Episode 39: I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Explicit content warning

12/19/19 • 97 min

In the 2019 biography I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, journalist Steve Bergsman tracks the life of the noted shock rocker including his rise-and-fall-and-rise to fame, run-ins with the law, and rocky romantic life. Kate and Jack discuss the book as it relates to the biography as a literary form, the perils of the Big Rock Bio, and the challenges and responsibilities of research.

Does Jay's penchant for lying and self-aggrandizement make him an impossible subject for a biography? Where does "rock 'n' roll authenticity" stop and "novelty act" begin? Just how much damage can the Imp of the Perverse do to a person's life? Does anyone know where we can get jobs playing piano in a Hawaii strip club? These questions and a whole lot more will be discussed in this month's episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

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Previous Episode

Episode 38: Raiders of Gor - Home Stone is where the heart is

John Norman's long-running Gor series has a reputation that precedes it. Set on a brutal counter-Earth where beautiful women long to be enslaved by the strong men who maintain nature's moral balance, it would seem that the books have all the trappings of spicy, guilty pleasure reading. Jack and Kate dive into the sixth title, Raiders of Gor, alleged to be the last "good" entry in the thirty-five book series. Listen along as your hosts encounter sexual slavery, drunk crying, and enough tedious agricultural detail to break a lesser reader.

Why have critics neglected to acknowledge Norman's high-minded philosophical influences? Can civic pride transform a hive of scum and villainy into a city of heroes? Where do Home Stones come from? How is series protagonist Tarl Cabot a lot like a startup founder? All these questions and many more will be answered in this month's episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

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Next Episode

Mini Episode 18: Best of the Rest of 2019

Jack and Kate look at what they've read and watched in the second half of 2019 and make some recommendations in the world of books and beyond. The rules of engagement are simple: the hosts each choose one movie, album, TV show, book and "wild card" from any category that was the best experience of its kind encountered during the last half of the year that was.

Ranging from comfort food comedy to critically acclaimed foreign films to avant garde metal and right back around again, your hosts take a meander through what delighted them during the waning of 2019.

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