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PERTH SUNDAY TIMES, W. A. 7th
March 1976 |
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MELANIE SAFKA, who will be at the Perth Concert Hall on March 15, started singing
and making up songs very soon after she was born -- 29 years ago. Her mother was a jazz singer, and Melanie recalls: "I
started writing my own little songs, mostly imitations of what I'd hear my
mother singing around the house. It wasn't until I was 13 or 14 that I begin
to write about things that I found in myself. " Nowadays Melanie is one
of the most respected singers and song-writers in America. She has three gold records to her credit and awards for
songwriting and Best Female Vocalist. Some of her best-known songs are Candles in the Rain, Brand New
Key and What Have They Done To My Song, Ma. |
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Melanie Safka |
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West Australian 15th
March 1976 |
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Melanie Safka with her alfalfa
seeds in Perth yesterday. |
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Hotel sprouts
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When the American singer Melanie Safka goes on tour there is one
thing she never forgets -- her stock of alfalfa seeds. " I grow alfalfa sprouts in hotel bathrooms," she
explained yesterday. "They're the freshest vegetables you can get when you're
travelling - and so nutritious. " To demonstrate, the semi-vegeteranian
Miss Safka produced a glass bottle of germinating seeds that she had brought
from home. "I started them in Melbourne last night,' the said.
"In two days they'll be ready to eat. " The 28-year-old Miss Safka
is a small woman with warm brown eyes and a slightly pensive air. She arrived yesterday for appearances at the Perth Concert Hall
tonight and tomorrow night. She said her vegetarianism was less intense than it had been. |
"I used to be a health fanatic," she said. 'Once I
went on a 27-day fast, drinking only water. "I think it was spiritual because after it was over I wrote
some of my best songs. "But I wouldn't advise anyone to go to such extremes.
Juices are much safer," Miss Safka has built in impressive career as a
singer, composer and recording artist. . . She began writing music when she was about 13. She charted a troubled course through pure folk, ethnic blues
and the sad, songs of Appalachia into the
world-weary waters of Piaf, Brecht and Weill. "At one stage I was a real purist, a snob," she said. "I didn't like what Bob Dylan and others were doing to the
songs they sang. "But I've grown out of that. I know now that whatever you
do with music is OK -- so long as it is honest. " --Alex Harris. |
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