Halloween Song: Fleetwood Mac - “Hypnotized”

Here’s a Halloween song profile making its Broken Hearted Toy debut.

Just about halfway between Peter Green’s 1968 “Black Magic Woman” and Stevie Nicks’ 1976 “Rhiannon,” singer-guitarist Bob Welch composed the atmospheric and spooky “Hypnotized” as a member of Fleetwood Mac. It was one of the tracks on the band’s 1973 Mystery To Me, and true to the album’s title, this song presents a series of puzzles. Welch’s evocative singing and the Mac’s enchanted instrumentation ensure that “Hypnotized” commands our attention.

When the first verse describes “Two friends having coffee together/When something flies by their window,” it’s up to the listener to decide if it was a UFO. The North Carolina “strange, strange pond” in the second verse seems even more likely to involve intergalactic visitors. And the man in Mexico who can “fly over mountains and hills and he don't need an airplane or some kind of engine” might be a warlock or a ghost.

The chorus of “Seems like a dream/They got me hypnotized” adds a conspiracy element. Are “they” tricking us into thinking these events are happening, or trying to cover up an extraterrestrial invasion by insisting we were only dreaming. As the lyrics put it, “Because there's no explaining what your imagination can make you see and feel.” After leaving Fleetwood Mac, Bob Welch scored solo hits with “Sentimental Lady” and “Ebony Eyes.”