Stephen Mejias

I also picked this one up at Boomerangs. At the time, I knew nothing about Melanie Safka. Looking at the front cover, I must have immediately thought, hmm… psychedelic hippie music, or something like that. I also noticed that it was released by Buddah Records who I was familiar with for their work with Captain Beefheart and Rodriguez. Turning to the back, I was intrigued by Melanie's liner notes, which pretty much told me that this chick is crazy.

Just my type. She begins:

On a 12x12" surface, Erich Fromm could have fit at least thirty strong excerpts from "The Art of Loving."

And goes on to say:

I did just about everything to avoid doing this to myself.

By "this", I had to wonder if she was referring to creating an album or to writing her own liner notes. And then I wondered what exactly she had done to avoid doing it. Whatever it was, it clearly did not succeed. It seems that Melanie was made to sing. Her vocal style, howling and fluttering and wild, led me to think of both Janis Joplin and Grace Slick.

I've since learned that Melanie Safka is pretty darn famous and has released an album almost yearly for only like the last three decades.

In "Take Me Home," she sings:

Take me home with you
After the show, I've got nothing to do…

But make sure I'm back here at ten on the dot
'Cause no one will get to see me if I'm not
And even if you don't think that I'm so hot
You gotta take me home, all right?

At another point in my life, I would've fallen hard for this kind of thing. Next, I listened to La Lupe.