“Season of the Witch” (22) is a song by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan released in August 1966 on his third studio album, Sunshine Superman. The song is credited to Donovan, although sometime collaborator Shawn Phillips has also claimed authorship. Because of a dispute with Donovan’s record company, a UK edition with the song was not released until June 1967. In a song review for AllMusic, Lindsay Planer commented: “Few songs so perfectly reflect the dawn of the psychedelic pop era as aptly as Donovan’s ‘Season of the Witch’ … Both lyrically as well as musically, the languid and trippy contents project a dark foreboding atmosphere [and] a sort of sinister tale of paranoia and the paranormal”. John Bush called the song “easily [one of the two] the highlights of the album … a chugging eve-of-destruction tale”.
My introduction to Season of the Witch was through the music of Julie Driscoll and the Brian Auger Trinity who had a major hit with Bob Dylan’s This Wheel’s On Fire in 1967 and followed it with their version of this song in 1968. It was not a hit but found its way into my record collection and I remember was recorded in two parts using both sides of the single.
Super Session is an album by Al Kooper, with guitarists Mike Bloomfield on the first half and Stephen Stills on the second half of the album. On the second day of recording Kooper’s session men cut mostly vocal tracks, including a lengthy and atmospheric take of “Season of the Witch” which comes in at over 11 minutes in length. The success of the album opened the door for the “supergroup” concept of the late 1960s and 1970s.
The song re-appears in the movie sequal Blues Brothers 2000. It is appropriately rendered by Mack Rebenack, otherwise know as Dr. John, The Night Tripper. The scene in question shows the Blues Brothers band arriving to audition before Queen Musette, who is described as the oldest, meanest voodoo queen in the world.
In August 2019, Del Rey presented filmmaker Guillermo del Toro with his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and subsequently released a cover of “Season of the Witch” for his film, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
As a extra, here is an excellent version by Scottish Indie folk band Meusault live at the BBC Quay Sessions from 2017.
