Deep Album Cuts Vol. 342: Melanie
Melanie Safka, who recorded as simply Melanie, died on Tuesday at the age of 76. And I realized, after hearing the news, that while I was familiar with two of her best known songs, "Brand New Key" and "What Have They Done To My Song Ma," I don't know if I would've been able to tell you who did those songs before this week, and I certainly had no clue those songs were by the same person. And that made me curious to check out her catalog.
Melanie album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Close To It All
Melanie album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Close To It All
2. Momma Momma
3. Animal Crackers
4. Johnny Boy
5. Any Guy
6. Leftover Wine
7. Citiest People
8. Lovin' Baby Girl
9. Uptown And Down (live)
10. Babe Rainbow
11. Some Say (I Got Devil)
12. Rainbow
13. Steppin'
14. People In The Front Row
15. Between The Road Signs
16. Psychotherapy (live)
17. Maybe Not For A Lifetime
18. Holding Out
19. Autumn Lady
20. Monongahela River
21. Perceive It
22. Groundhog Day
Tracks 1, 2 and 3 from Born To Be (1968)
Tracks 1, 2 and 3 from Born To Be (1968)
Tracks 4 and 5 from Melanie (1969)
Tracks 6, 7 and 8 from Candles In The Rain (1970)
Track 9 from Leftover Wine (1970)
Track 10 from The Good Book (1971)
Track 11, 12 and 13 from Gather Me (1971)
Track 14 from Garden In The City (1971)
Track 15 from Stoneground Words (1972)
Track 16 from Melanie At Carnegie Hall (1973)
Tracks 17 and 18 from Madrugada (1974)
Tracks 19 and 20 from As I See It Now (1974)
Tracks 21 from Sunset And Other Beginnings (1975)
Tracks 22 from Photograph (1976)
Melanie got her start the same place as a lot of the other major folk rock acts and singer-songwriters of the '60s and '70s, performing at the Greenwich Village club The Bitter End, where she started to get the attention of labels. Her first album was out when she became one of the lesser known artists to perform at Woodstock. The first three tracks on this playlist ("Animal Crackers," "Close To It All," and "Momma, Momma") were all part of Melanie's set at Woodstock, which was released as a live album in 2019.
"Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)," inspired by Melanie's experience at Woodstock, became her first top 10 hit in America. Generally, though, her records performed in better in Europe and Australia than in the U.S. Melanie released two live albums in the '70s, both recorded at Carnegie Hall and both of which featured a song she never included on any studio album, "Psychotherapy." It's an amusing high concept song about Freudian analysis set to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and it's been played on "The Dr. Dremento Show." "People In The Front Row" was sampled by the Australian rap group Hilltop Hoods on their biggest hit, 2003's "The Nosebleed Section."
I ended the playlist around the time she stopped making the charts, but Melanie never stopped making music, releasing her 28th album in 2010 and continuing to perform and write and tour a musical about her life. I really fell in love with Melanie's voice and songwriting eccentricities while making this playlist, she really had a distinctive sound, and her own sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, very eccentric hippie way of looking at the world. And she really uncorks a surprising power in her voice on some of these songs, especially "Any Guy." "Lovin' Baby Girl" is probably my favorite song here, fantastic arrangement and the vocal really makes me wonder if she influenced Patti Smith. Melanie was kind of a trailblazer in a time when artists rarely started their own labels, too, she and husband/producer Peter Schekeryk founded Neighborhood Records, which released her biggest hit "Brand New Key" (with distribution from a Paramount subsidiary).
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on Friday, January 26, 2024 at 11:51 AM.
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