During the 1960s, Capitol Records, A&M, and Warner Bros capitalised on the witchcraft phenomenon with spoken-word albums of occult incantations

Text Melanie Xulu

OCCULT ALBUMS COME TO THE UK In 1969, Capitol Records released Witchcraft – Magic: An Adventure in Demonology. The album came narrated by the Witchfinder General himself, Vincent Price. Although Price was not a practicing witch himself, he did have a keen interest in the history of the craft and demonology, and was an icon of horror cinema at the time (as he’s still considered today). The informative spoken word LP guides the audience through important events and histories in witchcraft, from the burning of witches in the Middle Ages to the raising of the Cone of Power in the New Forest to stop Hitler coming to England during World War II. The album also features Vincent Price discussing “How to Invoke Spirits, Demons, Unseen Forces" and “How to Communicate with Spirits”, among other themes. The original pressing included a small booklet that gave instructions on the creation of a Hand of Glory, a magical item of great power made from the severed left hand of a hanged man. A year later, in 1979, Alex and Maxine Sanders’ A&M-released A Witch is Born became another early example of a major label dalliance with witchcraft. Alex and Maxine were undoubtedly some of the most recognisable faces in Wicca at the time: Alex was declared the ‘King of the Witches’ by his loyal followers, which inspired the title of his 1969 biography, June Johns’ King of the Witches, and the 1970 film Legend of the Witches, while glamorous Maxine the ‘witch queen’ had been initiated into a coven in the small and bucolic village of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, aged just 15. They were the new faces of witchcraft, young and publicly open about their craft, appearing in magazines, national newspapers, and on television shows. Maxine performed rites with 70s occult rockers Black Widow on-stage in 1970, and their Notting Hill Gate coven attracted a wide array of people and celebrities at the time, including T.Rex’s Marc Bolan. A Witch is Born was advertised in Rolling Stone magazine with an image showing Alex and Maxine initiating Janet Owen (later Farrar) into their coven, this vital rite of passage involved the consecration of the circle and then the binding of the wrists of the initiate, naked, and blindfolded. It was a solid visual depiction of the album’s contents. In the liner notes for the album, Stewart Farrar wrote that “Alex Sanders is the most powerful witch in Britain. Here, for the first time, he presents a full recording of the solemn initiation of a new member into the ancient Craft.” On record, Alex Sanders’ softly-spoken Merseyside accent can be heard instructing the coven during the initiation as Wagner’s Tannhäuser opera. An occult oddity and a peep into life in the Sanders’ infamous coven, where witchcraft initiations and rites were previously privately held behind closed doors and relatively unheard of, Sanders was putting it out there for the world to listen to and learn about. According to occult filmmaker Gary Parsons, the album was rumoured to have been banned shortly after its release for having a ‘satanic’ element to it. “That's how come copies were so hard to find,” he explains. “In fact, the album sold poorly and had been remaindered, and in some cases found in bargain bins, so there was never a second pressing of it, and some copies got returned to distributors and the label.”

AMERICAN WITCHES GET SEXY While the UK may have set a more serious and educational tone to witchcraft and occult records, with a realistic documentary-style look into life as a practicing witch, across the waters in the USA, the majority of witchcraft and occult LPs were very different. American popular culture was somewhat more colourful, fun, and sexual in nature than the grey skies of gloomy England. They'd invented Hollywood, pop art, and rock ‘n’ roll, and weren’t as shy as the Brits about using sex to sell. Quite a few raunchy witchcraft LPs by ‘sexy witches’ were released, perhaps the most well known being by Louise Huebner, the ‘official witch of LA’. Her record Seduction Through Witchcraft, released on Warner Bros in 1969, is a wonderfully odd, quirky album that may have played into the ‘witchsploitation’ trend of the early 70s, but also features some seriously psychedelic early experimental electronic music, while Huebner’s raspy heavily reverberated voice makes for a deliciously spooky-kitsch trip. With track names such as “The Coleopterous Charm For Romantic Adventure”, “The Earthquake Spell For Unwanted Lovers”, and “Turkish Bean Spell For Tender Love”, it’s hard not to be seduced by Huebner’s charms. In a similar vein to Huebner was Barbara, The Gray Witch, a 1970 album by – you guessed it – Barbara the Gray Witch. Unfortunately, the album is incredibly rare today – there are no audio uploads of it online, and it’s selling for nearly £150, but the cover alone is spectacular. “Barbara the Gray Witch tells you the truth about modern witchcraft,” reads its back cover. “In this album she gives you a series of tests to determine if you were born a witch or a warlock. And what you can expect to gain from witchcraft. Barbara gives you the authentic chants and rituals used to gain prosperity, call forth spirits, beckon and pay homage to Satan, and exorcise evil spirits...” According to one online source, the record is “information about witchcraft, by a witch, for future witches”, and the spoken word parts are “accompanied by experimental electronica or musique concrète, which makes it even more fascinating”. To this day, Barbara is a practicing psychic and astrologer who works in South Bend, Indiana. And not shying away from American witchcraft sexiness in the slightest was the privately pressed 1974 LP The Art of Witchcraft by Babetta the Sexy Witch, a Los Angeles witch who designed spells specifically in the areas of love, wealth, and success. She still continues her craft, and according to her website, remains a leader of witches throughout the area. Taking a different and possibly slightly more educational tone to the raunchy US witchcraft LPs of the time – but not lacking in esoteric electronic music – was Gundella, a Detroit-born descendent of the green witches of Scotland. Although she usually wrote books, as well as a newspaper column helping solve everyday problems from a Wiccan perspective, in 1971 Gundella teamed up with her musician son James to create The Hour of the Witch. According to its blurb, “Gundella helps you test your psychic powers, make ritualistic candles, and mold wax dolls. She’ll define witchcraft & magic and teach you how to cast your own spells!” The album was reissued in 2017 by Modern Harmonic (fittingly, it was pressed on green vinyl), with liner notes by Gundella’s daughter, Madilynne.