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Melanie
Safka |
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The
impossible takes a little longer |
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When
Melanie turned 27 years of age, on Feb. 3, 1974, she celebrated by giving a
concert at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. She performed for more than
two and a half hours and her fans responded with a wave of love and
appreciation, showering her with gifts and, at the conclusion, according her
a standing ovation and clamoring for still more songs. It was a special night
-Melanie returning to her home town to perform on her birthday-- yet the
feeling in the concert hall was familiar. The atmosphere -- one critic has
called it "an anarchic level of intimacy" - was not unlike that
which has been generated over the past several years in cities across
America, in Europe, Japan, behind the Iron Curtain -- wherever Melanie has
journeyed on the way to becoming an artist of internationally acclaimed
stature. Melanie
has already captured many of the industry's major honors, including three
Gold Records, a pair of ASCAP awards for her songwriting, and designations by
both Billboard and Cash Box as #1 Female Vocalist. In 1971, UNICEF paid her a
unique tribute by asking her to serve as its official spokeswoman, an honor
Melanie responded to by embarking on a ten nation tour which netted hundreds
of thousands of dollars for the World Children's Organization. Melanie Safka was born just across the
river from Manhattan, in the suburb of Astoria, Long Island. The date was
Feb. 3, 1947. Her father, Fred, ran a chain of discount stores. Her mother,
Polly, a former jazz singer, became Melanie's first musical influence. "I started writing my own little
songs," recalls Melanie, "mostly imitations of what I'd hear my
mother singing around the house. It wasn't until I was 13 or 14 that I began
to write about things I found in myself. " While still in high school,
Melanie began singing in Greenwich Village coffee houses, passing the hat for
nickels and dimes. Later she landed a one night a week job performing at a
Jersey Shore bar, where she earned what seemed to her a staggering amount -
$20 an evening. . Fresh from graduation ("They gave me a
Senior Award for Best Posture. I guess no one else wanted it. "),
Melanie decided to embark on an acting career. She enrolled in the American
Academy in Manhattan and began the tedious show business shuffle known as
"making the rounds". One day, quite by accident, she happened into
the offices of a music publishing company. Her songs so impressed Peter
Schekeryk, who was employed there, that he guided her to a recording
contract. Her first album, "Born To Be," was released soon
afterwards. "Born To Be" immediately
established Melanie as a unique talent with seemingly unlimited potential.
Critics and discerning record-buyers alike were drawn to the haunting,
fragile voice which she deployed on material of striking originality. The
record was a curious blend of many elements, among them wistfulness, humor,
naivete, warmth, irony and exuberance. Melanie did Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine
Man", an A. A. Milne poem she had set to music, and even a rousing
"Merry Christmas". It wasn't your typical first album. Her follow-up LP, entitled simply
''Melanie", shed more light on Melanie the person. From the opening
track, the defiant "Tuning My Guitar", to the closing tune, the
plaintive "Take Me Home", it reflected a newfound maturity, even a
disillusionment with her burgeoning career. The sad and funny "Any
Guy", the bittersweet "Johnny Boy" and "Again", one
of her most vivid evocations of loneliness, all offered new glimpses into the
inner workings of he mind and spirit. The LP also contained "Beautiful
People", a song which has become something of an anthem among Melanie
fans the world over and the only one she never fails to sing during a course
of a concert. In the Summer of 1969, Melanie was invited
to perform at the Woodstock Festival. Upon getting to the backstage area, she
learned that she was to follow Ravi Shankar, who had just electrified the
audience of several thousand with a virtuoso display of sitar mastery. To
make matters worse, it had begun to rain heavily. Amid prolonged shouting for
still another Shankar encore, Melanie, still relatively unknown, walked out
onstage. While she sang and strummed her guitar, flames began to flicker in
the darkness. People were holding lit candles aloft as signs of solidarity.
When Melanie completed her set, she exited to the roar of a standing ovation.
The following Spring, "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)," her
celebration in song of this event, was released. It became a Top 5 single and
"Candles In The Rain. ", the album which contained it, matched its
success, going on to become an R. I. A. A. Certified Gold Record. By this point, interest in Melanie was
growing on a worldwide basis. The New Seekers' version of "What Have
They Done To My Song, Ma," introduced many new listeners to Melanie's
songwriting prowess. Late in the Summer of 1970, and riding on the success of
her current chart single, "Peace Will Come (According To Plan),"
Melanie visited England and scored another major triumph as one of the
headliners at the Isle Of Wight Festival. A short time later, "Leftover
Wine", Melanie's first live album, was released, the major portion of
which was recorded at Carnegie Hall. This was followed by "The Good
Book", an LP in which Melanie blended songs by Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and
Judy Collins with some of her finest original work, including the
unforgettable "Babe Rainbow" and the irrepressible "Nickel Song",
both of which have become staples of her repertory. , At this time, Melanie and her husband,
Peter Schekeryk, formed their own company, Neighborhood Records. The label's
first release was "Brand New Key', which became a number one single
amassing total sales of more than 3 million copies and easily gaining for
Melanie her first Gold Single. More Gold was on the way in the form of
"Gather Me", an album, which was hailed by critics, as Melanie's
most mature and fully realized, work to date. In terms of popular response,
"Gather Me" was her pivotal album and in terms of honesty and
emotional depth, it was most definitely a supreme achievement. . The LP
contained such Melanie classics as "Little Bit Of Me",
"Steppin' " "Some Say (1 Got Devil)" and "Centre Of
The Circle", in addition to "Brand New Key" and its follow-up
single, "Ring The Living Bell", which became another Top 20 hit. Melanie's 26th birthday was celebrated at
Carnegie Hall and preserved in a two-record set, "Melanie At Carnegie
Hall ", which was released in April, 1973. On October 3rd of that year,
Melanie gave birth to her first child, a seven pound, seven ounce baby girl,
which she and Peter named Leilah after a dark-haired princess of Persian
legend. "As 1 See It Now", Melanie's
first album for Arista, included nine new Melanie compositions, In addition,
Melanie offered unforgettable renditions of the standard, "Yes, Sir,
That's My Baby", Dylan's classic, "Don't Think Twice, It's All
Right" and Jesse Winchester's "Yankee Lady (retitled "Yankee
Man"). Soon after the release of this album, Melanie had a baby, a girl
named Jeordie, on March 27, 1975. Her brand new album, "Sunsets And
Other Beginnings" (released to coincide with her Australian tour)
features seven new original songs as well as distinctive interpretations of
Lerner and Lowe's classic, "Almost Like Being In Love", "You
Can't Hurry Love" by Holland, Dozier, Holland and "I've Got My Mojo
Working". |
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