Her husband/producer Peter Schekeryk aimed for a more organic production, setting out to better integrate Melanie's voice within the tracks rather than on top of them. Less than a year after Madrugada, Melanie returned with As I See It Now. version of the album in place of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow." The folksy "Pine and Father" concludes Madrugada on a gentle, folksy note, even if it's an anti-climactic one after the dramatic "The Actress." Morello's reissue adds one bonus track, "I Am Being Guided," which was included on the U.S. The funereal "The Actress" echoes the themes of "I Am Not a Poet" and "Between the Road Signs" in exploring the life of a performer ("She will not live for friends/She's gonna die for strangers") and its sacrifices. "Holding Out," driven by Ron Frangipane's piano, has a world-weariness to it. Of the original songs, "Maybe Not for a Lifetime" juxtaposes a dark lyric that would have been right at home on Stoneground Words to a jaunty melody. Woody Guthrie's outlaw tale "Pretty Boy Floyd" is joined by five pop-rock songs including Jim Croce's mordant "Lover's Cross" and Randy Newman's gorgeous "I Think It's Going to Rain Today." She takes Carole King and Gerry Goffin's bittersweet "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" as an uptempo, soulful girl group tribute and returns to the Jagger-Richards songbook on a slow-burning "Wild Horses," surrounded by Kellaway's elegant strings. Melanie's strengths as an interpreter shine on the five covers here. (Interpretations of others' songs had long been part of Melanie's repertoire Stoneground featured just one cover, Pete Seeger's "My Rainbow Race.") Whereas Stoneground revels in moody balladry, Madrugada balances the light and the dark. For another, there were as many cover versions as original songs. For one thing, the album was culled from various recording sessions and studios, and arrangements were split between Roger Kellaway and Ron Frangipane, the keyboardist who had played on Stoneground. The bright, upbeat ode to rebirth, "Love to Lose Again," opened a very different set than its predecessor. Melanie and her husband-producer Peter Schekeryk further the diverse sounds on Stoneground with the celebratory, rhythmic "Song of the South" and smoky, jazz-infused "Here I Am." Two bonus singles have been added to Morello's reissue: the country-flavored "Bitter Bad" and the pop-oriented "Seeds," with just enough innuendo to satisfy fans of "Brand New Key."ġ974's Madrugada followed Stoneground Words as Melanie's next studio effort the live Melanie at Carnegie Hall set had been a stopgap release in between. The world-weary, yearning "Between the Road Signs" could easily take its place in the pantheon of songs of a singer's life on the road Stoneground's journey of loneliness continues on "Summer Weaving." With a stark arrangement markedly different from the more grandiose charts surrounding it, "Weaving" has a baroque beauty all its own. Though she protests otherwise in "I Am Not a Poet" ("I am not a poet, living is the poem/I am not a singer, I am in the song"), the track successfully convinces otherwise. Melanie's role as a musician figures into a number of the songs on Stoneground Words. Like "Together," "Do You Believe" also expresses love with an undercurrent of ache as it builds to an explosion of gospel fervor. The ornate orchestration of "Together," courtesy of Roger Kellaway, joins with gospel-infused background vocals to support Melanie's alternately quavering and confident voice. Ruminating on life, love and music itself, the album built on the style of Melanie's Gather Me as another well-crafted statement in song from the maturing artist. Melanie's earthy plea to a lover to be "Together Alone" (which the artist performed on The Tonight Show) set the wistful, searching tone of 1972's Stoneground Words. Cherry Red Records' Morello label has recently reissued four of those rare Neighborhood LPs on CD, originally released between 19: Stoneground Words, Madrugada, As I See It Now, and Sunset and Other Beginnings.
#WHERE IS MELANIE SAFKA TODAY SERIES#
"Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates/You got a brand new key/I think that we should get together and try them out you see." With her chart-topping 1971 hit "Brand New Key," Melanie Safka-Schekeryk built on the success of previous hits like the Woodstock-inspired anthem "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" and her cover of The Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday." But "Brand New Key" also unfairly tagged the singer-songwriter as a novelty artist, a notion she was quick to dispose with the series of albums she recorded for her own Neighborhood Records label.
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