Screamin' Jay Hawkins howled for the last time this weekend.?The theatrical bawler of "I Put a Spell on You" died in the Ambroise Pave clinic in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, on Saturday.?He was 70.?Hawkins suffered a hemorrhage following an operation on his intestines.?Over the course of a lengthy career, Hawkins made some of the wildest music on record, became the prototype for scare rockers like Alice Cooper and suffered the fate of the eternally wandering musician.?A Hawkins' performance was a captivating brew of voodoo hysterics and vaudeville.?He was known to emerge from a burning coffin in a silk cape, set his beard on fire and engage in Socratic dialogue with a cigarette-smoking plastic skull head called Henry while on stage.?Rubber snakes and alligators also made appearances.?Hawkins was fond of remarking, "When I go, I don't want to be buried.?I've been in too many damn coffins already!" ?Read more ...
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