The Witching Hour

My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a 11-song playlist around some theme. This week, Alejandra Gonzalez assembles a musical celebration of witches that will cast a spell on your ears and your heart. Read Alejandra’s thoughts on each track and listen along to the Spotify and YouTube playlists below.

Whether they terrify or empower us, there’s no arguing that witches have been the inspiration for some greatly beloved art, particularly on film and in the horror genre, but also music spanning centuries. Witches are often seen in these as a thematic means by which to explore womanhood and otherness, each portrayal offering varying attitudes and insights on those very topics. Around this time of year, many of us put on films like THE CRAFT, PRACTICAL MAGIC, or (one of my very favorites) THE WITCH—all movies that use witches as a symbol of empowerment. But for me and many others, it’s music about witches that really sets a powerful, magical tone this time of year. If you’ve never made a witchy playlist, there’s no need to worry: I’ve made one for you containing some enchanting essentials.

1. “Season of the Witch” by Donovan

Probably the most glaringly obvious choice of song to begin with, no witchy playlist is complete without Donovan’s “Season Of The Witch”. The song has been featured several times onscreen—George A. Romero’s film of the same name uses it in one of the movie’s most pivotal scenes, and the series Britannia uses it in its opening credits—and it never fails to set the exact tone it should. “Season Of The Witch”, regardless of rendition or cover artist, is always foreboding and chilling. Though the song is relatively psychedelic sounding musically, the lyrics describe feelings of hysteria and delirium—sensations historically associated with “witch-hunts'', making it apt for Donovan to use witches as symbols in the song. It is nearly impossible to get tired of, which is why “Season Of The Witch” is on routinely during Halloween time.

2. “The Witch Queen Of New Orleans” by Redbone

You may know Redbone from the immensely successful GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY soundtrack, but “The Witch Queen Of New Orleans” is yet another excellent hit by the band. The song is about New Orleans’ 19th century voodoo queen, Marie Laveau. Though voodoo’s roots run deep in the city, Laveau was famous for reportedly healing the sick and helping the poor. She’s actually been rumored to be charitable and sympathetic, so the song depicting Laveau as “possessed by the devil’s skew” is not only untrue, but also a perfect example of general anxious attitudes towards the voodoo practice. Still, the song is an upbeat, funky homage to the spookiness that is so well embraced and celebrated by New Orleans and by lovers of all things supernatural.

3. “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac

I don’t think I need to explain why this song is mandatory to include here. Not only is the song about a woman who “is the darkness”, but Stevie Nicks herself has been heralded as a popular witch herself, despite claiming in multiple interviews that she doesn’t identify as one. Even if that’s true, there is no denying that Stevie has inspired so much of how witches are presented to us in popular culture aesthetically and embraces it to its full potential.

She was featured in American Horror Story’s third season as herself, but with magical abilities—a “white witch”, so I understand the assumptions about whether Nicks is magical. This song was even inspired by a book Nicks read about a supernatural goddess, Rhiannon. It is a perfect addition to this list, and to the playlist of anyone who yearns to feel mysterious and powerful.

4. “The Witch’s Promise” by Jethro Tull

Though this song is about a witch’s promise of love, the real reason it’s always on my witchy playlists every year is because it sounds straight out of a renaissance fair. From the very beginning, the song sounds folky and aged with Tull’s signature flute sounds, transporting listeners to a more enchanted world. The song depicts a season where “leaves falling yellow, red, brown”, creating a cozy atmosphere exclusive to the fall time, the literal “season” of the witch. Arguably, this song captures the fantastical, earthy elements so often associated with witches the best out of the others on this list.

5. “Strange Brew” by Cream

To me, this song is about the addictive and enchanting powers of music itself—however, Cream’s “Strange Brew” uses the symbol of a witch to represent those abilities. It was referenced in a book by the same name—Victor Kennedy’s Strange Brew: Metaphors of Magic And Science In Rock Music. The book agrees that with the proper blend of the right words, melodies, and harmonies, music can have the same effect of a magic potion. It helps “kill’ whatever kinds of pain are “inside of you”, like a strange brew would.

6. “Witchy Woman” by The Eagles

Similar to the last song, “Witchy Woman” uses the imagery of a witch to represent something else—but this one is about something far more sinister. According to Don Henley, the song was inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, and parts of the song certainly seem that way. However, the song is obviously about addiction and drug usage. Driving oneself to madness with a “silver spoon”, seeing how “high she flies”—all allusions to heroin. The song compares the hypnotic power of drugs to the mesmerizing magic of witches. While I love this song and its themes of lust and infatuation, it's still a really good example of how witches have been historically and wrongfully perceived—dangerously evil and seductive.

7. “Mr. Crowley” by Ozzy Osbourne

While not perfectly aligning with the theme of this playlist , I wanted to include a song that aided in causing panic similar to the hysteria that surrounds witches—and what better tune than one about the world's most famous occultist? Osbourne wrote this song about Aleister Crowley, an English occultist and ceremonial magician. The song aided Osbourne in establishing his pseudo-Satanic image, but this reputation does not represent the truth, as Osbourne has said that he’s never been a Satanist or practiced black magic. Osbourne is a figure that has caused tons of hysteria within Christian groups (especially during the Satanic Panic era), which is a reaction also commonly associated with witches. However, similar to Ozzy, the truth isn’t as interesting (or prone to manipulation) as the stories people tell and dread.

8. “Devil Woman” by Cliff Richard

For centuries, women who defy certain standards of behavior have been called witches and even persecuted. During the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton was often compared to a witch, a “nasty woman”, perhaps because it was the first time the U.S was seeing a woman in power on such a national level. “Devil Woman” by Cliff Richard was featured in I, TONYA, the biopic on another morally complicated woman in history, Tonya Harding. By mentioning crystal balls, spells cast, and answering a woman’s “mystical call”, the witchy imagery is enormously present in the song. Director Craig Gillespie includes it in his film to demonstrate another woman regarded as witch-like by the public simply for her behavior. Despite the way it was used in the movie, the song itself is funky and incredibly catchy and I'm grateful to I, TONYA for introducing it to me.

9. “Waking The Witch” by Kate Bush

Speaking of standard-defying women, Kate Bush’s “Waking the Witch” is on the second side of her incendiary album, Hounds Of Love. The song is loosely based on Elizabeth George Speare’s novel The Witch Of Blackbird Pond, where the protagonist witnesses the burning of witches that are put on trial. However, what resonates with me the most about the song is Bush’s own commentary on it.

In Radio 1’s Classic Albums Series, she illustrates my sentiments exactly:

“I think it's very interesting the whole concept of witch-hunting and the fear of women's power. In a way it's very sexist behavior, and I feel that female intuition and instincts are very strong, and are still put down, really.”

10. “I Put A Spell On You” by Nina Simone

Though the original song was by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and various covers have been released since, it is Nina Simone’s rendition of the classic that captivates me the most. The lyrics depict a scorned woman binding her man to her with a spell. Simone’s performance of the song is dark, sensual, and really kind of eerie. Nina has popularly also been considered to be a complex woman—but in some perceptions, "complex" means "difficult to handle", which made Simone the victim of harsher than usual criticism. In this song, it feels almost as though she embraces the negative ideas about her by powerfully singing about a spell-casting woman such as herself. She ultimately titled her autobiography “I Put A Spell On You”, proving that it was just as empowering to her as the song is to the rest of us who love it.

11. “Black Magic Woman” by Fleetwood Mac

It wouldn’t be a playlist I curated if I didn’t include Fleetwood Mac more than once—but this incredible tune about a witchy woman was written before Stevie Nicks was even in the band! Though the song was popularized by Santana, Fleetwood Mac’s version feels more soulful and longing—which, at its core, is what the song is about. It depicts a man begging his “black magic woman” not to turn her back on him and needing her “so bad” because of a spell she has cast on his heart, turning it to “stone.” Again, we see the “witch” as a symbol of intense longing and fixation, making her an incredibly powerful force in the lives of those she touches.