For those who don't know, the character looking at you is Screamin' Jay Hawkins. His music and persona would always be a perfect fit in my blog, but I have a reason to focus on him tonight. My blog buddy Julie was nice enough to finally solve a mystery for me that involves one of his songs.
If you remember, a while back I wrote a guest blog entry for GdL16. In it, I wrote about a certain X-Files episode involving a sculptor who was in his studio working while a song (that I couldn't remember) played in the background. Since I couldn't find any evidence of this episode online, I decided to focus on my favorite X-Files episode instead. Well, guess what? It turns out that the scene in my mind really did exist and also happened to be the beginning of my favorite episode!
As Julie pointed out, the song playing in this scene was "Frenzy" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. I listened to the song online and instantly knew she was correct! It was nice to know that my memory was accurate, because my brain has continued trying to figure out where I came up with that scene!
I had a difficult time choosing photos for this blog entry, because there is a lot of great Screamin' Jay Hawkins material to choose from! He was someone who was clearly not shy about posing for photos! If you google images of him, you'll find lots of cheesy expressions, voodoo accessories, and vampire related poses.
If you'd like to listen to "Frenzy" check out the youtube clip below. You won't be watching anything, but you'll get to hear the song. I was thinking of putting up the video of him performing "Frenzy" live, but there's a lot of talking beforehand. I got a kick out of it, but I won't put you guys through it. :)
The second video is of Screamin' Jay performing the song he is probably most well known for. It will give you an idea of his performance style. I don't have any explanation for the chattering teeth, but this video is pretty old so I guess we can cut him some slack on the special effects. :)
Pretty innovative for the 1950's, hey? Just think of all the performers he's inspired!
