Los Angeles, California: Think of Melanie and, once past “Brand New Key” and “Lay Down,” the most immediate image is probably a shy, nervous 22 year old stepping out alone onto the Woodstock stage, knowing that hardly anyone in that vast sea of humanity had even heard of her before.
A few had. The previous year, her debut album Born To Be caught some radio play around New York (and spawned a couple of hits in Europe); earlier in ’69, her sophomore set, Melanie, was built around songs she recorded on a much-acclaimed visit to the UK.
Still America regarded her as a total newcomer and, while she was happy to discuss her folk club past, she was equally willing to let people hold onto that preconception.
How wrong, however, it was. And if history had taken a slightly different turn around 1964, the whole world would already have known exactly who Melanie was.
Dropping on January 2, There Should Have Been A Rainbow is, effectively, Melanie’s true debut album and, as such, it readily stands alongside Bob Dylan’s recently released Bootleg Series examination of this same period, an unerring portrait of a young artist heading for fame. Indeed, while the CD includes 19 songs from throughout this period, the 11 song vinyl is a direct approximation of how that first LP might have lined up.
Recorded in a New York apartment across four sessions between 1963-1965, There Should Have Been A Rainbow captures the teenager already in full control of the voice and guitar style that would so single her out for attention (and adoration) at the end of the decade - only the songwriting has still to full develop, but even the handful of her own songs that are included here pack plenty of pointers for the future.
It is her grasp on the folk canon that most distinguishes the collection, however. 1963-1964 was the peak of the so-called Folk Revival, a movement that grew out of the Bohemian coffee houses of early ‘60s America, driven not only by its audience’s fascination with grassroots Americana, but also the growing awareness of social injustice that gave the era its other nickname - the Protest Boom.
Melanie was touched by both. Long before she heard the music of Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan et al, she was being teased at school for her “beatnik” tendencies. Her first exposure to traditional song, then, merely let her know that was not alone, and both Malvina Reynolds’ “Look What They’ve Done To The Rain” (included here) and Dylan’s “Blowing In The Wind” were constants in her repertoire.
But so, too, were past rock and country hits “La Bamba” and “Long Black Veil”; and so was a wild tranche of traditional songs - one of which, “Barbara Allen,” steps out today as the first single and video from this remarkable album.
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/melanie_barbaraallen
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/hvMjFcSdPgc
It’s a gorgeous performance, and an important song for Melanie, too. She recalled in 2021, “‘Barbara Allen’ was in an esoteric play called Dark of the Moon that I was in,” which led directly to her meeting future husband Peter Schekeryk; and when Melanie’s second daughter was born, “I named her after the ballad, ‘Geordie’ [also included here]… spelled with a ‘J’ because it looks more feminine to me.”
Elsewhere on the album, her version of “I Never Will Marry,” with its extemporized spoken word passage, meanwhile, illustrates the humor that was already essential to her performing style; and it is illuminating, too, to compare Melanie’s version of “All My Trials” to Baez’s own, possibly definitive reading. Even at 16, Melanie had no intention of being labeled a copyist.
The most powerful takeaway from this collection, however, is the realization that a full three, even four years before Melanie was finally permitted to record her debut album, she was already in a position to do so. And while history long ago confirmed that Melanie was destined to be ranked among the most visionary songwriters and performers of her era, this album proves that history was late to the party.
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=melanie+there+should+have+been+a+rainbow
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/melanie_thereshouldhavebeenarainbow
Track listing
1. There Should Have Been A Rainbow
2. Barbara Allen
3. Gypsy Rover
4. Geordie
5. I Never Will Marry
6. Long Black Veil [CD ONLY]
7. Silver Dagger
8. If I Go [CD ONLY]
9. All My Trials
10. Twa Brothers
11. There Is No Better [CD ONLY]
12. The Mermaid
13. Songs of Love [CD ONLY]
14. What Have They Done To The Rain [CD ONLY]
15. Matty Groves
16. Summertime Love [CD ONLY]
17. Puff, The Magic Dragon (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
18. La Bamba [CD ONLY]
19. Mary Hamilton
