 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Order your copy today! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
3 Great Contests! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CLick on the pic for details. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
wasted minds entertainment |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Email us at ideagems@aol.com for our ad rates or to send your submissions. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
“Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls” It’s true what they say about rock music - at least for the purposes of this Halloween issue we’ll assume it’s true--- that rock music really is evile and satanic. Being of the devil, it, like witchcraft, will destroy minds and reap souls. And that “Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls” is the title of Coven’s first album. Released in 1969, this album caused quite a “spell” in its day, for example, in an article about satanic influences in rock, Esquire magazine showed a photo of Charlie Manson holding the “Witchcraft” LP in his hand. Then when Mercury dropped them from the label, the band performed a “vanishing ceremony” and burned up much of the office, leaving no trace they were ever there. Born in hard rock psychedelia, Coven’s music was sort of a darker Jefferson Airplane with the searing sorceress sounds of then-18-year-old vocalist Jinx Dawson, the “Goth Queen,” along with stinging lead guitars punctuating the diabolical lyrics of such songs as “The White Witch of Rose Hall.” The song tells the story of Annie Palmer, a character in Jamaican folklore who, according to Wikipedia, was a “beautiful but spoiled young white woman who arrived on the island as the wife of the owner of Rose Hall Plantation, east of Montego Bay in 1820. Annie's husband, and several husbands afterwards, all died suspiciously. Annie became known as a mistress of voodoo, using it to terrorize her slaves, and taking male slaves into her bed at night all of whom she subsequently murdered. “ Other titles on Coven’s debut album include “Black Sabbath,” “For Use of Carnal Knowledge,” “Coven in Charing Cross”---and then there’s the infamous 13 minute “Satanic Mass,” reportedly the first time an actual satanic ritual had ever been recorded. The inner album cover also shows the band with the first photographed use of the "Horned Hand Salute" and the "Inverted Cross" in rock music pop culture. The inside gatefold features a naked young blond (a Jinx look-alike, but not Jinx, who felt she was overweight) on an altar, a chalice between her breasts and a skull covering her pubes. This was unusual for the times, but not illegal. Jinx formed the band and came up with the name Coven because of her extensive reading on the occult and her love of classic horror films. She was interested in the paranormal, secret societies, and the black arts, and she knew the name Coven meant a band of 13 witches (though her band comprised six musicians). “Remember, I was doing this at the tail end of the peace, love, hippie years, and the mood of the country at the time was getting darker and chaotic with so many assassinations, rioting against the Vietnam War and such, so I thought people would be interested in the ideas I was into. And with my opera background, I wanted to put these ideas into the music to do a kind of Gothic rock opera theater, something no one had ever done before.” Because Coven had a song called “Black Sabbath,” and their bassist was named “Oz” Osbourne, many people naturally confused that Oz with the more famous Ozzy Osbourne from the British band Black Sabbath, but they are not the same person. Jinx says many bands copied them, including the nascent Black Sabbath. She says that Black Sabbath thought they would never cross Coven’s path, yet it was Coven who painted the inverted cross in blood on Sabbath’s dressing room doors in the early ‘70s in Memphis, much to their surprise. According to Jinx, "The satanic thing actually was something we were interested in and were studying at the time. When you're younger, you're looking for answers, and a lot of members of the band were looking into the same books at the same time. We studied it, we practiced it.” Jinx says she presently has no religious affiliations, is neither a Wiccan nor a Satanist, but is a “ceremonial magician of the Left Hand Path.” The rest of the band practiced magick throughout their recording career, except for one member who later became—yes—a born-again Christian and refuses to acknowledge his times with Coven. When signing their recording contract with Mercury, the band signed in blood (a common motif of soul-selling stories, a la Faust) but this was just a hint of the theatrics to come.... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Signed in blood? What more diabolical fets await? Order our FALL ISSUE on sale now. |
|||||
|
SUBSCRIBE TODAY: www.paypal.com/ideagems@aol.com or send your check or money order to: IdeaGems Publications, P.O. Box 4748, Portland, ME 04112-4748 (Must be 18 years or older to order.) We Thank You For Your Support! |
|||||
 |
|||||