Blog Post #7: Rhiannon

 

One movement we have not discussed enough in class is the increase in ‘witchiness’ throughout the late 1960s and early-to-mid-1970s. Seemingly because of its natural compliance with counterculture in general, and especially because of this specific counterculture’s obsession with Bohemian fashion/attitudes, the ideas and aesthetics that accompany the culture displayed in WitchTok today appears to have originated during the hippie/yippie era. Indeed, according to the Internet subculture’s prominent archetypes and themes, it seems a person cannot be considered a full-fledged ‘witch’ unless they know all the lyrics to Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon”.

Kidding aside, that song is not the only one from this time period that explores such concepts. Of course, Stevie Nicks, both through her songwriting and appearance, embodies the era’s fascination with witchdom, but songs like Santana’s “Black Magic Woman”, Cliff Richard’s “Devil Woman”, Cher’s “Dark Lady”, and, alas, The Eagles’s “Witchy Woman” support the notion that Nicks’s attitude was not a one-off example*. In fact, the sheer volume of witch, potion, and spell-related refrains (relative to other eras, at least) suggests witches hit their musical peak sometime between 1967 and 1977.

Now, one does not only need to investigate the sonic elements of this time period to understand that its culture was fascinated by witches and all that goes with them. Whether out of an intentional reaction to the McCarthyist witch hunts that characterized the 1950s or because of a simple interest in left-of-center, unique, ‘Bohemian’ women (and men), counterculture advocates seemed to possess a natural inclination toward ‘witchy’ ideas and/or paraphernalia. While this may be simple conjecture, perhaps the advancement of various minority movements during this time period simultaneously promoted an exaltation of a similarly oppressed subgroup, even if that subgroup’s members ‘literally’ did and do not exist.

So, while the ways in which these diversified dynamics coalesced and created this cultural phenomenon may be too ambitious an aim for this specific blog, there must be some explanation for this phenomenon’s proletarian preeminence. Or, maybe, by virtue of residing in the astral realm (a potentiality that cannot be ruled out), witches are more commonly witnessed by those who trip acid. The world may never know.


*Other songs include: Cream’s “Strange Brew”, Donovan’s “Season of the Witch”, October Country’s “My Girlfriend Is a Witch”, Eric Burdon & War’s “Spill the Wine”, Redbone’s “The Witch Queen of New Orleans”, etc.

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