AN INTERVIEW
WITH MELANIE

At the Carnegie Hall concert, when everyone started storming the stage, were they talking to you as a person?

M:

Yeah, it was really a human thing. I felt that I, that it was a very human contact.

What kind of questions did they ask you?

M:

I don't remember. It was a very protective attitude.

What do you mean by protective? Were you protective?

M:

No, they were protective of me.

Why, because you had just finished a concert?

M:

I don't know why. But they were really kind, they weren't coming to ask me for anything.

What were they doing? Were they asking for more songs?

M:

I remember one person. But nobody wanted anything. After I had sung my songs everybody got up on the stage.

What kind of kids were they?

M:

There was one girl who was crying.

Why?

M:

I don't know. And, uh, after I was getting up to leave she started crying. It's almost embarrassing to tell. She was crying, "Melanie please don't go." It was really frightening and I started crying when I left.

And then you were pushed backstage for the press party. Did you eat any of the food at the press party?

M:

It's not that I wouldn't, but I wasn't in the mood.

About health food, how long has it been since you've really seriously been on a health food diet?

M:

Well, my mother started when I was about 13, but, uh, since then, I've gone on and off. My health foods means just being more aware of what's in the food I eat.

Has there been any transition, any noticeable change in your lyrics since you've been on a health food diet?

M:

(laugh) No, it takes years. It takes at least four years to have a uh, healthy thing.

Well, what was the difference in what you were singing when you were 13 and what you're singing now?

M:

Oh. Well, when I was 18, I guess I was mostly concerned with love, you know.

Were these your own songs, or other people's songs?

M:

My own songs and um, other people's songs were folk songs, or cruelty, man's inhumanity to man.

When you were starting to sing, were you doing your own songs, because now you sing pretty much your own songs?

M:

It was mostly other people's songs because at that time I was singing in bars, and nobody wanted to hear my songs. They wanted to hear songs that they were familiar with.

Do you remember the first song that you wrote?

M:

Yeah, "There Should Have Been A Rainbow By Now."

What was it about?

M:

I don't really know, but I know there should have been a rainbow by now!

How old were you then?

M:

About 15 or so.

I'm just really curious about this, as with Nilsson, there are so many people singing his songs. He's not really making hits out of his songs, it's the other people that are making hits of his songs. And yet his albums - he does do a large number of songs by other people in addition to his own songs. Then you take Laura Nyro, who only sings on her albums, her own songs. Yet everyone is taking her songs and making hits out of them. She's never really had a hit out of one of her songs. Whereas in your case, you pretty much do your own songs, and you're making some sort of success out of your own songs. Are there any people making records out of your songs?

M:

No. Yeah, there are some people that have done my songs. But nothing really happened.* Publishers Note - Since the time of this interview, several major recordings of Melanie's compositions have been obtained, including "The New Seekers," version of "What Have They Done to My Song, Ma."

After the Carnegie Hall concert, there were a lot of kids standing around that wanted to get backstage to meet you and it was becoming rather difficult to control these people. They were getting a little crazy, and finally one kid screamed, "If Melanie is such a beautiful people, then why can't we go backstage and see her?"

M:

I didn't know there was anyone out there. Oh, that really upsets me. I mean, there's no reason why I can't see the people that want to see me. That really upsets me. Why shouldn't I have been able to go out for a few minutes to talk to them. I'm sure there weren't that many, I mean I'm not the Beatles. They're not going to tear me apart or any thing.

You tend to be, more so than other rock people, more in contact with your audience, because from what I understand several people that you've met at concerts have become your friends

M:

Yeah.

Don't you think that's unusual?

M:

No. I don't know. I don't think so. The thing is this: a lot of times at a lot of concerts you meet a lot of people. And most people, when they come back to meet somebody, even if the person they're meeting is a friend of their mother, there's something uncomfortable. They're not themselves as they would normally be so. A lot of people come backstage. Strange things come out from an audience. And then all of a sudden be a human to human contact. You like, when I'm in an audience I can never go backstage to see an actor or actress or performer if they have really impressed me.

Why?

M:

I can't really get back down to that level of human contact. I've just been awed, and really inspired and to meet that person face to face scares me. And when I did, I met um, Jacques Brel. I met him after he performed Man Of La Mancha and it was in French and l don't speak French, but l understood everything he said. It was so unbelievable. I had to go back and meet him. I was so scared. l went back and I said nothing. I just smiled and um, I said nothing. I was really dumb. So, how could he make friends with me? You know what l mean -- I'm not even in the same world he's in at that moment. What I'm trying to say is that there are some people who, after a performance, can get back to being a human, you know, and those are the people that I can become friends with.

Don't you feel that um, a lot of people that come backstage out of the audience, they want to talk to you. Don't you feel that they're kind of using you in a certain way?

M:

That's okay. I mean, it bothers me. I mean, where are all these people that are coming around now. Where were they when I really...

Isn't it exciting, though?

M:

You know something. That story is so old, of that feeling.

Do you feel any different now that the album and the single are out than when nothing was happening? You don't feel kind of swept up into some- thing? Because there is a holocaust happening and you're in the middle. Your feelings must have changed.

M:

I'm happier.

You feel that the foods have made you any happier?

M:

Oh yeah, listen, I know it. I know it.

Do you like the country?

M:

Yeah.

Do you think you can live, kind of set up housekeeping in the country?

M:

No. I mean, I like to go camping. I like the country, have a couple of days away from the city, but I always have to go back to the city. I think that the city is the place where all the changes begin and I also feel that it is the most desperate place and I really feel that my audiences are city people.

What are the country audiences like in comparison to the city ones?

M:

Well, they don't need as much, I guess. You know I mean it's nice to play, a relaxed audience is nice, but I enjoy frenzied audiences!

Country audiences tend to be more relaxed?

M:

Yeah.

Do you think that a Carnegie Hall could ever happen in the country? People rushing up onto the stage...

M:

I really don't think so. I really don't. They Like to... which country are you talking about Country Nashville or just country country people Not Nashville.

Say where we are now, Lake George, New York.

M:

I doubt it.

Do you think that possibly the audiences aren't so different, but when you're in the country to do a concert, YOU might be different. You might give a more subdued concert?

M:

That's true. Maybe you're right.

Because country audiences still tear down the house when the Rolling Stones are there. It's possible that you're the one who is controlling the temper. Where would you rather do a concert?

M:

In the cities.

Have you gotten better reception from the cities?

M:

Well, so far it's been the cities that have been more exciting. I'm not talking about Woodstock. Woodstock was New York.

What was that like? Who went on before you?

M:

Ravi Shanker. And he got a standing ovation and they didn't want him to go. There's nothing like going on after the audience doesn't want the person before you to leave. Oh God! I started crying. I looked up and I said, 'please take me out of here. I don't want to be here anymore.'

Were you scared?

M:

Oh God! I was so scared of being in such a place - with so many people. Then it was raining. It was just starting to rain, just a little bit before I went on and they were setting up my microphone or something, and uh, I figured that everyone was going to run out. Under a tent or something.

Is that where "Candles In The Rain" fits in?

M:

Well, yeah, I um, was on the way home. I stayed all night and on the way home I uh, thought of the words, "we were so close, there was no room," and I liked that. It made me feel... It's like an impossible thing to keep a light lit when there's rain. And it was the feeling that those people had, they were doing something despite the possibilities. And I thought, I got a beautiful feeling. The candles were staying lit. They were flickering, but they were on. Wild. Candlelight.

The other songs, the other Woodstock vintage songs, pretty much are being very blunt in what they are saying that Woodstock was a peace and love rock festival, where "Candles In The Rain" is a little more subtle. Kind of describing the mood rather than the actualities.

M:

I just thought, it was something I wrote and I didn't plan on putting it in a song. I didn't want to put it into a song.
I thought you know, you can tell the events that songwriters are going to lunge into to. What a really new idea for a song. And so I really like to avoid that. Topical songs. They get dated so easily. I hate that. I mean, there's nothing I hate more than an old union song. I mean I just, I enjoy a lot of things, songs, from those times, but I don't like to hear union songs. They don't have anything to do with the universe anymore. They are to be put down, categorized and filed away.

Well, then "Candles In The Rain" in its own way really wasn't a topical song.

M:

No, it was the idea that this, this could happen anywhere, the feeling of idealism.

Songs. How they're written. What about "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma?"

M:

I was in the studio, and uh, it was a very depressing night for me. I was doing... oh! that's a frustrating song. I wrote this and I really love it, it's another song about the idealism and hope. I closed with this song, "Birthday Of The Sun" at Woodstock. They called me back. It's really a difficult thing to move that... it was really something facing all those people. I wouldn't have minded if we were in the same direction but we were opposing. I was so scared. How did we get into this?

We were talking about "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma" and you were telling us that you were in the studio...

M:

I was doing "Birthday Of The Sun." I love that song. And um, this song we tried to record this for every album. The song just does not come right. But it happens life Maybe if we had taped it and played it back it wouldn't have sounded so good. Maybe the feel can't come through on record. Let me tell you about this other song, "Saddest Thing." I wrote that a long time ago when I was, after I was in summer theatre. I came out of summer theatre and I was really desperate and I wrote this song and I sang it to just a couple of people. Peter heard it, my mother heard it. Everybody liked it, but I just kept it away..

I never mentioned it. And the night of Carnegie Hall I just dug it out again and I sang it. It was like I was ready to do that song
That's what I was going to say about "Birthday Of The Sun" I guess when I'm old enough to do that song, when I understand the feeling that I wrote. I do believe that I can write feelings down that I can't fully understand. Like now, I understand "The Saddest Thing," whereas then I don't really know if I did. I was in a very sad and desperate situation but I don't think I understood it. When you understand it, you're ready to sing it. Maybe I'm just not ready to understand "Birthday Of The Sun" yet. We recorded it 72 times and none of them worked out. With all kinds of digerent arrangements, no arrangements, my arrangements. So, it didn't turn out right. I was on my way home from the studio and I thought, look what they're doing.

l don't know. I was blaming them, and um, there's another verse in that song that says, "Look what they done to my song, ma. Look ma, I ain't got no hope to go on. Look ma, I ain't got no hope. I'm thinking quite seriously that it's turning into a joke, ma. Look ma, I ain't got no hope." That didn't get into the song. It was the first line that I wrote.

In "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)" when you were recording it with the Edwin Hawkins Singers, I understand that what's on the album and the single is a really short version of what actually happened in the studio.

M:

It was an eight minute record. We just never stopped singing Lay Down. It was so fantastic. It was the first take. They didn't start getting into the song until after a few minutes. I didn't care if it was a single or not. I said, 'oh you've got to leave it' and everybody agreed that it was going to be left alone, uh, then they talked to me and said that the single has to be cut, because I'm not anybody known and they didn't feel, they just assumed not. I've had a lot of trouble with the times of my songs. On one late-night show, I was told that I had 2.34 minutes and "Lay Down" was too long so I couldn't do that unless I cut out two verses and so I did, "Look What They Done To My Song, Ma."

Questions from Soozin Kazick Answers in a small hotel room near Lake George, New York.