Melanie always sang about the '60s like she meant it, with passion and fervor -- that's one of the reasons why she's taken a little more seriously than a lot of other rock survivors of the later part of that decade; one had a sense that the sensibilities were genuine, and that she was (and is)... [+] Expand

Melanie always sang about the '60s like she meant it, with passion and fervor -- that's one of the reasons why she's taken a little more seriously than a lot of other rock survivors of the later part of that decade; one had a sense that the sensibilities were genuine, and that she was (and is) the real article. "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" was her first great record, and one that she conceived in all its details and majesty from the outset. And while there were cooler records out in 1969-70, it was the only one by any white singer who seemed prepared to burst a blood vessel getting her message across. Joan Baez wanted to raise our consciousness, inform us politically, and maybe move us to demonstrate or vote; Judy Collins seduced us with sweet sounds and art masquerading as pop (or was it pop masquerading as art?); and Joni Mitchell was a word-sculptress, if not a singer, without compare. But on "Lay Down," Melanie wrote and sang with the abandon of a gospel singer in the full thrall of The Spirit. Even among the most cynical listeners, it was an impossible record not to love on some level, if only for the effort. It was also a difficult record to get made. Melanie wrote the song immediately after Woodstock, and in her own

conception of the piece, she knew she needed a choir; as it happened, her label at the time, Buddha Records, had under contract the gospel choir the Edwin Hawkins Singers, who'd scored a top five hit a year earlier with "Oh Happy Day." That made it simple, or so she might've thought. She brought the song to the choir, and Edwin Hawkins himself was adamantly against doing it because it didn't mention God or Jesus, and, thus, was eclesiastically suspect. She assured him that Jesus and God were in there, if not mentioned by name, to no avail. The choir loved the song and Melanie's fervor (which wasn't too different from their own work at its best), however, and the song was recorded, cut in a single eight minute take, later edited down to three minutes and change. The choir was impressive, and made for a finale reminiscent of the Beatles' "Hey Jude" on the long version, but Melanie's singing was at the center of the song, especially on the edited version, which soared to No. 6 on the pop charts -- using a basic melody that may well, incidentally, have inspired the Strawbs' Dave Cousins in conceiving "Down By The Sea" a couple of years later, she projected a spirit of joy and abandon that fit the subject and the time as perfectly as her words. Even three decades later, the song (especially in its complete album version, on the Buddha best-of-Melanie CD Beautiful People) elicits awe, even a tear or two from some listeners as it recalls a lost moment in our lives. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide [-] Collapse

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