Stranger than Screaming

I can't get enough of this song, it never gets old. I first heard it in Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise.

Stranger Than Paradise starred jazz musician John Lurie, former Sonic Youth drummer-turned-actor Richard Edson and Hungarian-born actress Eszter Balint.

Both the song and the film have really stuck to some part of me, I see lots of things that remind me of it. It's possibly my favourite Jim Jarmusch, I like its simplicity and it's minimalism. It's shot in a series of long takes; tracking shots with nothing but the visual and aural scratchy white noise of the old recording equipment.

Stranger Than Paradise was responsible for me buying a Screamin' Jay Hawkins album. Just for this one song that's played over and over, round and round. The version here is unfortunately a lot cleaner, not so soulfully gritty, without the grainy black and white of the film woven through the recording.

'I Put A Spell On You' is a recurring feature of the film. It echoes cracked and tinny from Eva's stereo, a unifying thread to a film with no purpose or formula. The camera follows her tramping around New York, or dancing sloppily around the kitchen dressed in baggy cardigans and mens trousers, smoking cigarettes lazily.

The version I've posted is a slightly different version of 'I Put A Spell On You'. The Jim Jarmusch version has more parp, more oom-pa, the squawk of sax. This one is smoother, has more of a slow grind; a drive towards the chorus peaks and the slapstick animalistic shrieks and brays that constitute the breakdown.

I don't know which I like better, but the Jarmusch version does not appear to be readily available. This one is still great. Decide for yourselves...

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You
"Ooooooooohhhhhh..................spell"