2. Melanie: Midwest Auckland emo four piece Melanie released their full length album 42 Losers in May 2020 and have been playing a fine selection of gigs and house parties since
1. Born on the 3rd February 1947 in Astoria, New York deceased 23rd January 2024, Melanie made her first recording, "Gimme a Little Kiss", when she was five.
She first found chart success in Europe. Her 1969 song "Bobo's Party" reached number one in France. Later that year she had a hit in the Netherlands with "Beautiful People" before performing at Woodstock. Apparently, she was inspired to write "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" by the audience lighting candles during her set; the song became a hit in both Europe and the USA. Her biggest hit in the USA was "Brand New Key", also known as "The Roller Skate Song". She has been awarded three gold albums.
Three of Melanie's compositions were hits for The New Seekers: "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma", "Beautiful People", and "The Nickel Song".
With one exception her albums have been produced by her husband, Peter Schekeryk. Her three children - Leilah, Jeordie and Beau-Jarred -are also musicians. Beau-Jarred is a guitarist and accompanies his mother on The 2003 Australian hip-hop track "The Nosebleed Section" by The Hilltop Hoods sampled Melanie's "People in the Front Row".
In 2004 Melanie released Paled by Dimmer Light, which is co-produced by Peter and Beau-Jarred Schekeryk.
In 2010 the last album co- produced by her now late husband Peter Schekeryj and their son Beau Jarred Schekeryk was released: Ever Since You Never Heard Of Me
Melanie, who became the voice of an era in one magical instant onstage at Woodstock, has been putting the pieces in order.
Pieces of a career, scattered by the winds of experience and assembled again by the force of love into the most personal and brilliant moments of her musical journey.
Melanie is poised to enlighten new generations about what it means to sing with both passion and eloquence, to write at once with intelligence and emotion, and to inspire through song… and nobody does this better than Melanie.
Others learned this that night at Woodstock, where as a New York kid barely known outside of the coffeehouse circuit in Greenwich Village, she sang her song "Beautiful People" and inspired the first panorama of candles and cigarette lighters ever raised at a concert event. That, in turn, moved the young singer to write "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain"), which sold more than one million copies in 1970 and
prompted Billboard, Cashbox, Melody Maker, Record World, and Bravo to anoint her
as female vocalist of the year. Her single "Brand New Key," an infectious romp about
freedom and roller skates, topped the charts in 1971.
And so her story began.
With guitar in hand and a talent that combined amazing vocal equipment, disarming
humor, and a vibrant engagement with life, she was booked as the first solo pop/rock
artist ever to appear from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan
Opera House, and later opened the New Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the
Sydney Opera House, and in the General Assembly of the United Nations, where she
was invited to perform on many occasions as delegates greeted her performances
with standing ovations.
The top television hosts of all time -- Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, and Dick Cavett --
battled to book her. (After her stunning performance on his show, Sullivan goggled
that he had not seen such a "dedicated and responsive audience since ElvisPresley.")
Accolades rolled in, from critics ("Melanie's cult has long been famous, but it's a cult
that's responding to something genuine and powerful -- which is maybe another way
of saying that this writer counts himself as part of the cult too," wrote John Rockwell
in The New York Times) as well as peers ("Melanie," insisted jazz piano virtuoso
Roger Kellaway, "is extraordinary to the point that she could be sitting in front of us in
this room and sing something like 'Momma Momma' right to us, and it would just go
right through your entire being.")
In the years that followed Melanie continued to record, continued to tour.
UNICEF made her its spokesperson; Jimi Hendrix's father introduced her to the
multitude assembled for the twentieth anniversary of Woodstock. Her records
continued to sell -- more than eighty million to date. She's had her songs covered by
singers as diverse as Cher, Dolly Parton, and Macy Gray. She's raised a family, won
an Emmy, opened a restaurant, written a musical about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity
Jane…
She has, in short, lived a rare life. But all of it was just a prelude to what's about to
come.
"For the first time, I'm not afraid to voice exactly what I feel. I used to feel that I didn't
want to say too much, but now I can say anything. I feel like a person who's never
been heard. Maybe people think they've heard me, but they never really have. I'm a
new artist who is having so much fun with my voice -- a person shouldn't be allowed
to have so much fun. I'm the woman I wanted to be when I was sixteen and going for
Edith Piaf. It's me -- I'm back."
(Written by Robert L. Doerschuk)
Beautiful Sadness
Melanie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Somehow this place we live never belonged to me
I should've made the big move
Cause our love is past
You tell me love is like that
Ah don't make me laugh
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
And don't make me laugh
Don't make me laugh
Cause nothing less than what is true
Is all I need to know
Spare me lines about growing pains
And your freedom to come and to go
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
And don't make me laugh
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
And don't make me laugh
Don't make me laugh
Some folks make the most of their little cry
I shall love every minute when we say goodbye
Cause I can't, I can't, I can't be in between
Your little more, little more than past
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
And Oooh, don't make me laugh
Please leave me, leave me, in my beautiful sadness
And don't baby, don't make me laugh
Just leave me my beautiful sadness
And don't Oooh, don't make me laugh
The first verse talks about how the singer is feeling like they don't belong in the place they live in anymore. They feel as though they should have moved on from this place a long time ago, particularly because their love has gone sour, and they see no way of fixing it. The line "You tell me love is like that, Ah don't make me laugh" suggests that the singer is being told that things are just how they are, and that they should accept it, but they can't find the humor in the reality of the situation. The chorus repeats the phrase "just leave me my beautiful sadness" several times. The singer seems to prefer the sadness that comes with their current situation rather than trying to force a fake smile and move on from it. They are asking not to have their emotions dismissed or belittled. The second verse conveys the message that the singer wants to hear the truth, not the comfort of lies. They do not want to be told that things will get better or that they are in a phase, as they are fully aware of the reality that they are living.
Line by Line Meaning
Nobody's home tonight and I've left my key
I feel alone and unwanted in this place, and I do not have the power to change it.
Somehow this place we live never belonged to me
This living situation has never felt like it was truly mine.
I should've made the big move
I regret not taking more initiative to change my situation.
Cause our love is past
Our relationship is over and has no future.
You tell me love is like that
You try to comfort me by saying that love inevitably fades and ends.
Ah don't make me laugh
But I don't find that comforting or funny at all. It just hurts.
Cause nothing less than what is true
I only want honesty and clarity, even if it's painful.
Is all I need to know
I don't want to hear any sugarcoating or false promises.
Spare me lines about growing pains
I don't want to hear any generic, cliched sentiments about the challenges of life and love.
And your freedom to come and to go
I don't want to hear about your independence and ability to leave me behind.
Some folks make the most of their little cry
Some people enjoy indulging in their own sadness or drama.
I shall love every minute when we say goodbye
I will treasure the moment that our relationship ends and I can finally move on.
Cause I can't, I can't, I can't be in between
I can't handle the uncertainty and ambiguity of our relationship status.
Your little more, little more than past
You represent nothing more than a fleeting, insignificant part of my past.
Please leave me, leave me, in my beautiful sadness
I want to wallow in my emotions and bask in my sadness without anyone interrupting.
And don't baby, don't make me laugh
Please don't try to make light of my pain or dismiss it as something trivial.
Contributed by Jacob K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.