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)
Some Day I'll Be A Farmer
Melanie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I wish I was a farmer, to work with my hands
'Cause it's been too long a ride, too high the fare
Well, I built an-climbed a mountain
But it wasn't there
And I been lookin' all around looked everywhere
Well, I built and climbed a mountain
But it wasn't there
It isn't here, it isn't there, nor anywhere
I'm gonna pick an apple right from the tree
I'm gonna eat the apple 'cause it grew there for me
And it's been to long a ride, too high the fare
Well, I built an-climbed a mountain
But it wasn't there
And I been lookin' all around, looked everywhere
To build and climb a mountain if it isn't there
It isn't there, dumb ta dumb
It isn't here, it isn't there, nor anywhere
I wish I was a farmer, working the land
Some day I'll be a farmer to work with my hands
'Cause, it's been too long a ride, too high the fare
You know I built and climbed a mountain
But it wasn't there
And I been lookin' all around, looked everywhere
Well, I built an-climbed a mountain, but it wasn't there
And I been lookin' all around, looked everywhere
To build and climb a mountain if it isn't there
It isn't there, dumb ta dumb
It isn't here, it isn't there, nor anywhere
I wish I was a farmer, working the land
Some day I'll be a farmer to work with my hands
Hah da da ti da ti dumb dumb ti dumb da da da dumb
The song "Someday I'll Be a Farmer" by Melanie Safka is a longing tribute to the simplicity and fulfillment of life as a farmer. Melanie sings of her desire to work the land with her own two hands, to plant an apple tree and eat the apples that grow on it. She describes her feeling of being lost, having built and climbed a mountain only to find nothing there. The lyrics suggest that the journey to find happiness and meaning in life can sometimes feel like an uphill battle, but Melanie remains hopeful that someday she will find her way and live a simpler, more satisfying life as a farmer.
The song has a wistful and dreamy quality to it, with a gentle melody and the steady strumming of an acoustic guitar. The repetition of the phrase "it isn't there, dumb ta dumb" and "it isn't here, it isn't there, nor anywhere" creates a circular and almost hypnotic effect, as if Melanie is searching for something that can never be found. The song speaks to the universal human desire for a simpler life, free from the stress and chaos of modern society.
Line by Line Meaning
Someday I'll be a farmer, working the land
I dream of being a farmer and working on the land.
I wish I was a farmer, to work with my hands
I yearn to be a farmer and work with my hands.
'Cause it's been too long a ride, too high the fare
Life has been tough and expensive, and I need a change.
Well, I built an-climbed a mountain
I set out to achieve something great.
But it wasn't there
But in the end, it wasn't what I really wanted or needed.
And I been lookin' all around looked everywhere
I have searched high and low for something fulfilling.
It isn't there, dumb ta dumb
But that thing I thought I wanted simply isn't there.
It isn't here, it isn't there, nor anywhere
No matter where I look, I can't seem to find what I'm looking for.
I'm gonna pick an apple right from the tree
I long for the simplicity of nature and the joys of farming.
I'm gonna eat the apple 'cause it grew there for me
I want to enjoy the fruits of my labor and be self-sufficient.
I'm gonna pick an apple right from the tree
I dream of living a simple, wholesome life on a farm.
'Cause, it's been too long a ride, too high the fare
Life has been a struggle, and I need to make a change for the better.
You know I built and climbed a mountain
I tried to accomplish something significant, but it didn't bring me happiness.
And I been lookin' all around, looked everywhere
I have searched tirelessly for a more fulfilling way of life.
To build and climb a mountain if it isn't there
There's no point in striving for a goal if it doesn't truly fulfill me.
Hah da da ti da ti dumb dumb ti dumb da da da dumb
I'll keep searching until I find what I'm looking for.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: MELANIE SAFKA
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind