A Look at "Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra

     After reading Victoria's blog post on witches in popular music, I started thinking about other portrayals of women as witches in music. I listened to the Radiohead song, "Burn the Witch," that Victoria mentioned in her blog, and I listed to the song "Witchy Woman" by The Eagles. After digging into the background and meaning of "Witchy Woman," I learned that drummer and co-lead singer Don Henley drew the inspiration of writing about a seductive enchantress from a biography he was reading about Zelda Fitzgerald, who was said to be the muse for famous American writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda's biography portrayed her as a bewitching and mesmerizing "flapper" in the Roaring Twenties, and it is sometimes thought that she was the inspiration for Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. 

    My brief exploration of witch songs in rock music led me to look elsewhere for songs where women are thought to be magical and mesmerizing. I listen to a lot of big band jazz from the 1950s and 1960s, so immediately my attention went to the song "Witchcraft," made popular by Frank Sinatra in 1957. The song does not take long to establish the witch theme, as the introduction features a descending string pattern that resembles a spooky tune that one might imagine accompanying the silhouette of a witch flying on a broomstick across a full moon. Immediately, the first verse starts with the lyrics "Those fingers in my hair/ That sly come hither stare/ That strips my conscience bare/ Its witchcraft." Clearly, Sinatra is singing about being under the seductive effects of a woman and compares her to a witch. Seduction is commonly seen as being put under a spell or trance. Seductive men are typically compared to the Devil, so perhaps it only makes sense that seductive women are compared to witches. The chorus proceeds to describe the encounter by saying "'Cause its witchcraft, wicked witchcraft/ And although I know its strictly taboo/ When you arose the need in me/ My heart says 'Yes, indeed' in me/ 'Proceed with what you're leadin' me too.'" Here, the lyrics describe the seduction as "wicked" and "taboo," which are two words that have been used to describe women accused of witchcraft for hundreds of years. The chorus also doubles down on the irresistible, trance-like nature of seduction. Finally, the post-chorus lyrics read "Its such an ancient pitch/ But one that I'd never switch/ 'Cause there's no nicer witch than you." The fact that Sinatra says he wouldn't switch the ancient pitch of being put under a seductive spell indicates something we've pretty much known all along - that this is what he's wanted the whole time. Its not like he's being put under a spell against his will. In fact, he is welcoming it. And lastly, we have a nod to the "nice witch" trope because the seductive woman isn't evil. Instead she is conforming to a societal expectation by making an attempt to be attractive for a man, thus making her a "good witch."

Overall, the song is pretty simple and the whole premise of the lyrics revolve around the common portrayal as a seductive woman as a witch, but there is one more thing I want to point out that I find interesting about the association between love, seduction, and witchcraft. It is also a common societal expectation that men do not do so well expressing their feelings. They are expected to stay cool, calm, collected, strong, etc. at all times, especially in the 1950s. So, instead of looking at this song as a simple portrayal of a seductive woman as a witch, I tend to look at it being about a man who meets a woman and doesn't like the way she is making him feel, so he concludes that she is practicing witchcraft on him. Its almost as if there is no other explanation for the love and lust he feels for this woman, so witchcraft is the only explanation. I hope you enjoyed this song breakdown and make sure to check out Victoria's blog post on witches in popular music.