In an effort to attract tourists in recent years, Salem has become almost as flashy and inauthentically "evil" as Rob Zombie has always been. The two have one thing in common: for their notoriety, both subscribe to an image reminiscent of the sort of marketing hype one sees during the prelude to Halloween.

Robert Bartleh Cummings a.k.a. Rob Zombie (little wonder why a name-change was in order) has made his career by combining Texas Chainsaw Massacre-style theatrics (think: deformed hillbillies) and commercially accessible heavy-metal/industrial musical style, sometimes referred to as part of the genre of "shock rock," of which Marilyn Manson is an obvious example. With a love of horror movies, Zombie's songs are like listening to an episode of Supernatural or Buffy the Vampire Slayer in three-and-a-half minutes. Zombie's vision has extended into the realm of cinema in recent years, where he has directed six of his own satirical and highly-enjoyable horror films (think: same deformed hillbillies doing an improvised performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show to a great soundtrack).

Zombie's retelling of the events surrounding the Salem Witch Trials in "American Witch," a song from his third solo album entitled Educated Horses (2006), is just one of many interpretations. First dramatized in Arthur Miller's seminal work The Crucible, released on Broadway in 1953, this horror story began when two little girls, cousins Abigail and Betty Parris, began to act very strangely, possibly after having eaten bread made from ergot-infected rye. By that I mean: bad LSD. Their behavior had all the hallmarks of a bum trip; writhing around in pain, pricked by invisible forces, trying to climb up the chimney… Substantive scientific evidence supports this theory, and ergot poisoning was not at all uncommon in areas conducive to its growth, Massachusetts being a prime example. This fungus, from which Albert Hoffman first extracted this notorious psychedelic in the 1950s, was known for its ability to produce strange behavior in subjects if ingested, as well as paranoia, hallucinations, immune-system dysfunction, and even death in some cases (it has been linked with large drops in the populations of affected areas).

After examining Abigail and Betty, the local physician was stumped and could not find any medical cause for their ailments. Witchcraft always came in handy in those days as a spare medical diagnosis in situations where the common cold wouldn't suffice, so he suggested that. It was not long before other women in the village began to exhibit similar behavior, and arrests started taking place. The two little girls made the first accusations, which started a shock-wave of accusations throughout Salem and surrounds. A year later, over 150 people had become implicated, and some had been hanged on Gallows Hill, referred to by Zombie as the "20 innocents."

In "American Witch," Zombie uses Salem during the witch trials as a context in which to place the listener, a starting point for his MacBeth-ian description of the experience of being a witch in this place, barely stopping short of "Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble." He combines rich traditional black-magic imagery interspersed with vague social-commentary. All of this is merely a backdrop for his act, because the main point is that Zombie gets to use the word "witch," which entices millions of disturbed teenagers interested in Wicca and paganism into CD shops, hoping to collectively form their identities through a transaction in the market-place (call me a cynic).

The main trouble with the image in Zombie's lyrics is that the whole point, the lesson that humanity learned from the Salem Witch Trials, is that there were no actual witches in Salem. It was one of the greatest examples of mass hysteria and attending slaughter in the history of the American legal system. Out of simple respect for its many victims, one might expect Salem to wear its tragic history of gross injustice and institutionalized mass murder with a little less pride, but this is clearly not the case. A passing local police car's logo has the silhouette of a witch on a broom as its mascot, inscribed with the words "Salem: the Witch City, Massachusetts." This is not only offensive, but untrue. Even if witches were to exist, you can be sure they would stay the hell away from Salem.

Douglas MacCutcheon
March 7, 2014 American Witch Songfacts
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