Celebrating Lunar New Year
Snakes are often symbols of protection warding off evil spirits, as seen in jewelry and fashion. Alternatively, the slithering reptile is sometimes a metaphor for temptation, lies and harm in literature and art, offering urgent warnings.
shades Magazine presents this curated list for the Year of the Snake, a sample of pop music culture over nine decades.
Shake, Rattle and Roll
Big Joe Turner | 1954
This song, as written by African American music producer Jesse Stone AKA Charles Calhoun, was deemed too risque and offensive for teenagers so Bill Haley & the Comets dropped some of the words for a more conservative audience. Both versions were Billboard hits, but there’s nothing like the original.
Serpentine Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire | 1977
Two of the founding members and songwriters of the legendary group, Maurice and Verdine White, have explained this song in interviews: They say the serpentine fire is related to the energy associated with kundalini yoga and how you treat yourself spiritually, morally and physically is related to the energy that helps you create.
Copperhead Road
Steve Earle | 1988
The anti-war, pro-choice singer-songwriter is a powerful storyteller in his documentation of rural Southern poverty and the treatment of veterans of war in America. Named after an actual road in Tennessee, the song is a statement on the government’s “War on Drugs” that began in the 1970s.
Union of the Snake
Duran Duran | 1983
There’s debate about the meaning of this song, but the fandom seems to suggest it’s a cautionary tale about the darker side of humanity (with the snake representing evil) taking control of a person.
The Snake and the Bookworm
The Coasters | 1960
This snake is a guy trying to distract a girl from going to school. “She’s thinking about her education. He’s thinking about his, uh, recreation.” The song leaves you wondering who has the stronger will.
Crawlin’ King Snake
John Lee Hooker | 1949
Although he wasn’t the first to record it, it was one of the legendary blues singer’s best known songs and a hit for him. For obvious reasons, the lyrics attracted male rock stars like Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and “Lizard King” Jim Morrison of the Doors to cover it.
Python
Claire Heywood | 2020
Indie singer-songwriter Heywood’s lyrics about how women have to be aware in a man’s world is as real as it gets. Her new Fall 2024 songs cover themes of “grief, femininity, gender, body image, motherhood, and loss” following her BRCA-positive diagnosis.
Cobra
Miles Davis | 1989
Considering the cool trumpeter wore cobra-skin pants in the Seventies and a sequined red snake to the White House in the Eighties, this tune is likely about the reptile. His three “Cobra,” “A Serpent’s Tooth” and “The Big Green Serpent” are a fascinating journey through his imagination.
Snakes and Ladders
Joni Mitchell | 1988
Like the board game representing the ups and downs in life, the song takes you through a couple’s life story as they meet, work through their externally glamorous lives in the corporate world with the wife as the required socialite, and struggle to keep their status and relationship.
Snakes and Lovers
Spandau Ballet | 1986
The British pop group sing about lovers quarreling. In spite of him being fond of her, they are always fighting and he succumbs to temptation. She’s aware and chooses to be alone for now, as he questions why they can’t be together. She seems to know better.
Year of the Snake
Wild Wisteria | 2013
The synthesizer in this energetic tune captures the movement of snakes. Australian indie rockers penned this song for the last Lunar Year of the Snake, making references to New Year’s resolutions that give you “another chance to succeed at your own thing as a new year has just begun.”
Serpiente
Valley Latini | 2019
The Columbian American singer-songwriter AKA Andrea Valentina Mendoza makes the toxic relationship message clear in this mesmerizing tune in Spanish and English: “Don’t tell me what to do.”
The Snake
The Isley Brothers | 1962
Physical movements of your body from your back to your knee make up this snake dance song, written by Elaine Jasper, the wife of one of the group’s founding members, Rudy Isley.
Pink Venom
BLACKPINK | 2022
As with all K-pop, music is only one part of the experience, so catch the visuals and choreography in the video. The fandom describes the song as having the dual but opposite qualities of being cute and dangerous, as in the softness of the color and the poisonous substance that can kill you.
Snake Charmer
Panjabi MC | 2007
The UK bhangra artist was inspired by the ancient street performer practice that lures the snake out of a basket with the vibrations of the pungi, the flute-like instrument. The reptile moves in response to the music. Learn the dance by watching the song’s video, where a beautiful woman takes on the movement of the snake.
Snake Song
Eleni Mandell | 1999
In her own song, the snake is a “feral beast,” a tale of a guy who steals your heart, making you go against your instinct by becoming involved with him.
Spiders & Snakes
Jim Stafford | 1974
The snake is actually the reptile in this one about a mature young woman ready for love from a nervous boy who’s looking for things to amuse her as a way to avoid what he knows she wants.
Young American
Snakes | 2015
Concluding with the American band that takes its name from the reptile.
Story and playlist by shades Magazine contributing editor Janice Lee.