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)
My Father
Melanie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My father always promised us
We would live in France
We'd go sailing on the Seine
And I would learn to dance.
We lived in Ohio then
On his dreams like boats
We knew we would sail in time.
All my sisters soon were gone
To Denver and Cheyenne
Marrying their grownup dreams
The lilacs and the man.
I stayed behind the youngest still
Only danced alone
The colors of my father's dreams
Faded without a sound.
And now I live in Paris
My children dance and dream
Hearing the story of a miner's life
In words they've never seen.
I sail my memories of home
Like boats across the Seine
And I watch the Paris sun
Set in my father's eyes again.
My father always promised us
We would live in France
We'd go sailing on the Seine
And I would learn to dance.
La la la la …
"My Father" is a sentimental and nostalgic song written by Melanie Safka, the American singer and songwriter. The song is about the dreams that her father once had and how his dreams impacted her life. Melanie's father promised her family that they would one day live in France, where they would go sailing on the Seine and she would learn to dance. However, she and her sisters grew up in Ohio, where her father worked in the mines, and they didn't get to fulfill these dreams together. Melanie reminisces about their childhood and how the dreams of her father were like boats that they knew they would sail together.
As each of Melanie's sisters got married and left Ohio, she remained behind, feeling like she was the only one left behind. She used to dance alone, and the colors of her father's dreams began to fade away, leaving her feeling disconnected from her father's hopes and dreams. However, Melanie eventually moved to Paris, where she now lives with her children, who dance and dream as she tells them the story of her father's life working in the mines. Melanie 's memories of her father and his dreams are still vivid in her memory, and she still sails them like boats on the Seine. She sees the Paris sunset in her father's eyes and remembers his promise to take them to France, and she realizes that she learned to dance after all.
Line by Line Meaning
My father always promised us
My father would often make grand promises to my family
We would live in France
He promised he would take us to live in France
We'd go sailing on the Seine
We would enjoy sailing experiences on the Seine river in France
And I would learn to dance.
I would learn to dance in France too
We lived in Ohio then
During this time, we were living in Ohio in the United States
He worked in the mines
My father worked as a miner in Ohio
On his dreams like boats
My father had many dreams and he held onto them tightly like boats on water
We knew we would sail in time.
Despite not being wealthy, my father's dreams gave us hope that one day we would sail to France
All my sisters soon were gone
My older sisters left home soon after they became adults
To Denver and Cheyenne
They went to Denver and Cheyenne respectively
Marrying their grown-up dreams
They got married and followed their own dreams
The lilacs and the man.
This line means growing up and entering adulthood, settling down with a partner and possibly having children
I stayed behind the youngest still
I was the youngest and I stayed back home
Only danced alone
I danced alone as my father's grand promises began to fade away with time
The colors of my father's dreams
My father's dreams once had vibrant colors, were vivid and full of life
Faded without a sound.
His dreams slowly disappeared without any announcement or fuss
And now I live in Paris
I now live in Paris, France
My children dance and dream
My children are inspired by my father's words and see hope to dance and dream themselves
Hearing the story of a miner's life
I tell them stories of how life was back then when their grandfather worked in the mines
In words they've never seen.
My children find it difficult to picture what life was like since it's so different from theirs
I sail my memories of home
I relive the memories of the past like they are boats that sail across the Seine
Like boats across the Seine
This is a poetic way of saying my memories move between Ohio and Paris like boats sailing the Seine
And I watch the Paris sun
I see the sun set over Paris
Set in my father's eyes again.
This line means many things, such as how her father's dreams were fixed in his mind's eye without changing, but I believe it refers to her seeing her father when she sees the sunset
Contributed by Nathaniel A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
jourelle Lane
My brother had this album on 8 track back in 1972. My brother
John used to drive me into school
With this whole album playing on the 8 track my mom didn't like her
It used to depress her because
Through out every song on this album melainie Safka sounded
Like she was going to cry
And it depressed my mom
And we stopped playing it
Anyway my brother passed away
In 1999.
This song brings back memories
Of being driven to school
In my mom's firebird with a brown
Bag cheese sandwich and an Apple and seeing snow covered
The ground as well as the little
White school house where
Mrs Lois Orht my school teacher
Taught us lessons and played
Storie records to us kids
Those are my memories of this
Song
About Everything
Thank you for sharing part of your memories with us all..Is very touching because as we read your text we visualize someones life experience. Someones moment through the magic of music. Is like we are there back in 1972 living that time with you. May your brother rest in peace..
Citrus and Clove
Beautiful song.
groovy guru
may well be my favorite Melanie LP,subject to change!!!!!!
MsGERMAX
Along with Babe Rainbow...
Katherine Colton
My favourite song beautiful lady beautiful voice xx
warren herman
Wow haven't heard this in awhile .voice and heart
Gillian Ring
Beautiful
MrPACO317
Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (born February 3, 1947) is an American singer-songwriter. Known professionally as Melanie, she is best known for her hits "Brand New Key", "Ruby Tuesday", "What Have They Done To My Song Ma", and her song about performing at the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain........Eddie
Colm McElroy
Always loved Melanie doing this one. Only one Melanie. Colm, Dublin, Ireland.