Ladies of Melancholy; this is not to say all these Ladies' music is laden with a dose of the stuff, just the three I mention below, and that they are the only songs by each artist I know.
Does that say a lot about me? One of them is a dance tune, and the other weepy ballads. I do like some regular tunes, and these stem back decades when my taste was 'almost normal'.
There was a time before the internet when you would come across a tune, possibly playing in a supermarket or department store and you did not know what that song was.
...'How did we live without Shazam, a live saver for identifying music even when everyone's talking the talk'... - Source
It was frustrating to say the least, as there was no Shazam to identify it, and the only solution was to ask one of the dim-witted sales assistants to spill the beans.
Most of the time, glazed looks were the response.
I speak from experience, and working at Kwiksave does that to you, and they were probably no more enamoured by the music than when I was working and forcibly bombarded with endless shit music by unoriginal artists.
Judie Tzuke – Stay with me 'Til Dawn (Welcome to the Cruise – 1979)
Let me continue where I left off. Some things stick in your mind and my first memory of hearing 'Stay with me Til Dawn' was at the Boots Department in Burnley, Lancashire.
…'why does shit like that stick in your mind for decades?'…
I must have been the very early 1980's, and on that day I didn't find out what the elusive tune was.
I don't know whether I asked, or set the audio memory to one side in the back of my mind, but at some time in the near future I did identify it.
The song is a hauntingly sad, mournful ballad released in 1979, and that's what I don't understand. That year I was obsessed with music and yet this managed to bypass me.
No airplay in America, but as that market is notorious to crack for British artists, it is no surprise. They do miss some gems.
Ultra Nate – Free (Situation: Critical – 1997)
A birth name of 'Ultra Nate', who would think this was not a stage name? It seems otherwise, and being born in the 1960s, I can't think of the shit she would get at school growing up and being named 'Ultra'?
Maybe things were different in America and it was cool to be named Supergirl or some equivalent. This American singer-songwriter did have some other hits, but none I can remember besides the excellent 'Free', of which she is a co-writer.
Speaking of which, it barely made an impact in the USA, besides the dance charts, and the 90s, had some wonderful music of that particular genre.
With a large slice of melancholy throughout the verses, I immediately latched on to this one, and it became a staple played song for me during… ‘the latest decade of any reputable music talent’.
Janis Ian – At Seventeen (Between the Lines – 1975)
To wrap things up, I find Janis Ian an odd name, and even more so when this name is not the birth name (Janis Eddy Fink). Like the Judie Tzuke song (above), this one escaped me for years and what a joy it was to discover it once more.
An American girl unloved and the wrong colour, the words spill out from this singer into a stream of sadness that makes tears well up in your eyes.
‘I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queens’, ‘Ugly duckling girls like me', wow… hard-hitting but with the smoothest melody. This must have been tough to write.
Although her vocal timbre is not particularly favourable to my ears, it's the lyrics and that winding bleak chorus that strikes you in the heart. It stinks of the 1970’s, and that’s not disrespect, it just has that sound.
Where I managed to hear this one is a puzzle. It was totally off the record in the UK but was a sizable hit stateside in 1975.
We missed out this time, though I can’t say I dig the brass and trumpet section in the mandatory instrumental interlude.
Leave bloody trumpets in brass bands where they belong!
Guitar Image - Source
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