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)
I'm So Blue
Melanie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What happened to me shouldn't happen to the worst of you
What can I do to prevent you from going thru
What I've been going thru
Momma told me this man would leave me eventually
I couldn't see the trees from the forest or
How does that saying go
I'm so blue
Since you're gone well to tell you the truth I feel I can't go on
Where love has gone there's the emptiest feeling in all of this world
I'm a lonely girl
I'm so blue
There are no warning words that we'll listen to
Nothing I can do to prevent you from going thru what I've been going thru
I'm so blue...I'm so blue...I'm so blue
In Melanie's song "I'm So Blue," the lyrics portray the singer's heartbreak after a relationship ends. The opening lines express the depth of her sadness, so much that she wouldn't even wish it upon the most despicable person. She then questions what she can do to prevent her loved one from going through the same pain because of how terrible it is, suggesting she still cares about them despite the heartbreak they caused her. The next lines mention her mother's prior warning about how the man would leave her, but she couldn't heed the advice.
The following verse contains even more melancholy sentiments as she admits to feeling like she can't go on without her former lover, as if all the love has left her life. The phrase "where love has gone, there's the emptiest feeling in all of this world" indicates that the loss of love makes everything feel hollow. The closing lines repeat the earlier verse, with the singer acknowledging that there were no warning signs beforehand and nothing she can do to ease someone else's heartbreak. The repeated refrain of "I'm so blue," emphasizes this central feeling of sadness and despair.
Overall, the song expresses the profound sadness of a broken relationship and the sense of hopelessness that comes with it. The lyrics convey how difficult it is to overcome the loss of love and to move on from a deeply personal heartbreak.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm so blue
I am extremely sad and melancholic
What happened to me shouldn't happen to the worst of you
The terrible experience I went through is something I wouldn't want even my worst enemy to experience
What can I do to prevent you from going thru
What I've been going thru
I am in a lot of pain and I don't want anyone I care about to go through the same thing
Momma told me this man would leave me eventually
My mother warned me that this man would eventually leave me, but I didn't believe her
I couldn't see the trees from the forest or
How does that saying go
I was unable to see the bigger picture or understand the situation clearly
Since you're gone well to tell you the truth I feel I can't go on
I feel lost and unable to continue living without you now that you're gone
Where love has gone there's the emptiest feeling in all of this world
The absence of love creates the most empty and hollow feeling in the world
I'm a lonely girl
I feel lonely and isolated
There are no warning words that we'll listen to
Sometimes we refuse to listen to warnings, even if they could help us
Nothing I can do to prevent you from going thru what I've been going thru
Despite my efforts, I am unable to prevent someone I care about from experiencing the same pain as me
I'm so blue...I'm so blue...I'm so blue
My sadness and melancholy continues to overwhelm me
Contributed by Jayden C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.