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I heard the sad news last night that Melanie has passed away at the age of 76. She was one of my favourite singers back in the 1970s, so as a little tribute to Melanie I thought I'd dust off this story I wrote after seeing her in 2009.
27/05/2009.
I discovered the music of Melanie in the early 1970's when I was at Teacher Training College in North Wales and immediately loved her music and message of peace. I bought all her albums, Candles In The Rain, Leftover Wine, Live At Carnegie Hall, Gather Me, Garden In The City, Four Sides Of Melanie, Madrugada, The Good Book and others that I can't remember right now. She was prolific in the 70's and all her albums were brilliant. What a great songwriter she is. I never did get to see her live though. She was on at Glastonbury in the early 1980's and I was looking forward to seeing her, but drank too much cider and collapsed in a heap somewhere and missed her.
Decades went by, I don't know why but I guess I just lost interest in Melanie and my vinyl albums gradually disappeared to god knows where. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw a poster on a wall in Westbury which said that Melanie was appearing at The Cheese And Grain in Frome. I decided to start my summer of music by seeing Melanie. I went with Kim and My friend Fred.
The three of us were standing outside the venue having a chat when a van drew up and a hippy looking guy dashed inside. This turned out to be Melanie's son Beau-Jarred who opened the show. He is a wizard on guitar and played some amazing pieces, some of which reminded you of Bach's baroque music. At other times he even played the guitar behind his head a la Jimi Hendrix. Then it was time for Melanie. It was great to finally see her after all these years. After a little chat with the audience she began with one of my favourites, Close To It All and I was immediately taken back to that room at college when I first heard her. The next song was one I didn't recognise or have forgotten called The Sun & The Moon. The Nickel Song was next, one of her more commercial songs and I remember having this on a single back in 71. Then she sang Hi Lily Hi Lo which she told us came from a Danny Kaye film, but I remember it as a hit for Alan Price. Melanie's version is great and was followed by a new song called First Thing I See which is superb and shows Melanie still has retained her song writing ability. This was proved by another excellent song called Little Bit Of Me.
Melanie was ably supported on guitar by Beau-Jarred throughout who then produced an instrument I had never seen before which sounds like an electric cello and reminded me of Nick Drake. Melanie then sang another audience request I Really Loved Harold. This was followed by another new (To me) song called Make It Work For Me. Then a classic, Melanie's stunning version of Ruby Tuesday which I think is lyrically the Stones greatest song which Melanie manages to make even more meaningful. Love Doesn't Have To Hurt was followed by Brand New Key which is Melanie's biggest hit and really good fun. "We're in Wurzel country", said Melanie with a grin. Smile followed and is a profound song Melanie wrote in the aftermath of 9/11. Beautiful People followed which is one of my personal favourites and shows that as a singer/songwriter Melanie is one of the all time greats. Lay Down/Candles In The Rain was next, just to underline what great inspirational songs she has written. It was almost the end, but not before Look What They Done To My Song Ma, one of her most famous songs. The evening ended with another song I didn't recognise called I'd Like To Leave You With Something Warm. She did!
Afterwards Melanie patiently signed autographs and spoke to everyone who waited behind. That shows what a nice person she is. Also the concert was for charity in aid of SCOPE. One of the reasons I first liked Melanie all those years ago was that she was beautiful and meeting her briefly after the gig I can confirm that she most certainly still is!
Melanie said she hated the picture of herself on this poster but she was still kind enough to sign it for me.
I discovered the music of Melanie in the early 1970's when I was at Teacher Training College in North Wales and immediately loved her music and message of peace. I bought all her albums, Candles In The Rain, Leftover Wine, Live At Carnegie Hall, Gather Me, Garden In The City, Four Sides Of Melanie, Madrugada, The Good Book and others that I can't remember right now. She was prolific in the 70's and all her albums were brilliant. What a great songwriter she is. I never did get to see her live though. She was on at Glastonbury in the early 1980's and I was looking forward to seeing her, but drank too much cider and collapsed in a heap somewhere and missed her.
Decades went by, I don't know why but I guess I just lost interest in Melanie and my vinyl albums gradually disappeared to god knows where. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw a poster on a wall in Westbury which said that Melanie was appearing at The Cheese And Grain in Frome. I decided to start my summer of music by seeing Melanie. I went with Kim and My friend Fred.
The three of us were standing outside the venue having a chat when a van drew up and a hippy looking guy dashed inside. This turned out to be Melanie's son Beau-Jarred who opened the show. He is a wizard on guitar and played some amazing pieces, some of which reminded you of Bach's baroque music. At other times he even played the guitar behind his head a la Jimi Hendrix. Then it was time for Melanie. It was great to finally see her after all these years. After a little chat with the audience she began with one of my favourites, Close To It All and I was immediately taken back to that room at college when I first heard her. The next song was one I didn't recognise or have forgotten called The Sun & The Moon. The Nickel Song was next, one of her more commercial songs and I remember having this on a single back in 71. Then she sang Hi Lily Hi Lo which she told us came from a Danny Kaye film, but I remember it as a hit for Alan Price. Melanie's version is great and was followed by a new song called First Thing I See which is superb and shows Melanie still has retained her song writing ability. This was proved by another excellent song called Little Bit Of Me.
Melanie was ably supported on guitar by Beau-Jarred throughout who then produced an instrument I had never seen before which sounds like an electric cello and reminded me of Nick Drake. Melanie then sang another audience request I Really Loved Harold. This was followed by another new (To me) song called Make It Work For Me. Then a classic, Melanie's stunning version of Ruby Tuesday which I think is lyrically the Stones greatest song which Melanie manages to make even more meaningful. Love Doesn't Have To Hurt was followed by Brand New Key which is Melanie's biggest hit and really good fun. "We're in Wurzel country", said Melanie with a grin. Smile followed and is a profound song Melanie wrote in the aftermath of 9/11. Beautiful People followed which is one of my personal favourites and shows that as a singer/songwriter Melanie is one of the all time greats. Lay Down/Candles In The Rain was next, just to underline what great inspirational songs she has written. It was almost the end, but not before Look What They Done To My Song Ma, one of her most famous songs. The evening ended with another song I didn't recognise called I'd Like To Leave You With Something Warm. She did!
Afterwards Melanie patiently signed autographs and spoke to everyone who waited behind. That shows what a nice person she is. Also the concert was for charity in aid of SCOPE. One of the reasons I first liked Melanie all those years ago was that she was beautiful and meeting her briefly after the gig I can confirm that she most certainly still is!
Melanie said she hated the picture of herself on this poster but she was still kind enough to sign it for me.
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