Cyndi Lauper
@ PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ
by Tina Whelski
Finding the soul in the songs penned by other songwriters has always been a special talent of Cyndi Lauper. "True Colors," "I Drove All Night," and "Money Changes Everything" are just a few that she's endearingly interpreted over the years. At PNC Bank Arts Center on August 4 she performed these alongside offerings from her new album, At Last, proving she could uncover new stories--her stories--even in familiar pop standards.
Opening with the title track, "At Last," Lauper convinced skeptics that she was not going to simply repeat the classics she heard growing up as a young Italian girl in Queens, she was going to relive them, now as a grown woman with 51 years behind her. Taking on the song made memorable by Etta James was a brave choice, but Lauper managed to take the musical experience somewhere completely different than James had, making it unnecessary to compare and equally moving.
Lauper handpicked all of the tracks on At Last for their special meanings to her, but she took a few songs deeper. She created show-stoppers out of "Walk On By," popularized previously by Dionne Warwick and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," hushed with piano accompaniment--a complete deviation from The Animals' version.
On "Stay" Lauper added congas and Latin rhythms and capped it off with a dance barefoot on top of the piano. As a little girl Lauper recalled her aunt blaring songs like "Stay" from the kitchen while Lauper's cousin cranked her Latin '45's from the bedroom. This mix was exactly how Lauper remembered it.
While she was stripping songs down to their cores she also reinterpreted some of her own. "She Bop" took on the air of a journey through the sidewalks of Paris with its French flair for instance.
Always a true original herself, Lauper's music can be considered almost as classic now as the music on At Last. Just as she needed to share the music from her childhood, Lauper knew the PNC crowd wanted the music from theirs. Lauper gave them a powerful selection in "Change of Heart," "All Through The Night," "Time After Time," and of course "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."
Gone were the rainbow-colored thrift clothes, but that was even better because what was left were the songs themselves and Lauper's charming voice.
Cyndi Lauper performing "Walk On By."
Finding the soul in the songs penned by other songwriters has always been a special talent of Cyndi Lauper. "True Colors," "I Drove All Night," and "Money Changes Everything" are just a few that she's endearingly interpreted over the years. At PNC Bank Arts Center on August 4 she performed these alongside offerings from her new album, At Last, proving she could uncover new stories--her stories--even in familiar pop standards.
Opening with the title track, "At Last," Lauper convinced skeptics that she was not going to simply repeat the classics she heard growing up as a young Italian girl in Queens, she was going to relive them, now as a grown woman with 51 years behind her. Taking on the song made memorable by Etta James was a brave choice, but Lauper managed to take the musical experience somewhere completely different than James had, making it unnecessary to compare and equally moving.
Lauper handpicked all of the tracks on At Last for their special meanings to her, but she took a few songs deeper. She created show-stoppers out of "Walk On By," popularized previously by Dionne Warwick and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," hushed with piano accompaniment--a complete deviation from The Animals' version.
On "Stay" Lauper added congas and Latin rhythms and capped it off with a dance barefoot on top of the piano. As a little girl Lauper recalled her aunt blaring songs like "Stay" from the kitchen while Lauper's cousin cranked her Latin '45's from the bedroom. This mix was exactly how Lauper remembered it.
While she was stripping songs down to their cores she also reinterpreted some of her own. "She Bop" took on the air of a journey through the sidewalks of Paris with its French flair for instance.
Always a true original herself, Lauper's music can be considered almost as classic now as the music on At Last. Just as she needed to share the music from her childhood, Lauper knew the PNC crowd wanted the music from theirs. Lauper gave them a powerful selection in "Change of Heart," "All Through The Night," "Time After Time," and of course "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."
Gone were the rainbow-colored thrift clothes, but that was even better because what was left were the songs themselves and Lauper's charming voice.
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 9/1/04.
Photo by Tina Whelski.
Cyndi Lauper performing "Walk On By."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment