I was looking at the Facepagething, and someone posted this:
Despite the fact that I owned Super Session for many years, I only listened to it once or twice, and didn’t remember “Season of the Witch.”
Donovan wrote and recorded the original.
Donovan fun fact: That’s Jimi Page (of the Firm and also Led Zeppelin) on lead guitar. He was a session musician back in the mid sixties.
A lot of other artists also covered “SOTW,” including Lou Rawls …
… and Joan Jett.
I think this is my favorite.
Part of the appeal of this song, of course, is that kind of cool witchy vibe. You feel a little bit sexy when this song is playing, and what audience doesn’t like that?
Plus, it’s super easy to play. Two chords for most of the song. But since there isn’t a whole lot going on instrumentally, there has to be something to be keep the audience engaged. You need a great storyteller, or a great vocal improviser on the mic. Trust me, the right vocalist makes all the difference in the world between an amazing shared musical journey and a dreary 5 minutes of flowery nonsense.
Image by Plaisanter; distributed under Creative Commons License 2.0.
EARNOIZE 