Halloween Countdown: October 2 – got the power of the devil

Today’s seasonal offering is a frantic bit of garage rock voodoo from New Zealand’s Chants R&B. An obscure act even in their native land, here’s the Chants’ blazing rendition of John Mayall’s “I’m Your Witchdoctor” from a 1966 single (collected on 2000’s Stage Door Witchdoctors).

Ah, the witch doctor, comedic foil of countless entertainments from my youth, from Warner Brothers cartoons to Three Stooges shorts to Gilligan’s Island episodes. Because nothing brings the funny like mocking indigenous peoples and their religious beliefs, especially if you get a white actor to dress “native” and ham it up while spewing gibberish like “unga-bunga” or “gumba-bumba”.

Even Superman got into the enthnocentric shenanigans, though the poor dope apparently got his stereotypes mixed up and came dressed as a made-for-TV Sioux medicine man. “You heap big insensitive moron, Buffoon-in-Blue-Tights.”