Four decades after Woodstock, Melanie retains passion, message.
Published: January 19, 2012
PHOENIX When it came time for Melanie to sing her 1970 hit Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) while performing on Jan. 12 at the Rhythm Room, it was only fitting to expect some audience members to raise cigarette lighters as happens so often at rock concerts.
It didnt happen though. Perhaps a byproduct of recent antismoking legislation.
Too bad. Especially since that whole practice started with Melanie in 1969 at the legendary Woodstock Music & Art Fair in Bethel, N.Y. She was following Ravi Shankar and, before her turn on the stage, it started to rain.
In a pre-concert interview, Melanie picks up the story. I was terrified. Id never sang in front of more than, maybe, 500 people before. The terror, I think, ignited a force within me, and when I got on, I just let loose and I sang with all my heart and soul! I was singing for my life!
Brand new she: Melanie plays Bearsville this Saturday
Published: June 01, 2012
I laugh off the idea of keeping up-to-date on new music. I can’t even keep up with the past and its unsettling habit of change. I have come to see the musical past, not as a mountain range with fixed major and minor peaks, but as a continuously renegotiated, reconstructed city skyline over which all kinds of corporate and grassroots interests tussle for control. Sometimes, a “people’s skyscraper” rises, a Big Star or a Nick Drake (or a Franz Kafka or an Emily Dickinson), and writes itself into your childhood memories like a new sister appearing in old discolored photographs in full period attire. Now she shows up at family events with pasta salad and some fellow named Don, all “remember when…” and “Johnny, you were good at math until you hit your head on the jungle gym.” I am suspicious, but everyone else seems to remember her fine.
For example, until about two years ago, the Zombies were nothing to me but two charming if somewhat stiff R & B-wannabe megahits and a critical reputation as an underrated jewel of their era, not unlike the Small Faces, Love or Fred Neil.
Time, tragedy can't quiet folk favorite Melanie
Published: July 29, 2011
To say that veteran songwriter and composer Melanie knows a thing or two about multi-day summer music festivals would be an understatement.
In 1969, she performed for hundreds of thousands at Woodstock, where she shared a bill with the varied likes of Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Last month, she played on the same grounds as U2, Beyonce, Coldplay and Mumford and Sons at England's annual Glastonbury Festival.
The evolution of the festivals over the course of the last four decades plus is well noted -- and not for the better, perhaps -- in her eyes.
"It didn't have a festival vibe," she said of Glastonbury. "To me, it's more like a corporation put it together and there's a bunch of rules and regulations that they have to manage the people, and some of the stages were miles away from each other. If you wanted to go see U2 then go see me, it might not work out. But it was a great show, the show itself."
Woodstock-Era Legend Melanie To Play Free Concert In Evanston
Published: July 26, 2011
EVANSTON, Ill. (CBS) Paul McCartney is not the only icon of 1960s pop music coming to town this month.On Tuesday night, folk-pop singer and original Woodstock Festival veteran Melanie will play a one-night-only concert along the lakeshore in Evanston.Melanie, whose full name is Melanie Safka, will appear for a free concert at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday at Dawes Park, at Church Street and Sheridan Road, about a block from the southern edge of the Northwestern University campus.Melanie is known for the songs Brand New Key and Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), as well as a rain-soaked performance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.
She was voted top female vocalist by Billboard in 1972, and has appeared twice at the Wight Festival, in 1970 and 2010, the City of Evanston recalled, posting on Evanston Patch.
Bonus Feature: The Very First No. 1 Song
Published: July 15, 2011
Here we go with the Top 40 hits of the nation this week!
These words, spoken by Casey Kasem, kicked off the first broadcast of American Top 40, which aired on July 3, 1970, and it was carried by seven radio stations.
Kasem, who would become one of the most recognizable broadcasters of his era (as well as providing the voice for Shaggy on Scooby Doo), was the host of the show until 1988, when he was replaced by Shadoe Stevens. (Despite his name, Stevens was in no way affiliated with Scooby Doo.) Stevens remained until 1994, when ABC canceled the show; it was reborn, under a new owner, in 1998, with Kasem once again as host. Ryan Seacrest joined the show as host in January 2004.
