Witchy Women: Five Rock Songs About Witches

Double, double toil and trouble! With Halloween looming, it’s time to take a look back at some of the witchiest songs in rock and roll history. Check out these five rock songs about witches—and pay attention, or one of these girls might put a spell on you!

"Rhiannon"-  Fleetwood Mac

In live performances of this 1974 song, singer Stevie Nicks often starts off by saying, “This is a song about a Welsh witch.” And indeed, Nicks has said that she wrote the classic song in 10 minutes after reading a book (“Triad” by Mary Leader) about a mystical woman with two personalities. Over the years Nicks seemed to take on the character of Rhiannon in her performances, even donning flowing, black gowns. But she dissed the notion that she’s at all witchlike. In a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone, Nicks explained, “I just like Halloween, and I thought that blondes look skinnier in black. That was my whole idea for that whole thing-- a long, cool woman in a black dress, right?”

"The Witch Queen of New Orleans"-  Redbone

 This 1971 song by Native American rock band Redbone was penned as attribute to New Orleans voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau. In the song the band sings “Marie, Marie, da voodoo veau, she'll put a spell on you ….She's the witch queen  of New Orleans.” The song also sings of Laveau stirring her “witches brew” and ends with an account on her death: “Though she'll never return, all the Cajuns knew, a Witch Queen never dies.” According to the New Orleans Historic Museum, when Laveau died in 1881 newspapers printed competing obituaries, with some saying she was a witch while others said she was a saint. Marie Laveau has been immortalized in songs by Redbone, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show and Canned Heat.

"Swamp Witch"-  Jim Stafford

 He don’t like spiders and snakes and apparently he had an aversion to swamp witches too. In 1973 singer-songwriter Jim Stafford sang of the Black Bayou-dwelling Hattie. Stafford’s haunting lyrics warned:  “Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes, and all of them watching you, stay off the track to Hattie's Shack in the back of the Black Bayou.” But don’t feel bad for Witch Hattie—she had plenty of company down by the swamp, what with the “strange green reptiles” and snakes that hung from the cypress trees and all.

"Eye of the Witch"/ "The Trial" -  King Diamond

The super spooky “Eye of the Witch” and “The Trial” are the opening tracks on the 1990 heavy metal concept album, “The Eye” by Danish rocker King Diamond. The concept behind the stories on the “The Eye” center around Jeanne Dibasson, a supposed real life witch who was burned at the stake.

"Witches' Rave”-  Jeff Buckley

The lyrics to this song are certainly bewitching (“Your witchcraft’s all around me in your ragged pagan scene”), but unfortunately 30-year singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley died in an accidental drowning  in the Memphis harbor before the song was ever released. The album he had been working on—“Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk”)-- was released a year later and included “Witches’ Rave.” Sadly, this haunting lyric from the song proved all too prophetic for Buckley: “I’ll never make it out alive to join the witches’ rave.”