Melanie - BBC In Concert, London, Britain, 7-14-1971

American folk singer Melanie Safka (better known as just "Melanie") passed away last week, as I write this near the end of January 2024. She was 76 years old.

I'm not that big of a Melanie fan, although I like some of her songs. But given that I've been working on a big BBC project for a few years now, I thought I would post a BBC album to mark her passing, if there was anything worth posting. Luckily, I found a short concert she did for BBC TV in 1971, which was around the peak of her popularity. 

About that time, the BBC had a TV show simply called "In Concert." (The BBC tends to call most of the live concerts they broadcast on the radio "In Concert," so things get confusing.) The show was only half an hour long. So that only makes up the first six songs here, for a total of 27 minutes.

I looked for BBC studio sessions, and I only found one. She did a session for BBC DJ John Peel in 1969. I decided to throw that session on at the end as quasi bonus tracks, even though that means a mix of live and studio tracks. One song was played on both occasions, "Tuning My Guitar." Actually, a second song was also played on both, "Beautiful People." However, I couldn't find the version from the 1969 Peel show.

As far as I know, everything here is officially unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. She played solo acoustic in both performances.

Melanie had three big hits in the years 1970 and 1971: "Brand New Key," "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain," and her version of the Rolling Stones song "Ruby Tuesday." In addition, a song she wrote, "What Have They Done to My Song Ma," wasn't a hit for her, but it was a big hit by the band the New Seekers, and it's been covered by many other artists. These two performances came before the release of "Brand New Key," so that's not here. Unfortunately, neither is "Lay Down" or "Ruby Tuesday," but this does include her version of "What Have They Done to My Song Ma."

This album is 40 minutes long. As mentioned above, the 1971 BBC concert is 27 minutes long. So the 1969 studio session is 13 minutes long.

01 Close to It All (Melanie)
02 Tuning My Guitar (Melanie)
03 The Nickel Song (Melanie)
04 Beautiful People (Melanie)
05 What Have They Done to My Song Ma (Melanie)
06 Peace Will Come [According to Plan] (Melanie)
07 Visit My Dreams (Melanie)
08 Uptown and Down (Melanie)
09 Baby Guitar (Melanie)
10 Tuning My Guitar (Melanie)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16224529/MELNI1971_BBInCncrtLndnBrtin__7-14-1971_atse.zip.html

The cover is a screenshot from the 1971 BBC TV show that I found on YouTube. The text is done in the same style as the show. The colors from her name and the album are the example same as those on the show (orange and purple - not the best combination). I added in the red text part.

Isle of Wight Festival, Afton Down, Isle of Wight, Britain, 8-27-1970 to 8-30-1970 - 8-29-1970: Part 8: Melanie & Sly & the Family Stone

By the time these acts played on the August 29, 1970 bill for the 1970 Isle of Wight, it was well after midnight. (Technically, I should date these performances to August 30th, but if I did that it would get messy since I often don't know which acts went on after midnight.) The still massive crowd was getting very sleepy.

With that in mind, it seems bizarre that the next acts to follow the Who were Melanie, a sensitive female singer-songwriter, and then the energetic funksters Sly and the Family Stone. But that's what happened.

In retrospect, it looks like Melanie got the shaft. She had been an unknown newcomer until she got widespread attention with her performance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. Since then, she'd had a big hit in early 1970 with her song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" about her Woodstock experience. 

Melanie later described her experience at the Isle of Wight Festival: "I had to follow The Who's performance of 'Tommy.' Nobody wanted to do it. Jim Morrison from the Doors turned it down. I don't know how I got it. I was the path of least resistance, I guess. I was all by myself. [Who drummer] Keith Moon announced me. We had spent a lot of time together that day and had become friends. He realized my situation and helped to break the ice. It was [getting near] dawn. The Who had played throughout the night. There was a friendly atmosphere but, [the audience] finished. They had just seen 'Tommy'; [Who singer] Roger Daltrey in his prime. Here I was, with just my guitar and my voice. I started to sing. The dawn was coming and the sun was rising. Little by little, I see heads popping up. I woke everybody up! I played one of my best concerts. After I did the Isle of Wight, I had two hit albums in England."

Unfortunately, I was unable to find much of Melanie's set in worthy sound quality. I've only included three songs, and I'm probably pushing it with a couple of these. Her song "What Have They Done to My Song Ma" sounds the best, because the full version was later shown in a French TV documentary.

By the time Sly and the Family Stone started their set, the sun had already come up! (You can see this with the cover photo.) The band's music is about as lively and danceable as music can be. It seemed most of the crowd did rouse themselves for the performance. However, most were too exhausted to dance and just watched.

Jerry Martini, saxophone player Jerry Martini for Sly and the Family Stone, later recalled about their set: "It was good. I just remember us playing our concert, going over well, and having a great time at the nightclub they had there – it was jam-packed. I remember leaving that with a good feeling." However, he added, "I don't think it was as good as Woodstock for us. Woodstock did the most for us, but it was way up there."

Their set ended on a down note, however. After playing about 45 minutes, the band left the stage, and didn't return for an encore. According to one account, an empty beer can was thrown and hit the lead guitar player. Lead singer Sly Stone was so upset by this that he refused to return for the encore. But another account says the people running the concert cut things off due to the schedule being so wildly late. There was a public announcement that the area near the stage had to be cleared and cleaned up. 

The good news is that what exists of the Sly and the Family Stone set sounds great, because it was released on the box set "Higher!" The bad news is that it is known the band played three more songs at the start of their set: "Thank You [Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin]," "M'Lady," and "Sing a Simple Song." I've read that worthy versions of these songs are publicly out there, but are very hard to find. If you have them, please let me know so I can add them in.

This album is 30 minutes long.

133 What Have They Done to My Song Ma (Melanie)
134 Birthday of the Sun (Melanie)
135 Good Book (Melanie)
136 Stand (Sly & the Family Stone)
137 You Can Make It If You Try (Sly & the Family Stone)
138 Dance to the Music (Sly & the Family Stone)
139 Music Lover - I Want to Take You Higher (Sly & the Family Stone)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15911802/IsleofWghtFestivlAftnDwnIsleofWghtBrtain__8-29-1970_Pt8_MlanieSlyFmilyStne.zip.html

The cover photo of Sly and the Family Stone comes from this exact concert.