MELANIE folk singer of the sixties????????????????
DUANE ALFORD CHAMBLEE
I would like to know what happened to Melanie? Don't remember her last name
she sang Animal Crackers. Thanks for any information.
22501-sohl
>I would like to know what happened to Melanie? Don't remember her last name
>she sang Animal Crackers. Thanks for any information.
I don't know what happened to her, but I think I've got at least one of
her albums at home.
Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's.
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Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.)
Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!dancer!whs70
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The Man from Another Place
} I would like to know what happened to Melanie?
She just vanished from the scene, and I've never heard what happened to her.
} Don't remember her last name
Her full name was Melanie Safka, though she never used her last name
professionally.
--
"She's my radiation baby.
She's my teenage fallout girl."
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA)
Fil Feit
>
>I would like to know what happened to Melanie? Don't remember her last name
>she sang Animal Crackers. Thanks for any information.
Melanie Safka. Hers was the second concert I'd ever seen (first was Arlo).
I remember an interview with her, several years ago, when she said that she
was in Greenwich Village one day, shortly after her first single had come
out ("Beautiful People"). She was walking past a Cappezio (?sp) shoe store,
and heard, on the store radio, Rosco, a DJ on WNEW-FM announce her song, and
that was the first time she ever heard it on the air. She said she sat down
in the store and cried, and people came up to ask what was wrong; they thought
she couldn't find shoes that fit.
The last I heard, and this was probably 1984-5 or so, was she was involved in
the writing and acting in a play based on the life of Calamity Jane, and a
new album was forthcoming. Never heard anything since then.
Her last (probably only) hit was "Brand New Key", which was attacked as being
somehow sexual in content ( B-? ). She did wonderful songs, too many to list
here, but some were:
Nickel Song
Beautiful People
Someday I'll Be A Farmer
Kansas
Leftover Wine
Look What They've Done To My Song
Ring The Living Bell
I Don't Eat Animals (and she doesn't)
Boy Next Door
Oh, Mom (think that's the name; it's from her daughter's POV)
Psychotherapy
Does ANYBODY know what happened? I wanna know too!
--f2
----------------------------------------------
I don't eat animals, 'cause I love 'em, you see;
I don't eat animals, I want nothing dead in me.
A little bit of whole meal, some raisons and cheese,
But I don't eat animals, and they don't eat me.
--Melanie
My name is Brian Rost
>In article <1992Jul30.1...@ncsu.edu> dac...@eos.ncsu.edu (DUANE ALFORD CHAMBLEE) writes:
>>I would like to know what happened to Melanie? Don't remember her last name
>>she sang Animal Crackers. Thanks for any information.
>
She sort of semi-retired in the mid seventies, made one or two "comeback"
recordings in the 80s as well as some touring, doing more rock-oriented
material. She claimed in interviews that she was always really a rock singer
but got trapped into that folkie pigeonhole, etc. She came through Boston a
year or two ago if I remember correctly.
I always thought her albums were spotty at best but she certainly had her
moments, like an edge-of-sanity cover of "Wild Horses". The hippy-dippy stuff
I could do without. She should have married Donovan 8^) 8^)
Brian Rost @rgb.enet.dec.com
****************************************************
* *
* The above does not reflect the opinions of *
* my employer. *
* *
* If music is outlawed, only outlaws will be *
* musicians. *
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****************************************************
Martin K. Jones
In article <21...@tymix.Tymnet.COM>, fil...@rael.Tymnet.COM (Fil Feit) writes:
|>Does ANYBODY know what happened? I wanna know too!
Martin K. Jones
University of Alabama at Birmingham
MAR...@ARU.DOM.UAB.EDU
Ed Stokes
the 20th anniversary of her Woodstock performance, and she performed a
set for the gathered aging hippies.
She did have a top 40 hit in ~1972 or so called Brand New Key. The
lyric was "I've got a brand new pair of roller skates and you've got a
brand new key" or something like that.
Spug
Jon Berger
>I always thought her albums were spotty at best but she certainly had her
>moments, like an edge-of-sanity cover of "Wild Horses". The hippy-dippy stuff
>I could do without. She should have married Donovan 8^) 8^)
As I recall, she was the victim of her one top-40 hit, "The Roller Skate
Song." For those too young to remember, or those who have managed to
forget, it was this stupid little double-entendre-laden ditty that she
sang in a twitty little-girl voice, with the chorus
"Oh, I've got a brand-new pair of roller skates,
You've got a brand-new key.
I think that we should get together and
Try them out to see.
I've been looking around a while; you've got something for me,
Oh, I've got a brand-new pair of roller skates,
You've got a brand-new key."
This is appallingly silly even by the standards of the decade that
produced "Sugar, Sugar, Honey, Honey" and "Take a Letter, Maria",
and unfortunately, due to all the air play, it came to be Melanie's
signature tune, so a lot of people dismissed her as a mindless novelty
act. This is too bad, because she was actually a really good singer
and talented songwriter, and some of the other songs on that record,
which I still have a beat-up copy of somewhere, are quite wonderful.
I'd agree with the "spotty" appraisal, but I think that if she'd kept
at it she could have developed into a pretty wonderful singer-songwriter
in the Joni Mitchell mold, not that her style was at all similar. Pity;
another victim of her own success.
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-__ __ /_ Jon Berger "If you push something hard enough,
//_// //_/ jo...@ingres.com it will fall over."
_/ --------- - Fudd's First Law of Opposition
Robert Derrick
: As I recall, she was the victim of her one top-40 hit, "The Roller Skate
: Song."
How come no one has mentioned "Lay Down/Candles In The Rain", which
I thought was a bigger hit. At least, it was the reason I started
listening to Melanie. And also "Beautiful People".
Ah, the memories.
rob d.
Greg Bullough
>
>As I recall, she was the victim of her one top-40 hit, "The Roller Skate
>Song." For those too young to remember, or those who have managed to
>forget, it was this stupid little double-entendre-laden ditty that she
>sang in a twitty little-girl voice, with the chorus
>
> "Oh, I've got a brand-new pair of roller skates,
> You've got a brand-new key.
> I think that we should get together and
> Try them out to see.
> I've been looking around a while; you've got something for me,
> Oh, I've got a brand-new pair of roller skates,
> You've got a brand-new key."
>
>This is appallingly silly even by the standards of the decade that
to this tune?
I thought it was kinda cute, actually :-) For one thing, it was a
woman singing it, and being the sexual aggressor, which was kind of
novel at the time.
Did Melanie also sing "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot,"
which was another song that was cartoon videoized on the Sonny and
Cher Show?
Greg
Jon Berger
>Did Melanie also sing "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot,"
>which was another song that was cartoon videoized on the Sonny and
>Cher Show?
Nope, that was Joni Mitchell. I think it was a reference to an LA club
or other beloved hangout called something like The Paradise, which was
in fact paved over for a parking lot. I don't remember the exact story,
but someone probably will.
patrick.b.hailey
it'll help you find it, I could probably dig it up and find the copyright
date. Send me e-mail and I'll do it.
It's one of my very favorite albums, but since I haven't had access to a
stereo for about a year and a half, none of my albums are easily at hand
at the moment.
Anyway, this one is a knockout! She put together a bunch of great musicians,
and did four sides in the studio, but live with a small audience. It says
right on the album cover that this was done to get the good sound of a
studio but the spontaneity and energy of a live concert.
It has some lovely acoustic stuff, but there were other live albums that were
better for that. What this album has, I've heard no where else: Melanie
doing some great, kick-butt rock 'n roll! Not a lot of mindless white-noise,
mind you, but well-crafted, complicated, intricately arranged, masterfully
performed, LOUD ELECTRIC rock. It's got a version of Ruby Tuesday that'll
knock you socks off, and a funky, sort-of reggae-style version of Roller Skate
that wasn't just bearable, but that was actually good!
Has anyone mentioned "I Really Loved Herald" as one of her Great Songs? I had
a live version around here that would just make you cry. Oh, yea, and "Danny
Boy". Jeez, I need to get a stereo...
Thanks awfully,
Patrick
Gerry Myerson
>
> In article <c7qm56...@netcom.com>, gr...@netcom.com (Greg Bullough) writes:
> >Did Melanie also sing "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot,"
> >which was another song that was cartoon videoized on the Sonny and
> >Cher Show?
>
> Nope, that was Joni Mitchell. I think it was a reference to an LA club
> or other beloved hangout called something like The Paradise, which was
> in fact paved over for a parking lot. I don't remember the exact story,
> but someone probably will.
I think it was a place she enjoyed in Hawaii---I think she said as much in
a show I went to 20-25 years ago, but my memory is not reliable over such a
timespan. The song is called Big Yellow Taxi, or maybe, The Taxi Song.
> -__ __ /_ Jon Berger "If you push something hard enough,
> //_// //_/ jo...@ingres.com it will fall over."
> _/ --------- - Fudd's First Law of Opposition
Gerry Myerson
MYRON A LIEBERMAN
Melanie. Also "Candles in the Rain" may have been Melanie's most popular
effort (certainly the most widely publicized).
John Horvath
>> >Did Melanie also sing "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot,"
>> or other beloved hangout called something like The Paradise, which was
>
>a show I went to 20-25 years ago, but my memory is not reliable over such a
>timespan. The song is called Big Yellow Taxi, or maybe, The Taxi Song.
Geesch, you really missing the forest from the trees here! ;')
Excuse me if you mean "is there is a literal reference to a particular
place in the song "Big Yellow Taxi" " and you are skipping the larger
meaning of the song. That being, the heartless destruction of
any eden like forest to make something so barren as a parking lot.
I've seen quotes from that song in so many articles about
environmental destruction that I can't imagine associating it with
anything else.
Now if only they could digitally edit out that laugh at the song end!
cheers
john
Charles Stewart
>>
She did wonderful songs, too many to list
>here, but some were:
>
[list of wonderful songs excluded]
You forgot "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)." This is the first song I
remember of hers, and the one I always associate with her. Many of her
songs range to the precious, but this one stood out because of its
rip-roaring gospel feel. (The words were a bit mysterious, but it was
the 60s after all.) When it comes on the radio, even to this day,
I crank up the stereo as loud as it will go.
Gerry Myerson
I like to think I'm seeing both the trees and the forest. I know Circle Game
is about growing up, but I also know it's about Neil Young. I know And the
Band Played Waltzing Matilda is about war, but I also know it's about the
assault on Gallipoli in World War I. And I know Big Yellow Taxi is about
losing something precious (and not just the environment---listen to the last
verse again), but I also know (well, I'm pretty sure) that it's about a
particular place in Hawaii.
> john
Gerry Myerson
Jason Goldman
At that time she was mostly retired, but she played at the high school
once in a while.
Dan Moyer
I was in the doctor's office earlier this week and noticed a short article
about her in a recent People magazine. I don't remember the issue date,
but it was probably in the last month or two. The article talked about
her performance at Woodstock and showed a picture from then and a recent
photo of her and her two daughters. Now that I think about it...
it was in an issue dealing with "what ever happened to ...." and had
other 60's and 70's people featured.