Episode 11 Screamin' Jay Hawkins

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 EPISODE 11 SCREAMIN’ JAY HAWKINS

 Episode 11 is about the life and musical career of Blues Master Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. 

 The titles of releases on my label Big Guitar Music the songs are taken from in this episode include Swing Land, Zoltar’s Walk, and What’s Buggin’ You.

 A music track playlist for this podcast is available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple, and YouTube for your listening pleasure.

 The musicians featured in the tracks on this episode are Derek O’Brien, Eve Monsees, George Rains, Jason Crisp, Kevin Hall, Mark ‘Kaz’ Kazanoff, Max Crace, Mike Buck, Nick Connolly, Nico Leophonte, and Paul, Jr.

 Omar’s Picks for further study of copyrighted material not used in Episode 11 are Black Music for White People, released by Bizarre Planet Records, At Home with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, originally released on Okeh Records, and the book I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins by Steve Bergsman.

 Visit my website for more info  www.omarandthehowlers.com

 Thank you to Matthew Garza (Upwork.com) for his work mastering this podcast.

Transcript

EPISODE 11 SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS  

Omar Dykes: 

Welcome to this episode of Brown Shoes Blues. Today I will be telling you about one of the most flamboyant and bizarre artists of all time. In 1973, at the ripe old age of 23, I was living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. On a lazy Saturday afternoon, I was informed by my second wife that she wanted to go to the Woolco Department Store for some things she needed to continue life as she knew it, and we were to make the journey pronto. I was reluctant, but I didn't have anything else better to do. When we arrived at the store, she told me to entertain myself until she was ready to leave. She also said it would be a while and to stay out of her hair. I goofed off, which I was very good at. I goofed off for quite a bit and moped around the store.

All of a sudden, I discovered a table of discounted records. The sign said 'Records 44 cents each'. I looked at the price and thought, this can't be right. But looking at the sign a second time, it still said 44 cents. Now I'm a sucker for a bargain, and this was right up my alley. I rummaged through the boxes and found a double album of Eddie Cochran's Greatest Hits, a two-record set of the Bluegrass band Jim and Jesse, and a record on Vee Jay Records of The Best of Jimmy Reed. This Reed record became a life guide for me in the blues.

I kept looking through the boxes and was about to walk away when a strange looking record caught my attention. I gazed at it a second or two and read the title: At Home With Screamin' Jay Hawkins. I had no idea who Screamin' Jay Hawkins was, but this cover depicted a man wearing white gloves, a white cape, and he appeared to have vampire teeth. I said to myself, I said, self, "I don't know what this is, but I have to get it." By this time, the little woman found me and let me know it was time to go. I went to the checkout counter and my purchases were less than five dollars. I was a happy camper, and I was sure my new albums would reveal some unknown magic to me. Boy, was I right! 

As soon as we got home, I opened up the Screamin' Jay Hawkins record and placed it on the turntable. Wow. I was floored. The first song I heard was "I Put a Spell on You." Ooh, I put a spell on you because you're mine. Stop the things you're doing. I ain't lying. I want you. I want you. Oh, And that's what I heard, sort of. I had that on an Animals record, but not like this. I scanned the other titles and was blown away by the next selections. The song "Yellow Coat" written by Screamin' Jay became an immediate favorite and continues to be until this day.

Here is one of the Screamin' Jay's original songs called "Yellow Coat" that we performed in the original Howlers. This version is from my release on SwingLand.

I didn't know Hawkins aspired to be an opera singer. The record included a wild but credible version of "I Love Paris". 'I love Paris in the springtime. I love Paris in the fall'. He also did a totally straight version of "Deep Purple" that blew my mind. Another interesting cut on the record was "Old Man River" that was considered somewhat of a spiritual song written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein for the 1927 Broadway musical Show Boat. This song is about the hardships of the African American along the Mississippi River. The final blow came when I heard Hawkins sing the bizarro world version of Gene Autry's, "Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle." I was speechless, and I'm not sure I have ever recovered. It was a lot to digest at the time, but until this day, I am a fan of all things Screamin' Jay. 

In the early days of rock and roll, Screamin' Jay was surely one of the most outrageous performers to ever come down the pike,] and he was certainly an amazing singer and showman. When he performed, he snarled and shouted, he hollered and screamed, he groaned and grunted, he rocked and bellowed, he rolled and sputtered, and he twisted and moaned. He was intense and at times could be scary and frightening or funny and humorous. One thing you could count on was he would be entertaining and grab your attention. His act was not for the faint of heart, and it was doubtful you could hang through his entire show without making some kind of an emotional commitment.

At his live shows, he would emerge from a coffin carrying a stick with a skull on it that he called Henry. His shows were bizarre exercises in insanity and always managed to push the envelopes to the limit on surreal behavior. Jay's voice was deep, dark, and loud, and it could rattle the floor. Screamin' Jay's antics were wild and theatrical, always on the boundaries of acceptable human behavior. Jay could be crude and cruel. At other times, he could seem suave and sophisticated with his operatic voice and immaculate style of dress, wearing black or white tuxedos that often included matching capes. Hawkins' live shows were equal parts rock and roll extravaganza, medicine show, and journey into the twilight zone. By today's standards, Screamin' Jay's shows don't seem nearly as over the top or bizarre as they did at one time. After decades of shock rock acts and artists like Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, and Rob Zombie pushing the shock factor to the hundredth degree, it doesn't change the fact that Hawkins was the architect and blueprint for the entire movement. He will always be a larger-than-life figure and the pioneer of the genre. 

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was born Jalacy Jay Hawkins on July the 18th, 1929, in Cleveland, Ohio. At a very young age, his mother placed him in foster care, and Hawkins was brought up in a Cleveland boarding house owned by his foster mother. It is unclear why his mother put him in the foster care, but it is a fact that Screamin' Jay had three sisters left at home for his mother to raise. As a child, Hawkins dabbled with playing the piano and later taught himself how to play the guitar and saxophone. He always wanted to become an opera singer and stated that Paul Robeson was one of his major influences. Robeson had a deep, dark, baritone voice, who was mainly known as a spiritual singer, although he also performed in Broadway musicals.

Screamin' Jay's professional career started in 1951 when he was hired by the Philadelphia jazz guitarist, Tiny Grimes to sing and play piano in his band. The group was called the Rockin' Highlanders and they wore tam hats and Scottish kilts as their stage attire. The first song Screamin' Jay ever recorded was "Why Did You Waste My Time" on Gotham Records backed by Grimes and the Rockin' Highlanders. Who else but Screamin' Jay Hawkins could cite Enrico Caruso, Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, and Mario Lanza as major influences? The Gotham recordings generated enough interest that Hawkins was able to cut several more singles, including "She Put the Whammy on Me" for Mercury Records in 1955. These singles led to Hawkins being signed to Okeh Records, a division of the Columbia record label in 1956, where he cut his career defining song, "I Put a Spell on You." Jay's original vision for this song was as a refined ballad, but as it turns out, it was anything but that. He even commented at times that he considered playing this bizarre tune as a waltz. 

The producer of the record brought in barbecue and ample supplies of liquor, beer, and wine. The entire band had a wild and crazy party. It is said that Hawkins and the band members who were ace New York studio musicians were totally intoxicated by the time they recorded "I Put a Spell on You." Screamin' Jay snarled, grunted, screamed, and shouted throughout the entire vocal performance and claims he doesn't remember the session at all. He had to listen to the recording to learn it when it was released. This song became the cornerstone of his career and sold well over a million copies. 

It must be noted that the recording was not without repercussions. In many parts of the country, the record was banned from the radio and perceived as vulgar and overly sexual. This song was considered taboo by the industry, and Columbia Records even went so far as to release a second version with many of the grunts and vulgarities of the original performance removed. The NAACP was disgusted by this record and said it did not reflect well for the African American community. Screamin' Jay Hawkins later commented that the extreme controversy caused by this recording sent the sales through the roof, once again, proving the point, there is no such thing as bad publicity. 

The classic became a favorite of many important artists and was recorded by Nina Simone, Them, The Animals, Credence Clearwater Revival, Annie Lennox, and many others. The success of this song led to Hawkins abandoning his tuxedos to wear wild, colorful hats, bright red and yellow suits, leopard skin clothing, and at times even adorning a bone through his nose in his stage appearances. Screamin' Jay was a flamboyant and colorful character and always gave new meaning to the word outrageous. 

 The press was quick to connect Hawkins with the occult and the supernatural because of his use of corny voodoo stage props that included rubber frogs, lizards, and snakes. These ill-perceived props were presented as complete schlock and never meant to be taken seriously by anyone, including Screamin' Jay. The industry even called Hawkins the Black Vincent Price. Screamin' Jay bemoaned all the success the shock factor presentation offered him and commented many times he wished he could be a traditional singer and not have to be presented as a boogie monster. Sorry, Jay. This was never meant to be, and the legacy will always be remembered for the shock factor antics that followed him throughout his career. 

Here is a wild and crazy original song called "Bad Monkey" inspired by Screamin' Jay on my latest release.

After researching Screamin' Jay from a multitude of sources, I found a couple of his stories to be questionable. I am somewhat of a storyteller myself, and I have been known to stretch the truth and embellish several stories I have told. You start by adding a few colorful touches to an everyday black and white event, and suddenly you have a full-blown adventure in Technicolor. Voila. The story changes over time and after a while it develops into a lengthy yarn that is full of questionable details. You tell the story anyway, and usually people will have a good laugh. Jay always talked about his boxing skills and that he competed in the Golden Gloves Boxing Organization. I do believe he boxed in Golden Gloves, but Hawkins claimed he won several championships and awards in the organization. The trouble with these boastful claims is I couldn't find any credible documentation that would validate these events. Although Jay looked like he could knock you into the next millennium, I could not find any truth to his claims. Jay also told about his boxing career continuing when he was in the army and said he became the title champion when he defeated the current champ of Alaska. The trouble with this claim is the timeline is all wrong. Once again, there is no proof of these events to be found anywhere. 

I still enjoyed reading about Jay's tall tales about boxing, and they reminded me of an event that happened in my own life. When I was in the ninth grade, I tried out to box for Golden Gloves. I was scheduled for two trial matches and was fired up and ready to go. The matches were held in my high school gym, and my parents showed up with my grandmother in tow. It was a big deal to my dad because he was an avid fan of watching Gillette Cavalcade of Sports boxing matches on television. My mom was a nervous wreck and beside herself. She was afraid I would be hurt. My grandmother was indifferent and didn't seem to have an opinion one way or another. My first match began, and my opponent beat the crap out of me. The good news, it didn't take him long. Oh, well, I still had another match left to redeem myself.

My next match began, and I hung in for multiple rounds until my opponent had hit me so many times that he couldn't muster the strength to raise his gloves again. They said I won the match by default, and I was ecstatic. The fault that I could take a beating, I guess. I went over to see my parents and my grandmother, and they were happy I was alive. My grandmother commented that I wasn't much of a boxer, but I sure could take a beating. I went over to the officials before leaving, and they said I didn't do well enough to be accepted into the organization. They thanked me for trying out, and I can proudly say that was the end of my boxing career. Thank goodness for music. 

Screamin' Jay's tall tales continued with his years in the army. He was in the service all right, but he once again spins the truth to make himself the hero. His outrageous stories about serving in the military are a doozy. Jay said he was able to join the military by forging a birth certificate that showed him to be old enough to join. He claims in some stories to be 14 years old and in others, he was 16. You choose. There is documentation showing that Screamin' Jay was enlisted in the armed forces for six years. He enlisted in December of 1945, until he was honorably discharged in June of 1952. World War II officially ended in September of 1945, and Jay completely missed the war according to the information provided by the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration. Screamin' Jay claimed he was a prisoner of war and held in a prison camp for 18 months before being rescued, which was completely fabricated. 

Jay would sometimes forget what war he was fighting and would confuse World War II with the Korean War. The Korean War started in the middle of 1950, and Jay was discharged in 1952. That means Jay would have to go overseas, seen action, gotten captured by the enemy, rescued and returned to the U.S. within a year and a half, which is kind of unrealistic. Knowing how the army operates, this could not happen. No record has ever been found to support Hawkins being in combat in Korea. Jay was in fact in Korea, but not as a fighting soldier, but as a performer. In 1945, he went to work in the Special Services Division of the U.S. Army and Air Force performing in the military clubs at America, Japan, Germany, and Korea. Jay had no idea people would be able to fact check his stories in his military records. He thought he could say whatever he wanted. The stories were great, but totally untrue. Jay was already larger than life, but he chose to spin his yarns into bizarre fairy tales that were entertaining but unnecessary. 

That was a Screamin' Jay Hawkins tune called "Alligator Wine" written by Leiber and Stroller from my release SwingLand.

Screamin' Jay moved to Hawaii in 1962 and continued to live and work there until sometime in 1971. He relocated to Hawaii in hopes of escaping the rigors and demands that performing in New York City, the New England area, and up and down the East Coast placed on him. At the time of Jay's residency in Hawaii, the scene resembled a smaller version of Las Vegas, Nevada. There were lots of casinos, supper clubs with floor shows, and countless drinking lounges with various types of entertainment. Hawkins started out in Hawaii as a piano player singer. In some of the small lounges, that's what he did. He kept his shows low key and did not expose his wild voodoo antics and theatrical hysteria at first. He played the part of a singer piano player performing straightforward by singing standards and playing jazz favorites. Sometimes he would slip in a tamer version of "I Put a Spell on You". 

As he got more popular on the islands, he started doing floor shows in larger clubs and casinos. With these venues being bigger and more prestigious, he began to slip in voodoo inspired antics a little at a time until he was back full force doing what he did best, being Screamin' Jay Hawkins. He would come out on stage wearing a tuxedo and sing a few Rat Pack style standards and go backstage as the band played an instrumental. He would reappear in his leopard skin caveman apparel with his cigarette smoking skull called Henry in his hand and a bone through his nose. His performances were going over great with the audiences.

Jay was married to his second wife when they moved to Hawaii, but their relationship started to crumble. His later years on the islands resulted in the same old troubles he had with women and his personal relationships. His professional life was thriving as his personal life was on the skids. In 1971, Jay threw in the towel and left Hawaii despite a successful show business career there. He moved back to New York City and began in earnest to reinstate himself there. It didn't take long before he was back to business as usual. Welcome back, Screamin' Jay Hawkins! 

In 1972, Jay resumed his career of live performances and continued his illustrious recording work. He also spent quite a bit of the seventies touring Europe and spent a major amount of time to break through and be known in England. He toured other places in the European community but returned to England over and over. As hard as he worked, he never made the inroads of England he was hoping for. He had a tremendous cult following of fans, but it failed to garner the attention that the older classic blues men, such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson received. That's what he was looking for, but it didn't happen. Screamin' Jay Hawkins remained a cult hero in Great Britain and never saw the success he hoped for there.

He continued to perform and record in the U.S. and also saw the rise of a promising film career. He was a natural born actor and was cast in a good number of films, many of which depicted Jay as himself. Whatever part he was given, he was sure to push it to the limit. He was able to astonish the viewer just by being himself. In 1978, Jay played himself in American Hot Wax that featured his coffin and voodoo presentation. 1986 saw him cast as himself in the movie Joey, and in 1988, he was portrayed as a singer in the movie Two Moon Junction. In the 1989 film Mystery Train, he played the part of a deranged hotel night clerk wearing a fire engine red suit and pushing his part over the top. Mystery Train is my favorite Screamin' Jay Hawkins film. It has several storylines going on at the same time that are brought together at the end of the film, making it very entertaining. Jay does a great job as this character. I never get tired of seeing him in this movie. In 1991, Jay was cast in A Rage in Harlem, along with Gregory Hines, Forrest Whitaker, Danny Glover, and Robin Givens. Hawkins was cast as the character Adolfo in the 1997 movie Perdita Durango. Finally, in 2001, he played himself in a documentary about him entitled I'll Put a Spell on Me. 

 On February the 12th, 2000, Screamin' Jay died in France after emergency surgery for an aneurysm. He was 70 years old Hawkins was married six times. His last wife was 31 years old at the time of his death. Immediately after his death, his last wife sold all the valuable belongings and costumes before a will could be found. He had three children with his first wife and claimed he had a total of 50 to 75 more children. Jay's friend and biographer set up a website in attempt to locate these children. 33 were identified and at least 12 attended a reunion party at the House of Blues in California. This was in 2001. His daughter Suke from his first marriage stated that Hawkins was not much of a father and left home one day for a carton of milk and didn't come back for two years.  He left again, and she didn't see him until 20 years later. She also stated that Jay left each child from his first marriage one dollar each. 

Screamin' Jay did not receive many industry awards compared to the other blues artists. "I Put a Spell on You" appeared on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Top 500 songs that shape rock and roll. He received a Blues Foundation Pioneer Award for an Individual Artist, and he was nominated for the Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his 1989 role in the film, Mystery Train. In my opinion, Screamin' Jay Hawkins did not receive the recognition and accolades he deserved. He released many bizarre records, and his amount of live performances is astounding. Screamin' Jay will always be one of my major musical heroes.

In the late 80s, I saw Screamin' Jay playing live at a festival on Auditorium Shores here in Austin. I was able to enjoy three to four songs before I had to leave his show to perform on another stage at the same festival. Jay was playing with members of the Dino Lee band, and they sounded really good. He was dressed in an outrageous outfit with his black cape. He had a rubber boa constrictor around his neck. I remember he looked very tall. He definitely looked like somebody you wouldn't want to confront. Although I only got to hear a few songs, I was fortunate that one of them was "I Put a Spell on You." I was so glad to have been able to hear Jay play it live. I don't remember the other songs he performed, but I can still see Screamin' Jay singing "I Put a Spell on You" in my mind. I left his show with a big smile on my face, a memory for a lifetime. 

That was an original song called "Under My Spell" from my release Zoltar's Walk. The song has a similar theme of "I Put a Spell on You", but with my signature Bo Diddley beat. 

Omar's Picks for Screamin' Jay Hawkins are the record Black Music for White People, released by Bizarre Planet Records that includes a great cover version of "Heart Attack and Vine" by Tom Waits, another very different artist. My next selection is At Home With Screamin' Jay Hawkins, my all-time favorite, originally on Okeh Records, which is a collection of his early recordings, and the book, I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins by Steve Bergsman available on Amazon. 

A big heartfelt shout out to Jason Crisp in Austin, Texas for being my friend, a talented bass player, performing with me live and in the studio, and a continued supporter of Brown Shoes Blues.   

Thank you for joining me today and be sure to tune in next time for another episode.