Yesterday of ALL days because early yesterday morning I got a press release from our FH Buddy Billy James at Glass Onyon Promotions that a brand new 2-CD Set of Melanie performing live at The Eagle Mountain House in Jackson, NH, was going to be released next month.
In fact, I had held that story back from today's comments page to run as part of The Friday Flash, as I wanted to draw more attention to this upcoming release ... so it was quite disturbing to me to think that she died later that same day.
Our
paths crossed a couple of times in Forgotten Hits, most notably when she
contacted me about wanting to share her memories in the Ed Sullivan
Show tribute we were putting together. (I have NO idea how she'd even
heard about it ... but she wanted the world to know just how genuinely
appreciative she was about being on Ed's show and treated with such
respect.) Odd that she would be contacting me, rather than the other
way around, but I've never forgotten it. This girl that most of the
world perceived as "that hippie chick" wanted the world to know what a
beautiful man Ed Sullivan was.
We lost contact after that ... although I have spoken with her son a couple of times since then. He was always very supportive of his mother's career ... and appreciated the fact that we were sharing her career news whenever we could.
While Melanie's appearance at Woodstock was a HUGE career boost, not a lot of the general public was aware of her performance, as she wasn't included in the movie. But eight months later, Melanie burst on the scene with her Top Five Hit Single "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)," recorded with The Edwin Hawkins Singers, who were also hot at the time with their own hit single, "Oh, Happy Day."
A
year and a half later, Melanie would top the charts with "Brand New
Key" and, over the course of about a three year period, she would earn a
total of seven Top 40 Hits, including "Peace Will Come (According To
Plan)," #20, 1970, "Ruby Tuesday" (#34, 1971), "Ring The Living Bell"
(#21, 1972), "The Nickel Song" (#25, 1972, and "Bitter Bad" (#30, 1973). (Melanie also scored a Top Ten Hit when The New Seekers recorded her song, "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma.
Here is the original announcement about the new CD ... followed by a couple of other comments we received right after the word got out.
Folk Pop Icon MELANIE Takes Center Stage On A Timeless Live Album!
Melanie, the acclaimed folk pop icon whose performance at the historic Woodstock Festival in 1969 launched her career, continued to captivate audiences long after the counterculture revolution came and went. She’s released 25+ studio albums over the course of her multi-decade career alongside multiple compilations. But it’s always been her live performances that resonated the most with her audience. Now those fans have cause to celebrate as one of her best live recordings is set for release on both CD and, for the first time ever, vinyl!
One Night Only – The Eagle Mountain House is a mesmerizing live performance recorded in the intimate setting of the Eagle Mountain House club in Jackson, NH, in 1984. Much more than a simple concert recording, this release is a musical journey through Melanie's illustrious career, capturing her emotional depth and musical brilliance from her 1971 signature hit “Brand New Key” to her soulful cover of The Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday.” Plus, fans will be thrilled to hear her electrifying performance of the beloved “Lay Down (Candles In The Rain),” a song inspired by her Woodstock performance, that has been a staple of her live set throughout her career. The track is being made available to stream on all major platforms as both a preview of the full concert as well as a big “Thank You” to Melanie fans worldwide.
Stream the single: https://orcd.co/melanie_laydown_candlesintherain
One Night Only is set for release as a 2CD set and on digital February 16 with the 2LP vinyl version coming a few weeks later. Order your copy today and witness Melanie's enchanting live performance like never before!
Order the CD/vinyl: https://cleorecs.com/store/?s=melanie&post_type=product
Pre-save / pre-order the digital: https://orcd.co/melanie_onenightonly
Track List:
DISC 1
1. Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma
2. Didn't You Ever Love
3. It Don't Matter Now
4. Clock Strikes Twelve
5. Brand New Key
6. Lover's Lullaby
7. Damn Ol Apathy
8. Champagne Song
9. Groundhog Day
10. Cyclone
11. Boy Next Door
DISC 2
1. Psychotherapy
2. If You Don't Know You Love Me
3. Running After Love
4. Roadburn
5. Just Can't Do It
6. Just Can't Do It (Sing Along)
7. Mushroom Joke
8. Ruby Tuesday
9. Stand By Me
10. It's Not A Job
11. Beautiful People
12. Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)
When Billy got the news about Melanie's passing, he sent me this ...
Melanie Safka, the “Uncrowned Queen of Woodstock” and One of the Most Significant and Successful Singer-Songwriters of the 1970s, Passed Away on January 23, 2024
Born in Astoria, New York, on February 3, 1947, Melanie studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, while simultaneously pursuing a singing career around the coffee houses and folk clubs of Greenwich Village.
Influenced, of course, by the folk scene of the day, but also from as far afield as Edith Piaf, Kurt & Weill, jazz singer Blossom Dearie and her own mother Polly, herself a jazz singer, Melanie immediately caused a stir, a waif-like figure capable of unleashing a voice like a steamroller.
It was while attending an audition for a role in a dramatic production of the folk song “Barbara Allen” in 1967 that Melanie met Peter Schekeryk, who became her manager, producer and the following year, her husband. Initially intrigued, and then entranced by her songs and her distinctly unconventional approach to them, he introduced her to his employers, the production company Hugo and Luigi, and Melanie made her recorded debut as backing vocalist on one of her own compositions, girl group Mommy’s recording of “Love In My Mind.”
Melanie joined Columbia Records later that year, releasing two singles - the signature “Beautiful People” and “Garden In The City” - before label head Clive Davis’s refusal to green light an album saw her depart and, in October, 1968, sign with Buddah Records. Her debut album was released just two months later, but it was her appearance at Woodstock in August, 1969, that heralded her breakthrough, taking the stage all but unannounced and completely unknown, but sweeping all before her.
The experience inspired Melanie’s first US hit, 1970’s “Candles in The Rain,” recorded with the Edwin Hawkins Singers. By that time, however, she had already scored hits in France, the Netherlands and Germany, markets which remained loyal throughout the remainder of her life - her final tour, in late 2022, took her back to the Netherlands.
Further hits followed, including “Peace Will Come,” “What Have They Done To My Song Ma,” “The Nickel Song,” and a raw cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” while Melanie was also in demand as a songwriter, receiving covers from the New Seekers, Ray Charles, Cissy Houston and even UK rockers Mott The Hoople. Since that time, some 200 different artists have recorded or otherwise revisited Melanie’s songs, including Billie Joe Spears, Nina Simone, Dead or Alive, Miley Cyrus, Alison Moyet, Morrissey, Queen Latifah and Kanye West.
Melanie’s star continued ascending. She was a regular on the festival circuit, performing at the Isle of Wight in 1970 and Glastonbury the following year. She was offered a role playing opposite Jim Morrison in a projected rock version of Othello and, in 1971, Billboard proclaimed her the year’s biggest selling female artist in the United States.
Growing frustration with Buddah’s marketing of her as “a cute little hippy girl,” however, saw Melanie break from the company to form her own Neighborhood Records - the first female-owned independent label in rock history.
“Brand New Key,” her first single for Neighborhood, topped charts across the world, including the United States; the accompanying Gather Me album, too, was a major hit. Both evidenced Melanie’s own dissatisfaction with the manner in which her music had been marketed in the past; both also demonstrated her deliberate withdrawal from the spotlight.
A follower of Meher Baba and a lifelong advocate for world peace, 1972 saw Melanie make headlines when she placed her own career on hold to act as a spokesperson for UNICEF. The following year, she scrapped her projected next album when she opted instead to devote the time to her newborn daughter Leilah.
Coupled with albums of growing musical and lyrical intensity and complexity, such actions were seldom popular within the music industry. Early drafts of Melanie’s projected autobiography Naked include numerous examples of the obstacles with which she was confronted over the years. Her songwriting, too, is littered with her own take on the pitfalls that awaited women in the music industry in the sixties and 1970s - and which, she said recently, “still haven’t gone away. Not really.”
Melanie was an avid supporter, too, of naturopathy, vegetarianism and nature - published last year, her memoir Lake Days was a unique meditation on water, nature and a childhood spent reveling in the freedoms of both.
Content with being mistress of her own musical destiny, Melanie remained an independent artist for much of her career, creating such remarkable albums as Ballroom Streets (1978), Arabesque (1982), Am I Real Or What (1985), Precious Cargo (1991), Old Bitch Warrior (1995) and Ever Since You Never Heard Of Me (2010).
Melanie’s studio output slowed following the unexpected death of husband Peter in 2010. However, with their multi-instrumentalist son Beau Jarred well trained as a producer and arranger by his father, and daughters Leilah and Jeordie frequently accompanying her, Melanie continued playing live, recording, and regularly producing home concert specials for the delight of her vast internet audience.
In early January, 2024, just weeks before her final illness, Melanie recorded a version of Morrissey’s “Ouija Board Ouija Board” for an upcoming tribute album; and Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” for what would have been her 32nd studio album, a collection of covers tentatively titled Second Hand Smoke.
Among the other songs scheduled for the record, Radiohead’s “Creep,” the Moody Blues’ “Nights In White Satin” and Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence” all testified to Melanie’s career-long willingness to step out of line with her image. Poignantly, one of the final songs added to the running order was David Bowie’s “Everyone Says Hi.”
Even more significantly, a newly-inked deal with Los Angeles-based Cleopatra Records brought her entire post-Buddah career under one roof for the first time ever. Until the end, she was excitedly anticipating the full scale reissue program that is already underway with the appearance of her 1984 live album One Night Only. This long-overdue project will continue under the joint supervision of her children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred. Melanie’s legacy is in safe hands.
Melanie Safka - February 3 1947 - January 23 2024
From Melanie's Forgotten Hits post, remembering "The Ed Sullivan Show" ...
But, of course, Ed Sullivan was the ultimate showman, and knew it added to the essence of what he was introducing to the world, prompting the comment about Elvis.
And, of course, at that time, one segment on his show was an introduction to the world and the only step needed to go from obscurity to stardom.
Melanie<3
Leilah, Jeordie, and Beau Jarred
While it's true we may have lost her ...
Tonight we Ring The Living Bell. (kk)
