Nope, nada - no way: "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" Melanie Safka
Dimly recall some name like that. No one was listening to whatever it was. Figured the version of bubblegum crap of the time, or something. Simon and Garfnk were similar.
I love Melanie. And when she sang “Beautiful People”, I’m pretty sure she was referring to conservatives. Here she is, singing that song live.
Melanie once rented self storage here in Nashville from me....she was very sweet....truly an older hippie
I had her and Bonnie Tyler and Kim Carnes all at same time as renters
Love this song.
Lyrics are timely...
Bought this album when it first came out, then lost it along the way.
And found a decent copy lst year at a record shop going-out-of-business sale. For a buck. "Lay it all down"
Other snowflakes from that time: Buffy Ste Marie, Joni Mitchell.
I got to see Melenie at a live performance in the Cellar Door in Washington DC (Georgetown?) in early 1968.
Bused up from NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach with a guy named Bill Cruise who was in my barracks. His father, a USN Captain, put us up for the weekend. For a lowly E-3 puke, that was a BIG DEAL in itself.
Oh, by the way, Melenie had an AWESOME show in a room with an audience of WELL under 100 souls
Returned to Oceana in the back “seat” of a Karmann Ghia driven by Bill’s neighbor, another USN Captain, who dropped us curbside at our barracks. Those three days had faded from my memory until this thread was born. But I learned to treasure the cultivation of ‘connections’ from that very weekend onward.
Singers like Melanie Safka and Mary Hopkin were part of the soundtrack of my youth. Thank you for rekindling pleasent memories in this troubled times.
A guy downstairs with massive tubular amp would play at sound level 11 and us 12 yo know nothings would do a troglodyte dance to it. So Much Fun. makes me miss my big sister.
Thanks for posting!
Love Melanie. One of the three Hippy Goddesses of 1969. Grace Slick and Linda Ronstadt were the other two. My favorite was here cover of Ruby Tuesday. Here she is on national television.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ca0l5KMdX0
She was a follower of the Sufi mystic, Meher Baba as was Pete Townshend and several other rock & roll luminaries. Meher Baba was the originator of the term “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, taken up in a song composed by Bobby McFarrin.
I bought all her albums up to Stoneground Words and, while not disliking her after that I haven't really followed her too much since.
I really would not call Melanie a snowflake. While her persona was that of the archetypal "Hippie Chick" I don't believe she was a druggie, or a dropout, in fact, I seem to recall that she managed her own career and formed her own record company.
Contrast this with another singer of those times, Linda Ronstadt, who became a totally bat-schiff, leftist. In fact she was so far left she dropped off the edge of the world.
Going back to Melanie, I mentioned the album "Stonefround Words". I was listening almost exclusively to Rock and Progressive Rock and wouldn't have given the time of day to the EZ orchestral arrangements on the album, but it was a Melanie album so I did and I give it a great deal of credit in expanding my musical horizons.
Back when Ronstadt was sane, she did three albums with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra which as a result of my exposure, in part to the Melanie album, became the go-to makings for special evenings, accompanied with a bottle of Champagne.
As far as female singers, in no particular order and in no means a complete list...
Sandy Dennis (Fairport Convention and Solo) - Who knew where the time went ? (Not the title of the song, just my play on the words)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oBMDcLf6WA
Maddie Prior (Steeleye Span and Solo)- Wont link to any one song, they're ALL worth listening to!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDc2FD-vy8M
Annie Haslam (Renaissance and Solo)- Annie in Wonderland -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8a8cutYP7frJ_BNiYDtDO7qNDxBkyzZq
Judy Collins (Solo) A cover of the Sandy Dennis song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJeLguRecYc
Ronnie Spector (Solo) - On this list if for no other reason than "Baby Please Don't Go" every Christmas.
Sarah Brightman (Opera, Solo)
Patricia Janečková (Solo) - Already one of the world's greatest sopranos she could very well become one of the best who ever lived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVUpKIFHqZk
Enya (Solo) - Yeah, I know it's Enya but you can't argue with the etherial qualities of both her voice and production values.
Janice Joplin (Solo)
Bonnie Tyler (Solo)
Floor Jansen (Nightwish) - You will be gobsmacked if you've never seen them before !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V_eoR6r1Tw
Compared to the examples above I don't think that, technically Melanie is a world class vocalist but, just as in the case of Janice Joplin and others, the "honesty" of the performance, (not exactly the right word here), of the presentation overcomes the technical shortcomings.