MELBA MOORE
Speaks to Fitzroy @ the Soul Survivors
from Hair performed by Galt McDermot, who wrote Hair’s music and was being assisted by Jim Radal and Gerry Ragney, who wrote the book and the lyrics. Part of your question was if I were sceptical, the only thing I knew about hippies was what I saw on TV, Jim and Gerry were hippies, they had no shoes on and t-shirts like their mother didn’t teach them how to separate the colours in the laundry and their hair AAAAAAAAAhhh!! I think Gerry, who had red curly wild bushy hair that looked like his fingers were stuck in a live plug, asked me if I’d like to do Hair. I had no background in theatre, hadn’t even seen a play and had no frame of reference and I told him I didn’t have a Batchelor of Arts Degree to do nobody’s hair. Then he explained it was gonna be a Broadway show and that he’d already basically auditioned us and was still casting for strong singers and any of us on the tape that wanted to be on the Broadway show need not audition. F: Growing up in the UK in the wonderful mid 70’s to mid 80’s era, there were many soul sisters who graced our ears including Jean Carne, Linda Clifford, Donna Summer, Chaka, Aretha, Phyllis Hyman, Gladys Knight, Loletta Holloway and more. Was it as competitive as it appeared as you were all churning out albums consistently? Your most commercial hit was This Is It and you did Peach Melba, Melba, A Portrait of Melba etc and it was hard to keep up with all these artiste’s releases. So was it friendly rivalry? F: Growing up in Harlem, life for a young black female must have been an eye opener, as racism, drugs money and power were rife at the time. I read somewhere that things you witnessed alerted you that life isn’t going to be easy. How did this prepare the woman we grew to know as Peach Melba? Melba: (Big Laughter) Excuse my laugh cause that’s a very good question! You said it now, if I go back in my mind and recap…well my parents were musicians but discouraged me from pursuing music as a career, they said get a real job cause it was difficult for anyone in the music industry. A lot of the ground work was being laid, for instance Be Bop vas virgining, all kinds of jazz areas were developing, there was an experiment in progress and nobody had the answers. Everybody was following their heart trying to create some order and foundation which now exist, so when I look back on it now I remember the horror stories from my Mom and Dad about people getting ripped off, that they were telling the truth. I’m glad they told me that when I decided to try this industry.
Coming up in the time where racism was much stronger in some ways to what it is now, I remember being part of that culture that wanted to break free, we said we’re not waiting any more, we’re not straightening our hair!! Kinda like breaking out of the eggshell may have been part of what that era was that I came up in, but I generally think I’m spirited like that. F: Is it true you were skeptical of the free spirited 60’s flower powered den of iniquity, the Broadway musical Hair, before you landed the historical mark as the first black actress to take over the lead from a white up and coming actress, the legend that is Diane Keaton? Especially in the aftermath of the civil rights and the Black Panthers, what kind of cloud were you riding on? Melba: I was in the transition of doing session work and developing as a solo artist, being around wonderful musicians and trying to write songs and develop a singing style. On one of the recording sessions with both Nick and Val (Ashford & Simpson) we were invited to do the music
Melba: It was highly competitive but not so much rivalry as there were lots of avenues touring in Europe, promotions, television, clubs, concerts, venues and shows at that time to support your music. But disco just exploded and became a base where people loved to dance under the new category of disco. F: How did the Bee Gees “You Stepped Into My Life” come about, as they wrote and sung that and it was featured on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack? Melba: Well again my ex husband Charles and I were figuring to do something that people were familiar with. Now practically every song on that album was a smash hit but picked one that wasn’t, with Gene and John arranging and changing it’s identity. You know Gene and John? F: Yeah they really funked it up, and in addition because the Bee Gees’ sung in that pitched high falsetto voice it was a template for you as a woman. Melba: I think you’re right. I wasn’t really remembering that but absolutely it kinda tells you if it might fit your voice!!
F: I wrote down some of my favourite tracks. Got to tell you your version of Curtis Mayfield’s Ain’t No Love Lost on the purple Melba album on Buddah, was the first version I had before I heard Curtis’s or the other he did with Linda Clifford. Melba: Oh I love that song! F: This Is It, Standing Right Here is legendary, Free and Promise Land always brings out my emotions, You Stepped Into My Life and your version of It’s Hard Not To Like You I prefer to Archie Bells, and heard it first. Pick Me Up I’ll Dance is beautiful, Philly, Lets Go Back To Loving, Mind Up Tonight, Take My Love, now that’s just a portion, but which do you remember having fun making. Melba: Because I‘ve been so busy surviving, those memories are in a far away place. I haven’t till recently revisited those songs, but I’ve had a little contact with Standing Right Here and when I listen to it it’s very nice, very simple. (Melba now sings to me, ‘me you know’, and I didn’t even request it)!! “I can never forget the day you left me and the love we both share, it hurt me so bad inside that day, much more than I could bear” I think that’s a great lyric - what a beautiful song - wow, and the feel of it. It was one of the many songs I recorded with MacFadden & Whitehead, who were comedians, completely hilarious and absolutely insane. In the studio I’d often have to go away and finish laughing, before I could continue to
sing, they were fun loving human beings. F: You have to have a degree of humour to be able to write those kind of songs and to write deep lyrics like in Promise Land. Melba: Both of their backgrounds is typical of what we know about African Americans who grow up in an environment of taking God seriously even if we don’t live the life we believe. I’ve always been drawn to the spiritual and now I’m back on it. They were trying to write hit records, but on occasion they came with something spiritual. F: Being around supreme spiritual beings like Gamble & Huff, it can’t help but rub off on you, with tunes like Promise Land and Let’s Stand Together. Melba sings Wake Up Everybody (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes) - beautiful and inspiring - you didn’t really listen to the words - but the music …wow! F: I always say to people when we are busy getting down to the music lyrically, the message was subliminal but it’s only when we mature we hear it differently and realize… that’s what they were talking about and meant. When you listen to Funkadelic’s One Nation Under A Groove, “getting down for the funk of it”...it’s deeper than that. The thing about the Philly stuff, there was always a Message In the Music, as sung by the O Jays’. Melba: Good example, now that you men-
tion you know what you remind me of, if we don’t speak about it, there is something magnetic about the beat and the bassline. F: It all goes back to the original sound of our African roots the drum and the bass. Melba: Yeah and it grabs you and I’m sorry if you ain’t careful it’ll take you somewhere honey!! Melba: Before you leave, did you happen to get a copy of my album Closer? F: I’ve seen it but haven’t got it, it’s a pink cover on Epic.. Melba: That’s right!! The reason why I’m encouraging you to listen to it is because it wasn’t a hugely popular album, but when you listen you gonna hear great musicians and Tawatha, who sang on Mtume’s Juicy Fruit and Luther Vandross on back up!! F: Oooooooooh!! Melba: Luther’s voice is so beautiful. (She laughs out loud)! F: Melba it’s been fantastic. Melba: Thank you it’s been fun Fitzroy.
The full interview can be found in Issue 13 of the Soul Survivors.
Go to our website www.thesoulsurvivors.co.uk