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February 5, 2020
Kate Hodges' Playlist for Her Book "Warriors, Witches, Women"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Heidi Julavits, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Kate Hodges' book Warriors, Witches, Women is filled with captivating illustrated profiles of mythology's most interesting women.
In her own words, here is Kate Hodges' Book Notes music playlist for her book Warriors, Witches, Women:
For me, music and writing are tightly interlaced. I’m a music obsessive and my favourite songs are never far from the surface of my books. I continually reference my musical heroes and their work.
In parallel with writing, I play bass for Ye Nuns, an all-woman band who play covers of songs by avant-garde 1960s punk band The Monks, and also for The Hare and Hoofe, a kind of garage-punk-meets-prog-rock group, more of which below.
My new book, Warriors, Witches, Women is all about great mythological women. I’ve picked fifty with stories powerful enough to resonate down the ages, so much so that even now they are channelled by performers and creative people. Think Azealia Banks invoking Mami Wata, Fleetwood Mac telling the story of Rhiannon, and Siouxsie Sioux naming her band after the death-foretelling, screaming banshees.
Here are some of the songs that helped whip up the heady, magickal, lady-positive atmosphere in which my book was written.
‘Abre Camino’ by Death Valley Girls
I went to see this witchy Californian quartet right in the eye of my writing storm, and they were captivating. The three girls in the band have an intoxicating female synergy that crackles, and their scuzzy, stoner garage layered with joyous harmonies sounds like dark magic brewing. In this song, they sound like they’re keening, making the noise of the old Irish death wail said to be invented by Saint Brigid.
‘Silkie’ by Joan Baez
Silkies, or selkies are half-human, half seal creatures, male and female found in the Scottish islands. If a man steals the skin of a selkie, she is compelled to become his wife, and there are many tales of selfie women who have a life on shore, married with children, but are always obsessed by the sea, spending hours and hours on blustery cliffs, staring hungrily at the waves. Most only serve out seven years on land before they hanker to go back to their watery home. They need to find their skin to return to the waves, and, heartbreakingly, it’s often handed to them by their children. They’re such beautifully tragic and romantic creatures. This is a beautiful retelling of a selkie story by Joan Baez, her voice aches as I’d expect a selkie filled with longing for her earth-bound family to ache.
‘Rhiannon’ by Fleetwood Mac
God, I dig the Mac. This song wasn’t specifically written about the Welsh goddess, but Stevie Nicks dug into the story after they’d recorded the track, and there is a degree of resonance there. Regardless, this fits so snugly with the original Rhiannon; she notoriously moved in a floaty, slow-motion fashion, and this song echoes that. Stevie Nicks also looks a bit as I expect Rhiannon might have, all gauzy maxi dresses, long hair and twirly scarves. You can’t help but get up and have a whirly, hands-in-the-air dance when this comes on, can you?
‘Venus’ by Shocking Blue
“A goddess on a mountain top/Was burning like a silver flame/The summit of beauty and love/And Venus was her name”. What evocative lyrics. There’s something so powerful about this song; Mariska Veres’ vocals are like groovy thunderclaps. This combines Saturday-night-go-go exuberance with mystical vibes and is totally irresistible. I love dancing to this song when I go out – it virtually demands you get on a podium and go-go.
‘Oh Bondage! Up Yours!’ by X-Ray Spex
I can’t think of a more powerful, rootin’-tootin’ blast of high energy. Poly Styrene was the best of all the punks, determinedly doing her own thing, looking incredible, and – with what sounds like – unshakeable confidence. This should be played to every girl on the morning of her 13th birthday. I included it in the book as an example of women who disrupt the status quo (and Status Quo) with unconventional voices; Big Man Thornton, Janis Joplin, Huggy Bear, Kesha and Bjørk.
‘Venus as a Boy’ by Bjørk
A goddess singing about a goddess. Bjørk has such stellar talent, and she feels otherworldly. Her songs are like little meteorites that have fallen to earth. I think that in the past, she would have been raised on a plinth and worshipped. You can lose yourself in this labyrinthine song, as there’s so much to listen to.
‘The Witch’ by The Rattles
I love this rickety, witchety racket. I live near Hastings, a town dripping in magic and the occult. Every year, on May Bank holiday we welcome back the summer at Jack-in-the-Green, a festival at which a giant, leafy man is torn apart by people of all ages twined in ivy and wearing animal heads. A bit like The Wicker Man. This is the song I can always hear in my head as the frenzy hits its height. I played it every morning before writing.
‘Isis’ by Bob Dylan
I was on a real Bob trip while writing Warriors, Witches, Women. I dig his unabashed mining of the classics for lyrics, and the way he weaves that into a universal narrative. This song is about Bob’s ex wife, renamed after the ancient Egyptian goddess who was elevated as an ideal wife and mother. I went to see Dylan play in London while writing the book. It was quite the experience.
‘White Blindness’ by The Hare and Hoofe
I couldn’t miss out one of my band’s songs! We released an album as I was writing Warriors, Witches, Women, and this is our wildest, most abandoned tune. It’s all about the 1970s myxomatosis epidemic in rabbits. I’m on bass, cackles and general mystic vibes. Warning, the riff is gigantic.
Kate Hodges and Warriors, Witches, Women links:
She Does the City interview with the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
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