhymm, but this fails to
recognize Jay's frenzied
demeanor. "I don't
sing 'em, I destroy
em," says Jay
Voodoo Jive The
Best of Screamin
Jay Hawkins is a
collection of
weird rhythm and
blues waxings
featuring
tight and the master's utterances are ex-
pressive and hilarious, especially on
Ignant and Shit" and "Strokin" Jay's
voice resounds on covers of "Is You Is
Or Is You Ain1 My Baby and Old Man
River, and the modern remake of "Spell"
jams with a twangy, thumpin' downtown
bass line and rap vocals
Jay played a bellhop in Jim Jar-
musch's Mystery Train and has a feature.
part in a fim by Sanky Lee (Spike Lee's)
brother) called Giant Step, where her
plays a New Orleans jazz piano player
Jay has appeared in Sony commercials
for Japanese television, and says a
movie biography by Jarmusch is also in
the works. "I put him off two years," says
Jay. "There's parts of my life that I'm not
too proud of I didn't do anything to get
put in jail, but I've been involved in some
strange situations with strange people."
Professional wrestling is Jay's favorite
sport like the ingenuity of using you
hands and your arms and being quick
enough to counter-punch and devastate
your partner by punching his eyes out so
he goes to sleep" he says,
Call him a poet, a philosopher, a
weirdo, a twisted mystic or a maniac, but
Screamin' Jay is a musician at heart. "I
just like to create music I open up all
these planes and stutt and start making
my own songs, think of the craziest
words I can say, the craziest way I can
lock, the weirdest thing I can do. This is
what I'm about, and I like it Say I drop
dead tomorrow, I ain't missing nothing.
I've done it all. I've been there, I've seen
them all, and I don't think I'm any better
than anybody else
"If you want something, don't talk
about it, go after it," says Jay. "Whether
its physical, mental or spiritual.
believe and have confidence in
yourself. And, you must re-
member, it takes time. Use
time instead of letting
time use you.
Brian Brannon
Action Swingers. CD. All
ster line-up: Ned Hayden
(vox) Julia Cafritz (Pussy
Galore), Bob Bert (Sonic
Youth). Pete Share (Un
sane). No fancy musician-
ship and no pointless
rhythm changes equals
"instant classic Mon-
ster Magnet, Spine of
God CD. These techni
cians of monster drug rock
are new on Primo Scree.
Influences range from
Deep Purple to Led Zep.
etc. Like the band says.
It's a satanic drug thing.
you wouldn't understand"
Nation Of Ulysses, 13
Paints CD. The most DC
thing I've ever heard, in-
cluding horn tooting and
fingertip mutilation. Their
first single is included as a
bonus... Fugazi, Steady
Diet of Nothing, CD. It's
new, it's lan and the boys.
it's different from past ef-
forts. It's great and atford-
ably priced SNFU, Last
of the Big Time Suspen
dere. CD. Unreleased ma-
terial and good quality live
stuff
Derelicts, I Don't
Wanna Live, CD. Six
tunes of traditional punk
values depicting lite how it
should be lived: No rules
and kill yourse when it's
over Nirvana, Never-
mind, CD. Beyond any
body's expectation.
Gourds of catchy, crunchy
rits to put lightly), Vinyl
is very limited... Pigface,
Welcome To Mexico
Asshole, CD. The ulti
mate collaboration be
tween some of Chicago's
finest. Live cuts demon-
strate their overwhelming
industrial power and prove
no two shows are the
same... Gearjammer, 7"
Tom Hazelmeyer's (Halo
of Files) new band featur
ing two balls-out cruise
tunes that'll suck the
high-pitched
changes in songs, worth-
while and long overdue...
Painkiller, Guts of a Vir-
in CD. Mick Harris (ex-
Napalm Death on drums),
John Zom (sax & vocals)
and Bill Laswell (bass) get
together to create death
jazz from hell that's as
worthy as Naked City and
early Napalm Death...
Gas Huffer, Janitors of
Tomorrow, LP. Rock-out
tunes blending a top fuel
mixture of trashy punkabil-
ly with two ex-U-Men
Cathedral, Forest of
Equilibrium CD. Griff and
Lee (original Napalm
Death) answer to ten-a-
penny thrash metal outfits
Below tempo pace that
truly defines misery...
Discharge, Massacre
Devine, LP. In a word.
weak! Soundgarden,
Badmotoringer, Lp. Okay,
enough Led Zep thrash
punk metal references.
But this sounds like Black
Sabbath, so put that in
your pipe and smoke it...
Pain Teens, Sacrificial
Shack, 7. An ode to the
mutilated people of that
satanic cult in Mexico. In-
dustrial noise structure, te-
male vocals (Bliss Blood)
and no songs sound the
same. They kick ass live
No No Yes No, Leder
hosenverbot Lp. Premiere
German wretched metal
dinge with assistance from
Helios Creed doing a fuck-
ing phenomenal Chrome
cover Toiling Midgets
7 These guys were
amazing in their heyday
and now they're on Mata-
dor Records from NY.
Pretty good stuff with
some cello mixed in...
Tar, 7 New on Am-Rep.
Chicago's Tar belts out a
Imited import with a gritty
Pere Ubu cover on the
flipside. Rick Rotsaert
rooArt
SOE
the debut
EP
"As Ugly
As Trey
A record
80
UGLY
only a
AN AUSSIE
RATCAT
Mother
Glue in ye
OLLIC
featuring
"THAT AIN'T BAD",
IN YOUR
OOD!
ban!
RATCAT
TINGLES
RATCAT
"Tingles'
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