I Put A Spell On You

Sone of the Day 11/15/2022

I Put A Spell On You by… Annie Lennox, Nina Simone,  Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, The Animals, and more.  

The plan was to do this song on Halloween, which would have made sense considering the title.  I was going to write about how I’ve always thought Halloween was somewhat of a stupid, useless holiday, and then use all the different iterations of this song, originally written and composed by Jay Hawkins, as a sort of mood piece that reflects the everlasting sadness of useless rituals, pointless customs. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a song on Halloween, and haven’t in a few weeks. Life got in the way, I suppose. Perhaps it is those cultural customs, even though often vain, that serve as a reference point; wasted holidays amid wasted time. For the sake of the culture at large, it would probably be better to have holidays that transcend consumption, but I don’t think this is really possible anymore. 

The hope is to no longer let life get in the way. Writing these, ideally 5x per week, is my own sort of reference point in a world that consistently seems to be devoid of meaning, at least at a larger, societal scale. That's one of the reasons I started this daily newsletter. To listen to music, and let music's spell help make sense of the constantly shifting, confusing world around me.  (‘Meaning’ is a word I often trip over. I think it's something that only exists on a small scale, in siloed communities that don’t have much influence. That’s the consequence of mass individualism, of the promotion of identity-based consumption. Whatever.)  

So, anyway, Nina Simone’s ballad is my favorite version of this ubiquitously covered song. Annie Lennox’s is a close second. Which one do you like?