Saturday, December 10, 2005

She's So Unusual

One of the great mysteries of pop culture during my lifetime is this:

Why has Cyndi Lauper never had a major comeback? It's not for lack of trying. It's not for lack of good material. It's not for not having anything special to offer. When I think of the amount of pop stars who've had late in life comebacks (Boy George had a top 10 in 1992 years after his messy downfall, Cher had two major comebacks, Prince was reborn post name-change) or popstars who never faded (Elton John, Madonna) I can always picture Cyndi comfortably with them occupying that same stratosphere and...yet... she does not occupy that territory with the public. I'll never figure it out.

I just saw Cyndi again in concert (last week's vacation) and, true to form, she is still a fireball on stage at 52 years of age. Her voice is still singular. On a stage she's intimately connected to the audience, spontaneous, musically gifted, etc... Unlike many pop stars her concerts are not elaborately staged and do not have rigid playlists. She'll take a request, she'll guide her band through something they don't know, she'll run out into the crowd. She is just über special live. She's on tour now (with special guests Sandra Bernhard and Jill Sobule) so check it out.

If you've read this far, consider this fandom starter kit especially prepared by moi for all of you.

8 comments:

NicksFlickPicks said...

Word to that. And let's throw some "She Bop" and "Sally's Pigeons" and the whole True Colors album onto that grill.

Glenn Dunks said...

I saw her previous concert on TV earlier this year and thought she was great. Her performance of "Money Changes Everything" was breathtaking. Not to mention the obvious "Time After Time" "True Colours" and "I Drove All Night".

However, I think in today's music world, they don't take to kindly to obscure singers with unique voices. I think she wasa product of the 80s and that's where she is firmly trenched. She was singular of her time.

Still, her recent CD of covers was quite popular. I remember it charted quite well. Well, in Australia anyway. God, its 4am. I need to sleep.

Anonymous said...

She was even recognized by Emmy voters for her hilarious performance in "Mad About You".
Nevertheless, a popular musical comeback never occurred. Odd.

Marcelo.

Dr. S said...

Did you see her sing on the AMAs broadcast? She did a performance of Time after Time with Sarah MacLachlan and it was pretty great. I think they said she's bringing out a new album soon.

Anonymous said...

Love Cyndi. Mad as a hatter, and all the better for it. Plus she has herself some serious pipes.

Not sure the bandwagon-jumping of the classic covers album was the best next move though...

Rob

adam k. said...

Well she may not be making a comeback, but at least she escaped harm during that period a while back when all nat's obsessees were having problems (Pfeiffer's car being stolen, Madonna breaking a bone, etc.)

One wonders if perhaps Juli might have permanently stained a piece of her prized 50's furniture and subsequently suffered a panic attack.

Oh man, that was so mean.

Sorry, Juli! I love you. Keep working, and I wish you and your furniture the best.

adam k. said...

You do all realize that I'm clearly obsessive-compulsive myself, and when I do this, I am merely projecting my own inscurities onto Juli.

Yes, of course you do.

But anyway, yeah, Cyndi! I need to check out some of her music. I know nothing of it.

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