Coven

Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls

(1969)
 

This album, made by three young students discovering the

world of the black arts, is actually a pre-Black Widow's
Sacrifice album! The album, gloomy entitled Witchcraft
Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls, was out on the American
market one year before Black Widow released Sacrifice.
Granted, Black Widow was doing Satanic music in 1969 (as
evidenced by the recent release of Return to the Sabbat, an
unreleased album that is simply a previous recording of the
Sacrifice LP they released in 1970) but their material was not
commercially avalible at the time. That said; Coven made an
album filled with witchcraft related lyrics, mixed with music
that was popular at the time, and even with a strange recording
of what is rumored to be a real Black Mass at the end...
 

 
Coven was formed in the late 1960s in Chicago, Illinois. While studying at North Central High
School in Indiana, future lead singer Jinx Dawson had begun singing opera and delving into the
occult. Given her excellent singing voice, she got involved in the local rock music scene. She
and some classmates began to form rock groups and perform locally. Nothing much came of
this, although after graduating high school, Jinx attended Butler University, where she remained
involved in the local rock scene. Shortly thereafter Jinx broke away from the local scene, and
Indianapolis itself, with two of her bandmates, Steve Ross and Oz Osborne, and headed to
Chicago to form Coven. The name obviously had its origins in the medieval superstition of
witchcraft; a coven of thirteen witches was a parody of both the nun's covenant and Christ with
his twelve disciples. While Coven was not made up of thirteen members, the name aptly
described the lyrical content and interests of the band members. Jinx recalls, "The satanic thing
actually was something we were interested in and were studying at the time. When you're
younger, you're looking for answers, and a lot of members of the band were looking into the
same books at the same time. We studied it, we practiced it, but we only went so far. We didn't
do anything bad."

The music Coven played was not far removed from the music of bands of the era like Jefferson
Airplane, a connection made even more evident with the lead female vocals in both bands. But
instead of the peace & love ideals of the turn on, tune in, drop out generation, which other late
60s bands were embracing, Coven's lyrics dealt with Satanism, witchcraft, curses and evil. Aside
from the celebrated legend of Robert Johnson, and the occasional song like "That Old Black
Magic" by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Satanism and the occult had never been dealt with by
popular musicians. The Stones are usually cited as a Satanic band (at least in the later 60s), but
their Satanic Majesties Request was a gimmick with no "evil" songs and, despite it's
 threatening title, "Sympathy For the Devil" had less to do with Satanism and more to do with
Mikhail Bulgakov's classic novel about Satan and religion, "The Master and the Margarita". The
song's infamous reputation from Altamont (probably) came after Coven's album was released.
Black Widow did have music out under the name of Pesky Gee! but it was not Satanic. Coven
performed locally in the Chicago area until they attracted the attention of Mercury Records in
the fall of 1969. Before the Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls LP, Coven had a 7"
single out, the A-side being a cover of Dylan's "We Shall Be Released" and the b-side, "I've
Come." Their press release from Mercury Records mentioned a previous album they recorded
for another label that was shelved and never released.

When singing their recording contract with Mercury, the band reportedly signed in blood (a
common motif of soul-selling stories, a la Faust, Theophilus, etc.) but this was just a hint of the
theatrics to come. After securing the deal, Jinx, Oz and Steve, along with a handful of session
musicians, recorded what is probably the first album of purely Satanic songs ever recorded,
LaVey's Satanic Mass notwithstanding. The LP was entitled Witchcraft Destroys Minds and
Reaps Souls. While the occult and Satanism were in the public eye, with LaVey's founding of
the Church of Satan in 1966 and a slew of occult books (including The Satanic Bible) an open
promotion of the subject had not been attempted, The Stones coming the closest, but even they
backed off before they seriously offended people.

About the session musicians: In 1967 a band called Aorta released a self-titled album that is now
regarded as a psychedelic classic. A man named Jim Donlinger was the leader of Aorta and
Coven chose him to mix their Witchcraft LP. He not only arranged the album, he wrote or co-
wrote the majority of songs on it as well, played guitar and also sang background vocals.
Another member of Aorta, Jim Nyeholt, played piano and keyboards. Adding to the Aorta
family was Bill Traut, who produced not only Witchcraft but Aorta and Shadows of Knight.
Donlinger and Nyeholt were members of a Christian band called The Exceptions who recorded
an EP in 1966. Apparently, Donlinger went on to perform more Christian music (!) under the
name of James Vincent. What he was doing with Coven is anyone's guess and on his webpage,
he does not mention Coven or Witchcraft in his "resume." In any case, Mercury took off with
the band's Satanic theme. Among the promotional advertisements for the album was "Coven.
They just made one hell of an album. They'll destroy your mind and reap your soul."

The songs themselves were good, but standard acid-rock songs. In fact, unlike later bands such
as Black Sabbath, Coven's music was just not particuarly atmospheric. Granted, speaking from
a 2002 perspective, where we've seen the rise of Black Sabbath, Slayer, the whole black metal
genre - I'm sure Witchcraft raised quite a few eyebrows at the time. It is speculated that the
musical theatrics were kept to a minimum in order to emphasize Jinx's voice, which is of course
possible. What was striking about the album was the overall theme. The album art was as
sinister and Satanic as the lyrics to the songs; the front cover featured Jinx, Steve and Oz against
a black background, all three wearing inverted crosses, crowded around a skull. The inside
gatefold, however, featured a naked young woman on an altar, a chalice strategically covering
her sex. It was bizarre enough, but not illegal - even Playboy was not allowed to show pubic hair
in the magazine because it was considered obscene at the time. Incidentally, the woman is not, as
popuarly assumed, Jinx. Jinx refused to do it because, according to Donlinger/Vincent, she felt
 she was too overweight. Women...  Also stated is that the album was filled with what appeared
to be "authentic" images from the 16th century.

The first side of the record was comprised of Satanic acid-rock songs, while the second side was
even more bold, featuring one 15-minute track entitled "Satanic Mass." The band claimed it was
an actual recording of a Satanic Mass. Although the liner notes claim that it is the first such
recording the band was aware of, Anton LaVey had released an LP (which has since made it to
CD) a year earlier entitled Satanic Mass. The inside jacket of Witchcraft cautioned listeners to
the potential dangers. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Black Mass to be recorded,
either in written words or in audio. It is as authentic as hundreds of hours of research in every
known source can make it. We do not recommend its use by anyone who has not thoroughly
studied Black Magic and is aware of the risks and dangers involved." It also says, "For further
information and source material, write: Coven, in care of Dunwich Productions, 25 East
Chestnut, Chicago, Illionois 60611."

The album become an underground hit and while it never made any headway on the mainsteam
rock n' roll charts, the band received plenty of notoriety for their image. In Chicago, the police
forbade the band to say anything in between their songs, although other venues were much more
lenient, giving Coven ample room for an elaborate stage show. Quoted in "The Lords of Chaos"
by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind, Oz Osbourne recounts Coven's outrageous stage
show. "We did a lot of our album and other things as our stage show, intermixing the Black
Mass, or Satanic Mass, as kind of a segueway between the songs. Behind the stage we had an
altar and on top of the altar we had what we called a Christian cross and we had one of our road
people hanging on the Christian cross as Jesus, and he kind of just stayed there doing the whole
show. Our stage was lit with obviously a lot of reds, and we had candles and that kind of thing.
Then we would do our whole album and other materials that all dealt with interesting stories of
witchcraft. Of course we were costumed ... right at the end of our set we did a Procol Harum
song that was just appropriate, called "Walpurgis." And right in the middle of it we break into
the "Ave Maria." At that point Jinx would do the benediction of the Black Mass and she'd recite
the Latin bits and she would go, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law," which is
Crowley ... She'd say the Crowley bit then would hail Satan and would turn around and scream,
"Hail Satan!" at the cross and altar, at which point the guy (Jesus) would pull his arms off the
cross, get down, invert the cross into the Satanic symbol and would go dancing off the stage
while the music was still playing." As Coven became more notorious, they attracted the
attention of Anton LaVey. They became a sort of in-house band in the Church of Satan in
California, and LaVey planned to form a "Satanic Woodstock" in Detriot on Halloween, wherein
Coven would play before LaVey addressed the crowd. It was, unfortunately, cancelled due to
controversy.

After a couple months on sale, Coven's Witchcraft album was recalled. Why? Because of an
article Esquire magazine was running, entitled "Evil Lurks in California," shortly after the
Manson murders. It was about the whole psychedelic Satanism scene in late 60s California, of
which Manson was, by that time, the most (in)famous. The article also discussed Head Shops
selling Satanic jewelry. To hype the article, Esquire ran a cover with a picture of Manson
standing outside a record store in L.A. He had a record under his arm. Guess which record he
 had? Yup - Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls... As 1970 dawned and Coven had
yet to break into the mainstream market, the band signed with a management crew and moved
out to California to pursue their now Satan-less career. Their next two albums are therefor not
included on this page.

Band Members:
Jim Donlinger - Vocals 
Jinx Dawson - Vocals 
Tracks:
Mike "Oz" Osbourne - Bass guitar 
1. Black Sabbath
Steve Ross - Drums 
2. White Witch of Rose Hall
Alan Estes - Bass 
3. Coven in Charing Cross
John Hobbs - Keyboards 
4. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Christopher Nielsen - Guitar, vocals
5. Pact with Lucifer
Frank Smith - Keyboards
6. Choke, Thirst, Die
Jim Nyeholt - Keyboards
7. Wicked Woman
---
8. Dignitaries of Hell
Arrangements by Coven and Jim Donlinger
9. Portrait
Engineering - Mal Dabis
10. Satanic Mass
Photography - Sig Binder
Design - Jerry Griffith
(Click on song titles for lyrics) 
A Dunwich Production
All selections published by Yuggoth Music
(see the inlay under "Album art" for more credits)
Release info:
Released by Mercury records 1969 - Witchcraft reaps souls and destroys minds (LP) (61239) 
Also released: Mercury records 1969 - Wicked Woman/White Witch of Rose Hall (45") (72973)

Reissued on CD Hard Rock Yankess (HRY0001) 2003 and on LP Akarma (AK 271) 2003.

Album art:
To view the whole cover art of the album, press here.
To view the inlay art of the album, press here.
To view the back art of the album, press here.

 All  thanks to Mr. Loki's Coven homepage.

Back To Index...
 
Source: Album sleeve, Internet, emails, and the Coven homepage. All tracks, lyrics etc. is copyrig