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Screamin' Jay Hawkins is little known today, but nary a week goes by that his 1956 song I Put a Spell on You isn't added to an album or performed live. Hawkins would famously perform this signature anthem after emerging from a coffin, skull-topped staff in hand. The inventor of performance rock ‘n’ roll or shock rock and much imitated by bands such as Kiss and Alice Cooper, he was also an immensely talented musician, playing numerous instruments and writing many of his own songs. Sometimes near poverty and playing second rate clubs for little money, in the 1980s, he was adopted by the punk set and his career revived once again. Eventually, he moved to Europe, where he was esteemed as a rock ‘n’ roll pioneer. As a human being, he could charm the shirt of your body. More often than not he was just irascible. This illustrated talk—by Steve Bergsman, the author of I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins Screamin' Jay Hawkins—will introduce us to the fascinating life and work of the great musician and fascinating man.