Paul McCartney may be many things: a rock and roll giant, a songwriting legend, but theatricality is hardly his middle name. Especially these days, if you saw the guy on stage without simply himself and a guitar, you’d think something had gone wrong, let alone if he started indulging in all the exuberance of costumes, makeup, production value, and whatever else true showmen have to offer.
But the truth is, even though his stage persona is perhaps not the most electrifying you’ve ever seen, it’s entirely in McCartney’s nature to let the music do the talking – and that’s where the real fun begins. Although Macca himself may not strike you as having the darkest and beguiling thoughts behind his eyes, his songs tell a different story. In fact, for one in particular, he raided the crypt of his musical heroes to strike on his most warped rhythm yet.
As much as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins may not be one of the most obvious choices when it comes to the former Beatle’s sonic inspirations, it was nevertheless the case that the blues icon and shock rock pioneer played his own pivotal role in influencing the sounds that Macca would go on to create outside the shackles of the band. The most pertinent example of this was on the 1971 album Ram, with all its eclectic mix of genres and vision. In particular, the song ‘Monkberry Moon Delight’ offered an especially devilish delve into the underworld.
Of course, this was an area not typically of McCartney’s forte, but he explained his thought process behind the tune when he said: “If the lyrics are a bit zany, then you end up having fun with the vocal, like you’re a character. I’m inspired by people like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, who did a song called ‘I Put A Spell On You’. When I first heard it, I couldn’t believe the way he was using his voice, I thought, ‘wow, this guy is singing far out!’”
As such, with its characterful and unusually gruff vocal, the sonic lineage between the track and Hawkins begins to emerge from the ashes. “‘Monkberry Moon Delight’ was definitely influenced by ‘Put A Spell On You’,” Macca added, “Because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a light relief from the serious world.” The irony is, of course, that this vision of “light relief” is starkly at odds with the type of theatricality that Hawkins would go on to create with his hit song, but McCartney’s own additions to his sonic canon still caught his eye.
There’s no denying that Hawkins spearheaded a form of rock that would go on to hugely influence the decades to come from that point in the early 1970s. Bands like Black Sabbath or Kiss would be nothing without the world-stopping, macabre vision that he pioneered, which was all largely thanks to the stylistic interpretation of ‘I Put a Spell on You’. But what was perhaps even more striking was the fact that, even though they hailed from seemingly entirely different landscapes, Hawkins’ head could still be turned by the efforts of McCartney. Indeed, he was so impressed by ‘Monkberry Moon Delight’ that he later covered it himself.
In the end, McCartney’s devilish dalliance with the dark side did hold a lot of levity, simply because he didn’t dare to take himself too seriously within it. But with that said, it does raise the thought of just how far his connection to the crypts ran, as even though he has been a victim of conspiracy many a time throughout his career, there could still be some dark truths hiding in the deep below somewhere.
