Written in Blood

Art by AtomHawk

What do you think about when you hear the word ‘witch’? Do you think of an ugly hag with a crooked and wart-ridden nose; or is haunting beauty and a seductive gaze your idea of an enchanting siren? Maybe you’ll find the best of both worlds in this list of 11 songs about our magical vixens. I tried to find the best videos I could for this list and I’m including the lyrics for each song; so I apologize for the length in advance. Now, let’s get on with the tunes.

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SWAMP WITCH by Jim Stafford (Jim Stafford)

I think I included this song on one of my previous lists and I do not apologize for including it again on this one. This song scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. It always amazed me that after this haunting number Jim Stafford made a career of goofy little novelty songs. Well yippie-i-ayyyy motherf**kin’ Cow Patti!

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp
Where the strange green reptiles crawl
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees
Like sausage on a smokehouse wall
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes
An’ all of them watching you
Stay off the track to Hattie’s Shack in the back of the Black Bayou

Way up the road from Hattie’s Shack
Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town
Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you in when the sun go down
Rumours of what she’d done, rumours of what she’d do
Kept folks off the track of hattie’s shack
In the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on
And the swamp water overflowed
Mosquitoes and the fever grabbed the town like a fist
Doctor Jackson was the first to go
Some say the plague was-a brought by Hattie
There was talk of a hang’n too
But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles
From the bowels of the Black bayou

Early one morn ‘tween dark and dawn when shadows filled the sky
There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry
In the square there was found a big black round
Vat full of gurgling brew
Whispering sounds as the folk gathered round
“It came from the Black Bayou”

There ain’t much pride when you’re trapped inside
A slowly sink’n ship
Scooped up the liquid deep and green
And the whole town took a sip
Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue
Let’s thank old Hattie for sav’n our town
We’ll fetch her from the Black Bayou

Party of ten of the town’s best men headed for Hattie’s Shack
Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good
And they’re gonna bring Hattie back
Never found Hattie and they never found the shack
And they never made a trip back in
‘Twas a parchment note they found tacked to a stump
Said don’t come look’n again

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WITCH HUNT by Rush (Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neal Peart)

I remember buying Rush’s Moving Pictures album for their hit Tom Sawyer. I remember falling in love with the album because of this song, Witch Hunt. It seems to me that the song is more relevant in 2013 than it ever was in 1981. Interesting bit of trivia: the band was laying down the tracks for the song when they heard the news that John Lennon had been murdered.

The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick and still
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torch lit hill

Features distorted in the flickering light
The faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
The mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right
Confident their ways are best

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill

They say there are strangers who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves
That those who know what’s best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves

Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand…

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RHIANNON by Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks)

Yes, this song is about a witch. A Welsh witch according to songstress Stevie Nicks. In fact, Rhiannon was a prominent figure in Welsh mythology according to the all-seeing, all-knowing folks over at Wikipedia. See? You get a cool song and a history lesson all in one.

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WITCHY WOMAN by The Eagles (Don Henley, Bernie Leadon)

Somewhere, right now, right at this very moment, at this very second, Witchy Woman is playing on some classic rock station somewhere in the good old U.S. of A. With her ‘raven hair and ruby lips’, this tempting seductress has been a part of popular music since I was all of 10 years old. That’s okay, she can hold me ‘spellbound in the night’ until I’m a 100.

Raven hair and ruby lips
sparks fly from her finger tips
Echoed voices in the night
she’s a restless spirit on an endless flight
wooo hooo witchy woman, see how
high she flies
woo hoo witchy woman she got
the moon in her eye
She held me spellbound in the night
dancing shadows and firelight
crazy laughter in another
room and she drove herself to madness
with a silver spoon
woo hoo witchy woman see how high she flies
woo hoo witchy woman she got the moon in her eye
Well I know you want a lover,
let me tell your brother, she’s been sleeping
in the Devil’s bed.
And there’s some rumors going round
someone’s underground
she can rock you in the nighttime
’til your skin turns red
woo hoo witchy woman
see how high she flies
woo hoo witchy woman
she got the moon in her eye

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SEASON OF THE WITCH by Donovan (Donovan Leitch)

This is my first time hearing this psychedelic ditty from Mr. Sunshine Superman himself, Donovan. Groovy baby.

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STRANGE BREW by Cream (Eric Clapton, Felix Pappalardi and Gail Collins)

Strange Brew was written and recorded in a time before Clapton became a middle of the road bore. If you don’t believe me, listen to this song about a ‘witch of trouble in electric blue’; then listen to his sleep-inducing ‘unplugged’ version of Layla.

Strange brew killin’ what’s inside of you.

She’s a witch of trouble in electric blue.
In her own mad mind she’s in love with you,
With you.
Now what you gonna do?
Strange brew killin’ what’s inside of you.

She’s some kind of demon messin’ in the flue.
If you don’t watch out it’ll stick to you,
To you.
What kind of fool are you?
Strange brew killin’ what’s inside of you.

On a boat in the middle of a raging sea,
She would make a scene for it all to be
Ignored.
And wouldn’t you be bored?
Strange brew killin’ what’s inside of you.

Strange brew, strange brew, strange brew, strange brew.
Strange brew killin’ what’s inside of you.

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WICKED ANNABELLA by The Kinks (Ray Davies)

As a whole, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society is a concept album in which the songs are snapshots of life in a (sometimes not so) idyllic English town. One of those snapshots was about a woman who lives ‘in a dark and misty house’ and ‘mixes a brew that no one’s ever seen.’ What must the neighbors think?

In a dark and misty house,
Where no Christian man has been,
Wicked Annabella mixes a brew
That no one’s ever seen.

Relatives have passed her by,
Too scared to even say hello.
She’s in perpetual midnight,
She shuts out the day,
And goes about her sinful ways.

I, I’ve seen her hair, I’ve seen her face,
Look towards mine.
I, I’ve felt her eyes burning my sole,
Twisting my mind.

Little children who are good
Should always go to sleep at night,
‘Cause Wicked Annabella is up in the sky
Hopin’ they will open their eyes.

Don’t go into woods tonight,
‘Cause underneath the sticks and stones
Are lots of little demons enslaved by Annabella
Waiting just to carry you home.

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MARIE LAVEAU by Bobby Bare (Shel Silverstein, Baxter Taylor)

 According to legend, Marie Laveau was a voodoo priestess who lived in New Orleans in the 180o’s. She was also quite a beauty from what I’ve heard. Listen to her description in this song by Bobby Bare and decide if she could have sued for defamation of character.

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WITCH QUEEN OF NEW ORLEANS by Redbone (Lolly Vegas, Patrick Vegas)

I vaguely remember hearing this song back when I was growing up in South Carolina. This is another one about Miss Marie Laveau. It’s also a little bit nicer to her than Bobby Bare’s song; but just a little bit.

Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau, she’ll put a spell on you
Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau, she’ll put a spell on you
Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau
She’s the witch queen of New Orleans, of New Orleans

I’m gonna tell you a story, strange as it now seems
Of zombie voodoo gris gris and the Witch Queen of New Orleans
She lived in a world of magic, possessed by the devils skew
From a shack near the swamplands made of mud-pile brick
Marie stirred her witches brew

Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau, she’ll put a spell on you
Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau, she’ll put a spell on you
Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau
She’s the Witch Queen of New Orleans, of New Orleans

Dime or a nickel, anyone could buy voodoo of any kind
She had potions and lotions, herbs and tanna leaves
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Early one mornin’ into mucky swamp dew, vanished Marie with hate in her eyes
Though she’ll never return, all the Cajuns knew, a Witch Queen never dies

Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau, she’ll put a spell on you
Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau, she’ll put a spell on you
Marie, Marie, la voodoo ve veau
She’s the witch queen of New Orleans, of New Orleans

Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau, she’ll put a spell on you
Marie, Marie, la voodoo veau, she’ll put a spell on…

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BLACK MAGIC WOMAN by Santana (Peter Green)

This song is a prime example of a cover version kicking the ass of the original. Fleetwood Mac did it first; but Santana did it best. That’s okay, the Mac still had Rhiannon.

Got a black magic woman
Got a black magic woman.

I got a black magic woman
Got me so blind I can’t see
That she’s a black magic woman
She’s tryin’ to make a devil out of me.

Turn your back on me baby
Turn your back on me baby.

Yes, don’t turn your back on me baby
Stop messin’ around with your tricks
Don’t turn your back on me baby
You just might pick up my magic sticks.

Got your spell on me baby
Got your spell on me baby.

Yes you got your spell on me baby
Turning my heart into stone
I need you so bad – magic woman
I can’t leave you alone.

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WITCHES by The Cowboy Junkies (Margo Timmons, Michael Timmons)

This is my first time hearing this song and you know what? I kinda dig it. Maybe you will, too.

There are witches in the hills calling my name
saying come join us sister, come kiss the flame
Come dance in the moonbeams, ride the night wind
make love to the darkness and laugh at man’s sins

I shiver with delight, I shiver with fear
my heart wants to go but my soul’s filled with fear
So I turn to my lover and ask what do I do
do I answer their call or stay here with you

But under spell of deep sleep he moans and turns away
taking his protection and my desire to stay
So I rise to the hill tops, I ride the night winds
I make love to the darkness and laugh at man’s sins

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There ya go, eleven ditties about ‘double double toil and trouble’. Don’t turn me into a frog if I didn’t include one of your favorites. By the way, take care and stay scared.

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