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Welcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Today marks a special occasion for a special someone, so the cover featured is one of her favorites. As a result of the timing I'm forgoing my standard alliterative subtitles for this week and next (i.e. "Second Sunday Slowly" & Third Sunday Throwback") because that favorite falls into the "20th century" category and may not be considered entirely downtempo. Perhaps for its "shock goth" and "lurid lounge" sensibilities, I suppose I could get away with calling it a "Second Sunday Striptease" ;) :
Marilyn Manson - I Put A Spell On You (Screamin' Jay Hawkins)
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, (the "Jay" short for "Jalacy,") recorded but didn't release his original version of I Put A Spell On You in 1955. It was a lamenting blues ballad about the loss of an ex-girlfriend. It's said the producers were unsatisfied with it and, in search of something stranger, they threw a party during a recording session to change the atmosphere. Hawkins claims he doesn't actually remember recording the version that came out of that day, but somehow remembered the discovery that he "could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death." That version was released in November 1956 and was all but entirely banned from radio. The single still managed to sell over a million copies after the release of an edited version, which is said to have been tremendously popular with teenagers. The track was put on his first album, At Home with Screamin' Jay Hawkins, in 1958. When invited to perform the song live, he developed a shocking stage show to compliment the song: wearing a long cape, tusks jutting from his nostrils, coming out of a flaming coffin, a skull he would address as "Henry" mounted atop a stick, snakes, fireworks, etc...; his sensational antics were the beginning of a whole new performance style.
Many covers of the track have been released over the years by artists such as Nina Simone, Tim Curry, Annie Lennox, Nick Cave (and the Cavemen), and Bryan Ferry. Just last week, a cover of the track was featured on the sixth episode of the HBO series American Gods recorded by Brian Reitzell and Mark Lanegan (formerly of the Screaming Trees.) Most of these versions leaned into more jazz/blues/pop revisions; very few attempted to modernize the original's frantic "screamin'" style. Marilyn Manson, however, did.
Manson released Smells Like Children as an E.P. (though it had enough tracks for a full album) in October 1995 featuring his cover of I Put A Spell On You. It also featured his cover of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by the Eurythmics, which was the only single released from the disc. Manson has said they wanted Spell to be a single but he thought it "was far too dark, sprawling and esoteric, even for some of our fans."
David Lynch included Manson's cover of Spell in his 1997 film, Lost Highway, as part of a scene where Patricia Arquette's character was made to strip at gunpoint for a gangster/porn producer. Manson himself got his acting debut in Lost Highway as one of the porn stars in that producer's films.
It's evident from Manson's entire persona that he was greatly inspired by Hawkins and his cover is both loyal to the original's aesthetic and also a dynamic evolution of the seminal "shock rock" waltz.
To that special lady: this one is yours... as am I, under your spell:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Third Sunday Synthpop Slowly! (Just because I'm swapping my schedule around a little doesn't mean I have to completely abandon my typical needless alliterations!) Something dark and downtempo and relatively new from an artist never previously featured here!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
I was scheduled last minute for a gig in Boston tomorrow night. My schedule has details on that and the other two events I've got on the books for later this month. Feel free to join if you can! ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jun 04 - Siouxsie Sioux - These Boot Are Made For Walkin' (Nancy Sinatra)
May 28 - :wumpscut: - All Cried Out (Alison Moyet)
May 21 - Sisters of Mercy - Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones)
May 14 - Torso - Nijinski [Nijinsky] (Daniel Darc)
May 07 - Faderhead - SexyBack (Justin Timberlake)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Today marks a special occasion for a special someone, so the cover featured is one of her favorites. As a result of the timing I'm forgoing my standard alliterative subtitles for this week and next (i.e. "Second Sunday Slowly" & Third Sunday Throwback") because that favorite falls into the "20th century" category and may not be considered entirely downtempo. Perhaps for its "shock goth" and "lurid lounge" sensibilities, I suppose I could get away with calling it a "Second Sunday Striptease" ;) :
Marilyn Manson - I Put A Spell On You (Screamin' Jay Hawkins)
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, (the "Jay" short for "Jalacy,") recorded but didn't release his original version of I Put A Spell On You in 1955. It was a lamenting blues ballad about the loss of an ex-girlfriend. It's said the producers were unsatisfied with it and, in search of something stranger, they threw a party during a recording session to change the atmosphere. Hawkins claims he doesn't actually remember recording the version that came out of that day, but somehow remembered the discovery that he "could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death." That version was released in November 1956 and was all but entirely banned from radio. The single still managed to sell over a million copies after the release of an edited version, which is said to have been tremendously popular with teenagers. The track was put on his first album, At Home with Screamin' Jay Hawkins, in 1958. When invited to perform the song live, he developed a shocking stage show to compliment the song: wearing a long cape, tusks jutting from his nostrils, coming out of a flaming coffin, a skull he would address as "Henry" mounted atop a stick, snakes, fireworks, etc...; his sensational antics were the beginning of a whole new performance style.
Many covers of the track have been released over the years by artists such as Nina Simone, Tim Curry, Annie Lennox, Nick Cave (and the Cavemen), and Bryan Ferry. Just last week, a cover of the track was featured on the sixth episode of the HBO series American Gods recorded by Brian Reitzell and Mark Lanegan (formerly of the Screaming Trees.) Most of these versions leaned into more jazz/blues/pop revisions; very few attempted to modernize the original's frantic "screamin'" style. Marilyn Manson, however, did.
Manson released Smells Like Children as an E.P. (though it had enough tracks for a full album) in October 1995 featuring his cover of I Put A Spell On You. It also featured his cover of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by the Eurythmics, which was the only single released from the disc. Manson has said they wanted Spell to be a single but he thought it "was far too dark, sprawling and esoteric, even for some of our fans."
David Lynch included Manson's cover of Spell in his 1997 film, Lost Highway, as part of a scene where Patricia Arquette's character was made to strip at gunpoint for a gangster/porn producer. Manson himself got his acting debut in Lost Highway as one of the porn stars in that producer's films.
It's evident from Manson's entire persona that he was greatly inspired by Hawkins and his cover is both loyal to the original's aesthetic and also a dynamic evolution of the seminal "shock rock" waltz.
To that special lady: this one is yours... as am I, under your spell:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Third Sunday Synthpop Slowly! (Just because I'm swapping my schedule around a little doesn't mean I have to completely abandon my typical needless alliterations!) Something dark and downtempo and relatively new from an artist never previously featured here!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
I was scheduled last minute for a gig in Boston tomorrow night. My schedule has details on that and the other two events I've got on the books for later this month. Feel free to join if you can! ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jun 04 - Siouxsie Sioux - These Boot Are Made For Walkin' (Nancy Sinatra)
May 28 - :wumpscut: - All Cried Out (Alison Moyet)
May 21 - Sisters of Mercy - Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones)
May 14 - Torso - Nijinski [Nijinsky] (Daniel Darc)
May 07 - Faderhead - SexyBack (Justin Timberlake)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies