Pick Up Every Stitch

Donovan “Season of the Witch”

I probably listened to this song about 30 times this weekend. One of those times, when I was walking down Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — basically the hipster epicenter of North America — it made the most sense. “Beatniks are out to make it rich!” would be “hipsters are out to make it rich!” if the song was written in the past decade instead of the mid-Sixties. In either era, the lyric would be paranoid but funny. “Season of the Witch” isn’t an angry song, but it’s definitely bugged out. Despite the superstition and paranoia in the words, Donovan is mellow and playful. The music itself sounds very relaxed to me — a good song for a pleasant stroll on a nice day. I like the way this defuses the alienation in the words. It’s like the song is smart enough to know that the line that rings out with the most truth is the one that acknowledges that identity can be a rather fluid thing.

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