Melanie


Band members               Related acts

- Melanie Safka - vocals, guitar

 

 

- none known

 

 

 


 

Genre: folk-rock

Rating: ** (2 stars)

Title:  Garden In the City

Company: Buddah

Catalog: BDS-5095

Year: 1971

Country/State: Queens, New York

Grade (cover/record): VG/VG

Comments: gimmick gatefold cover

Available: 1

GEMM catalog ID: 4691

Price: $10.00

Cost: $66.00

 

So sue me ... I'll readily admit I'm not a big Melanie fan and I bought this one at a yard sale because I thought the gimmick cover was kind of cool.

 

Fed up with a contract that left her with little creative control and required her to release several albums a year, by the time 1971's "Garden In the City" was released Melanie was no longer recording for Buddah.  That didn't stop the company from raiding it's archives for Melanie material.  Released without her participation, the album featured a mixture of outtakes, demos and other castoffs that weren't good enough for earlier albums.  Those tracks were rounded out by 'Stop, I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore' and 'We Don't Know Where We Were Going' which were previously released as part of the soundtrack for the Stanley Kramer film "RPM."  While far from perfect, the album's actually surprisingly entertaining.  Mind you, her sharp and shrill voice remains an acquired taste to my ears, but on tracks such as 'We Don't Know Where We Were Going' and her cover of Dylan's 'Lay Lady Lay' the combination of  quality material and producer/husband xxx's studio enhancements do a good job of covering up that liability.   (The album was original released with a 'scratch and sniff' patch on the cover - anyone know what the scent used for "scratch and small Melanie's Garden" was?)

 

"Garden In the City" track listing:
(side 1)

1.) Garden In the City   (Melanie) - 2:38

2.) Love In Mind   (Melanie) - 3:23

3.) We Don't Know Where We Were Going   (Melanie) - 2:32

4.) Lay Lady Lay   (Bob Dylan) - 6:15

5.) Jig Saw Puzzle   (Mick Jagger - Keith Richards) - 3:19

 

(side 2)
1.) Don't You Wait By the Water   (Melanie) - 2:40

2.) Stop, I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore   (DeVorzon - Melanie) 2:03

3.) Somebody Loves Me  (DeSylvia - Gershwin - MacDonald) - 2:27

4.) People In the Front Row   (Melanie) - 2:34

 

 

 

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