Description
Released 1st November 2024 on deep red coloured vinyl
A
- Hearing The News 05:58
- Seeds 04:00
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right 06:00
- The Other side of this Life 03:37
- Will you love me tomorrow ? 02:55
B
- Bitter Bad 02:31
- Ooh Child 04:18
- Record Machine 03:01
- Autumn Lady 03:22
- Shy As a Violet (alt version) 04:38
- It’s me again 05:57
Autumn Lady
By Dave Thompson
Autumn Lady was the album, Melanie said in 2023, that she had always wanted to make. Her earlier records, while she was under contract to Buddah Records, were largely dictated by the label; her most recent, 1972’s Stoneground Words, was slashed in half by her own label’s distributor.
It would be 52 years before the world finally got to hear that album in its entirety (Stoneground Words Deluxe Edition is also available from The Winter Garden); and, in the event, it would be just as long before Autumn Lady finally came out of hiding.
Although on this occasion, she said laughingly, “it was my own fault.”
Pregnant with her first child, daughter Leilah, Melanie’s initial intention was simply to stop working throughout her final trimester, then return to action. “I’d carry on recording for as long as I was comfortable,” she explained. “But no more gigs, no more photo sessions, no more interviews. A few people asked ‘what about your career?’ But I told them, I’m sure it’ll still be there when I get back, and it was.”
And so the album, initially titled Small Time Desperation, but swiftly renamed Autumn Lady, continued falling into shape within the confines of Mediasound Studios on New York City’s West 57th. A release date of early 1974 was settled upon, and when her latest single, a delicious cover of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” was released, its picture sleeve teased the album’s imminent release.
So did the flexidisc given away that autumn with the UK magazine Honey, on whose sleeve Melanie’s previous single “Seeds” was also earmarked for inclusion – and that despite it having been recorded for Gather Me back in 1971. “Poor ‘Seeds’,” she reflected. “I don’t think it ever did get onto one of my albums, did it?”
No, because Melanie had now decided to take the remainder of the year off as well, to spend with her new-born. Further sessions were cancelled, the release date was postponed, Autumn Lady was abandoned. And while elements of Autumn Lady would subsequently appear on 1975’s As I See It Now LP, Melanie acknowledged with regret that “some really good songs, and performances, were left behind.” And then, “now you’re going to ask me what they were, aren’t you?”
Paperwork for the sessions, sadly, is long lost, and any notes Melanie may have made concerning the album likewise. “I would have had a loose track listing in my head,” she said, “but that was constantly changing as I recorded more material, or thought of other songs I wanted to add.”
Certainly, she says, “Autumn Lady” – one of the stand-outs on As I See It Now – was included, alongside Stan Vincent’s “Ooh Child,” and “Shy As A Violet,” a song composed by Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager. “I remember I was heavily pregnant at the time, and Ron [pianist Frangipani – that’s him you hear here] used to tease me about it.”
“Seeds” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” of course, were confirmed for the album, while the concert favourite “Hearing The News” was already in place as the opening number. The version here is a stark solo rendition that was likely intended as a demo.
Other songs, too, were familiar. “It’s Me Again” was a further live favourite; while “Bitter Bad” was another recent 45 release. Her version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” was also tentatively scheduled for Autumn Lady. But we are moving now, into the material that was carried over to As I See It Now, and Melanie agreed that it was difficult, after half a century, to truly draw a line between the two albums.
“As soon as I went back to work, I went back into the studio and we just picked up where we’d left off before Leilah was born, but without the rush because now, we’d scheduled Madraguda (comprising the material omitted from Stoneground Words) to come out.
“So the sessions blended together and when it was time to put together an album, I really wasn’t thinking about Autumn Lady any more.” She acknowledges, however, “My writing changed after Leilah was born because I wasn’t just writing about ‘me’ anymore. So there is a division.”
She was happy, however, to play a game of “what if,” and that is what we have here, a time capsule that documents both the enormous strides Melanie was taking as a songwriter and performer at this time, and the sheer productivity of those Mediasound recording sessions.
It’s not an exact replica of what Autumn Lady might have been, but this is how Melanie wanted it to be. And finally, a full half century after Autumn Lady was originally scheduled for release, she finally takes her rightful place in Melanie’s discography
