By VikingChild
Richard Feynman, Nobel laureate in physics, storyteller, safe-cracker and bongo player, once wrote about hypnosis in his excellent book Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman!. As a scientist, he leapt at the opportunity to be hypnotised and to find out about things – but initially found the experience underwhelming. When told to keep his eyes closed, he thought “well, I could open my eyes, but I won’t”. After several experiences with various hypnotists, he soon realised “… I found hypnosis to be a very interesting experience. All the time you’re saying to yourself, ‘I could do that, but I won’t’ — which is just another way of saying that you can’t.”
I also read several articles about Feynman which basically said, “even the great scientist couldn’t explain hypnosis”, missing the point and tumbling into the common fallacy that expertise in one area somehow makes you an expert in another, I’m looking at you Dawkins. QED**.
Anyway, because I love Feynman, I thought that might be interesting so now on with the list.
Very quickly I realised that there are bucket-loads of songs named “Hypnotise” or “Hypnotised” so I put them all in a hypnosis bundle of their own. No disrespect to these – the list contains some amazing songs and it’s a kind of co-A-list – but I decided to go a bit deeper into the topic itself.
Now concentrate…
**that’s a wee physics joke for you all
The Auto-Suggestive A-List
Are YOU a hypnotist? Personally, I’m no Derren Brown, more like Medusa, but look into our eyes, you should trust in me. I put a spell on you, I hyp-hypnotise you and with subliminal penetration I lead you into hypnotic regression.
Yeah, I was hypnotised.
To expand:
The Flaming Lips song Are You a Hypnotist was so on brand I had to grab it straight away and it seemed a great place to kick off.
Derren Brown is more of a debunker than clear hypnotist, but he’s really wonderful and slots in quite nicely with a simple ukelele song from the aptly named Ukelilli.
I’m not quite so sure that what Medusa was doing was hypnosis but the song by Clan of Xymox talks extensively about mesmerism and we need some gentle Dutch goth from time to time.
A jump over to The Three O’Clock and their lovely song Look Into Our Eyes, a command that any group of hynotisers would enjoy. Their jangly indie Paisley Underground sound will entrance you.
I guess that for many of us of a certain age, The Jungle Book was where we first encountered hypnosis, so Trust In Me reflects that – the childhood memory of the spiral eyes, the soft voice, the python Ka… For this reason, it had to be the definitive and the original by Sterling Holloway.
I Put A Spell On You is another classic, and defines the entracement you can feel through love, or more likely infatuation. I didn’t want to put in too many of these, but this modern but old-style version is by Angelina Jordan.
A change of pace as we descend into the madness of Gong supremo Daevid Allan who is here to Hyp Hypnotise You, and it will certainly make you feel different.
Sometimes you just need some auld punks yelling at you, especially as they describe a collective hypnotism, something which is a common musical interpretation of hypnotism – Subliminal Penetration by La Rabbia. [note: you’ll have to jump the playlist forward here as it only appears as part of the full album on YouTube afaik]
Loosely about going back to previous lives, Hypnotic Regression by Girls Names taps into the idea of being able to access our histories, “before birth, death, before life”. Do our minds survive reincarnation in some way?
Finally for the A-list, so what? Hypnosis for good, hypnosis for bad, mind control, self-improvement, do we care? Some scrappy beats from Workin’ Man Noise Unit who just say Yeah, I was Hypnotised.
The Auto-Suggestive A-List Playlist:
The Flaming Lips - Are You A Hypnotist? (Happyclapper)
Ukelilli - Derren Brown (Severin)
Clan of Xymox – Medusa (VanWolf2)
The Three O'Clock – Look Into Our Eyes (ShivSideCar)
Sterling Holloway - Trust in Me (TarquinSpodd)
Angelina Jordan - I Put A Spell on You (Marconius7)
Daevid Allan - Hyp Hypnotise You (TarquinSpodd)
La Rabbia - Subliminal Penetration (Carpgate)
Girls Names - Hypnotic Regression (VanWolf2)
Workin' Man Noise Unit - Yeah, I was Hypnotised (VanWolf2)
The Beguiling B-List:
Simple Minds - In Trance as a Mission (Shoegazer)
Dead Can Dance – Mesmerism (VanWolf2)
Eivør Pálsdóttir – Tròdlabùndin (Traktor Albatrost)
The Church – Tantalized (Nicko)
Jimi Tenor - Hypnotic Drugstore (Uncleben)
Janelle Monae - Look Into My Eyes (Loud Atlas)
Keith and Tex - Hypnotizing Eyes (Nicko)
Hypnotone - Hypnotonic (Mussolini Headkick)
Lady Saw – Hypnotic (Nicko)
Al Quick and the Masochists - Theme from the Sadistic Hypnotis (ShivSideCar)
The HYPNOTISE(D) List:
Just a bunch of songs with similar titles? No, these all look at the topic in a different way. This is my (en)titled A-list.
Audioslave - Hypnotise (Bobby Legwarmer)
Scritti Politti - Hypnotise (Uncleben)
Mark Stewart - Hypnotize (Mussolini Headkick)
The Blackheart Orchestra - Hypnotize (Bobby Legwarmer)
White Stripes - Hypnotize (Suzi)
System of a Down - Hypnotize (Loud Atlas)
Cabaret Voltaire - Hypnotised (Shoegazer)
Mighty Lemon Drops - Hypnotised (VanWolf2)
Dream Police - Hypnotized (BanazirGalbasi)
Plimsouls - Hypnotized (ShivSideCar)
Linda Jones - Hypnotized (Severin)
Spacemen 3 - Hypnotized (Mussolini Headkick)
Guru’s Evil Hypnosis Wildcard:
You all really drained the swamp of hypnosis songs, but then there’s this. From the forgotten 1992 film Freddy as F.R.O.7 (probably for the best) but the song is sung by Grace Jones so it's bloody wonderful. Evilmainya (as it’s correctly written).
There’s a reason you don’t see film footage for the video – and it’s not good. A horrible film.
“I can hypnotise, hit you right between the eyes
My poison bites, put out the lights, and then you stop!
(She’s so full of Evilmainya, like the Queen of Transylvania)
Yes I'm the queen, the queen of Evilmainya!” [cackling Grace Jones laugh]”
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Back in the room: songs about hypnosis. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Fancy a turn behind the pumps at The Song Bar? Care to choose a playlist from songs nominated and write something about it? Then feel free to contact The Song Bar here, or try the usual email address. Also please follow us social media: Song Bar X, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube, and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share.
Look into my pies …