The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

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The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by Azathoth » Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:22 pm

Outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.

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Re: The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by Robert_S » Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:37 pm

Jay and the band recommend a high fiber diet.
What I've found with a few discussions I've had lately is this self-satisfaction that people express with their proffessed open mindedness. In realty it ammounts to wilful ignorance and intellectual cowardice as they are choosing to not form any sort of opinion on a particular topic. Basically "I don't know and I'm not going to look at any evidence because I'm quite happy on this fence."
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Re: The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by Robert_S » Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:46 pm

I can't fucking believe this thread is so empty.
What I've found with a few discussions I've had lately is this self-satisfaction that people express with their proffessed open mindedness. In realty it ammounts to wilful ignorance and intellectual cowardice as they are choosing to not form any sort of opinion on a particular topic. Basically "I don't know and I'm not going to look at any evidence because I'm quite happy on this fence."
-Mr P

The Net is best considered analogous to communication with disincarnate intelligences. As any neophyte would tell you. Do not invoke that which you have no facility to banish.
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Re: The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by Xamonas Chegwé » Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:13 pm

Not many artists can do a Tom Waits song justice - but he managed it twice!


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Re: The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by lofuji » Fri Mar 20, 2015 12:49 pm

I saw Screamin' Jay Hawkins live when I was a student in Manchester in 1965. One of the best live gigs I ever attended. I subsequently wore out my copy of The Whammy.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. [
Macbeth]

It am wicked to mock the afflicted. [
BH (Calcutta), failed]

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Re: The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by mistermack » Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:43 pm

Shame that a great song and impressive voice needed to be weirdified to succeed in those days.
Bit like Lois Armstrong needed a weird voice. Black singers needed an edge.
Having said that, I remember John Lee Hooker singing dimples on the early top of the pops. He didn't need anything except a good song and brilliant guitar.
I saw him once, and was hooked for life.
Wikipedia wrote: Later career
Hawkins' later releases included "Constipation Blues" (which included a spoken introduction by Hawkins in which he states he wrote the song because no one had written a blues song before about "real pain"), "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".[9] In Paris in 1999 and at the Taste of Chicago festival, he actually performed the song with a toilet onstage.[10]
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Re: The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by Tero » Tue Mar 24, 2015 3:15 pm

The blues are about...

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Re: The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by piscator » Tue Mar 24, 2015 8:22 pm

mistermack wrote:Shame that a great song and impressive voice needed to be weirdified to succeed in those days.
Bit like Lois Armstrong needed a weird voice. Black singers needed an edge.
Having said that, I remember John Lee Hooker singing dimples on the early top of the pops. He didn't need anything except a good song and brilliant guitar.
I saw him once, and was hooked for life.

The only effect I hear on Screamin' Jay's mic in the OP was the very Fender-y reverb and natural cold feedback. He was probably singing through a guitar amp, or through a close-mic'd guitar amp into a PA to manage the aforementioned feedback. He probably used that mic because it had a switch and wouldn't squeal when he was away from it.

All the guys on the Chitlin' Circuit had gimmicks. They were entertainers. Hendrix used to play behind his head etc because the black Isley Bros crowds ate it up back when he was a sideman. Doesn't mean he didn't enjoy doing it.
Louis Armstrong and Billie sang that way because they liked the way it sounded. Same as Louis Prima. Same as Tommy Giles Rogers Jr.

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Re: The Screamin' Jay appreciation thread

Post by mistermack » Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:14 am

I'm not saying Jay used any special effect. He used ''shock'' in his act to appear out of the ordinary, to get a reaction from the audience, and to get his name remembered. Which all helps get bookings and sell records.
In the case of ''put a spell on you'', it didn't need that help, it was good enough on it's own. But that was his act, and it did a job for him.

I doubt if it was just that Lois Armstrong ''liked'' that vocal style. I'll bet he liked the fact that the audience liked it. It was the same phenomenon as Jay's act. Just not so extreme.
In general, black performers needed to try harder in those days, and any little hook helped them make a living.
But it wasn't just blacks. Joe Cocker had a pretty extreme stage act, for British tastes. He was the first big name I ever saw, live in an assembly hall at Nottingham University. It was very theatrical. I thought at the time that it was a bit of a silly act, but the band was good, and he had a great voice, and I guess the theatrics kept him in bookings and record sales, so it did the trick.
He was good enough not to need it, but were the audiences good enough to know that,at the time?

Maybe there were some performers who were just as good, who didn't go for an over-the-top act, and didn't make it big.
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