by Tina WhelskiWhen Cyndi Lauper hit early MTV rotation in 1984 she knocked music charts into next week becoming the first artist of the rock era to have four Top 10 singles off a debut album, beginning with her female empowerment anthem “Girls Just Wanna Fun.” As the aptly named record, She’s So Unusual released subsequent hits “Time After Time,” “She Bop,” and “All Through The Night,” it shouted a message to celebrate the unconventional and stand tall in who you are.
From rainbow-colored thrift store clothes to cocktail dresses, Lauper has continued to re-invent her image to match her maturing music. And with a career now spanning 25 years, Lauper transforms again with The Body Acoustic (Daylight/Epic) where she strips her classics to their bare souls and invites guest artists to join her for footstompin’ “back porch” renditions of those as well as new songs.
Lauper is joined by Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday for a twangy, earthy version of “Money Changes Everything,” while "Time After Time" features the angelic voice of Sarah McLachlan and "All Through The Night" is given funky treatment by reggae/pop superstar Shaggy. Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi joins on "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," and Ani DiFranco and Vivian Green revel with Lauper on "Sisters of Avalon.”
Lauper applies her own interpretative prowess to re-workings of "Shine," "Fearless," "She Bop,” and "True Colors," while introducing two brand new songs, "Above The Clouds" featuring guitar legend Jeff Beck and "I'll Be Your River" with Green. Longtime pals Rick Chertoff (She's So Unusual) and William Wittman (At Last) joined Lauper to produce.
STARPOLISH: Why did you decide to go acoustic on this album?
LAUPER: I had been playing little outings with acoustic instruments and before I knew it I had an acoustic set of the songs that people would want to hear at benefits and songs that they might not know, but that lived well in this “dulcimer world.” After a while some guys at the record company said, “Gee, why don’t you go with that?” …I get to play dulcimer on every single song, so I was very thrilled. I felt kind of like, “William Shatner sings. Cyndi plays dulcimer.” (laughs).
STARPOLISH: You wanted to evoke a “back porch” vibe on this album, a feeling of people coming together, like after a big dinner, to sing and play?
I basically started out as a folk singer so it was very interesting to bring this back into folk. Well, I wouldn’t exactly call my approach folk, because they don’t exactly play the dulcimer the way I think you’re supposed to play it. But I don’t really care. Well, I don’t care and I do care. It’s more important to take that sound and bring it to a new place.
STARPOLISH: What was it like hearing so many different impressions of your songs?
LAUPER: It was interesting having other peoples’ takes. Sometimes you don’t say anything and you let them go and then you kind of tell them, “Well what about this rhythm?” You direct a little bit without directing too much…I had a fantastic time with Vivian [Green]. It was so fantastic in the studio on “I’ll Be Your River.” Shaggy was an over the phone kind of thing. He’s fantastic and I spoke to him about this folky, funky, rock kind of thing for “All Through The Night” and he got it. I mean he did call me up very cute and he says, “Cyn, this is a love song, right?” And Ani was fantastic on “Sisters of Avalon.” She’s so funny because I said, “You know, you gotta just conjure up this spirit.” She wrote back and said, “I had the spirit of The Supremes come to me—in the glitter dresses.” (laughs). Me, I’m singing “Sisters of Avalon” and I think I was just standing in front of a cauldron—I don’t know what I was conjuring up. Vivian sang on that too. It was great to have all of us from different kinds of music all meet together on a song about women and women’s sense of loss of history, reclaiming history or “herstory” as I had once put it.
STARPOLISH: Ani’s great. I recently featured her on my site WomanRock.com.
LAUPER: She’s a great artist and a hero. You can have people who have been at it longer than you inspire you or people who just come in inspire you. She’s just very inspiring. I find most artists inspiring.
STARPOLISH: In selecting tracks for this album you picked songs that you loved but do any mean more to you than the others?
LAUPER: “Waters Edge” surprised me because I didn’t actually think I would play dulcimer on it but I kept hearing it and I wanted to…Sometimes you go with a song one way and you bring it back the other way because it’s not right. You keep trying to find its soul, where it lives in that world. All of a sudden you find it. I was wrestling with that when I played it for Sarah. When she sang it was very Celtic and very kind of siren-like, but almost a call to the wild side of yourself. I think the whole song is about the underworld of a woman…When she started singing like that I played the dulcimer and the sound of that connected me to it. “Waters Edge” wasn’t just a song. I think most songs, if they’re part of your bone structure, they become a magical place that you walk through for three minutes, and that to me is the most enveloping, engaging kind of ballad or story or song you can sing. Another one is “Shine” because when it came time to do the solo I’d remembered that when Declyan was a little baby I used to play recorded tin whistles for him and I played “Sally’s Garden” all the time. We took a piece of that and put it in the solo and had the violin player play it. It was great because of what the song said: “Gonna pull you up by your love.” You’re making somebody stand and telling them they can shine and its okay, but you’ve got to pull them up through love, through their love for you and your love for them. That to me was the most powerful thing…I still believe that love does heal and you can use that to pull someone up.
STARPOLISH: I’ve interviewed some artists who have opened shows for you in the last few years, namely Jennifer Marks and Nellie McKay, and it was interesting to me how they both pointed out how supportive you were of their careers. You even went as far as to fix Mark’s makeup for her. Why is it so important to you to encourage emerging artists?
LAUPER: Ahh. I love them! For Jenn I thought her songs were good and the stage is just larger than life. When the Native Americans went to war, they put their war paint on. When a diva or somebody gets up there, you’ve got to make a bonfire right there. Baby, you’ve gotta dress for the occasion…So we’d pull stuff out and see what she was comfortable with and it was fun. With Nellie I had a riot. I wrote with her and she talked me into playing trombone on her record. That wasn’t hard to talk me into because you know, I love that trombone (laughs)…See, I came from touring with Cher. She used to say to me, “Cyn, I don’t like when you wear your makeup like that cause we can’t see into your eyes” and “I’m going to have them put more light on you.” Basically she was directing the lights and the cameras on me. She told them what she wanted. She had an amazing sense of professionalism and she taught me how to get my butt on stage on time. I have an enormous respect for her and she was really supportive.
STARPOLISH: So you pass that along…
LAUPER: Well you have to so that next time they’ll be good to somebody else and you just hand that tradition down. You embrace female musicians because you want more of us.
Originally posted on Starpolish.com 1/19/06.
Cyndi Lauper performing "Money Changes Everything" with Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday.
From rainbow-colored thrift store clothes to cocktail dresses, Lauper has continued to re-invent her image to match her maturing music. And with a career now spanning 25 years, Lauper transforms again with The Body Acoustic (Daylight/Epic) where she strips her classics to their bare souls and invites guest artists to join her for footstompin’ “back porch” renditions of those as well as new songs.
Lauper is joined by Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday for a twangy, earthy version of “Money Changes Everything,” while "Time After Time" features the angelic voice of Sarah McLachlan and "All Through The Night" is given funky treatment by reggae/pop superstar Shaggy. Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi joins on "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," and Ani DiFranco and Vivian Green revel with Lauper on "Sisters of Avalon.”
Lauper applies her own interpretative prowess to re-workings of "Shine," "Fearless," "She Bop,” and "True Colors," while introducing two brand new songs, "Above The Clouds" featuring guitar legend Jeff Beck and "I'll Be Your River" with Green. Longtime pals Rick Chertoff (She's So Unusual) and William Wittman (At Last) joined Lauper to produce.
STARPOLISH: Why did you decide to go acoustic on this album?
LAUPER: I had been playing little outings with acoustic instruments and before I knew it I had an acoustic set of the songs that people would want to hear at benefits and songs that they might not know, but that lived well in this “dulcimer world.” After a while some guys at the record company said, “Gee, why don’t you go with that?” …I get to play dulcimer on every single song, so I was very thrilled. I felt kind of like, “William Shatner sings. Cyndi plays dulcimer.” (laughs).
STARPOLISH: You wanted to evoke a “back porch” vibe on this album, a feeling of people coming together, like after a big dinner, to sing and play?
I basically started out as a folk singer so it was very interesting to bring this back into folk. Well, I wouldn’t exactly call my approach folk, because they don’t exactly play the dulcimer the way I think you’re supposed to play it. But I don’t really care. Well, I don’t care and I do care. It’s more important to take that sound and bring it to a new place.
STARPOLISH: What was it like hearing so many different impressions of your songs?
LAUPER: It was interesting having other peoples’ takes. Sometimes you don’t say anything and you let them go and then you kind of tell them, “Well what about this rhythm?” You direct a little bit without directing too much…I had a fantastic time with Vivian [Green]. It was so fantastic in the studio on “I’ll Be Your River.” Shaggy was an over the phone kind of thing. He’s fantastic and I spoke to him about this folky, funky, rock kind of thing for “All Through The Night” and he got it. I mean he did call me up very cute and he says, “Cyn, this is a love song, right?” And Ani was fantastic on “Sisters of Avalon.” She’s so funny because I said, “You know, you gotta just conjure up this spirit.” She wrote back and said, “I had the spirit of The Supremes come to me—in the glitter dresses.” (laughs). Me, I’m singing “Sisters of Avalon” and I think I was just standing in front of a cauldron—I don’t know what I was conjuring up. Vivian sang on that too. It was great to have all of us from different kinds of music all meet together on a song about women and women’s sense of loss of history, reclaiming history or “herstory” as I had once put it.
STARPOLISH: Ani’s great. I recently featured her on my site WomanRock.com.
LAUPER: She’s a great artist and a hero. You can have people who have been at it longer than you inspire you or people who just come in inspire you. She’s just very inspiring. I find most artists inspiring.
STARPOLISH: In selecting tracks for this album you picked songs that you loved but do any mean more to you than the others?
LAUPER: “Waters Edge” surprised me because I didn’t actually think I would play dulcimer on it but I kept hearing it and I wanted to…Sometimes you go with a song one way and you bring it back the other way because it’s not right. You keep trying to find its soul, where it lives in that world. All of a sudden you find it. I was wrestling with that when I played it for Sarah. When she sang it was very Celtic and very kind of siren-like, but almost a call to the wild side of yourself. I think the whole song is about the underworld of a woman…When she started singing like that I played the dulcimer and the sound of that connected me to it. “Waters Edge” wasn’t just a song. I think most songs, if they’re part of your bone structure, they become a magical place that you walk through for three minutes, and that to me is the most enveloping, engaging kind of ballad or story or song you can sing. Another one is “Shine” because when it came time to do the solo I’d remembered that when Declyan was a little baby I used to play recorded tin whistles for him and I played “Sally’s Garden” all the time. We took a piece of that and put it in the solo and had the violin player play it. It was great because of what the song said: “Gonna pull you up by your love.” You’re making somebody stand and telling them they can shine and its okay, but you’ve got to pull them up through love, through their love for you and your love for them. That to me was the most powerful thing…I still believe that love does heal and you can use that to pull someone up.
STARPOLISH: I’ve interviewed some artists who have opened shows for you in the last few years, namely Jennifer Marks and Nellie McKay, and it was interesting to me how they both pointed out how supportive you were of their careers. You even went as far as to fix Mark’s makeup for her. Why is it so important to you to encourage emerging artists?
LAUPER: Ahh. I love them! For Jenn I thought her songs were good and the stage is just larger than life. When the Native Americans went to war, they put their war paint on. When a diva or somebody gets up there, you’ve got to make a bonfire right there. Baby, you’ve gotta dress for the occasion…So we’d pull stuff out and see what she was comfortable with and it was fun. With Nellie I had a riot. I wrote with her and she talked me into playing trombone on her record. That wasn’t hard to talk me into because you know, I love that trombone (laughs)…See, I came from touring with Cher. She used to say to me, “Cyn, I don’t like when you wear your makeup like that cause we can’t see into your eyes” and “I’m going to have them put more light on you.” Basically she was directing the lights and the cameras on me. She told them what she wanted. She had an amazing sense of professionalism and she taught me how to get my butt on stage on time. I have an enormous respect for her and she was really supportive.
STARPOLISH: So you pass that along…
LAUPER: Well you have to so that next time they’ll be good to somebody else and you just hand that tradition down. You embrace female musicians because you want more of us.
Originally posted on Starpolish.com 1/19/06.
Cyndi Lauper performing "Money Changes Everything" with Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday.
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