Screamin’ Jay Hawkins “…What That Is!” 1969. This upcoming weekend would have been Hawkins’ 91st birthday (b. Jalacy Hawkins, July 18th, 1929 d. 2000) and since I just finished reading an excellent biography gifted me by one of its publishers at Feral House  (I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screaming’ Jay Hawkins by Steve Bergsman, 2019) I decided to put this live LP on for a spin. It does not have his most famous song, “I Put a Spell on You” but it’s a great live comp (recorded at Club Amigo in North Hollywood) that does include his second-most famous and definitely most notorious song “Constipation Blues.” That track is hilarious, the horns making distinctly obvious plopping sounds throughout, and has Hawkins’ signature performance art delivery of the lyrics – grunting, groaning, hollering, screaming – to get some “relief.” In the book, the story behind this track is like much of Hawkins history and personality: lots of stories, most of which probably aren’t true but create a great and charming narrative. Supposedly he was in the hospital, constipated, and after trying for 5 hours got out the a roll of toilet paper and wrote the lyrics to the track then and there.  That story shifted and shimmied quite a bit over the years so it’s hard to say what his real motivation was for the song, possibly just to piss off the more uptight members of some audiences.

The cover of …What That Is! shows Hawkins in a coffin, the prop he would start most of his live performances in since the 50′s. In I Put a Spell on You, Hawkins credits famed DJ Alan Freed with the original idea of emerging from the coffin on stage, but admitted Freed had to bribe him to do it; over time the bribe has been said to be anywhere between $300 and $5,000. (As mentioned above, Hawkins was highly entertaining and charming but an unreliable storyteller.) The liner notes on the back cover of …What That Is! also gives a glimpse into Hawkins’ sly sense of humor, though it does say it’s from the producer it feels like Hawkins’ voice. It says “This album was recorded live at the Club Amigo in North Hollywood on June 23rd and 24th, Nineteen Hundred and Yesterday, and is dedicated to President Nixon, whose efforts to recapture the era of the early 50′s do not pass unnoticed.” Like many, many, many Black artists, Hawkins was almost universally shafted out of most of his recording earnings and was frequently close to homelessness and extreme poverty during most of his professional life.