Jinx Dawson: the frontwoman who fuelled rock ‘n’ roll’s occultism
At what point in music history did the devil horns become symbolic of rock? As a millennial music head, my introduction to the horns’ legacy came via Jack Black—dressed in chinos and a sweater vest—as the rock-worshipping Dewey Finn in School of Rock. Through his 8:15am – 10am ‘Rock History’ classes, we learned that the gesture was deeply tied to the genre’s long-standing flirtation with dark spiritualism.
The truth stems from the Great Depression when music arose as a form of solace in desolation. Blues rock became a more expressive alternative to shedding one’s load amongst one’s community peers in the church, and so pastors condemned the movement as ungodly. There, the rebellious spirit of rock was forged, and the devil’s darkness would forever be linked to the genre’s iconography.
In the decades that followed, the devil horns were thrust above the heads of rock gods all over, with the father of darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, becoming perhaps the most iconic flagbearer. But before he cemented himself as one of rock’s most bizarre yet enigmatic frontmen, Osbourne’s namesake, Michael Gregory, was in the engine room of a band fronted by Jinx Dawson.
Dawson led a band by the name of Coven who in 1969 released their album Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls, which despite opening with a track called ‘Black Sabbath’ had no association to the Brummie Osbourne. But what they did do was set the template for the future gods of heavy rock to follow.
Coven’s debut record was one that platformed the band’s interest in occultism, and as a result, they’re largely credited as the group responsible for bringing the devil horns to modern rock and roll. They were unapologetic with their aesthetic delivery, as they explained in an interview with It’s Psychedelic Baby magazine: “We had our stage lit by candlelight, the B-3 was draped like an altar with a skull, candles and a chalice on it. We wore black, purple or red, some of us wore capes as well.”
Adding: “Our roadie hung on a cross behind us and didn’t move. At the end of the show. Jinx would give the benediction of the Black mass, the roadie would come down off the cross. The cross was on a pivot, so they would invert it and walk off stage hand in hand.”
In what is now a famous image, frontwoman Dawson can be seen standing at the front of a similar stage, with the devil horns thrust above her head. When Gene Simmons recently tried to take credit for the genesis of the symbol, Dawson made a public statement on Coven’s Facebook page, claiming: “I did the Sign of the Horns when Coven started in late 1967 (see BW photo). Again, this sign was pictured on our first album released in 1969 and on our 1971, 1974, 2013 albums.”
She continued, “I never trademarked MY sign because it was meant for all to do, tho it is legally ‘grandfathered in’ to me for use in music by all the history. Gene does not even DO the sign properly. He is doing the deaf sign for ‘love’. I think Gene and The Hollywood Reporter should get their story straight…”
Dawson’s oversight for inspiring a generation of satanic-inspired rock is perhaps largely due to the fact Coven was removed from the market in England when occultism became embroiled in the horrific Manson Family fallout. But with Beelzebub’s horns still cropping up in mosh pits around the country, Dawson is keen to remind the world of hyper-masculine rock that was, in fact, her doing: “I know some people got it from Ronnie or got it from Black Sabbath, but if they got it from them, I think they really got it from me.”
