It was announced yesterday that the Cyndi Lauper Christmas singles would be available to download from 1st November and for fans in New Zealand, Japan and Australia it is your turn first!
With Christmas less than 2 months away, it is time for Cyndi Lauper fans around the world to begin their festive celebrations with two new Christmas singles.
Cyndi Lauper and Norah Jones have recorded a Christmas song together called Home For The Holidays and Cyndi Lauper has also recorded another festive song called Blue Christmas. Both songs are released on the 1st November 2011 as downloads in Japan, Austria, Germany, France, UK & the US through Amazon.
Below are the covers for each single and you can listen to samples of each track.
After 16 shows the co-headling From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour with Dr. John ended last night, 29th October 2011 in Cincinnati, OH at the Taft Theatre. Cyndi joined Dr. John on stage towards the end of his set as usual and performed Makin' Whoopie and Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (Lay My Burden Down) were she played the tamborine.
The setlist was longer and included What's Going On and Lyfe which have been absent from the last couple of shows. Throughout the whole tour Cyndi has sported different hair styles and last night was no different. Donned in her leather suit with mutli-coloured, she looked FAB for the final night.
CLD would like to take this opportunity to thank Colin McLeod who has kindly provided this site, fans on the official forum and mailing list with setlists, photos and review each night after the show. You are a star Colin!
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Down Don't Bother Me
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist & Photos from Colin McLeod.
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
UPDATE! The show was recorded on Monday, 7th November. Air date now change and to be confirmed. Cyndi Lauper is not on The Rosie Show - 8th Novmeber 2011.
According to www.tvguide.comCyndi Lauper will be a guest on Rosie O'Donnell's new show The Rosie Show on Tuesday 8th November @ 7:00pm / 6:00pm CST on OWN. Mariah Carey is also slated to be a guest the same day.
Repeated at the following times:
8th November @ 10pm / 9:00pm CST
Wednesday 9th November @ 2:00am / 1:00am CST
Wednesday 9th November @ 9:00am / 8:00am CST
Wednesday 9th November @ 5:00am / 4:00pm CST
Cyndi Lauper played her penultimate show of the From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour last night, 28th October 2011 at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, IL. Like previous shows Cyndi joined Dr. John on stage towards the end of his set. They performed Makin' Whoopie and Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (Lay My Burden Down) last night.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Down Don't Bother Me
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist & Photos from Colin McLeod.
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
Cyndi Lauper joins Dr. John in brining the roots of rock and soul to town
Girls just want to halve funds?
Cyndi Lauper is splitting concert receipts this month with New Orleans piano master Dr. John. The freshly minted duo joined for a 15-date blues tour, "From Memphis to Mardi Gras," that arrives Saturday at the Taft Theatre.
For Lauper, celebrated in the '80s as the henna-haired singer of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Time After Time" and "True Colors," the true colors are all shades of blues these days. Last year she made a studio album, "Memphis Blues," teaming with B.B. King, Allen Toussaint and Ann Peebles. This week, she released a concert DVD called "To Memphis with Love," recorded at the blues capital's Warehouse nightclub.
We spoke to her by phone as she was preparing for the current tour.
Can a girl from Queens sing the blues?
"Well, I'm doing it. We're all singing the blues. Blues was the birth of rock, a very American genre. It's the basis of everything I've done. I started in a Janis Joplin cover band."
Did you worry that the traditional blues crowd might see you as - I hate to say - dilettante?
"Dilettante? Upstart? Yeah, that's something new. What do I care? What are you gonna do? The proof's in the pudding when you open up your mouth and sing."
How's it been, working with Dr. John?
"I've always wanted to work with him. I always want to work with better people."
And Allen Toussaint?
"Mr. Toussaint is really magical. It's such an honor to play with him. He is so gracious. All of them were. I sang with Ann Peebles, I've gotta say I was crying. We were at the same microphone - I still have that microphone, and I'll have it forever. At the Grammys, I got to sing with Mavis Staples. And Buddy Guy - when he answered me I thought, 'Oh my God, that's Buddy Guy'."
How's the autobiography coming?
"Writing it is a long process. I didn't want to just sling it out there. It's a real-life 'life story.' It explains what it's like to be a celebrity. I don't have to worry if my socks are funny, or about whatever bugs straight people."
So tell us about the new album.
"Oh my God, yes, this is what I was supposed to talk about. I wanted to do it in Memphis but the theater had bed bugs. So we went to a place called the Warehouse, and it was a party. This is a homage to Memphis."
How'd you like the town as opposed to the idea of Memphis?
"It's a great town. It was the middle ground for the blues, and it turned to hot-blooded soul and rock. It has delicious, fattening food."
You've been known to set fashion trends. What are you liking lately?
"I love glamour. I love looking at things from 1910."
You promoted pro wrestling in the 1980s. Do you keep up with wrestling? When was the last time you talked to Rowdy Roddy Piper?
"You know, I try to keep in touch with Roddy."
You've done fairly steady work as an actress over the years ("Vibes," Disney's "Life with Mikey," TV's "Mad About You"). Film success seems to be a rough transition for singers - Madonna, Mariah Carey.
"I got clobbered too. But now, it's not like that for singers. It's a different climate."
You're the mother of a teenager (son Declyn, 13), and now you're a hockey mom like Sarah Palin?
"Not like Sarah Palin. Yeah, he broke his kneecap but he's going back. It's an interesting age. At 13, the world is your oyster. Then you start thinking about other things."
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
Cyndi Lauper and Dr. John performed in Carmel, IN @ The Center for the Performing Arts lat night, 27th October 2011. Near the end of Dr. John's set, Cyndi came on stage. They performed Wang Dang Doodle and Cyndi stayed on stage for Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (Lay My Burden Down).
Cyndi Lauper's set was the same as the last few shows but with one very special addition. A fan in the audience yelled for Hat Full Of Stars, followed by PLEEEEEEEEEASE! Cyndi didn't oblige right away...she talked for a bit...but then, she DID IT! One verse plus chorus acapella.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Hat Full Of Stars (one verse plus chorus, acappela)
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Down Don't Bother Me
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
The artist: Cyndi Lauper has been a New York girl from the very beginning—Queens born and bred—but the singer-songwriter has been taking her music around the world even before she broke big with 1983’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun.” Most recently, Lauper has been spotted down Tennessee way, teaming up with such notables as Charlie Musselwhite and B.B. King for her 2010 album Memphis Blues. Lauper subsequently hit the road to promote the record, resulting in the live DVD To Memphis, With Love, featuring guest appearances by Allen Toussaint and Jonny Lang.
“You Make Loving Fun” (recorded in 1977, released as a Japanese-only single in 1984)
Cyndi Lauper: Oh, my God. [Laughs.] I was not a recording artist then. I had gone—like most everybody from New York, I think—down to Washington Square Park. I used to love it as a teenager, and… I think I was in a cover band by then, and I wanted to sing with the doo-wop kids, who’d just go down there and jam. And one of them said to me, “Hey, you should come down, I’m working for Ed Chalpin, I get $15 a side that I sing. If I sing background, I get a little less.” So I said, “Sure, I’d love to!” You know, make money singing? So I went and recorded in their studio. The trick was, at that time, you had to imitate the person so that nobody would realize that it wasn’t… You know, by the time they realized it wasn’t Christine McVie, they’d already bought it. So that’s what I was doing. And it was… [Starts to laugh] It was an interesting time when I turned around and actually made something of myself, and there Ed Chalpin was putting out a picture of me from Blue Angel, saying that this is what I did when I was in Blue Angel, which is actually not true. But what can I say? Que sera, sera.
The A.V. Club: Was that the only cover that you did back then, or were there others?
CL: Oh, no, I was in a cover band in Long Island!
AVC: No, I meant that you’d recorded for that kind of thing.
CL: Oh, well, it was until I started recording for Epic as a solo artist. And then I did covers. But I did covers that I really wanted to do, and we worked really hard on them, ’cause at that time we were trying to come up with a sound. ’Cause, you know, I’d come from a band, and [producer] Rick Chertoff had come from a band, the people I worked with [Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman] had come from a band, and their whole thing was, “Oh, let’s put a band together behind her!” But when that didn’t work out, I decided that we should just start from scratch, kind of make it smaller and make new arrangements of these songs. So that’s what we did for She’s So Unusual: We created a sound between what they did, what I did, and the modern street sound that I loved. You know, in the beginning, the gated snare was really something. [Laughs.] It was very exciting at the time. Now it’s just synonymous with the ’80s, I guess.
Blue Angel, “I’m Gonna Be Strong” (from 1980’s Blue Angel)
AVC: I’m sure it’s not coincidental that Blue Angel shared its name with a Gene Pitney song and subsequently covered a Gene Pitney song.
CL: We actually weren’t named after a Gene Pitney song. I am so surprised that you don’t know your music...
CL: That’s right! But don’t worry, Roy’s not around to freak out that you got it wrong. [Laughs.] Yeah, we loved Roy Orbison, and we’d sit and listen to him because he was the quintessential. Him and Otis Redding. I also used to sing “Try A Little Tenderness” in Blue Angel. There was a singer that [Blue Angel keyboardist/saxophonist] John Turi worked with, a really wonderful singer, who was kind of… not burly, but he was kind of a big construction guy who had this bruised-sounding voice, and he was in a band with Gene Cornish called Bulldog. And he was the one that kept playing me stuff, and he played me “I’m Gonna Be Strong” and said, “Cyn, ya gotta do this song.” And I said, “Yeah, I know, I love it and all, but…” When I first did it, like everybody does, you do it the way it was written, the way it was originally done. And, honestly, I sounded like Ethel Merman. [Laughs.] I said, “I can’t sound like Ethel Merman!” So John said, “All right, go ahead, arrange it. How do you see it?” So I worked on it and made it my own story.
I also wrote the material for Blue Angel with John. Working with John Turi was a huge part of my development. I worked five years with John, from 1977 to 1982, and through a failed record deal. And, you know, when you first get the record deal, you feel like, “We made it! We’re going all the way!” So I’m dying my hair blonde and apricot, I’m wearing the kind of clothes I really love… Except the kind of clothes I loved were the kind of clothes where, when you went back to the neighborhood, they teased the hell out of you and told you how weird you were, until it was on the top-40, and then they’d all wear it. ‘Cause that’s the way it goes. [Laughs.] But it was an interesting time.
I gotta say, the times that I spent singing covers in a cover band are what taught me to perform in front of a large crowd. My first gig as a lead singer was at a place called the Boardy Barn. I had my heart set on being a background singer like Merry Clayton—I loved Merry Clayton—and when I realized I couldn’t dance and sing at the same time, and I kept falling, the guy that was going to manage the group said, “Listen, the chick in the back that keeps falling, she sings good. Why don’t you just bring her to the front and make her the lead singer? If you do that, I’ll take on the band.” So we did that, and he said, “You’re gonna sing Janis Joplin covers.” And, I mean, I knew who Janis Joplin was, ’cause I grew up listening to her and Hendrix, and I remember when she died and Hendrix died and Jim Morrison died. We felt like all our peeps were gone. But singing her songs? I never thought I would do that. But I did, and I learned a lot. And that started my journey. But when I first started singing, I sang in front of 10,000 people at a bar, at one of those Hampton Beach bars where they have, like, stupid-priced drinks… watered-down beer, I guess, for a nickel or a quarter or whatever. You’d come and drink your head off and listen to rock ’n’ roll music and party. So that’s what I was doing.
I didn’t want to leave out the fact that working in the cover bands really helped me develop, too. I really took the long route. I didn’t take the easy way. I certainly had a few opportunities with people who wanted me to do things that I didn’t want to do. I worked for a famous producer who… I won’t even say who he was, but he wanted me to imitate Deborah Harry on a record that he originally wanted Deborah Harry to sing. But she wouldn’t. So he wanted me to sing it. And I sang it my way, and he was very upset with me, but I said, “Listen, if you want Debbie, ask Debbie!” ’Cause I just felt like it was really wrong to rip somebody off like that. I’d already been making a living, or whatever it was. It wasn’t really a living by the time you finished paying everything off, or it was a very meager living, playing in clubs. For me, anyway, ’cause I wasn’t successful. In retrospect, Debbie did tell me, “Cyn, if you had done well, just think about it: You might be up to singing cruise ships by now!” Which just made me comfortable, ’cause I don’t swim well. [Laughs.]
“Girls Just Want To Have Fun” (from 1983’s She’s So Unusual)
AVC: Had you already been friends or acquaintances with Robert Hazard, who wrote the song, or did someone bring it to you?
CL: Nope, Rick had it. He was holding onto it—he thought it was a great song. And I was, like, “Uh, no, it’s not. It’s not for me. What am I supposed to do, pretend I’m a moron?” Because it was like… [Adopts smarmy voice] “Heyyyyyy, dad, we’re the fortunate ones, ’cause girls just want to have fun, nudge, nudge.” Which, of course, it should be like that, ’cause a guy’s writing it. What do you expect him to write? But he kept saying, “Think of what it could mean.” So we did the same thing to that song that we did to all the other songs: We arranged it in our sound. And that’s what you hear today.
Rob had a setting on his keyboard, a Roland, which was very popular at the time. The way the synthesizers work, they have a lot of sounds that were, like, background sounds, that you would put on top of another sound. It was just a bed. But I heard it, and I said, “Let use that! It’s funny!” I remember we were laughing as we were putting together, and we had a lot of fun doing it. And he said, “Cyn, what kind of music is this, anyway?” I said, “I don’t know. It’s catchy, right?” He said, “Right.” “It makes you feel good, right?” “Yeah.” “Well, then, that’s the kind of music it is: catchy and feel-good.”
“Time After Time” (from 1983’s She’s So Unusual)
CL: With She’s So Unusual, my intention was that we’d make a very catchy record. I mean, if you’re gonna sing covers, you might as well. I’d become quite good at arranging, but then I decided I wanted to write with Rob, so I said, “Let’s write!” And we did “Time After Time,” which everybody was happy with… So happy with it, in fact, that they said, “It should be the next single!” I said, “Well, why didn’t you let me write more, for goodness sakes?” But I let it go. The second and third records I lost touch with him, though. It wasn’t until I got to do Hatful Of Stars that I hooked up with him again, and we rekindled all our friendships. It took awhile.
“All Through The Night”/“I’ll Kiss You” (from 1983’s She’s So Unusual)
AVC: “All Through The Night” is a Jules Shear song, but “I’ll Kiss You” is actually a co-write between you and him.
CL: Yeah, that was an interesting write. We laughed a lot, but it was very nerve-wracking, because I would sit there kind of like a deer in headlights, ’cause I didn’t know him. And I kept coming with guitar in hand or whatever stupid instrument I would have that I could communicate chords to somebody, and I’d just be sitting there, a little horrified, because it’s, like, now you’re gonna sit and spill your guts and open up your heart to somebody you don’t even know. But instead we ended up just laughing. And we wrote “I’ll Kiss You.” I think at first when I don’t know somebody, I’m really good with humility. It takes me a minute to walk around and think about what I’m gonna say. But he wasn’t like that, so… It was an interesting process. But he’s a wonderful writer, just wonderful. In my life, I’ve had the honor and privilege to write with a lot wonderful writers, and I’ve learned from all of them.
USA For Africa, “We Are The World” (from the 1985 single)
CL: I always referred to it later as “We Were The World But Now We’re Not.” [Laughs.] I felt it was a very magical time. I was upset that I still had paint in my hair because I did a performance art piece. I talked the people at Dick Clark [Productions] into letting me do a performance art piece for the American Music Awards, and God bless for them for letting me do it. I was so blessed to have worked with them and have done that. But when I went to “We Are The World,” I had orange and yellow flakes coming from my head, and I was so upset, because I didn’t have time to wash up. I had to go as I was. And I felt like everyone was… like, Bob Dylan backed away from me. [Laughs.] I was, like, “Okay, I can see how this is going.” But, you know, it was fine. It was very inspiring. It was something to see. It really, truly was. I listened to all of the wonderful voices. I was sorry I didn’t get to hear Bette Midler’s voice that much, ’cause she was there, and I’m a huge fan of hers. And I was sorry I didn’t see Aretha. But there was Dionne Warwick, there was Tina Turner… I didn’t see Chaka Khan, though. I missed her. But, hey, it was what it was, and it was a great experience.
“The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” (from 1985’s The Goonies: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
AVC: Did the producers of The Goonies approach you and ask you to write the song?
CL: Yeah. I had been writing with Steve Lunt—we had written “She Bop” together—so we started writing again and wrote a couple of songs together, including “Good Enough.” I really enjoyed writing with him. And Dave Wolf went to them and said, “We have a song that would work!” And then they made me call it “Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough,” which kind of hurt the progress of the song, I thought. But it still became an underground hit all over the world regardless, because many people related to being a Goonie.
AVC: Out of curiosity, why wasn’t it on your first greatest-hits disc?
CL: Ah, the movie company owned it. But I know it’s out there somewhere now, because there are just so many greatest-hits collections of mine. One time they put out this compilation called The Great Cyndi Lauper, so I said, “If I’m so great, how come you’re not promoting my new record?” [Laughs.] I’m just so glad I’m not doing the major-label thing anymore. I met Prince once, and he yelled at me ’cause I’d gone back to Sony. He was, like, “What’s wrong with you? You know it’s not good.” And I was, “Yeah, I know, but I can’t fund it myself.” And he was right. He’s just a really brilliant business guy, and I’m… not. [Laughs.]
Mark Mothersbaugh with Ellen Shaw a.k.a. Cyndi Lauper, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” (1986)
CL: Pee-wee asked me to do the Playhouse theme song, but I was worried about being taken seriously, ’cause I kept doing that fucking wrestling thing, which was a lot of fun, but it kinda was starting to interfere with my real career. Because, you know, I had my True Colors album, and I did this whole Cocteau thing with Annie Leibovitz for the cover. I loved her, she taught me so much, it was a work of art… I thought. She hated the lettering. It was my fault. I did a bad job, whatever. But I loved her work, and I loved working with her. We had a listening party for the album. Ron Howard even came. It was one of the most wonderful things. But Pat Patterson [of the World Wrestling Federation] looked at it and was just, like, “Eh.” And I thought, “You know, Cyn, you just don’t need to be treated like this anymore. You’re famous. You can walk away and say, “Hey, I had a great time, but I’m not having such a great time now.” And it was right about this time that Pee-wee asked me to sing the theme song, and I was worried about singing it because I thought if I did nobody would take True Colors seriously. So I got a friend of mine to let me use her name. She’s actually a great rock singer that I knew, and she let me use her name so I wouldn’t get busted for singing it. But in the end, I still got busted, anyway. [Laughs.]
“True Colors” (from 1986’s True Colors)
CL: Oh, gosh. Well, it had come to me through Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. They were pitching it to Anne Murray, so it came to me like a country-gospel song, and I had never heard anything like that before, but it wasn’t my style of music. But the melody and the words really stuck. I had just lost one of my best friends, who died of AIDS at the very beginning of 1986, and he had wanted me to write a song for him. And I tried. I wrote “Boy Blue” for him, in which I poured out my heart and my love… but, unfortunately, that’s not good for repetitive play. But I did wind up singing “True Colors” because, on a very personal note, it was a very healing song, so I sang it for me and for all of us who survived him.
And it became a really interesting moment in my life and career because, at the same time, I had gotten the script for this film called Vibes, in which I had to become a psychic. So I started to go to psychics to look and see what their process was and copy them, and I started to study stones and crystals, what their properties were, why they used certain things, and colors. I learned about color therapy and things like that. So when I was doing True Colors… Well, when I actually sang the song, I was wearing black all the time because my friend died, but everybody just thought it was a fashion statement. [Laughs.] But afterwards I realized what a great healing song it was—that and “What’s Going On,” which is another great healing song. There are a few wonderful songs in the world, and “True Colors” was definitely one of those songs.
I realized it needed to be very bare and very raw. Sometimes you need to trust the lyrics and the melody. You don’t always need a lot of kack on everything. You need to be plain and simple sometimes. And I learned the power of a whisper. That’s basically what I called it. So I approached the song and the production in a way that… I was very clear with everyone about it, so we were all on the same page. Lennie [Petze, producer] had brought that song to me in the first place, and I spoke to him and said, “It’s got to sound like, when you’re driving in the car, a voice is whispering in your ear, comforting you. And there has to be a drum on it that’s simple and archaic, distant. So that’s how I approached it.
I was at the [Christopher Street] Pier and had just done the parade with all the drag performers and my friends and family, and we went to the Pier to do the nighttime show. A guy came up to me with a brand new rainbow flag. I don’t know if you remember the rainbow flag I’m talking about—it wasn’t a complete rainbow, but they called it the rainbow flag—and he said he’d designed this new flag because he’d been inspired by the song. And that night, I put the flag on when I sang, and I realized that my friend that died, he finally got his wish, ’cause I did sing a song that became as famous as… Well, at that time, it was as famous as “That’s What Friends Are For.” And it led to the True Colors Tour, the True Colors Fund, and the True Colors Residence, which has a little plaque in a meditation garden with my friend Gregory’s name on it along with the chorus of “True Colors.” So it’s a funny road that you take in life.
I’m a friend of the [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] community, of course. Where I come from, you stand behind your friends and family. I guess I started to become active in the cause when I realized that President Bush—maybe inadvertently, maybe he didn’t realize that he was doing it—was speaking words of hate, almost promoting hate crimes. So I figured, “You know what? It’s not dissident to stand up in your own country.” I was taught my whole life that it’s “we the people,” not “him.” It’s “us,” not “him.” He’s one person. He has a right to speak whatever stupid thought comes to his head. As do I. So I became active and tried to make an inclusive tour, which led to people saying, “Hey, they’re straight and doing a gay tour,” but I thought, “Well, isn’t that fabulous?” [Laughs.] And then that led to the “We Give A Damn” campaign with my friend Gregory [Lewis, executive director], who was working with us. I said, “That’s a brilliant idea, but let’s make it all people: straight people, everybody.” Because in every civil rights movement, it’s about everybody, not just the people afflicted. I said, “Let’s make it sexy to believe in equal rights!” Because it is sexy to be brave enough to be free-minded and accept yourself, and, by accepting yourself, to be able to accept somebody else. You’ve just gotta try. You can make a difference. You really can.
“Maybe He’ll Know” (from 1986’s True Colors) Billy Joel, “Code Of Silence” (from 1986’s The Bridge)
AVC: Given that you and Billy Joel appeared on each other’s albums in 1986, were “Maybe He’ll Know” and “Code Of Silence” done in the same session?
CL: Yeah, Billy was next door, working with Ray Charles, and I was just going, “Oh, my God, he’s working with Ray Charles? How come he gets to work with everybody?” That’s how I felt. But I got my friends, too. I got The Bangles on my album, and Billy, too. Billy sang great doo-wop, and he also played on “Change Of Heart.” Didn’t he play piano on “Change Of Heart”? I think so. Anyway, he was in the studio, and I was trying so hard to get everything ready for them that I tripped over my own feet, and he jumped up. It was very Art Carney. It was a very fun time.
“I Drove All Night” (from 1989’s A Night To Remember)
CL: I chose that song—again, it came to me through Lennie—because it was about driving, and I hadn’t heard a lot of songs with women driving, and it seemed like, “Oh, this is a power song!” A woman behind the wheel, as opposed to being driven. I love Roy Orbison’s version. My version had a few incarnations. At first it was kind of dance, then it turned into this rock thing. We got Steve Ferrone to play, who’s a wonderful drummer, and it turned into what you heard.
AVC: How was the experience of putting together A Night To Remember, given that you were coming off the back-to-back success of She’s So Unusual and True Colors?
CL: It was hell. Lennie Petze broke his leg. I was with this guy who was going through a lot of problems. He was an alcoholic, and he was abusive to me in every way. Finally, I didn’t know what to do with the album, ’cause I’m under pressure that I had to get it done, and if I didn’t get it done in time, then I had this whole campaign… See, I gave my new image away to Details magazine, and it was supposed to come out with a huge campaign, putting it on bus shelters and everything. It was a whole Vargas look. And that went out ahead of the album, so the album was always after the fact. That was one not-so-good thing that happened. It was a tough time. I wound up going to Russia because I couldn’t figure out how to get out of doing it. And then Tommy Mottola took over Sony, and they had different heads of A&R. There was this guy named Don Grierson who loved Diane Warren and thought that everything had to be like Diane Warren, and I... just didn’t really want to sound like Heart. So we never quite agreed on much. And I didn’t want to be remade over into who he thought I was as opposed to who I actually was, because the whole reason that I went with Lennie was because I could be who I wanted to be, and that my success would be mine. And then it became the time of the record executive that was more famous than the artist. That was a difficult time, because I am not a robot and I will never be a robot. I did things in my life and career where I sang songs that meant something and sang them for a reason.
I started to work on the music. I wrote with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, and I really tried to write heartfelt things. But I was being constantly made to feel like there was just no way I was going to be able to climb this fucking mountain, because I’ll never be who they want’—because they’re the new guys and I’m the old guys. I’m part of the old regime, the guys that used to be. So I was just… there. And it was always like that. A Night To Remember was filled with love songs, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. I didn’t get to do what they wanted, and I didn’t get to do what I wanted.
Pink Floyd, “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)” (from 1990’s The Wall: Live In Berlin)
CL: Another extraordinary experience. I wanted to be part of it, so I lied to the record company. [Laughs.] I would’ve told them anything. As a famous person, I never got to play any festivals, never got to meet anybody. I was isolated all the time, up and down—or at least that’s what it felt like, anyway. So finally my friend Peter Woods was doing all of these different things, and I said, “You’re so lucky! What’s it like to play with all these people? It must be so amazing!” And he said, “Well, you could do it if you wanted.” I said, “I could? ’Cause I’d love to!” So he said, “Okay, I’ll get you in.” Then I realized that I had to talk to my record company, ’cause I had to ask their permission.
Now, I’m half-German/Swiss and half-Sicilian, so the whole Second World War thing has always got me at odds. [Laughs.] Also, the whole Hitler thing, the Nazi thing, always got in my craw. So I wanted to dance on Hitler’s grave so fucking bad. I told the record company… Wait, what did I tell them? Oh, right, I told them what I always say, because I thought it would make it easier: “It’ll be good for my career if I do it.” But I’m thinking, “These people don’t care. The bottom dollar, that’s what they care about.” So I said that, and Tommy Mottola turns around and goes, “Yeah, and it’s for a good cause, too, Cyn, huh?” And I looked at him, and I was, like, “Go figure.” You can never figure these guys. If you tell ’em it really means a lot to you, they’ll tell you it’s not good for your career. If you tell ’em it’s good for your career, they’ll tell you, “Yeah, and it’s for a good cause, too.”
“That’s What I Think” (from 1993’s Hat Full Of Stars)
CL: That album was two things: not only was it my homecoming with Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, but I was also working with Bill Wittman again, who is one of the most brilliant people I have ever met—smart and clever and quick. So quick in the studio and he understands what I’m talking about. Sometimes I guess I need a translator, because nobody really understands what the hell I’m talking about. [Laughs.] I found that out when I was on The Apprentice. Nobody really understood what the hell I was talking about on there. When the swimmer guy from the Olympics [Summer Sanders] turned around and said, “What the hell are you talking about?” I felt like, “Oh, my God. Et tu, Brute? Everybody…? Okay, why don’t you all just say I’m from Mars? It’s all right.” [Laughs.]
In the end, because of the type of mentality that was going on at Sony, I did Hat Full Of Stars under the radar. They let that go to hell, that album. But it was one of those albums that actually moved music in a direction, and I must say proudly that Alanis Morissette took my record and another record into the studio to play for the guy she worked with, Glen Ballard, and said, “Like this.” So I’m proud of that. I’m so proud, because somebody heard it. At the time I was doing Hat Full Of Stars, I didn’t know who else was doing that. Had I hooked up with other people doing what I was trying to do… You know, there’s power in numbers. I was a little isolated, so it was kind of hard. But I had the opportunity to work with real hip-hop guys.
AVC: You also worked with Junior Vasquez.
CL: Right. I chose to work with him, and he was wonderful. But I also was going to work with Eric from Run-DMC—I can’t remember his last name, but he was a remixer, a guy who worked on loops for them—but I was afraid we’d both get run over by the company, whereas Junior was a whole different thing. At least there was the dance thing that I could run to. I didn’t know if I could run to the hip-hop world. [Laughs.] Although I dig hip-hop. I love it. I wanted to mix hip-hop and folk and dance and rock together. So that was what Hat Full Of Stars was about.
It was during the videos for Hat Full Of Stars that I learned to be a director. Not that I wasn’t always in the edit bay working on my videos in every way and learning as much as I could. I enjoyed the process. It was one of my favorite things, making videos and working in film. I loved it. So when I did Hat Full Of Stars, because they wouldn’t pay for it and kept bringing in younger and younger producers and directors, I just figured, “Well, I know how to do this. I’ve been doing it since 1980, when these kids were still in school.” So I took the money they would’ve spent on them, used it on a wonderful camera guy and editor, and I directed ’em. [Laughs.]
“Come On Home” (from 1994’s Twelve Deadly Cyns)
CL: I was working a lot in Europe. Honestly, I almost moved to Australia after Hat Full Of Stars and started working there, but didn’t. I wanted to move to England for a while to record there in the early ’90s, but didn’t. I guess it’s because I didn’t want to leave New York. My family was here, my friends were here, I didn’t really want to be somewhere else. I like to visit other places, but I love to come home. [Puts on an affected voice.] There’s no place like home, dahling. No place.
AVC: Hence the new song on Twelve Deadly Cyns?
CL: [Sighs.] I loved that song. But everyone else… It was never good enough, ever. It was always that it wasn’t this, it wasn’t that. In the end, if you can’t please anyone, you please yourself.
“You Don’t Know” (from 1997’s Sisters Of Avalon)
CL: Oh, wow. Sisters Of Avalon was an extraordinary experience. I wrote a lot of the music in my living room, as I did with the Christmas album [Merry Christmas…Have A Nice Life], and I truly loved working with Jan Pulsford. I really, really did. Of course, she didn’t get along very well with Steve Barnett, who was my manager at the time, so that didn’t really bode well. And every time you get to write with somebody that you’re having a good time with, somebody always comes by and says, “But they’re not famous! You should be doing this or that!” And it’s really a pain in the butt, ’cause I don’t really care who you are. If I work well with you, who cares? Make good music. Make it catchy. Make it fun. And I think Sisters Of Avalon was one of those CDs that I’m proudest of having made.
Unfortunately, I went on tour with Tina Turner to promote the record, and it was not the right tour to promote Sisters Of Avalon. I should’ve gone on tour with a younger group and been able to promote a more alternative music, because there were some people in the crowd when I was singing the songs… Like, I wrote the song “Love To Hate,” and it’s obviously not about the people in the audience, but I’d be singing it, and ma and pa from wherever would look at me like it was. And I’d be, like, “Oh, no, no, no, it’s not about you!” [Laughs.] Also, I was pregnant at the time, and I was afraid of trying to sing a two-hour set, ’cause I didn’t know how that was going to go. But it was one of those things. We did it, but we didn’t sell many records on that tour.
And then Cher came along. I’d just had my baby, and they said, “Just put the baby in the bus! Everybody’s doing it!” But my baby didn’t like to travel like that. He became a restless sleeper. Plus when you’re opening for somebody, it’s not like you’re doing your full show. You’re opening. Everything’s less money. I had young kids playing with me, and some were good, and some I wanted to kill. [Laughs.] Not really. They were just inexperienced, and I had been used to playing with more experienced guys. It was a great experience being on the road with Cher, because she taught me a lot, and she talked to me, too.
“Eventually” (from 2004’s Shine)
CL: The second tour with Cher, that was an extraordinary band, and we had some extraordinary nights. That was part of the Shine promotion. Borders, which just closed its doors, was very much part of the success of that CD, which was independent and which I practically sold one by one, door to door. It was during the 9/11 thing when I did that album, so things like “Water’s Edge” and “Eventually,” those were relevant times for us to be reflective of what we do in the world and be aware of how eventually everything comes back. Whatever you put out will come back your way.
“Into The Nightlife” (from 2008’s Bring Ya To The Brink)
CL: Oh, that was part of my jaunt to Sweden. My husband was kind enough to say, “Go ahead and go.” He stayed with the kid, and I went and wrote. It was like going on a writer’s holiday. I didn’t have to deal with anything. I just wrote. I got up, I wrote. I wrote poetry. I usually write stream-of-consciousness and then read it and make lyrics. And I write about what’s around me and what I hear people say. There’s always an element of everyday language because, in my heart of hearts, I still believe in what the Impressionists did: that you take a picture of the time that you’ve lived. I played a song for my son, and he would be, like, “Mom, let me play you some good music now,” and he would play Ludacris or something, and now I’m constantly listening to Soulja Boy. So that’s what influenced me on lines like, “Shake your body, sister / Gonna make ya body blister / Say hey, hey, hey.” [Laughs.] And I was also including my everyday life into the work, which was important. That’s why every album I try to make it so that you know what time in the world it was made.
Cyndi Lauper featuring Charlie Musselwhite, “Just Your Fool” (from 2010’s Memphis Blues)
CL: I’ve had a really great career, working with some wonderful and talented people in all different genres. I’m doing the blues thing right now, and it’s pretty incredible. I’m learning every day, and that’s the most you can ask for. And I’m singing in a genre with musicians who are masters. If you really want to find the masters of rock ’n’ roll, it’s playing the blues. The blues is where rock ’n’ roll came from. And for me, I still want to be a better singer, and sometimes there’s more room to sing when you’re singing the blues.
There isn’t a genre of music that this legendary pop star can’t master. From her 80s pop roots to her latest blues-inspired album, Memphis Blues and live DVD, To Memphis, With Love, Cyndi continues to wow audiences around the world with her live performances, social campaigns, and good ole’ fashion charm! We caught up with Cyndi while on her current tour.
You are one busy lady; a tour, an autobiography, a reality show, and a musical in the works, where do you find the time, the energy, and the constant creativity?
Trust me, it is not easy! I work and travel a lot. Yoga and cardio exercise are helping me a lot. Also trying to keep up with up with my son, Declyn, is probably what’s been giving me the most energy and creativity lately!
For those who haven’t seen you on tour, how would you describe a Cyndi Lauper concert experience and how do you continuously make each tour better than the last?
One word…FUN! I always try to have fun on stage. I like to make each show different. The band I am currently traveling with is probably the best band I have ever played with. These guys are some of the best blues players around and always keep me on my toes. I have the best time with them on stage. We do a good mix of songs off of the Memphis Blues and of course include many of my other hits. I know fans want to have that too. Dr. John (opening act) is amazing too so, you don’t want to miss him. I go out on stage with him during his set, and we are having a blast.
What’s life on the road like for you?
It’s fun, exciting, and tough at the same time. I love being on stage and seeing and connecting with my fans. It’s very rewarding. The not-so-fun part is the travel and the packing, but I do like touring. Equally tough is that I miss my kid a lot, so that’s the really hard part of it. It can get lonely mainly because I miss my family so much. But my band is like my second family and that is really nice. Next year, I won’t be doing many shows so I try to focus on the shows I am doing now and enjoy them.
When you’re not working, where do you like to travel ?
When I am not working, I usually like to stay in New York. I am on tour a lot, so when I do get some time off, I usually like to spend it with my family. An amazing thing about New York City, I can easily walk my son to school every day without anyone following us down the block. I take subways and really try to lead a normal life.
You continuously support the LGBT community (thank you!)—what’s next in your advocacy efforts, and how can your fans show their support too?
I started the Give a Damn Campaign last year in part to educate straight people about the issue and to help gay and transgender people use the information to spread the message. I encourage everyone to log on and learn more about it (www.wegiveadamn.org).
What can you tell us about the upcoming reality show and the musical you’re working on? Are these two projects that you’ve always wanted to do?
I am currently writing the music for the Broadway adaptation of the British film Kinky Boots. Harvey Fierstein is writing the book, Jerry Mitchell is the director, and Stephen Oremus is the music director. It is a pretty amazing company to work with. Unfortunately, I will not be on stage for this show, but I am having an amazing time in developing the show. As for the reality show, I did a deal with Mark Burnett Productions before I signed on to Celebrity Apprentice. It’s going to be a lot of fun to do. It is mostly about me and my day-to-day focused on my career. We start filming in January!
Wow! You certainly are busy. At the end of the day, how do you like to unwind?
I like to watch old movies from the glamour Hollywood years, and I like to hang out and play scrabble with my son. Pretty normal stuff!
ENTER TO WIN TWO TICKETS TO LAUPER’S NOVEMBER 4th LOS ANGELES SHOW. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON FACEBOOK AND THEN “LIKE” US ON FACEBOOK (www.facebook.com/passportmag). WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN NOVEMBER 2.
From Wrigley Field to Home Turfs Across the Country, America is "Going Green" for National Runaway Prevention Month
Spirit of Youth 2011 lasts the entire month of November. The goal is to raise $100,000 for the National Runaway Switchboard to keep youth safe and off the streets.
CHICAGO, Oct. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Going green" typically means making eco-friendly choices, but in November it highlights the color and turns the spotlight on National Runaway Prevention Month (NRPM). NRPM is a public education campaign symbolized by the color green, and is spearheaded by the National Runaway Switchboard (NRS) and the National Network for Youth to raise awareness about the youth runaway crisis in America and to educate people about prevention and solutions.
"The runaway issue has been a silent crisis too long, and this November we need to get Americans talking about it," said Maureen Blaha, NRS executive director. "The truth is that prevention is possible and help is available."
To bring greater understanding of this problem, individuals and organizations throughout the country are planning activities during November, including:
Social Media Day of Action: On Nov. 1, people are encouraged to wear green socks, upload photos of it to Facebook, and tweet these photos while using the hashtag #NRPM2011. NRS will tweet runaway prevention facts throughout the day and host a webinar on the long-term effects of running away, which will stream live at http://ustre.am/E3CP at 12:30 p.m. CT/1:30 p.m. ET. Questions for the panel can be tweeted with the hashtag #NRPM2011.
Green Light Project: Americans can show support of runaway and at-risk youth by shining a green light on their front porches. This year, Wrigley Field in Chicago is getting involved and promoting 1-800-RUNAWAY and www.1800RUNAWAY.org on its marquee on Nov. 2. Agencies such as Family Connection, Inc., in Alabama and the Huckleberry House in Ohio will hand out green socks and light bulbs to community members.
Spirit of Youth Benefit: This Chicago event is NRS' annual fundraiser to recognize individuals and organizations that help to keep America's runaway, homeless and at-risk youth safe and off the street. The 2011 Spirit of Youth award recipient is artist and civil rights activist Cyndi Lauper, who took part in last year's Green Light Project. The Cyndi Lauper True Colors Fund will be honored at the benefit on Nov. 18. This year's platinum sponsor is United Airlines, and the gold sponsors are Carlton Technologies, Chicago Tribune, Greyhound Lines and Radio Flyer.
The From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour stopped off last night, 25th October 2011 in Buffalo, NY at the Kleinhans Music Hall. Cyndi Lauper joined Dr. John on stage and performed Makin' Whoopie and Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (Lay My Burden Down).
Cyndi Lauper's set was shorter tonight with the exclusion of What's Going On and Lyfe but it did include Down Don't Bother Me which has not been performed in a while.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Down Don't Bother Me
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist & Photos from Colin McLeod.
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
To those unfamiliar with her childhood and early music career, Cyndi Lauper’s foray into the blues might seem like another attempt by a veteran singer to rejuvenate a career by poaching other genres and eras.
Among others, the exercise worked for Rod Stewart, who has launched another career ransacking the Great American Songbook.
But Lauper’s latest album, “Memphis Blues,” released in June 2010, pays homage to music that takes her back to her childhood, she will tell you.
It comes, too, from her first live-music project: as the lead singer in a Janis Joplin cover band. “Blues” is also the latest in a series of projects that have put Lauper in the studio — as a singer, songwriter and producer — with well-known artists from other genres.
“My earliest introduction to the blues was through my mother,” she said recently in a phone interview with The Star. “She played lots of Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller. I remember doing laundry and we’d dance wildly around the living room, me and my sister and brother. That’s why, for me, the blues have always been uplifting.”
“Memphis Blues” celebrates more than just Lauper’s affection for the blues. It also celebrates the city that played such a prominent role in the birth and evolution of rock ’n’ roll and other styles of music.
The album was recorded at Electrophonic Studios in Memphis, and it features several well-known blues artists, including reigning legend B.B. King, plus Charlie Musselwhite and Jonny Lang. Memphis soul queen Ann Peebles also makes a guest appearance, as does New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint.
The songs include standards by some of the genre’s giants: “Down Don’t Bother Me” by Albert King; “Crossroads” by Robert Johnson; “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” a standard that Muddy Waters owns. As old as some of those songs are, Lauper said, they still resonate, especially in these down-and-out times.
“The blues thing was exciting to me because a lot of these blues artists could not read and write, but they have this large body of work,” she said. “Take Albert King. He wrote songs like ‘Down Don’t Bother Me’: ‘I been down so long, down don’t bother me.’ I felt like I should capture the atmosphere of the time I’m living, and the blues was what people were feeling. A lot of those old songs don’t sound so old to me.”
Lauper said she had wanted to record a blues album as far back as 2004, but her label wanted something else. Instead, in 2005, she released “The Body Acoustic,” in which she and her co-producers reworked 10 of her best-known songs into acoustic/roots songs: “True Colors,” “Time After Time,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
Again, she worked with a large stable of famous (and disparate) guests: Jeff Beck, Sarah McLachlan, Ani DiFranco, Vivian Green. It was, she said, a project more for her record company, which wanted another hits package, than for herself.
“On big labels, the older artists become catalog cows,” she said. “So I made it more tolerable by inviting my friends and making it an acoustic album. I also wrote a couple of new songs, which gave me the chance to work with Jeff Beck.”
She still had that blues album in mind, but before she started it, Lauper went in another direction. In 2008, the year she turned 55, she released “Bring Ya to the Brink,” a dance album she recorded with some of the industry’s most prominent DJs and producers.
“I’d been on the True Colors Tour and I noticed how much energy people were bringing to those shows,” she said. “I love dance music so I traveled around the world, writing and working with different dance artists, people who were more than just producers.”
The experience was enlightening for her and for a lot of the people she worked with.
“A lot of dance guys, they don’t read the album credits,” she said, “so they didn’t know I wasn’t just a singer. They didn’t know I wrote songs and arranged songs and I was involved in production. A lot of them think you’re showing up to learn their craft. They had no idea I’d been singing in clubs since they were cutting their baby teeth.
“Some of them were really exciting to work with. They have such a great spirit and can be experimental in their own nutty ways. The Basement Jaxx are completely out of their mind and so much fun.”
That process of working with artists in other genres and of other generations is imperative, she said, to anyone who wants to experiment and evolve and avoid being pigeonholed as a one- or two-hit wonder or heritage act.
“Older artists and younger artists can inspire each other,” she said. “That’s what makes the art community so exciting and inviting to me. You get to see how others do their work and you can get exposed to processes you might not see. It’s easy to become so isolated that sometimes you wonder, ‘What’s up with me?’ But when you see how others work, it’s easier to relax and go, ‘OK. Everyone has their own way. It’s all good.’ ”
So when it came time to record “Memphis Blues,” it felt natural to invite people like Toussaint, Peebles and Lang. And Charles “Skip” Pitts, who has worked with Al Green and Isaac Hayes. And two members of the Hi Rhythm Section, well-known for its work with Green: bassist Leroy Hodges and drummer Howard Grimes. Even for someone accustomed to being in the studio or on stage with other stars, Lauper said, this project brought her close to some longtime heroes and heroines — people she has admired for a long time.
“It was such a joy to sing while Allen Toussaint was playing piano,” she said. “I got to sing with Tracy Nelson on the DVD. On the Grammy Awards, I got to sing with Mavis Staples. Does it get any better? I’m used to singing along with those people, but alone, in my room.”
The DVD, “To Memphis With Love,” was released on Tuesday. It, too, was part of Lauper’s campaign to honor the city that so heavily influenced American music. The project turned out to be so ambitious she had trouble finding a place to film the show.
“I wanted everyone who played on the record and some who didn’t,” she said. “But I couldn’t find a place with a stage large enough. The one theater that had a stage big enough was closed. So we rented a place called the Warehouse, which is rented out for parties. And that’s what we did. We had a party. And they filmed it. It was kind of awesome.”
Among those who perform on the “Love” DVD who weren’t on the album: Nelson, whose song “Down So Low” is covered on “Memphis Blues.”
At her Midland show on Monday, Lauper is bringing Musselwhite, along with a five-man band that includes another member of the Hi Rhythm Section, keyboardist Archie Turner, plus some of her longtime touring musicians. New Orleans legend Dr. John has been opening for Lauper for most of this tour and joining her for a song. However, he is taking a few shows off, including this one. The Bo-Keys, a nine-man soul/jazz band from Memphis featuring members of the Hi Rhythm Section, will open instead.
That’s some esteemed company for a singer from Brooklyn who is still well-known for the MTV videos that illustrated her lust for outlandish fashion and unbridled energy.
That was more than 25 years ago. But Lauper said that though she has grown profoundly since, she hasn’t changed fundamentally. Having fun is all part of the larger process of learning, experimenting and evolving.
“I want to keep growing and working with as many great artists as I can,” she said. “Music is a lifelong journey.”
Presale begins: Wednesday 26th October 2011 (10/26/11) @ 10:00 AM. Visit here. PASSWORD: equality for nyc
Cyndi Lauper and the True Colors Fund are excited to extend a special pre-sale to Give a Damn Campaign members before tickets go on sale to the general public.
The pre-sale runs from 10 am EST tomorrow, Thursday, October 27th until tomorrow night at 10 pm EST. The password you will need to make your purchase is DAMN. The pre-sale runs from 10 am EST tomorrow, Thursday, October 27th until tomorrow night at 10 pm EST. The password you will need to make your purchase is DAMN. GET YOUR TICKETS! >>
In her latest unusual move, Cyndi Lauper is embracing tradition.
Lauper's "Memphis Blues" album earned a Grammy Award nomination this year for its renditions of blues standards, some originally recorded in the 1930s and '40s.
In the 1980s, Lauper resembled a precursor to Lady Gaga as she sported outlandish fashions and sang about sex while selling more than 6 million copies of her debut album, "She's So Unusual."
During a recent phone interview, Lauper said "Memphis Blues" isn't necessarily a departure from her career in pop music.
"I wanted the music to be a little dirty and soulful," she said.
The "Memphis Blues" album features appearances by Memphis greats B.B. King, the Hi Records rhythm section (known for 1970s recordings with Al Green) and Ann Peebles (who recorded 1973 hit "I Can't Stand the Rain").
Lauper is teaming with New Orleans icon Dr. John for a tour titled "From Memphis to Mardi Gras," which includes a Thursday stop at Carmel's Palladium. Today, Lauper released a live DVD titled "To Memphis, With Love."
Question:
How did a girl from Queens (New York) fall in love with Memphis?
Answer: Well, Memphis is where rock was born. It's where blues music cultivated into soul and rock and funk.
Q: Why make the "Memphis Blues" album at this point in your career?
A: Why not?
Q: You might have thrown people a curve ball . . .
A: Oh, wait. Me throw a curve ball? Why would I ever do that? I wanted to make this record in 2004. In 2010, I figured if I don't make it now I never will. So I did. I wanted it to be authentic. I wasn't going to make a blues record in New York City. I went south, and I found this guy, Scott Bomar. He has a band called the Bo-Keys with members of the Hi Records rhythm section.
Q: I'm guessing that the Hi Records rhythm section helped you connect with Ann Peebles?
A: I heard them talking about her, saying, "Ann this" and "Ann that." I walked over to Howard Grimes, who was playing drums, and said, "Ann? Would that be Ann Peebles?" He said, "Yes, she's from Memphis." He had her phone number, so I called and asked if she would be on the record. I couldn't believe she said, "Yes." I cried then. I cried when I sang with Mavis Staples.
You have to understand what it's like to sing with these people after singing with their records growing up. I must have been Barbra Streisand's best friend at 9 years old. She doesn't know it, but we were tight.
Q: I saw your Twitter post about recording a Christmas song with Norah Jones, which seems to be another example of this sorority of female singers.
A: I love the whole idea of an artist community. As an artist, you want to talk to other artists. You want to share your experiences. You want to hear about other people's processes, because you have your own process.
Q: When I saw that you recorded "How Blue Can You Get," I was eager to hear how you approached B.B. King's interlude about, "I bought you a $10 dinner; you said 'Thanks for the snack.' "
A: You have to change that. Today, $10 barely gets Starbucks and a sandwich.
Q: So Nobu restaurant (in New York) found its way into your version.
A: My kid (Declyn) always wants to go to Nobu, and Nobu is very expensive. Spago, too. My kid's a foodie.
Q: How old is your son?
A: He's 13, but he's always been this way.
Q: On "Memphis Blues," B.B. duets with you on Louis Jordan's "Early in the Mornin'." He's a fairly strong call-and-response partner?
A: The first thing I heard as a kid were records by Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller. Those songs had that whole back-and-forth banter, and it was my favorite part. Of course, I wanted to do that with B.B. When I sang with Frank Sinatra on "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (in 1992), his people found it very disrespectful. I felt it was very much in keeping with that tradition -- especially in a light-hearted song.
Q: You and Dr. John are playing 14 dates on the "From Memphis to Mardi Gras" tour. How is the evening structured?
A: He comes out and plays, and I come out for one song with him. Then I play with my guys. I basically climb all over everybody, but it's all right. We have fun.
For over 25 years, we have been blessed with the talents of the always unpredictable Cyndi Lauper. We, of course, remember her bursting onto the music scene in 1983 with her "She’s So Unusual" album which made her the first female artist to have four Top 5 Billboard hits from one album ("Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," "She Bop," "All Through The Night," and "Time After Time").
She is one of the best selling artists over four decades (1980s - 2010s). Besides her prowess as a singer and musician, Lauper has tackled film, television, and Broadway with award winning performances (including a 1985 Women In Film Crystal Award and an Emmy award for her guest appearance on the sit-com "Mad About You"). For her music, she’s won numerous Grammy awards, including a Best New Artist award in 1985 and four awards for "We Are The World" the following year.
And now she shows us that there really is no music genre that she cannot handle with her Grammy-nominated "Memphis Blues" album being the catalyst of her new tour From Memphis To Mardi Gras and a new documentary-DVD performance and live recording package From Memphis With Love.
Cyndi is no stranger to the LGBT community having been the creator and participant of many projects that have supported issues of gay concern, and she has earned the communities undying support as an artist and activist over the years. I was privileged to catch up with "unusual" one while she is on her 20-city tour with Dr. John, and became more in awe of her as a person.
Bucked popular trends
BeBe: Over your career of more than 25 years, you have continually bucked the creative trends of the music industry and produced material that would be safe to say not in the mainstream of the time. What compels you to put out the music you do when you do?
Cyndi Lauper: Music compels me to do music. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t make music. I think about it all the time, and honestly, I just follow my spirit. For whatever reason, good or bad, I don’t think about trends when I am making music so I’m not intentionally bucking trends. I just don’t think I’d be very good at trying to fit in just to fit in. I have been very lucky to have the most supportive and loyal fans who are very adventurous.
BeBe: I think audiences are still amazed at what a wide range of music genres you are able to cover, and your Grammy-nominated "Memphis Blues" definitely represents some of the unexpected. What is your story behind the music on the CD?
Cyndi Lauper: I wanted to do this CD when I was still at Sony back in 2004. Jeff Beck (guitarist for the likes of Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder, ZZ Top, Kate Bush) and I had wanted to do a blues cover project, but Sony didn’t want us to do it. I have always been a fan of blues, because as Muddy Water is quoted, "If blues gave birth to a child, that child would be rock and roll...," and really all popular music. I have been listening to the blues since I was a kid. I loved how Janis Joplin and acts like the Rolling Stones made it modern in the 70s. Also, that’s when I discovered all the great blues female singers like Big Momma Thornton and Big Maybelle. They really influenced me as a singer. So yea, I always had this project in the back of my mind.
Working with B.B. King
BeBe: You work with one of the greatest blues musicians in the business in B.B. King on your latest collection. What was your experience like working with the king of the blues?
Cyndi Lauper: What can I say? This is the great BB King!!! I was so nervous in the beginning that I would have to leave the studio because I was so excited and thrilled. It brought me to tears. It was the most amazing experience of my life. It was a privilege to work with all the talented artists on this album, such as, Ann Peebles, Allen Toussaint and Jonny Lang.
BeBe: You have definitely had a long standing love affair with the gay community throughout your career. Did you think you may be taking a risk with satisfying the musical palettes of your gay fans with "Memphis Blues"?
Cyndi Lauper: I didn’t see it as a risk. I am the luckiest girl to have the most amazing fans... ever! They love all kinds of music. At different times in my career, I have wanted to record certain genres of music that have been meaningful to me, or that have helped shape me as an artist, and they (gay fans) have always come along for the ride. For that, I am grateful.
BeBe: You are currently on a 20-city tour performing the songs from "Memphis Blues." Yet you chose not play but three West Coast cities, excluding San Francisco where you were Grand Marshall of its Pride celebration a few years ago. What is the reasoning behind that?
Cyndi Lauper: I really wanted to do these dates with Dr. John ("From Memphis To Mardi Gras Tour"), so honestly it was about finding time we both had to hit the road together. Then once that was decided, our agents put the tour together. We just gave them really basic instruction about where we want to go. We both love San Francisco, but it just didn’t work out routing wise.
Shoeless Cyndi?
BeBe: "Your To Memphis With Love" DVD recording from a performance at the Warehouse in Memphis in late 2010 is due for public release later this month. The format would have been great for a television special. Was that ever a consideration?
Cyndi Lauper: That would be great, but that wasn’t my intention. My intention was to show my fans a behind the scenes look at what it takes to make a record, and put on a show, and of course, to document the live performance of Memphis Blues tour. I hope everyone likes it. I worked really hard on it.
BeBe: You perform of course throughout your performance on "To Memphis With Love" shoeless which has become your trademark. How did your barefoot stage presence begin?
Cyndi Lauper: It’s just easier! I really try to be fully connected when I am on stage, and for whatever reason, I like to feel the stage underneath my feet. A good pair of grip sneakers work good for that, too. It’s hard to dance and move and immerse yourself when your feet are killing ya! (Halleloo, sista!)
BeBe: Since 2007, you have definitely brought the awareness of the issues confronting the gay community to the mainstream with your True Colors Tour, True Colors Fund, True Colors Residence, and the MAC Viva Glam Campaign. Do you see yourself as a role model for some of the young artists in the business that have gained favor with the gay community to do the same?
Cyndi Lauper: I will be very glad if that happens. You know you have to support one another. You have to be there for your fans.
A new musical?
BeBe: You continue to express your creative juices and talents through other media such as theater, film, and television. With such acclaim that you have received from your acting, including an Emmy Award, will your thespian side become more apart of your life in the years to come?
Cyndi Lauper: Absolutely! I have a few offers now to do some independent films that I am seriously looking at. I hope to reprise my role on "Bones" this year, and would love to perform on Broadway again, too.
BeBe: Is it true you have a reality show in production? Is this following you in your day-to-day life?
Cyndi Lauper: Yes the deal was inked with Mark Burnett Productions ("Survivor", "The Apprentice," Martha Stewart, People’s Choice Awards) before I signed on to "Celebrity Apprentice." It is mostly about me and my day-to-day focus on my career. We start filming in January. It is going to be a lot of fun to do. Can’t wait to get started.
BeBe: One of your next projects is penning your autobiography (Simon and Schuster). In general, what might we find out about Cyndi Lauper that we don’t already know?
Cyndi Lauper: I read tarot cards, but I think a lot of people know that. I am not that good at it, but it’s a lot of fun. I am also a big fan of old movies from the glamour Hollywood years. It is one of my favorites to past (the) time when I am not working.
BeBe: Noted pop stars like Elton John, Paul McCartney and even Scissor Sister have taken on writing the score for musical productions on stage. You, too, are writing for a Broadway musical. Tell me a little of this project.
Cyndi Lauper: It is called "Kinky Boots." It is the Broadway adaptation of the British film (a drag queen rescues a shoe factory). I am writing the music for it. Harvey Fierstein (Broadway: "Torch Song Trilogy," "La Cage aux Folles") is writing the book, Jerry Mitchell ("Legally Blonde: The Musical") is the director, and Stephen Oremus ("Avenue Q," "Wicked") is the music director. It is an amazing company to work with. I will not be on stage for this show, but I am having a blast with the development process. Can’t wait for you all to see it.
BeBe: You are so multifaceted. You are a singer, a musician, a composer, an actress, a humanitarian, and soon to be author. Can any of these descriptives be independent of the others when speaking of you?
Cyndi Lauper: I am very lucky that I have had opportunities to do them all.
Cyndi Lauper’s "From Memphis With Love" DVD/CD package will be released on October 25 on Megaforce Records and available at all major retailers.
Her "From Memphis To Mardis Gras Tour" with Dr. John continues with the following dates: 10/25, Buffalo, NY, Kleinhans Music Hall; 10/27, Carmel, IN, The Palladium; 10/28, Aurora, IL, Paramount Theatre. Dates without Dr. John are: 10/31, Kansas City, MO, The Midland by AMC; 11/1, Denver, CO, Ogden Theater; 11/3, San Diego, CA, 4th & B; 11/4, Los Angeles, CA, Club Nokia; 11/5, Reno, NV, Silver Legacy Casino.
Cyndi Lauper and Dr. John's From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour played in Boston, MA at the House of Blues on Sunday 23rd October 2011. As usual Cyndi Lauper joined Dr. John on stage during his set singing Wang Dang Doodle and Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (Lay My Burden Down).
No change or additions to the setlist.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist & Photos from Colin McLeod.
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
To Memphis, With Love is now available in Europe, Canada, US and Japan to download on iTunes. In Japan, Germany, France, UK and the US To Memphis, With Love can also be downloaded on Amazon.
The 14 track album features: Shattered Dreams / Just Your Fool / Early In The Mornin' / Romance In The Dark / How Blue Can You Get? / Down Don’t Bother Me / Down So Low / Crossroads / I Will Follow (Lead Me On) / Don’t Cry No More / She Bop / Mother Earth / Change Of Heart / Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Cyndi Lauper played a show last night, 22nd October 2011 in Reading, PA at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center. For the first time during this From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John sang two songs together. The first songs sung was Makin' Whoopie and the second, an upbeat song called Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (Lay My Burden Down). Each member of Dr. John's band sung a verse, making it a group ensemble number.
Cyndi Lauper took to the stage around 9:50 and performed a 90 minute, her current standard setlist. She was donned in her red wig and a suede black suit. No added extras were played last night but the 2 songs with Dr. John and his band more than made up for lack of surprises in Cyndi Lauper's set.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
This T-shirt is available at the shows and from Cyndi Lauper's Official Store.
After a day off, the From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour stopped off in Glenside, PA at the Keswick Theater last night, 21st October 2011 delighting fans of both Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John. It has now become a regular feature, Cyndi Lauper and Dr. John duetting during his set, singing Wang Dang Doodle and fans in Glenside did not miss out on this treat.
Without the presence of Charlie Musselwhite as part of the Cyndi Lauper Band the setlist saw Lead Me On (only performed twice thus far, Orlando & Birmingham) make a return to the set. Whilst the set is almost the same as previous shows, it has a completely different feel without Charlie Musselwhite playing his harmonica.
Cyndi Lauper announced she WILL NOT BE TOURING ANYWHERE IN 2012! She said she is taking the year off from touring to work on all the other projects she has going on in her life.
A new piece of merchandise made its debut last night in Kewick. A new To Memphis, With Love Hoodie
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Fearless (one verse + chorus acapella)
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist from Colin McLeod.
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
Cyndi Lauper says she had a dream and it told her it was time to sing the blues.
So she did.
The result was 2010's "Memphis Blues," which finds Lauper covering standards and songs by such blues legends as Albert King, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson.
"I had a dream in 1988. I don't know who it was, but it was a piano player, I think it might have been Walter ('Fats') Pichon, and I remember in the dream the guy playing said, 'I like your version of 'What's Goin' On'
and I started saying, 'I don't know, I'm not trained in chart positions,'"
Lauper says over the phone. "He said 'You should play old songs and do them the way (Janis) Joplin would do them.'"
"Blues" is Lauper's 11th studio album. Lauper says she had been kicking around the idea of doing a blues record since 2004. "I had these songs, but I didn't know if I was going to suck or not," Lauper jokes.
Why Memphis?
"It was the birthplace of rock and it had this soulful feel. I kept thinking, 'What if I do (my) version of blues?' Certainly there was this middle ground where the blues was cultivated and it morphed into rock and it has so many flavors," Lauper says. "It's gotta have that Southern thing."
"Memphis" is not a typical genre record. It's the blues Lauper-style.
"I'd rather work with a hard rhythm section so I did that and it was a great thing to do. I wasn't sure how it was going to be, you know. But what if I don't take a chance? You got to put yourself out there and learn and
change," Lauper says.
For Lauper, "Memphis Blues" brought her career full circle. Before her 1983 debut album, "She's So Unusual" turned her into a pop superstar and MTV sensation, Lauper cut her teeth fronting several New York area cover bands before damaging her vocal chords and taking time off to regain her voice.
"I did a lot of these male singers and Joplin and Grace Slick and Stevie Nicks, 'cause they were popular, 'cause it's good to be in a jukebox for a second because you learn how to perform," Lauper recalls. "Thank god I
lost my voice while I was still in a cover band."
Lauper resurfaced with the band Blue Angel in 1980 before going solo two years later. Following the success of "Unusual" — which included the hit singles "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Time After Time" and "She Bop" — Lauper released the studio albums "True Colors" in 1986 and "A Night to Remember" in 1989. In 1985, she appeared on the USA for Africa single "We Are the World."
Though Lauper released a handful of albums throughout the 1990s, "Memphis" brought her back to the top of the charts. The album went on to sell a staggering million copies, peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 chart — making it her highest-charting album since "True Colors" — and No. 1 on Billboard's blues albums chart.
It was also nominated for a 2010 Grammy for best traditional blues album. But Lauper is humble about the album's success.
"I'm doing what the dream was telling me to do," Lauper says.
The release of "Memphis Blues" came on the heels of her appearance on Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice" reality show (Lauper finished in sixth place). She says "Apprentice" caused her to lose her voice, again.
"I was talking too much," Lauper jokes.
But Lauper's voice returned to full form and she has a new live DVD to prove it. "To Memphis with Love" will be released Tuesday. Lauper is currently on the road with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pianist/guitarist Dr. John. The pair perform tonight at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA.
In addition, Lauper will release her autobiography through Simon & Schuster and will be the star of an upcoming reality series produced by Mark Burnett Productions.
"They follow me around and my manager, our life, a little bit of my private life and how we try and do these different projects," Lauper says of the reality show. "It feels like (climbing a) mountain, but we get it done."
Just have fun
Singer Cyndi Lauper takes the stage 8 o'clock tonight with Dr. John at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, Pa.
On paper, a tour featuring Cyndi Lauper and Dr. John sounds like the set-up for an offbeat, odd-couple reality show: “She’s the kooky New York songstress with the powerful pipes who had a string of hits in the ’80s like ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ and ‘Time After Time’ and garnered acclaim in roles on TV, film, and Broadway; he’s the funky New Orleans keyboard legend who’s played on hundreds of records with everyone from Van Morrison to Aretha Franklin and Bob Seger and was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How will these two get along?"
Just fine, it turns out. The pair behind the "From Memphis to Mardi Gras" trek, (which comes to the House of Blues on Sunday) form a charming mutual admiration society and share a deep love of the blues, which Lauper explored on her most recent album “Memphis Blues." They’ll even share the stage during Dr. John’s set to perform “Wang Dang Doodle."
We chatted with Lauper, 58, and the man also known as Mac Rebennack, 70, earlier this week in a conversation that zig-zagged endearingly from his down-home, free-range New Orleans drawl to her energetic, giggle-interjecting Noo Yawk squawk.
Q. How has the tour been going?
Dr. John: Everything has been slammin’.
Lauper: Yeah, it’s pretty extraordinary to be able to do a show like this and having people like Dr. John and the wonderful musicians he’s playing with and my band with [legendary harmonica player] Charlie Musselwhite and part of the Hi [Records] rhythm section. It’s been really great. I feel very lucky.
Q. Where did you get the inspiration for the tour?
Lauper: I wanted to do a tour that would be real Americana, so I said “Well who’s out?’’ And they said Dr. John. So when they contacted him he liked the idea and here we are.
Q. Cyndi, did you have favorites of Dr. John’s stuff?
Lauper: There was always “Right Place Wrong Time," I heard that when I was a kid. But the stuff he did with Rickie Lee Jones - he also did a track with one of my friends Angela McCluskey - he is an American classic. And what he puts into a song has so much spice, it makes it really thrilling to listen to every night. And he’s a wonderful, wonderful keyboardist. For me, when I was starting, Dr. John used to have background singers in the ’70s, and of course he played with a lot of different people, and I had always wanted to be a really good background singer, but I wound up being a lead singer. That’s how it goes. (Laughs).
Q. Is there a room in the band now for a background singer, Dr. John?
Lauper: (Laughs.) Yeah, for a background singer?
Dr. John: Hey, if I could afford it, I would I do it.
Q. What was your first reaction when you heard that Cyndi was making a blues album?
Dr. John: I thought that was a hip idea. You know what, there was a song she did a long time ago and even though it wasn’t a straight up blues, it was a song called “Time After Time,’’ it was very akin to bluesy structure. It was covered by Miles Davis and a lot of people, that in and of itself showed that she had the blues roots thing.
Lauper: Awww. I was fighting them to just write so when I finally got to write that song and it did get covered like that, it was a great nod.
Q. You’ve played with so many people, Dr. John. What draws you to collaborations?
Dr. John: I’ve been a studio musician for 56 years of my life. You know what? I still like to do records and I don’t like to just do my records, I like to do a lot of people’s records.
Q. He’s been making records almost as long as you’ve been alive, Cyndi. Is that inspirational?
Lauper: When you enter into becoming a musician, it’s a lifelong journey. It continues because music propels you into places and opens your mind up to all kinds of things, and so this is a journey, and it’s a craft and something that gives you life. This blues thing, this is where the masters are, the people who have been doing it forever. And it’s an honor to be on a bill with you, Dr. John, and to play with musicians whose skill and spirit is so big.
Cyndi Lauper says she fought to make a blues album for eight years.
Executives at her record company made faces every time she raised the idea.
They were more interested in convincing Lauper to try and recreate the sound that made her a huge pop star in the 1980s. When that failed, they were happy to pick over her catalog, finding new ways to repackage her old work.
"That's all they knew how to sell," Lauper says in that unmistakable speaking voice, filled with child-like wonder but grounded in the streets of New York City. "They would never push anything new. They would only do catalog.
"I left the label and I said, 'OK, I'm doing a blues record. End of story. That's it. If it's not now, it's never going to be.'"
Lauper released "Memphis Blues" last year and her outsized voice is a match for standards by the likes of Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Big Bill Broonzy and Muddy Waters.
Helping out on the album are King himself, singer Ann Peebles, guitarist Jonny Lang, harmonica great Charlie Musselwhite and members of the Hi Rhythm Section, which provided the instrumental backing on classic albums by Peebles and Al Green, among many others.
Also featured on the album is Crescent City pianist Allen Toussaint.
"It was blues with a little New Orleans spice," Lauper says.
Members of the Hi Rhythm Section and Musselwhite will join Lauper when she performs Saturday night at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center in Reading. Also on the bill is Dr. John, the New Orleans pianist and singer.
"I don't know him," Lauper says during a telephone interview before the beginning of the tour. "I'm sure he's a fantastic guy, and he knows Charlie, too. I'm sure we'll have extraordinary nights."
Lauper, 58, says she will showcase songs from "Memphis Blues" during the show, but won't neglect the songs that made her famous.
With her always-interesting hair, outlandish costumes and loopy personality, Lauper became something of a pop culture icon upon the release of "She's So Unusual" (1983), her debut album.
The album contained a boatload of hits, including "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," "Time After Time" and "All Through the Night."
She has sold more than 50 million albums during her career and has been nominated for 19 Grammy Awards, winning two for her solo work and four for her participation in the "We Are the World" project. "Memphis Blues" was nominated for best traditional blues album.
She also has branched out into acting, winning an Emmy Award for her guest role on the TV show "Mad About You." She has a recurring role on the TV show "Bones" and recently starred in a Broadway production of "The Threepenny Opera."
Lauper, who is married and has a son, is not used to being stymied when she wants something, and she wasn't going to let a few obstacles stop her from making a blues album.
Initially, she wanted to make an album with guitarist Jeff Beck. The two musicians did collaborate on a song, "Above the Clouds," that appears on her 2005 album "The Body Acoustic."
"It just never worked out," Lauper says of the project with Beck. "But I did get to do some work with him and I wrote a song with him, so I can't really complain. It could still happen. Who knows? I'm not dead and he's not dead."
Lauper realized she needed to change her strategy.
"I just felt like if I never made it, I'd really be disappointed," she says. "So, somehow, I had to figure out how to make this record. Then I figured if I wanted it to be a legitimate record -- and of course I wanted a legitimate record -- I had to take a journey south. I wanted to go to Clarksdale (Miss.), but I couldn't imagine me driving in Clarksdale and I didn't know if it was very rural.
"So I went to Memphis."
Lauper recruited Scott Bomar to produce the album.
"I said I wanted authentic players and I told him it's gotta be dirty, it's gotta be authentic, it's gotta be gritty a little."
Bomar, in turn, recruited members of the Hi Rhythm Section to play on the album. Lauper insisted on being in the studio when the musicians rehearsed the songs she planned to record.
"I didn't want them to rehearse the songs without me," Lauper says. "I didn't tell them what key it was. I didn't want any of that. I was not into walking in and just singing on top of something. I don't do that. I arrange. Even my vocal arrangements, I work it out with the musicians as I see how they play."
More than anything, Lauper says she hoped her take on the blues would recall the magic of being 5 years old and dancing with her mom to the sounds of Louis Armstrong.
"My mom and I would dance wildly to him," she says. "Any moment that we wanted to have fun, she'd turn it on and we'd dance around. And that joy is the kind of joy I wanted to bring to this music -- the kind of joy I had."
Scandinavian fans can now pre-order To Memphis, With Love. The CD+DVD comes out in Sweden, Denmark and Norway on the 24th October 2011 and in Finland on the 26th October 2011. Naïve/Playground will release/distribute the release in Scandinavia.
Cyndi Lauper has gone from being a girl who just wants to have fun to a woman who has won Grammys, scored a Broadway play, won an Emmy, written an autobiography - and is still having fun.
"We just keep trying to do all these things," Lauper said. "And I always think it's a miracle that we get it done."
Just last year she topped the charts with the release of her latest CD, "Memphis Blues," and she's got a DVD of the "Memphis Blues" show coming out soon. She's also working on a reality television show with Mark Burnett while writing the songs for "Kinky Boots," a Broadway show based on the movie of the same name.
And, Lauper will appear with Dr. John at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center on Saturday at 8 p.m. as part of her "Memphis Blues" tour, in a concert that's being billed as "From Memphis to Mardi Gras."
"The whole idea of doing the blues thing goes all the way back to when I started singing," she said of those days in the 1960s and '70s. "I started singing in a Janis Joplin cover band. That was my first gig as a lead singer."
In the 1980s, though, Lauper's wheelhouse was pop music with the iconic songs "Girls Just Want To Have Fun," "True Colors" and "Time After Time."
She says now that she couldn't have made that type of music if she hadn't understood the blues.
"The blues are the root of everything we sing," she said. "It's all based on call and response."
All music, she said, is based in that very thing - the ability of an artist to connect with an audience. Even if it is an audience of one little girl sitting in her family's apartment in Brooklyn.
"As a young girl I listened to Aretha (Franklin) and sang with her," Lauper said. "She taught me how to sing. Then I thought Barbra Streisand was my best friend because I was singing with her (records) when I was 9 years old. The Motown people they all taught me."
The best vocal lesson she ever got, she said, was actually in the early morning hours of a retreat in Tuxedo Park in New York.
"There was fog on the mountain, but you heard the birds and they were so sweet," Lauper said. "There is a rhythm to the way they sing. And I was whistling back and forth with them, and it was so pure, and it was the most simple lesson I've ever learned."
That give and take has been a lesson in all parts of her career, as she's branched into writing and acting.
And it's evident in this tour as she uses the stage not only to move the audience with her music but also with her stories and her emotion.
"I love singing and writing and creating," she said. "I just think I'm so lucky to be able to do this."
It has its price, though, and she's OK with that.
"You have to be famous to be able to do your art," she said. "So I took it as a tradeoff."
She writes about those tradeoffs - the deep loss of privacy - in her autobiography due out sometime in 2012.
"I think that everyone knows everything about me," she said. "I'm a blabbermouth. But when it's all together I think it will be interesting. I had an interesting life before I was famous, and then being famous is interesting. The truth is that fame doesn't come with a handbook."
Lauper found her way through that maze with hard work and always putting her art first.
She likes to keep busy, and she takes advantage of the opportunities that have come her way.
And even after more than 40 years in the business, she's still giddy and grateful to be remembered and to able to make the kind of music she loves.
She's hoping to get on stage with Dr. John and jam out to his music as well as her own, and she's thrilled to be working with blues legends Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica, Steve Potts on drums and Archie Turner on keyboards.
"Dr. John is an American legend," she said. "He's played some wonderful music over the years, and he's truly a master. I get to be on stage with these wonderful people."
That enthusiasm carries her when days get long and traveling gets tough.
"Why would you want to do it, if the music didn't excite you?" she said. "Music is uplifting. I am blessed."
It’s a typical weeknight, and a Tennessee couple welcomes several guests into their warehouse-turned-home for a night dedicated to the blues. Soon their spacious living room—frequently used as a Memphis entertainment venue—is bumpin’. Live musicians and studio musicians are doing a sound check, while in walk blues legends Allen Toussaint, Tracy Nelson, and Jonny Lang, all invited to perform by the party host and musical icon herself, Cyndi Lauper. “I wanted to go back to Memphis and have a little party and perform,” Lauper told me during a phone conversation last Saturday afternoon, speaking with a carefree “Hey, why not?”’ attitude. With 30 million in sales, 34 music awards under her belt, and boxes of hair dye later, it’s obvious that the musical icon, now 58 and a one-toned blonde, still knows how to have fun.
Currently on tour belting out new hits off her Grammy-nominated album, Memphis Blues, which reached number one on the Billboard blues albums chart for 14 weeks, Lauper organized the Memphis show as a celebration of her love for the blues genre and the city of Memphis.
“I wanted people to hear these peoples’ voices and hear who they are and what they do,” she said. “And it was awesome!” A live concert DVD documenting the show titled To Memphis With Love is set to release on Megaforce Records on October 25. That same night, Lauper will be coming to Kleinhans Music Hall with New Orleans funk and blues legend, Dr. John, as part of their current Memphis to Mardi Gras Tour.
“Within this genre, there are still all these great working musicians. BB King is working. Buddy Guy is working. Staples is working. And now I’m working with Dr. John, an American classic. It’s pretty extraordinary, come on!” she says, her passion for the genre oozing through her strong Brooklyn accent.
This won’t be her first time in Buffalo, nor her second, third, or fourth. She laughed, recalling her first time in Buffalo, playing with her first short-lived group, Blue Angel, back in the early 1980s, around the same time she was earning a small paycheck as a retail girl at New York City thrift shop Screaming Mimis.
“I saved some of my clothes so I know it really happened, so I could remember the time,” Cyndi says.
It’s easy to let Lauper take the lead in conversation. Speaking with her almost feels like that unplanned conversation you get into with a stranger on the subway or on the talking floor of a public library. You don’t know what you’re about to hear, but you know you’re going to remember it.
While I intended to ask her questions about career and personal highlights—how it was performing on “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson and a supergroup of performers in 1985, the inspiration behind her flamboyant style, her experience on Celebrity Apprentice, and her thoughts on bands like MGMT and yhe Killers doing arrangements of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun“—it was clear midway through the conversation that she had some matters of her own to discuss.
Briefly touching on her reality show in the works with executive producer Mark Burnett, the autobiography she’s working on, the music she’s been writing for the Broadway play Kinky Boots and her recent collaboration with Norah Jones on a Christmas song (to be released this holiday season), she saved most of her energy and enthusiasm for one of the most relevant things on her current agenda: her long-time commitment to equal rights for all.
In 2008, Lauper co-founded the True Colors Fund, a nonprofit organization for the advancement of LGBT equality. Last year, the True Colors Fund launched the Give a Damn Campaign, educating people about the LGBT community in an effort to prevent gay-bashing and bullying.
“Information is power,” she said. “We want to get the straight people involved. Forty percent of the kids on the streets are LGBT who were thrown out of their homes by their parents.”
With everything Cyndi has accomplished, she expressed much gratitude for her career as a musician and abruptly ended the conversation with a beautiful piece of wisdom for the young artist.
“You need to always be aware. Look around you,” she said. “See what’s going on. Listen to the beat of the street. Listen to the walk of the people. Your job is to capture that moment that you lived, that you know, and put that experience in a song so that time is remembered.”
The fans of Westbury, NY had their turn last night, 19th October 2011, to see Cyndi Lauper live as part of the joint co-headling tour with Dr. John. Once again they sang Wang Dang Doodle together during Dr. John's set. The set itself only last for around 68 minutes due to a late start. The setlist did not include True Colors because of time restraints from the venue.
Charlie Musselwhite played his last show of the Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John: From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour but will rejoin Cyndi Lauper and band for the 5 solo shows including the Halloween She Bop show on the 31st October in Kansas City.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Down So Low
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun (very short version)
Time After Time
Setlist and Photos from Colin McLeod
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
(EN) To Memphis, With Love will be released on DVD in Brazil on the 7th November 2011 distributed through LAB 344. There will also be a limited edition DVD+CD released. Check later for pre-order information.
Tracklisting / Faixas do DVD: Shattered Dreams / Just Your Fool / Early In The Mornin' / Romance In The Dark / How Blue Can You Get? / Down Don’t Bother Me / Down So Low / Crossroads / Lead Me On / Don’t Cry No More / She Bop / Who Let In The Rain / Mother Earth / Change Of Heart / Girls Just Want To Have Fun
(PT) To Memphis, With Love,O novo DVD de Cyndi Lauper será lançado no Brasil dia 7 de novembro. O DVD já está em pré-venda pela Livraria Cultura e Saraiva.com.br e em breve a edição limitada CD/DVD.
To Memphis, With Love foi gravado no início de 2011 no The Warehouse, em Memphis, e vem carregado de emoção, como todo bom blues. Contando com participações especiais que incluem Allen Toussaint, Tracy Nelson e Jonny Lang, ‘To Memphis, With Love’ é uma carta de amor de Cyndi Lauper ao Blues e a cidade que encantou a compositora.‘To Memphis, With Love’é um DVD com performances ao vivo, das canções do mais recente disco de Cyndi Lauper, indicado ao Grammy 2010 e que estreou em número 1 na Billboard no ‘Top Chart Blues Albums’ e ocupou a primeira posição por 14 semana seguidas. O registro do disco de Cyndi recebeu críticas incríveis, como a da revista “Newsweek Magazine”, que disse que se houve algum álbum de Blues melhor no ano de 2010, era um segredo muito bem guardado. Junte clássicos como “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, com canções como “Down So Low” e tenha um resultado maravilhoso como To Memphis, With Love, lançamento exclusivo da LAB 344, em edição DVD e CD/DVD.
Ricky Martin, Cyndi Lauper and Julianne Moore are among the celebrities who have pledged to "go purple" on Thursday (20 Oct 11) to show their support for bullied gay youths.
Martin will don all purple for a new photo on his Twitter.com page, while Lauper, Moore and stars like Chaz Bono and actresses Mia Farrow and Jamie Pressley have opted to wear purple as part of Spirit Day.
Meanwhile, Mtv bosses are turning the network's iconic on-air logo purple for the day. This is only the second time in Mtv's 30-year history that they have changed the logo for a cause.
Millions of Americans wear purple on Spirit Day as a sign of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and to speak out against bullying. Spirit Day was started in 2010 by teenager Brittany McMillan as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Observed annually on the 20th October, individuals, schools, organisations, corporations, media professionals and celebrities wear purple, which symbolises spirit on the rainbow flag. Getting involved is easy -- participants are asked to simply "go purple" on the 20th October as we work to create a world in which LGBT teens are celebrated and accepted for who they are.
Need help turning your pictures purple? GLAAD has developed an iPhone application to do just that! This app will allow you to take a picture or select one from your camera roll and make it purple on your iPhone. You can then upload that image to show your support for Spirit Day! Download our Purple your Picture for Spirit application in the iTunes Application store to get started.
If you don't have a smartphone, go to www.picnik.com/app#/edit/effects, upload a photo, choose Tint on the left sidebar, select a shade of purple, and click Apply. Then click on the Save & Share tab, save to your computer, and upload the photos to Google+ or another site.
Cyndi Lauper will play a show tonight in Westbury, NY @ Theatre at Westbury and is asking fans to help support the Rock Can Roll fund. Below is a message from Cyndi Lauper which was posted her on her official site yesterday. To find out more about Rock Can Roll visit here
I am so excited to be coming to the Westbury Theatre tomorrow, October 19th. Thank you for purchasing tickets, it is going to be a great night!
The reason I am writing you today it to ask for your help. Food banks around the country are reporting difficulties in getting food donated and keeping up with the demand due to the current state of our economy. So, they need our help and it is really simple for us to do something.
We have partnered with Live Nation, the Westbury Theatre and Rock Can Roll to collect non-perishable food items at the show tomorrow. So, please bring as much as you can to the concert. We will have volunteers and bins available for you to easily drop off your donation.
Click here to see a list of the most needed items to help you figure out what to bring to the show.
If we all join together and donate, we can make a real difference for so many families. So, please take part and donate what you can. I look forward to seeing you soon!
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
The Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John: From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour stopped in Washington, D.C. at the 9:30 Club last night, 18th October 2011. Cyndi Lauper joined Dr. John on stage towards the end of his set and they sang Wang Dang Doodle. The only change in the setlist was Lead Me On was replaced by Down So Low.
New pack of badges (buttons/pins) were on sale at the show in DC last night.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Down So Low
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
New York, November 1, 2011 — November is Homeless Awareness Month and IN THE LIFE examines the plight of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth experiencing homelessness. The episode features Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Residence, the first permanent affordable housing to be offered to LGBT at risk youth in New York City.
"I believe that a strong society is an inclusive society and if we want to win big in this world, we better include everybody." Cyndi Lauper.
There are an estimated 1.6 to 2.8 million homeless youth in the United States, up to 40% identify as LGBT. IN THE LIFE takes a stark look at youth kicked out of their homes from New York to Illinois to California, answering the questions: What services are offered to the youth on the street? How do they cope and survive? The episode highlights The Family Acceptance Project, an organization conducting innovative research on the harmful effects of family rejection.
"I've definitely built my own little family support system here. When they get on me, it's about getting my life together and keeping me on track. It's not about who I am. They just want to make me a better person." Tiffany Viruet, left home at age 19.
Watch the PRESS PREVIEW of IN THE LIFE's "Finding Home" here:
(This link is for press only. Starting on November 1st viewers will be directed to ITLMedia.org where the full episode will be available.)
Finding Home begins airing November 1st on public television stations across the country and will be available for free video streaming and downloadable podcasts from the In The Life Media website. To find out when it will air in your local area, to stream or download it, go to ITLMedia.org.
To receive the latest updates about In The Life Media, follow @ITLMedia and use the hashtag #ITLMedia.
ABOUT IN THE LIFE MEDIA:
For twenty years, In The Life Media has been a leading media organization for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement. One of the nation's most honored and influential LGBT groups, In The Life Media creates social and political change by examining issues critical to LGBT individuals and providing audiences with powerful ways to advance equality within, and beyond, their communities. Produced by In The Life Media, the Emmy-nominated series, IN THE LIFE, was the first—and remains the only—LGBT issues-oriented show on public television. IN THE LIFE is a two-time Emmy Award nominee, a Lambda Legal Liberty Award honoree, a Seigenthaler Award recipient from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and a Ribbon of Hope Award recipient from The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences: www.ITLMedia.org
ABOUT AMERICAN PUBLIC TELEVISION:
IN THE LIFE is distributed by American Public Television. APT has been a leading distributor of high-quality, top-rated programming to America's public television stations since 1961. In 2009, APT distributed 56 of the top 100 highest-rated public television titles. Among its 300 new program titles per year are prominent documentaries, news and current affairs programs, dramatic series, how-to programs, children's series and classic movies. APT also licenses programs internationally through its APT Worldwide service. In 2006, APT launched Create® — the TV channel featuring the best of public television's lifestyle programming. APT is also a partner in the WORLD™ channel expansion project including its web presence at WORLDcompass.org. For more information about APT's programs and services, visit APTonline.org. For more information on Create, visit CreateTV.com.
To casual fans, Cyndi Lauper is best known for sing-along-worthy pop tailor-made for prom nights
("Time After Time" requires a five-Kleenex minimum) and bachelorette parties
("Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" - and wear "funny hats" shaped like a penis). But
her recent work is among her best. Take last year's Grammy-nominated foray into
the deep, smoky-sounding South, Memphis Blues, her highest-charting album since the '80s. This
month, she releases an intimate live-concert DVD, To Memphis with Love, on which she performs tracks from the album alongside serious blues
icons. And on Sunday, October 23, she'll stop by House of Blues (15 Lansdowne Street, Boston, 888.693.2583) for From Memphis to Mardi Gras, a co-headlining tour with New Orleans legend
(and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) Dr. John. Tickets are $35-$45
at livenation.com. We grabbed the pop icon to chat about her new music, her
upcoming reality show, and Kinky Boots, a Broadway show she helped pen about a sassy,
shoe-loving drag queen.
To Memphis with
Love, huh? Have any love for Boston? I've always wanted to be a New Englander - there's just something about
the accent. I used to have a house on the Cape.
I would get chowda at a place that had this gigantic lobster. I'd
pose with it. I always wanted to buy it to save its life, but you know - if you
threw him back in the ocean, he'd just get caught again.
What was it like recording the concert? I wanted to bring the live band and the recording
band together to one place. But this one theater had bed bugs, and every other
place was too small. So we wound up renting a place, The Warehouse, and had a
gig there. We invited friends, blues musicians - not a lot of people. It was so
moving and special for me to sing with these legends, like Allen Toussaint,
Tracy Nelson, and Jonny Lang. And now I'm supporting it with Dr. John on tour.
That's an honor. He's absolutely something else.
And there's behind-the-scenes footage? Well, you always want to try to have a camera. . .
. You just have somebody there, leave the camera on, and tell them, "Make sure you don't do any under-the-chin shots." . . . I took little pieces of me recording the album itself so people would get a feel for what that's like and how things get made. . . . I wanted the
project to have that flavor to make it special, not just another live DVD
that's glitz and glam.
You're also getting ready to launch a
reality show. Did you hesitate about showing your personal life to cameras? My personal life is just an aspect to the show.
What I think people will see is that no matter what - famous, not famous,
professional white-collar folks, blue-collar people - we all face the same
difficulties in life. [Like] taking too much on and trying to strike a good
balance between work, family, life.
Your last album, Bring Ya to the Brink, got a Grammy nomination for best electronic/dance
album. That sound is even hotter now. Since this is our Nightlife issue, I'm
wondering - are you going to do another dance album soon? I
love dance music, so I know that sooner or later I'll definitely want to write
and record more dance material. Actually, I've been working on music with
[UK dance group] Bimbo Jones for this Broadway project I am working on, so who
knows - maybe that tune will get to floors soon.
Speaking of Broadway, how is the creative process different
when writing for the stage? It's very exciting and different, being
part of a creative team building a show. You try to tell a story through music,
which is what I've always done, but this time the content is dictated by the
storyline of the play. Harvey Fierstein is writing the book for the show, Jerry
Mitchell is the director and choreographer, and I am the composer. I
brought in different songwriting partners for songs. Then you have producers on
top of that. When you make a CD, you kind of live in this insular world without
many outside [influences].
Kinky Boots stars a drag queen. So what's your drag name? You're
supposed to combine the name of your first pet with the name of the street you
grew up on. Princess Marcy!
After all these years, singer/activist isn't so unusual - she's just human
Twenty-five years ago, Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" shined through - on the radio, and in the hearts of so many. It was in the midst of the horrifying AIDS epidemic when she lost her dearest gay friend, came across the song, and made it into a hit that comforted millions.
"I was very much in mourning," the 58-year-old icon recalls of the chart-topper, the title track from her 1986 album, in our recent chat. "I was sad and I wanted to be able to do something. He wanted me to sing a song for him, and I had written one. That didn't work out too good, because I wrote about my feelings - which were big."
Years later, it's not just a song; it's an anthem for everything that Lauper - a selfless, admirable activist for the community - stands for. As part of her True Colors Fund, she launched a project last year, the Give a Damn Campaign, to create awareness of LGBT discrimination with the help of high-profile celebrities; many of them heterosexual.
"In any civil rights movement, you need everybody," Lauper says with heartfelt indignation. "That's how you win. You need your straight allies."
She had them on the tour, also named after the song, which ran for two years and featured Debbie Harry, Margaret Cho, The B-52s and Erasure. Now, Lauper's showing her support with a shelter, recently opened in Central Harlem, to offer supportive housing for LGBT youth without any place to go, who may have been thrown out of their own homes. A mother herself, Lauper can't fathom a parent disowning their child.
"Parental love should be unconditional," she says. "Love your kid for who they are or who they aren't. The parent/child bond should never be broken."
But if it is, they have a place that loves them: the True Colors Residence. Lauper's quick not to take all the credit, though; she names off a list of important key players who made this - a six-story, 30-bed facility, the first permanent establishment of its kind in New York - happen. Her manager, Lisa Barbaris, is one of them, along with the West End Intergenerational Residence, a non-profit focused on providing housing for homeless families and the elderly.
"I was the famous person there, but a lot of people did a lot of work," she says of the shelter's official opening in September. "I was just the one who cut the ribbon. It's an interesting project because it's a low-income housing project, which makes it work on so many other levels. It's kind of fabulous."
Same could be said for Lauper's career, officially launching in the early '80s - during an out-of-control house party that had the singer persuading her parents to whoop it up, all for a little single called "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" off her 1983 debut "She's So Unusual" - as the New Yorker shot to superstardom instantly with funky-punky sunburst hair (one of many colors we'd see throughout the decade) and her outrageous fashion sense. She, like Madonna, was Gaga before we knew she existed. Lauper had the eccentricity, and she certainly had the hits.
There was the sweet charm of got-your-back ballad "Time After Time," a song still in heavy rotation nearly 30 years later. "A magical time," she calls it now. "She Bop" blasted myths of masturbation, promoting it as something just as routine as brushing your teeth. The video - and "all my friends and family that showed up in the video with me" - is what she remembers most.
There was also "We Are the World," the all-star charity single - a monster one, at that - featuring Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Lauper. Her fondest memory: "That I walked in with almost the same jacket that Michael had on, and I changed it really quick. But I was upset anyway because I had the flakes in my hair, because I was doing that performance-art piece for the American Music Awards and didn't have time to clean up. I was having a moment."
In the next three decades, Lauper would have many more moments. She would win Grammys. Have a son. Sing to a disgruntled group of flyers at an airline terminal. Flub the "Star-Spangled Banner," and gracefully recover from it, as she did recently before the US Open just this past September.
Looking back, what would she have told her younger, more "unusual" self? "I know I said all the wrong things to the right people," she laughs, "but probably not listen all the time to everything everybody told me. That there was a bigger world out there."
A world she's still happy to be a part of. "I've been told, 'No, it'll never work.' It's always the same. But I'm still working."
Something she was told she could never do - by Sony, her label at the time - was the blues. She sure showed them. "To Memphis, With Love" is Lauper's latest release, a live CD/DVD combo that captures one night of her most recent, and one of the more extensive, tours in her career. The songs performed are off last year's "Memphis Blues," her baby she'd been working toward her whole career. Her 11th studio album, the project scored the top spot of the Billboard Blues Chart for 14 consecutive weeks.
"It's the spirit of the blues that propels you into an otherworldly state," she says. "Basically, that's what you would hope for from music."
While editing the docu-style DVD, filmed at The Warehouse in Memphis and featuring special guests Jonny Lang and Tracy Nelson, Lauper had to do the unthinkable for anyone who can't stand mirrors: look at herself for hours on end.
"Once you get over the fact that you thought you looked different but this is what you really look like, it's fine," Lauper laughs. "It's always that way. You can't ever take yourself seriously."
Next up for Lauper? New original music, which she's currently working on; writing for the Broadway show "Kinky Boots;" and a memoir that's still in the early stages. A reality show, set to air early next year, is also in the works.
Lauper's also determined to get the True Colors Tour, on hold because of the economy, back off the ground.
"It's going to take a minute to figure out how to do it right but I'll get it back," she says. "I always wanted it to be a little party, a real festival in one place - different stages, food and music. But I don't know how to do that. I'm not a businessperson; I'm an artist that wanted an inclusive tour with straight people and gay people and transgender people - everybody mixed together. That was my big dream."
And her true colors, shining through.
Originally printed (Issue 1941 - Between The Lines News)
Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John - From Memphis to Mardi Gras Tour
Last night, 16th October 2011 in Red Bank, NJ at the Count Basie Theatre Cyndi Lauper in her red wig joined Dr. John on stage during his set. Cyndi came out near the end of Dr. John's set, lyrics in hand on paper and they duetted on a song called Wang Dang Doodle. The setlist changed again last night with Lead Me On, What's Going On and Lyfe all making it back onto the list. Charlie Musselwhite was again special guest in the Cyndi Lauper Band.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist and Photos from Colin McLeod
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
The Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John: From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour is now 6 shows in and Cyndi Lauper and band including Charlie Musselwhite all played in Englewood last night, 15th October 2011 at the Bergen PAC. Dr. John opened the show as usual followed by Cyndi Lauper's set which lasted around 75 minutes. She was donned in a brown leather suit and sported a new hair style.
Setlist: Just Your Fool / Shattered Dreams / She Bop / Crossroads / All Through The Night / Down So Low / Down Don't Bother Me / Don't Cry No More / The Goonies 'R' Good Enough / Change Of Heart
encore: Girls Just Want To Have Fun / Time After Time / True Colors
Setlist & Photos from Colin McLeod
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
Cyndi Lauper was back in her leather outfit for last night's show in Montclair at the intimate Wellmont Theatre. Dr. John opened the show and played for just over an hour. Cyndi Lauper burst onto the stage around 10 pm and played her current 14 song set along with Charlie Musselwhite as a member of the Cyndi Lauper Band.
A massive thanks to Colin McLeod who has kindly sent his review with setlists and photos to Cyndi Lauper Daily each night after the shows. Much appreciated - you are a star!
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Down So Low
Down Don't Bother Me
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Fearless (one verse + chorus, a cappella)
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist & Photos from Colin McLeod
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
Australian fans can now pre-order To Memphis, With Love at JB HI-FI. The live DVD/CD is released in Australia on the 28th October distributed through Rocket Distribution.
Pre-Order Now!
DVD tracklisting can be seen on the back cover including bonus features.
Cyndi Lauper talks about the recent suicides that have been reported in the news of 4 young men as a result of bullying and harassment for being gay or being perceived to be gay.
It is time that we all get involved and bring an end to this epidemic. To learn more please visit www.wegiveadamn.org.
If you are a young person and you are feeling alone please call The Trevor Project Helpline at 1-866-4-U-TREVOR. They have people who you can talk to and that can help you.. Throughout her career, singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper has promoted gay and lesbian rights. She has a personal connection to this cause -- her sister is a lesbian -- but she also believes it's a matter of fairness.
Cyndi Lauper worked with Cathy Nelson of the Human Rights Campaign to raise awareness of LGBT issues.
"It's always wrong to discriminate," the Grammy Award winner said. "I grew up in the civil rights movement. It was wrong then, and it is wrong now."
With her 2007 and 2008 "True Colors" tours, Lauper has helped raise awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights around the country. She said fellow LGBT activist Cathy Nelson especially motivates her.
Nelson worked at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a national LGBT civil rights organization, and her dedication to those issues runs deep. Fighting for fairness and equality, she said, drives her.
"I'm a lesbian, and I see the issues very personally," Nelson said. "When it deep-down resonates that you don't have the same rights and responsibilities, or people don't view you the same, it can be demoralizing and empowering at the same time."
IN TOWN: 8 p.m. Saturday, bergenPAC, 30 N. Van Brunt St., Englewood; 201-227-1030 or bergenpac.org. $49 to $99.
ALSO PLAYING: 8 p.m. Friday, Wellmont Theatre, 5 Seymour St., Montclair; 973-783-9500 or wellmonttheatre.com. $35 to $75.
LISTEN: cyndilauper.com.
Oh mama, can this really be the end? To be stuck inside of Jersey with the Memphis Blues again?
Actually — and with apologies to Bob Dylan — the Memphis Blues have been not an end but a new beginning for Cyndi Lauper. The lady with the raspberry and aquamarine hair, whose credo (and first album) was "She's So Unusual," took her most unusual turn yet with her 2010 album, "Memphis Blues." "It was successful; I was surprised," she says.
Surprising, certainly, to see the quirky queen of '80s MTV ("Time After Time," "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "She Bop") dive head-first into a big vat of Albert King, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson. And to top that, another surprise: The first lady of Queens New Yawk will be sharing a stage with the first gentleman of N'Orleans blues piano, the gravel-voiced Dr. John.
But in fact, Lauper's roots were always in the blues, she says.
"I started out singing in a Janis Joplin cover band," she says. "And when I did Blue Angel [her early 1980s retro band], that's when I learned about Big Mama Thornton and Big Maybelle. That's the foundation of everything that we sing, and everything I've sung my whole life."
In her upcoming North Jersey dates, which promote both the 2010 album and a live spinoff DVD concert, "To Memphis With Love," she and Dr. John ("Iko Iko," "Right Place, Wrong Time") will mostly play separately, with maybe a climactic team-up at the finish. "I'm a huge fan, so I might see if he'll jam with us," Lauper says. "He can do anything, honestly."
Meanwhile, she'll have her own crack band, including ace blues harpist Charlie Musselwhite, drummer Steve Potts, guitarist Michael Toles, keyboardists Archy "Hubby" Turner and Steve Gaboury and bassist William Wittman, to help her dig into her new repertoire of classic Memphis blues tunes, including "Down Don't Bother Me" by Albert King, "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues" by Ida Cox and the mother of them all, "Crossroads," by Robert Johnson. And yes, she'll be doing her old hits, too.
"I incorporate my old songs with my new songs, and it's a very energetic show," she says. "I mix everything together."
The "Memphis Blues" album, which was nominated for a Grammy and remained at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Blues charts for 14 consecutive weeks, ties in not only with her early musical roots, but with her current social preoccupations.
As a feminist and gay rights activist, Lauper is well aware that the blues was originally a women's genre; most of the early hit-makers of the 1920s were female, and their songs dealt with love and loss from an empowered, female perspective. In telling stories about their own pain, "Ma" Rainey, Mamie Smith and Bessie Smith made it easier for other marginalized people — those in racial and sexual minorities — to make it through the night.
"I chose songs that would empower people who are having down times, songs that felt uplifting," Lauper says. "The thing about the blues, there's a lot of humor in it, and the humor can be uplifting, too."
When Lauper isn't empowering people through the blues, she's empowering characters onstage ("Kinky Boots," the new musical she's collaborating on with Harvey Fierstein, is about workers who turn a failing shoe factory around) and helping to empower abused teenagers in the GLBT community.
"These are kids who are thrown out in the street by parents," she says. "If we have each other's back, we'll get much farther than if we are narrow-minded people who feel that their dogma is more important than their own child. That don't fly."
With Lauper out exploring blues, Broadway and social activism, it's been left to others to claim her crown as pop's queen of extreme. Lady Gaga, for example — who arguably took a leaf or two from both the Lauper and Madonna playbooks.
"I think she's terrific," Lauper says. "I think there are a lot of great young singers out there, but I wouldn't make them anybody's successor, because they certainly have their own path. Well, every artist is supposed to be inspired by people who came before. You'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind, you know?"
Three decades after her smash solo debut, "She's So Unusual," Grammy and Emmy Award-winning singer-songwriter-actress Cyndi Lauper remains busy. In addition to her acting roles in the indie film "Here And There" (with her husband, actor David Thornton) and the TV series "Bones," she's writing the score for the Broadway musical, "Kinky Boots," and her autobiography will be published soon.
The Queens-born dynamo is touring in support of her CD, "Memphis Blues" (Mercer Street) and her DVD/CD, "To Memphis With Love" (Megaforce), which she directed, and captures in a lively concert taped in the land of Stax and Sun. The kinetic Lauper has assembled a stellar lineup for these projects, including vocalist-pianists Tracy Nelson, Dr. John (who is opening for her on her tour) and Allen Toussaint. Harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite (whom she first saw at the Fillmore East) will be on stage with her.
On Friday, Oct. 14, at 8 p.m., Lauper and Dr. John will play in Montclair's Wellmont Theater, 5 Seymour St. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $75, $60 and $35, and can be reserved by calling 877-WELLMNT (935-5668), or by visiting online at www.tickets.com, or www.wellmonttheater.com, or www.cyndilauper.com.
With impassioned versions of "Crossroads" and "Shattered Love" and an edgy blues stomp through her own "She Bop," Cyndi Lauper is not playing it safe. Why would she? As she put it, "It's gotta be a musical concert, not an ipod shuffle," she said.
Lauper is no stranger to the blues. Her first taste was a Fats Waller-Louis Armstrong duet and her first gig as lead vocalist was in a Janis Joplin cover band. She says, "I'd wanted to do a blues album since 2004. Sony looks at their older artists as catalog cows. They just kept putting out 'Best Of'.' They even put out one called 'The Great Cyndi Lauper' and I started laughing and said, 'Well, if I'm that great, why the hell won't they promote anything new?'" she said with a chuckle
Making the album was an emotional experience, Lauper reveals, "I cried when I was working with Ann Peebles. I never got to meet B.B. King, but he understood what I was talking about and I was very excited to be able to [work with him]. I also worked with Allen Toussaint on a Katrina benefit. He was really great. I wanted to work with him again."
As for touring with Dr. John, she says, "I'm so looking forward to it. He's truly great. He has his own show. It's pretty magical and I'm pretty excited about it. Maybe I might get a chance to jam with him. It depends on his schedule. It's great to do a show with him."
Lauper's had underpinnings of roots music going back to her cover of "Iko Iko" on her True Colors album. She says, "That was a fun time. That was supposed to be [a duet] with Patti LaBelle. I was doing it whenever we played new Orleans at Tipitina's. I used to love playing Tipitina's. New Orleans is a great town. There's blues in everything. I was just happy to play with all of those wonderful people."
A committed activist, Lauper started the True Colors Fund and the True Colors Tour to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender causes. Lauper says, "I could no longer stand by and not say anything. It was getting pretty bad. Our own president, at that point, was giving speeches about hate. Almost saying it was okay to beat up and gay-bash. Now I get active and start to work with people. I'm putting out a CD called "Home for the Holidays" with Norah Jones. I'm also doing a show at the Beacon Theater [in New York City] called "Home for the Holidays." It's about bringing everybody together who gives a damn about equality and the fact that 40 percent of all the homeless kids on the street are LBGT and they're thrown out by their parents when they come out. What are you supposed to do, nothing? Are you supposed to be apathetic? I'm not."
There's also a True Colors residence in Harlem, Lauper says. "I opened it two weeks ago. It's been great. There's 30 kids, so 30 kids are safe. It's a wonderful project."
Lauper is revved up for the Montclair concert. "It's gonna be a wonderful show. I hope you guys enjoy it."
Cyndi Lauper played at the at the Cobb Energy Center in Atlanta last night, 12th October 2011 as part of the Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John: From Memphis To Mardi Gras tour. The setlist was shorter tonight with What's Going On & Lyfe not being performed. Fans were treated to a special a cappella version of Sallly's Pigeons in full.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Down So Low
Down Don't Bother Me
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Sally's Pigeons - a cappella (complete song)
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist & Photos from Colin McLeod
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
Amazon.de and Amazon.fr will also be selling To Memphis, With Love as a MP3 Download from the 24th October 2011. You will be able to download the whole album or single tracks.
Dieses Album ist ab dem 24. Oktober 2011 verfügbar.
Ursprüngliches Erscheinungsdatum : 24. Oktober 2011.
Format - Musik: MP3.
Kompatibel mit allen MP3-Playern (inklusive iPod®), iTunes und Windows Media Player.
MP3-Titel / Titres MP3: Shattered Dreams / Just Your Fool / Early In The Mornin' / Romance In The Dark / How Blue Can You Get? / Down Don’t Bother Me / Down So Low / Crossroads / Lead Me On / Don’t Cry No More / She Bop / Mother Earth / Change Of Heart / Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Have a listen to some samples below! / Alle Hörproben abspielen / Ecouter tous les extraits
Cet album sera disponible le 24 octobre 2011.
Date de sortie d'origine : 24 octobre 2011.
Format : Téléchargement MP3.
Compatible avec tous les lecteurs MP3 (dont l'iPod®), iTunes, Windows Media Player.
The Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John: From Memphis To Mardi Gras stopped at the Peace Center (Peace Concert Hall) in Greenville, SC on 11th October 2011. The setlist was slightly different tonight with Down So Low featuring in the set for the first time during this tour.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Down So Low
Down Don't Bother Me
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Fearless (one verse + chorus, a cappella)
Time After Time
True Colors
Setlist & Photos from Colin McLeod
To view more photos from the event by Colin McLeod visit >>>
Fellow New Yorker and CBS-FM favorite Cyndi Lauper called into the morning show to talk with Dan Taylor about the blues, Broadway, and of course her show for CBS-FM’s Fall Concert Series at Bergan PAC this coming Saturday!
Twenty to 40 percent of homeless youth identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, yet only 3 to 5 percent of the general population does the same. Shock was the first thing I felt when I heard this statistic, and then sadness that there are so many young people who are either thrown out of their homes or run away out of fear and despair because they are gay or transgender.
But, while the disproportionate numbers are disheartening, what really matters and makes a significant impact are the young people themselves, their struggles and their desire to live a life that they dream about and deserve to live.
About five years ago, I had an opportunity to do a photo shoot for Interview magazine and wanted to include some young gay and transgender people to help spread a message of diversity and acceptance. So, I went down to the Christopher Street Pier here in New York City, where they tend to hang out. What came next opened my eyes to a problem that for far too long has not received the attention, the money, the resources and the focus that is desperately needed.
I was overwhelmed by the stories these young people were sharing with me about how they came out of the closet and the rejection that quickly followed by their family and friends, how they were forced to leave their homes or fled because they were scared or tired of the abuse and rejection.
As a mother, I could never imagine throwing my kid away for any reason, let alone over something like their sexual orientation or gender identity. It would be like ripping out a piece of my very own soul. For far too long, dogma and fear have torn apart too many families. It is a time when the heart must lead the way when your child shares this personal and life-changing moment with you.
As I was talking with these young people, I was inspired by their determination and strength to survive and do what they can to move forward in life. But they need our help; they need all of us to step up and do what we can. That is why I love this country so much, why I believe it is the greatest country in the world, because when one person falls, when we learn about that person's struggle, we join together to help them out. It is the American spirit, and it is a spirit we need to tap into to help these young people.
Here in New York City, as is the case in most cities around the country, there are not enough resources to help these young people. On any given night, approximately 3,800 young people are living on the streets of the Big Apple, yet there are not even enough shelters and transitional living beds to house 10 percent of them. Most of those beds are funded by the city and operated by incredible organizations that are stretched to their limit, but they cannot do it alone.
After being inspired by the young people during my visit to the pier five years ago, my manager and I joined with the West End Intergenerational Residence here in New York City to open the True Colors Residence in Harlem. It is the first permanent housing facility in New York state specifically for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth ages 18 to 24. This low-income housing building will provide 30 young people with a permanent roof over their heads and supportive services as they go after the future they have been dreaming about and deserve.
My commitment to doing what I can is just beginning, and I want to encourage you to do what you can today to make a difference. I started the Give a Damn Campaign last year in part to educate straight people about this issue and to help gay and transgender people use the information to spread the message. I encourage you to read up on it today and learn more as a first step.
Then, research the youth shelters, transitional living programs, drop-in centers and youth centers in your community. Contact them and volunteer or make a donation. Ask them what they need. It may be $10, it may be some food and clothing for their youth, you may have a professional skill that you can mentor a youth in -- the possibilities are endless. The most important thing is that you step up; when one person, especially a young person, is in need, we all need to do what we can.
If you are a parent and you have a child who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or just questioning, or whom you think might be, the most important thing you can do is let them know that you love them first and foremost. Do not let fear and long-held beliefs interfere with the most important relationship you will have in your life. Lead with your heart and with the love that you have for your child. Just a little bit of acceptance can make a huge difference, and that little bit will grow over time.
Cyndi will release the live concert DVD To Memphis, With Love on Megaforce Records on Oct. 25, 2011. She is currently on tour with Dr. John on the From Memphis to Mardi Gras tour. For more info on the DVD or the tour, including a full list of dates and tickets, visit Lauper's official website.
The Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John: From Memphis To Mardi Gras was on again last night, 9th October 2011 in Birmingham, AL @ Alys Robinson Stephens PAC in the Jemison Concert Hall.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
What's Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
Cyndi Lauper sounds like a commanding Kewpie doll.
"All right," she says, taking charge and setting the terms. "We’ve got 15 minutes."
In phone interviews, as in life, this talented artist has earned a reputation for doing things her own way.
Lauper’s fans adore her for that, and they’ve been following her music career for nearly 30 years, applauding as she moves from compulsively listenable pop to club-worthy dance music to entirely soulful blues.
New Wave anthems, tender ballads, fierce disco numbers, playful soundtrack singles. Lauper has mastered them all, reinventing herself with a creative ease that’s the mark of a true original.
Her latest foray, into the emotional terrain of traditional blues, has been applauded by critics and earned Lauper a Grammy nomination for her 2011 album, "Memphis Blues." She’s received lots of attention from Grammy since her 1984 win as best new artist, and pocketed other accolades along the way.
"I’m an ’80s icon," the singer-songwriter says, with a sardonic edge. "Did I tell you that? Keep that in mind when you talk to me."
It’s not surprising that Lauper rebels against this pigeonhole, which keeps her mired in the past and fails to recognize the depth and breadth of her work.
"I don’t want to do the ’80s thing," she says firmly. "If I do anything from the ’80s, I’ve revamped it. I’ve never done songs that sound the same. I’ve always tried to grow as an artist."
Concertgoers needn’t worry that Lauper has rejected her early catalog, or monster radio hits such as "She Bop," "Time After Time" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." She simply isn’t inclined to revel in personal nostalgia.
If anything, the past Lauper reveres has been dominated by other artists, with colorful nicknames such as Big Maybelle, Memphis Slim, Satchmo and Big Mama Thornton.
"The blues is the basis for everything I’ve done, because blues was the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll," Lauper says. "It speaks to me, because it’s the roots of everything."
She’ll attempt to convey that feeling tonight in Birmingham, transforming into a blues mama during her performance at the Alys Stephens Center.
Lauper says she was determined to recruit other blues artists for her fall tour, and she nabbed a biggie with Dr. John and the Lower 911. Her forthcoming concert DVD, "To Memphis, With Love," has the same emphasis, featuring guests such as Jonny Lang,Tracy Nelson and Allen Toussaint.
"I realize now that blues is king," Lauper says. "And I’ve always been a fan of the funk. For me, the groove has to be there, and if you can tell a story at the same time, that’s great."
The storytelling aspect was crucial, Lauper explains, when she made song selections for "Memphis Blues." Its 13 tracks include "Just Your Fool," "Down Don’t Bother Me," "Mother Earth," "Rollin’ and Tumblin’" and "Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues."
"I chose songs with stories that I felt would relate now," she says. "I listened to a lot of songs, and I thought about the times we’re living in. In 2009 and 2010, things were really tough."
Another consideration came into play: Lauper had been recovering from a rather combative stint on reality TV. She was one of the most high-profile and outspoken contestants on the 2010 edition of "The Celebrity Apprentice."
Here’s how Lauper puts it: "I did something with Donald Trump and I had to do a lot of talking. I lost my voice, and when I finally got it back, I thought, ‘It’s time to do that blues album’."
She hasn’t soured on the TV format, though. In fact, Lauper’s been developing her own reality show with "Apprentice" mastermind Mark Burnett, focusing on her family life in New York City. (Lauper, 58, lives on the upper West Side with actor David Thornton and their teenage son, Declyn.)
As the interview nears its 15-minute mark, Lauper is reminded of the last time she appeared in Birmingham, as the opening act for Cher’s farewell tour in 2002. Although she was plagued by a broken ankle, Lauper continued to perform on the tour, sitting in a wheelchair or propped up by a cane.
"Oh, yeah," she says, laughing. "I’m in this wheelchair, doing the whole ‘Ironsides’ thing. But I love Cher. She’s always been great to me. She taught me a lot. She had me on the JumboTron, too. The only bad thing is, I haven’t been able to jog since then."
Whilst on tour in the states playing co-headling shows in the guise of Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John: From Memphis To Mardi Gras with Dr. John, Cyndi Lauper took time away from this tour last night, 8th October 2011 to play a solo show. Cyndi Lauper performed at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Mississippi. Charlie Musselwhite joined her on stage and performed as a member of the Cyndi Lauper band.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Down Don't Bother Me
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
Whats Going On
Lyfe
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
'Happy Birthday' to an audience member named Juliette!
True Colors
Cyndi Lauper began her new 16-city tour Cyndi Lauper & Dr. John: From Memphis To Mardi Gras last night, 7th October 2011 at the House Of Blues in Orlando Florida. For a full list of upcoming shows including 6 solos shows visit here.
New merchandise was also for sale at the shows including two new T-shirts, Key Chain, Postcards and a limited number of the new DVD To Memphis, With Love which are signed by Cyndi Lauper.
Setlist:
Just Your Fool
Shattered Dreams
She Bop
Crossroads
All Through The Night
Lead Me On
Don't Cry No More
The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Change Of Heart
encore:
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Time After Time
True Colors
Cyndi Lauper's official store is now giving fans the opportunity to pre-order her forthcoming DVD/CD, To Memphis, With Love including signed copies. There is also a new T-Shirt available: Super Soft Scoop Neck women's fitted tee features the logo from the new "From Memphis with Love" DVD.
To order To Memphis, With Love, the new shirt and other official Cyndi Lauper Merchandise visit her Official Store
If you just wanna have fun, this is the iReport interview for you. Cyndi Lauper is sitting down soon with CNN.com and you can take part in the interview!
Post your question here on video (and keep it under 15 seconds). Stay tuned because you could see Cyndi’s answer to you on CNN.com! All videos must be in by Tuesday, October 11 at 5 p.m. ET.
All the details on how to upload your video question are available on the CNN site.
German and Austrian fans can now pre-order To Memphis, With Love CD+DVD which will be available in both countries on the 28th October 2011. Released/Distributed throught Naïve/Indigo.
To Memphis, With Love wird am 28. Oktober 2011 erscheinen
Das Nachfolgealbum "To Memphis, With Love" dokumentiert ein Konzert in der Stadt, die dem Album seinen Namen gab. Im Warehouse in Memphis versammelte Lauper am 3. Dezember 2010 Gäste wie Allen Toussaint, Tracy Nelson und Jonny Lang, um einen Liebesbrief an die Hauptstadt des Blues zu schreiben. Natürlich auch mit den Songs aus "Memphis Blues" und einer DVD, auf der man sich das Ganze live und in Farbe ansehen kann.
Produktinformation
Audio CD (28. Oktober 2011)
Anzahl Disks/Tonträger: 2
Format: CD+DVD, Dual Disc
Label: Naive (Indigo)
The Gayest Show Ever airs on OUTtv beginning on October 7th on Fridays and Sundays at 10:30pm ET/7:30pm PT.
OUTtv is Canada’s only television and online social media portal that features programming specifically for the affluent, engaged gay and lesbian community. Our programming is award winning and exclusive with universal appeal. It’s an approachable mix of compelling drama, bold sitcoms, and real-life programming that’s winning praise from viewers across the spectrum.
Canadian TV show The Gayest Show Ever, only on OUTtv will feature Cyndi Lauper in their new series.
Episode 3 / Air Date - 21st October: Pop music superstar Cyndi Lauper holds the gay community close to her bosom and takes on homophobic American Evangelicals and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours, Michael Cunningham, gives gay men tips on aging gracefully.
It has been almost three decades since Cyndi Lauper sashayed her way to status as a 1980s icon with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," but the singer still knows how to have a good time.
Her latest fun diversion is "To Memphis, With Love," a concert DVD set for Oct. 25 release. The project is tied to Lauper's most recent studio album, "Memphis Blues," a 2010 collection of blues standards recorded with an all-star lineup including the legendary B.B. King, New Orleans great Allen Toussaint, harmonica man Charlie Musselwhite and others.
She will celebrate her musical infatuation on Friday at House of Blues, on a bill with another New Orleans gem, Dr. John, on a tour dubbed "From Memphis to Mardi Gras." So how did this native New Yorker get so much Memphis in her blood?
Well, there's the rich history of the music, from traditional blues to the 1960s classics by Otis Redding, Booker T & the MG's and Al Green.
"It's pretty awesome to go there and think about the wonderful soul music that came out of there," Lauper says in a phone interview. "It's the foundation of everything we've all sung all our lives."
Lauper first had the idea to record a blues album eight years ago.
"By the time I did it, it was 2010," she says. "So it wasn't an overnight thing. I waited a long time and I think it was better that I waited probably. I was able to keep researching. That is always a good thing, the more you know."
Of course, there are a lot of places to connect with the roots of priceless American music: New Orleans and Clarksdale, Miss., to name a couple. For various reasons, Lauper weeded those destinations out — for now.
"New Orleans isn't as bluesy, but don't think that I wouldn't want to make a record there someday. But New Orleans would've been more jazz."
But music wasn't the only criteria involved in her travel plans.
"I knew I had to go south, but I didn't want to go to Clarksdale, because everyone drags that well," Lauper says in her squeaky New York accent."I wasn't sure what it was like. I don't parallel park well, you know. I wasn't sure what the action was there. You have a highway, then you have these towns on the side of the road. I didn't want to deal with driving, so I went to Memphis. It's a little town and they've got a little trolley."
One of the album's highlights is Lauper's collaboration with King on Louis Jordan's "Early in the Morning."
"Someone told me, 'If you want to do a song, with B.B. King, he loves Louis Jordan,'" she said. "I looked him up and the first thing that came up was an album with someone dancing wildly on the cover. I said, 'Yeah, that's me. I love that.'"
No matter the decade, Cyndi Lauper always manages to reinvent herself.
From her '80s days as a fuchsia-headed pop belter to the '90s and '00s period of bopping from lite-alt-rock to club thumpers to torch songs to her most recent success as a thoroughly authentic blues mama, Lauper long ago proved her versatility and resilience.
She also dialed up her public activism, creating the True Colors Fund to advance equality for the gay community. In 2010, she competed on “The Celebrity Apprentice” to raise money for the Stonewall Community Foundation for True Colors.
Last month, she helped open the True Colors Residence in Harlem, a shelter for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender youth.
In between her advocacy work, Lauper last year released “Memphis Blues,” a collection of classics such as “Early in the Mornin’,” “Crossroads” and “Just Your Fool,” that became the biggest blues album of the year on the Billboard charts.
She’s taking those tunes on the road with New Orleans piano legend Dr. John, though she’ll also play her classic pop tunes, albeit with some smoky twists. On Oct. 25 she releases “To Memphis with Love,” a live DVD/CD taped earlier this year at The Warehouse in the Tennessee city.
In a recent chat from her weekend home in Connecticut, Lauper talked about why she loves Memphis, her small gaffe during a 9/11 rendition of the national anthem and if we’ll ever see that long-discussed reality show.
Q. You’ve had a lot of success with the ‘Memphis Blues’ album. What is it about Memphis that you love so much?
A. It’s a wonderful city, a city with great heritage. I love them for their food and music. Music and food, it’s an Italian thing! Every time my diet consultant would call, I’d have a piece of Gus’s [World Famous Fried] chicken hanging out of my mouth and she’d say, ‘Did you take the skin off?’ and I’d say, ‘Are you kidding me? That’s the best part!’
Q. Were these songs harder for you to sing from a technical standpoint?
A. No, easier. Pop songs are much, much harder. Well, mine are. Now I go back to singing my songs and I’m like, holy cow, that’s hard! The trick about pop is to make it seem easy. But if you ever went to karaoke and did ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun,’ it’s not an easy song.
Q. Tell me about the DVD. Is it all concert footage from The Warehouse show you taped in Memphis?
A. I had started a documentary when I was making the album. I said, ‘Ya gotta film all of this, please.’ So I took the documentary stuff I had of the people I was going to perform with, like Tracy Nelson, Allen Toussaint. I took footage in rehearsal so people can hear them talk, to know who they are, to understand their mentality and then hear them play. That’s the most important part. You know who I am. I wanted it to be about these people.
Q. Is it true that you’re doing another Christmas album?
A. I love Christmas, come on. I did a Christmas single with my Memphis band and Norah Jones, ‘No Place Like Home for the Holidays,’ to benefit the True Colors fund. And I did ‘Blue Christmas’ just because I like it. They’ll be on iTunes.
Q. You’re such a New Yorker. Have you been to the 9/11 memorial yet?
A. [Pauses.] I can’t quite go yet. If you lived in New York before [9/11], you know ... my son, Declyn, was a little boy then and anytime we walked down the street, we went right to the firehouse. They used to lift him up and talk to him. And then 9/11 happened and the doors were closed. And one of the guys who used to lift Declyn up never came back. Times were tough. It was so heartbreaking. And you know, I sang on 9/11. And I botched it.
Q. Yeah, I heard.
A. I wanted to be perfect. I even had the dress and everything. But just as I saw the folded flag, I started thinking about those firemen and I was like, ‘What did I just sing?’ Oh my God, I’ve been singing this since I was 5 years old. I found myself getting louder and I was like, no, no, no, this needs to sound easy and soothing. I tried to make it soothing.
Q. So what’s next for you? Do you still have a reality show in the works?
A. Oh yeah. I already shot it. It’s with Mark Burnett. The title was first ‘It’s Hard to Be Me’ ‘cause it’s about me and my manager friend. We’ve been working together for years and years, so it’s my work with a little bit of family. As much as they want to be involved, ya know? But I keep going off and doing other things, so the producers say they’re gonna call it, ‘Cyndi Lauper Can’t Say No.’
Q. Are you still writing original songs?
A. I’ve been working a few years on ‘Kinky Boots,’ a Broadway play written by Harvey Fierstein. I’ve been writing and working on the music. As it goes, you write and you write until it’s right, ya know? It’s a wonderful play. Harvey is brilliant. It’ll probably be another year or so to get it going.
Concert preview
Cyndi Lauper with Dr. John
8 p.m. Oct. 12. $37-$73. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.
Graham Norton Asks America "Would You Rather?"
Whoopi Goldberg, Cyndi Lauper, Stanley Tucci, Alan Cumming, Scott Adsit and Judah Friedlander are among the panelists on the BBC America series, premiering Saturday, November 5.
GRAHAM NORTON ASKS AMERICA "WOULD YOU RATHER?"
UK's biggest talk show host fronts BBC AMERICA'S all-new original comedy panel show
featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Cyndi Lauper, Stanley Tucci, Alan Cumming, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander and more
Graham Norton brings his trademark style of wit and humor to the all-new BBC AMERICA original comedy panel show Would You Rather? with Graham Norton. Based on popular British panel-style shows, each week celebrities and comedians are asked to contemplate and discuss ridiculous predicaments and moral quandaries. Would you rather permanently lose your thumbs or a cousin? Would you rather land a plane on ecstasy or diffuse a bomb with a hangover? Would you rather eat dog food for a year or get shot in the knee? After a hilarious and candid debate the panelists must ultimately decide what they'd rather do and Graham picks his favorite response. Would You Rather? with Graham Norton premieres on November 5, 11:00pm ET/PT as part of BBC AMERICA's Ministry of Laughs comedy block. It immediately follows an original episode of The Graham Norton Show which airs in its regular timeslot at 10:00pm ET.
Would You Rather? with Graham Norton is currently filming in New York City in front of a live studio audience. Academy Award-winner Whoopi Goldberg, Grammy Award-winner Cyndi Lauper, Emmy Award-winner Stanley Tucci, The Good Wife's Alan Cumming and 30 Rock's Scott Adsit and Judah Friedlander have all decided they'd rather spend an evening with Graham and his guests than hobnob at fancy celebrity parties. The full line-up of panelists will be announced later this week.
"When they asked me, would I rather sit in London watching television with my dogs or spend three weeks in New York with some of the brightest and funniest people in the States - it was a very easy decision to make," said Graham Norton, host of the UK's biggest talk show The Graham Norton Show, which premieres its tenth season on Saturday, October 29. Graham Norton has won five BAFTA Awards and six British Comedy Awards in his career.
The series is a So Television (The Graham Norton Show) production for BBC AMERICA with Graham Stuart (The Graham Norton Show, Pixelface, The Joan Rivers Position), Jim Biederman (The Onion News Network, The Tom Green Show, The Kids in the Hall) and Graham Norton serving as executive producers.
"BBC AMERICA asked us if we would rather come to our favorite city in the world to make a hilarious panel show with brilliant comedians. Or not. We're going to get back to them soon," said Graham Stuart Executive Producer and Co-Founder of So Television.
Executive Producer Jim Biederman added: "I am thrilled to be working with Graham Norton and BBC AMERICA on Would You Rather? with Graham Norton. Being a big fan of both, it's pretty much a dream job."
Would You Rather? with Graham Norton joins BBC AMERICA's recently announced stable of all-new original programming, along with Richard Hammond's Crash Course and scripted drama Copper, which both premiere in 2012. The series will air as part of BBC America's Ministry of Laughs franchise, which launched in June and brings the best of British comedy to the U.S. in a two-hour comedy block every Saturday night.
BBC AMERICA delivers U.S. audiences high-quality, innovative and intelligent programming. Established in 1998, it has been the launch pad for talent embraced by American mainstream pop culture, including Ricky Gervais, Gordon Ramsay, Graham Norton, and successful programming formats including ground-breaking non-scripted television like Top Gear and top-rated science-fiction like Doctor Who. Owned by BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, BBC AMERICA has attracted both critical acclaim and major awards including an Emmy, four Golden Globes and ten Peabody Awards. The channel attracts one of cable's most affluent and educated audiences and is available on digital cable and satellite TV in more than 70 million homes. It broadcasts in both standard and high-definition, with content available On Demand across all major digital platforms. Online, www.bbcamerica.com is the place to go to dig deeper into pop culture with a British twist. Find out more by visiting www.press.bbcamerica.com or follow us on www.twitter.com/bbcamerica.
DVD Release Party @ Tribe in Nashville : "Cyndi Lauper - To Memphis, With Love"
In addition to the DVD Release Parties in Dallas, San Francisco and Boston (see here for details), there will be a party in Nashville @ Tribe to celebrate the release of "To Memphis, With Love".
LIVE CONCERT DVD...from the Grammy-Nominated, Best-selling blues album of 2010... CYNDI LAUPER - "To Memphis, With Love" - "...she belts out Blues Classics like she was born on the DELTA rather than in QUEENS..." New York Post - In-stores everywhere October 25th...on Megaforce Records... - Don’t miss her tour starting in October!
Wild Wednesdays @ Tribe with DJ Ron
Party Info
Date: 2nd November 2011 Time: 6:00 pm - 2:00 am Where: 1517A Church Street, Nashville, TN 37203 Cost: TOTALLY FREE
To Memphis, With Love a live CD/DVD set (catalogue number: NV824911) will be available in Belgium from 24th October 2011 and in the Netherlands on the 31st October 2011. Released/Distributed through Naïve/Pias in both countries. Fans can pre-order the CD/DVD at the following online stores:
To Memphis, With Love een live-cd met een bonus DVD (Item-nr: NV824911) zal beschikbaar zijn in België vanaf 31 oktober 2011 en in Nederland op 28 oktober 2011. Uitgebracht via Naïve en gedistribueerd via Pias in beide landen. Fans kunnen reserveer van de CD / DVD bij de volgende online winkels:
On the 24th April 2012, Cyndi Lauper will join Valerie Smaldone at the Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York for a special event, Legends of Music with Valerie Smaldone. Cyndi Lauper will be signing copies of Memphis Blues following the event.
Date: Tuesday 24th April 2012 (04/24/12) @ 8 pm
Venue: Kaufmann Concert Hall
Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd St
Event Code: TF11S71527
The fabulous Cyndi Lauper was a part of the HRC Annual Dinner 2011. Cyndi Lauper a long time advocate of the LGBT Community, was in Wasington D.C. to help celebrate the past year's achievements and to say goodbye to Joe Solmonese.
Cyndi Lauper was a guest on Graham Norton's BBC 2 Radio Show today, 1st October 2011, promoting her forthcoming DVD release To Memphis, With Love. She chatted about the DVD & more including Kinky Boots, her still unfinished Autobiography and the new live shows in the US.
Graham was up early to present the first of two shows direct from the Big Apple. He took all the essentials with him: a producer, a microphone, a pair of headphones, lots of New York inspired music, and Maria McErlane.
Graham's first guest was native New Yorker Cyndi Lauper, who talked about her amazing career, her latest album 'Memphis Blues' and her new live DVD, To Memphis, With Love. Meanwhile back in London top designer Kelly Hoppen was in the Radio 2 studio, and spoke about her new television show 'Superior Interiors with Kelly Hoppen', and how she tackles people with bad taste, while providing her unique and classic style. Kelly also revealed how thrilled she was to discover that her wallpaper is on the walls in Phil Mitchell's kitchen in Albert Square.
Have a listen below! I Drove All Night is played first.
To Memphis, With Love is going to be available on the 24th October 2011 in Denmark. This is the same versions as the rest of Europe, a CD + a bonus DVD. Catalogue number: NV824911. Released/Distributed through Naïve/Playground.
Boka / Pre-Order:
