_----....~...... "- - ~ .. ~ ~' ' ~ ,, ' ' Contents: Ta.E ONE QN0 ONLY 3 Myown introduction ~CollQ~ in~' l'dQ~ fan for forever(or at leastsince my 13th birthdaywhen friends gave me a copyof StrangewaysHere WeCome on cassette,)and I'd listenedto RedHot+ Bluea bunchin whilst in university,but I'd not Ta.EN IT l,IQW,,,ENEO TO ME 4 madethe connectionthen. Not really. It wasn'tuntil I wasshopping for a Father'sDay gift for my dad that I cameacross Tropical Brainstorm and thoughthe mightenjoy it that I *really* discovered her. YOUNG. WARM. WtLO QN0 FREE: s T111 UNCONVENTIONAL 1>1s1n OF IC1RSTY MncCOLL Afterthat I pickedup Galore,and we started to casuallylisten to herat home,but with onlyhalf an EVERY OCTOBER IOTa. ••• I GET Sao 7 ear from me. I took the disc to work,and wasgiving it a spin in mycube one day and ,, the linesfrom A NewEngland just struckme: ·1~:> r. ..• ' ktRSTY IN UER OwN WoROS 10 (LETTIR TO TONY) I sawtwo shooting stars last night ~· ~ I wishedon thembut theywere only satellites It's wrongto wishon spacehardware LIVE 1N BouLOER. CoLORaoo. 199S IS j I wish,I wish, I wishyou'd care ~
IINO FROM UNOER UER VELVET GOWN Thenit wasON ... IG ..; • Oneof the joysof the modernage is that wecan usealgorithms within certain pieces of software QUEEN OF TME UtGM COM1' 18 to generatemusical playlists based on certaincriteria, and certainmusical files will play. Voila! Becausewe employ these highly technical skills in the home,we havethe honorof havinga playlist that containssix or sevenKirsty Maccoll albums , and will shufflethe songsabout at will. (Wealso
applythe sametechniques to TheSmiths, The Police, The Eurythmics, and Weird Al Yankovic albums and songs,among others ... but I digress.)
Thisproject was conceived, as all the best projectsare, (those not thoughtup in the shower,at any rate) whilstsitting aroundthe kitchentable diningand drinking. Mysweeties and I weresharing a meal,and as usual,Kirsty was playing on the stereofrom the otherroom . Ason otheroccasions, the conversationturned to her music,and howmuch we lovedher, how seem inglyunderrated and unknownshe was, and just whywas that anyway?!Being the zinelovin ' action-orientedfolks that we are,and w ith no smallhelp of severalglasses of wine, someonethrew out the audacioussuggestion that weget off our collectivearses and helpto spreadthe gospelthrough electro -mechanicalmeans . Thiswork is licensedunder a CreativeCommons Attribution -NonCommercial-NoDerivs3.0 Unported License. Andthus UsAmazonians was born. If youuse pages from it , pleasecite the originalwriters / creatorsand the title of the zine. Benice to eachother.
(@~s@@0) Withinthese pages you'll find storiesof loveand loss, discovery, chronology,and some minor pedantry. Mostly,though , myselfand the othercontributors channel our experienceswi th her into the 2 ~solid desire to sharewith the worldthe legacyand musicofThe One and OnlyKirsty Maccoll. 3 Young,Warm, Wild and Free: THENITHAPPENED TOME ... The Unconventional Desire of Kirsty Maccoll byJohn Caracci byChris Wilde WhenI wasin highschool, our localPBS theyget themselvesinto. A caring friend who KirstyMacColl's recording career was nothing short of a clusterfuckbeyond her control from the lack channelaired "Rock and Roll Disciples", a understoodthe humancondition, and embraced of promotionof herfirst singlein 1979to hertragic sudden death in 2000.Despite living her life at the latter half of the 20th Century,her visions of love,relationships and expressions of sexualdesire documentaryabout hard-core Elvis fans dealing the goodparts while accepting the badparts. area foreshadowof the rangeof lyricaltopics available to womenperformers in the 21st Century.They (or not) with hisdeath five years on. There was Anidealized friend, to be sure,but everything area foreshadowof the rangeof lyricaltopics available to womenperformers today. I cameup with no narration,but it wasclear that the subjects I've heardor readabout Kirsty Maccoll leads the followingshort playlist of Kirsty'ssongs, in chronologicalorder, to illustratehow she expressed her werebeing presented as objectsof ridicule,or, meto believethat shemore than lived up to my vulnerabilitiesand passions. at the veryleast, a cautionarytale. Andwhy goldenimage of her. TheyDon't Know not?One proudly tells of howshe divorced her Single(1979) husbandafter seeing "Blue Hawaii"; another Thestory of howI cameto knowher work isn't Whatdoes Kirsty know about this guythat othersdon't readilysee? She firmly believes in herlover, talks aboutleaving her family (husband and veryinteresting. I grew up in a city with no friendsbe damned.We'll see her revisit this 'sixthsense' about the guysshe loves as hersongwriting children)and moving to Memphisto be closer alternativeradio, and only started hearing her develops.I particularly adore her declaration that shehas her "eyes wide open" to "seethe signs."Signs fromwhom? Her lover or herfriends? Does she have autonomy and control in this relationship? to Elvis'grave. Thanks to ourgiant VCR and music(mostly through backing vocals at first) repeatedviewings, my brother and I soonhad whenI wentaway to college.One day I was Sexuality everyline memorized. flippingthrough the usedCDs and came across by BillyBragg Don'tTryThis At Home(1991) a copyof ElectricLandlady. I thought "oh, it's Thepeople profiled in Rockand Roll Disciples that girl fromthe Poguessong" and added it to Listento the backingvocals on the word"Sexuality" in the chorus.That's Kirsty! Billy dares use the line "Justbecause you're gay, I won'tturn youaway." It tookthirteen years after Tom Robinson's Glad To Be wereextreme cases, to be sure,but I usedto mypile. Little did I knowat the time... Gayfor Sexualityto be the nextsong to havepositive overtly gay lyrics. As a youngqueer radical when · marvelat howmany "regular" people mourned this songhit bothin the UKand in the US,I lovethat via this track Kirstysubconsciously came into my singerslike Elvisor JohnLennon. Then it auralfield. Bonus:Johnny Marr co-wrote this songand plays guitar. Kirsty also did backingvocals on a happenedto me.I got an instantmessage numberof Smithstracks. She is everywhere!Bonus bonus: The London remix of Sexualityhas Kirsty's backingvocals solo without Billy's lead! out of the bluefrom someone I barely knew askingif I'd heardthe news... KirstyMaccoll MyAffair wasdead. ElectricLandlady (1991)
Sexytales of insatiabledesire set to a bouncyLatin backing track plusa malechorus in Spanish? I didn't believeit at first. I thoughtit wasa Si! Quebueno! The turn of the phrase"my affair" in eachbiographical incident takes it up a levelin meaningeach time. Here is a womancoming out as responsiblefor herown desires even in the faceof joke,or maybea rumorspun out of control. l somevery dangerous flirtations. Butsome quick internet searching confirmed the news. Caroline Single/ Galore(1995)
Andyes, I mourned.I felt like I hadlost a Ohhoney, Caroline knows. Would she honestly have left a messagelike that on youranswer phone? Yet Kirstycan't lookinto Caroline'seyes and "tell herlove is blind."Kirsty knows she could have stopped friend,someone who got methough bad hernew lover at anytime, and once again lets herheart lead to pursuepassion. Was this honestly andchecked in oncein while times a during accidentalchemistry? Hard to tell. goodtimes to makesure they were still good. Asmart friend who told funnystories about Treachery TropicalBrainstorm (2000) the peoplein herlife andthe adventures lyricallybeautiful story of obsession,told unbelievablyas the star pursuinga fan.The narrative comes 4 5 to a headwhen Kirsty describes in detailabout her fan buyinga CDby a differentwoman artist, taking it home,and dancing in stockingfeet to it. Listento the twolines right beforeshe recounts the stalking. Kirstybacks herself in a differentregister with a darkeremphasis on the words.Proper creepy! Every October 10th...
HereComes That Man Again TropicalBrainstorm (2000) I get sad by tony reay Whooboy! Remember how little Internetbandwidth existed in 2000?No wonder she tells herhorny anonymousDutch pornographer playmate "Baby, you look like a ghostand sound like a Dalekto me." Manyyears back, when I wasliving in Dallas(Texas duh .. ) I founda copyof an albumby an English Anothertrack with complex, sexy, sassy word play that illustratestruly the frustrationswe bleeding edge femalesinger that I hadnever heard of before.It wasin a cut-outbin for 50 cents.It hada striking cybersexaficionados had to contendwith in pioneerdays. God bless European unity, indeed! Sexy, sexy coverand also contained two different versions of the samesong so howcould resist?How bad could unity! I it be for 50 cents? Celestine Tropical I took it homeand fell in love... greatstuff ... and,for somemonths afterwards, I tried veryhard to get Brainstorm(2000) holdof otherrecordings she had made but no-onereally seemed to knowwho she was. I find this the most disturbingtrack of Twoyears passed and I madea trip backto the UKto seemy Mama, and fully expectedto be able all Kirsty'ssongs. to walkinto anyrecord shop and find an entiresection of stuff bythis wonderfulsinger/writer. .. but Sheslut shames NNNnnnoooooooo! ! herselfby creating this imaginary Shehad had one record Celestineupon hit whomshe projects andthat's all anyoneknew . all herpartying andliaisons to Onthe Fridaybefore I was the denialof her dueto go home(on the ownidentity. Or followingMonday afternoon) . doesshe? Are the dreamsreal or I wasSURE that shewas metaphorical?Is shebi-polar or disassociating?Is sheacting out or onlydreaming she's acting out? probablyplaying live at some I'm alternatelya little scaredfor Kirstybut wantto meetCelestine. pubright around the corner andI'd missit... so I called England2 Columbia0 TropicalBrainstorm (2000) herrecord company around
Thetango rhythm and the castanetsset the tonefor a tale of postdivorce dating. Kirsty very nearly mid-afternoonand asked if fallinginto an adulterytrap with"a lyinggit" whois takingadvantage of herinterest in him. Her anyonehad a schedulefor obfuscationabout being a singleparent is nothingin comparisonto this git's lyingabout every aspect her... of his life. Interestinghow her friends are the oneswho tip heroff andtake careof herafter the revelationof the git's untowardintentions. I explainedthat I wason vacationfrom the States, UsAmazonians TropicalBrainstorm (2000) andhow I wasdesperate find SOMETHINGabout person... andwas handed around from to I heara broadexpression of non-conforminggender roles, an establishmentof newdating rituals and to out this department department emotionalconnections in a technologicallyadvancing world whenever I listen to this song. Kirstyyet until eventuallythe promotionssecretary told methat shewasn't with them anymore and they didn't againhas an insightinto a manshe loves. She is confidentshe can integrate him into herworld and knowwho she had signed with now... but sheused to be managedby ... ******* andshe gave me their elevatehim along with affirming herself without losing her identity or wayof life. number.
It wasnow LATE afternoon, on a Fridayand my heart was sinking, but I tried it anyway... 6 - 1 It rangand rang for aboutten minutes.No -oneanswered . no ideawhat it wasbut assumedit wasfrom my mother • someimportant trifle that I hadforgotten to packwhen leaving her house , no doubt. I hada beer... thenanother beer ... at almostsix I calledthe manager'soffice again. Some feller answeredthe phoneon the secondring .. . I wasoverjoyed but it didn't last long." Naw",he said "We Nope•it wasa cassettetape and a two pageletter. It wasa collectionof singles,B -sidesand outtakes don't handleher anymore". I of course,asked him who did, andhe said he didn't know... andwhy wasI fromthe albumI hadbought on a whim... andthe otherside of the tapewas the roughmixes of asking,anyway? the newalbum that shewas working on. She was kind and thanked me for mypersistence and my I appreciationof hermusic and she told methat if I playedthe newstuff to ANYONEshe'd " sendthe boys I, onceagain, launched into this longand involved story about the 50 cent recordand the trip overand round". the deadlineand being terrified that shewas performing and I wouldmiss her , andhe listenedall the J waythrough before he said "I KNOWshe ain't playinganywhere 'cos she's in the studiobut I do know Shealso told menever to expectthis kindof treatmentagain as shewas unbelievably busy and horribly she'snow signed to*****, labeland he gave me the number. unorganised. I " At 6:15 ONA FRIDAY,I called a Londonrecord company office. You can imagine how optimistic I was.. I wasstunned and, when I got backto Texas,I wrote to her(she had listed her HOME ADDRESS on but someoneactually answered the phone. the note... ) andthanked her. From that dayforward she would send me little carepackages, picture disks,tapes of tunesthat shereally liked bya widerange of people, demosshe was doing on other It wasthe cleaner.:. sheonly answered the phonebecause she was expecting her son to call herabout albumsand , amongother things , a tapeof herand Keith and Ronnie · blinddrunk and celebrating her a newjob and.. . etc... but I managedto tell herwhat I wantedto know. birthday... they"sing" a selectionof EverlyBrothers tunes .. . but hertapes were always accompanied by
She,of course,said that shehad no ideawhere anyone was recording but, if I wantedshe'd write down hastilyand often drunkenly scrawled postcards. She sent me pictures of herkids and I senther some mycontact information and see if shecouldn't leave it, witha note,on SOMEONE'Sdesk ... of myown. When she eventually got someUS bookings and was gonna play Texas, she called me and askedme to comeand we finally met. Whatdid I haveto lose... I told herthe addressof myniece 's flat werewe were staying 'til departure, andalso asked her to writedown my Texas address, which she did. I thoughtthat maybeSOMEDAY, I But,mostly, we remained pen-fan and artist. MIGHTget a cocktailnapkin with a signaturescrawled on it. I nevergot overthe ideathat shehad, on gettingthis doubtlessjumbled message from some unknown
I hungup andbegan scouring the papersfor signsof a gigshe might be at... I didn't find one,although I Texasfan, hastilywritten by the cleaninglady and left on SOMEONE'S desk,had taken the time to makesuch a wonderfulgesture as to recordme a tapeand to trust enoughto includesome of the I DIDfind out that SpikeMilligan and Dominic Behan were doing a booksigning of Dominic'snew I biographyon Spikejust a shorttube ride away... so,off I went... newmaterial. I havesince found out that shewas this waywith everyone ... openand kind and,most I importantly,a fan herself...a fan of musicin generalwith extremely broad tastes and , as is oftenthe I got to talk to Spikefor aboutfifteen minutes, he and Dominic signed the book... I wason cloudnine I case, a horriblelack of self confidencein herown boundless talent. andforgot completely about my earlier frustration. r t .1 ISL} - - - a m Whenshe was taken so tragicallyand so earlyfrom us bya horribleboating accident , welost notjust a· I spentSaturday and Sunday seeing the J' superbsinger/writer and arranger but, perhaps most importantly, a warmand wonderful person and a sightswith mywife and packing for the true fan returnflight to Dallas. •I• J Goin peaceKirsty ... maybethis storywill persuadesomeone to pick up a recordand give it ashot... I (andthe neighbourhood)was aroused that'sthe wayfandom works. on Mondaymorning by a loudinsistent I bangingon the apartmentdoor. I threw I on a robeand opened it quicklybefore I Attachedis a copyof the noteshe sent with the tape. the entirecity roseup andkilled me. I It wasa courier,asking for meby name witha package. I signedand really had I I ._.. 9
C. r , d • ',-' . • J •
x 0- r -t -:,-..r p G: -r;-- { '~ ,("Z Cf l t ;/J llYEHI IOllDER, 19 9 5 by tony rea I wentto Boulderfor the funeralof oneof my oldestand dearest friends ... even~ thoughit wasthe endof March, ~ \ it wasstill bitterlycold ... THESMITHS Thecheap ticket I hadbought to 'I fly fromDallas said I hadto spend at leastone night in Denverso I < ~ wasstuck for somethingto do.. and 9, \ lookedin the paper. %,1 .:= Unbelievable- Kirsty was in townin \ \ \ Boulder,just downthe road.She and I \ . • • • • ~ kOW=~ .· _ .._-::; f.' hadbeen penfriends until recentlywhen \ ~ '••-•-•-•-• s:a:.:..• ._:.... / I shehad played Dallas and we finally got -·-· -- :,.._ - --•· . to meet. '°... ••- ·- ,, lc5Jj <;Jot Marcus w,//;Oft1S ''C\0,~. 1 I took mytrusty hand held cassette recorder · ... "
Campis alsoa wayof lookingat the world, whichembraces convent ionsand lampoonsthem. In WithElectric Landlady (1991), Kirsty created a fuller,more 'modern' sound, with horns,drum a musicalsense , it is oftenfound in pastiches,such as the countrytones which creep into Kirsty's machinesand synthesizers."Walking Down Madison" features a rap that undercutsthe genre's work.While she had an attractiontowards the themesof heartbreakand stoic survival,she was growingtendency to celebrateselfish, empty wealth, by beingan attackon the callousState. "My alsoaware of the masochism and self-effacementthat fastenedto the womenin manyof these Affair"is a giddyLatin number with cod-Spanishtossed in, repletewith 'Carry On' wink-and-nudge, songs. Henceher first hit, 'There'sA GuyWorks Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis', in 1981. while"The One And Only" hopes that her life wouldnot readlike a joke in an old Christmascracker. . Whenone think s aboutit , thereare darkelements to the Presleystory , suchas intimationsof incest Nineyears later, being killed by an embodimentof greedand corruptionsadly qualifies as dashing and pedophilia, andthe tale did not endwell. However, the surfaceof the songis a brightslice of that hope.
50s mock-rockabilly, andthe 'uh-huh-huh'interjections nudge the piecetowards arch parody. The Kirsty'sbattle with recordcompanies led to a one-offalbum on m, TitanicDays (1993). It's more enthusiasmof hervocal style, which is nearingthe "wall of Kirstys"approach, concealed some of its sparsethan its predecessor,but still containsthe marvelouslyover-blown ode-to-romantic-BDSM venomfrom the listener,though how one could m iss"he's a liar, and I'm not sureabout you " and that is the title track,the darklycomic 'Can't Stop Killing You' and the deadpanwarning/promise of "youdon 't meananything you say at all" is beyondme . 'Bad'.
AfterDesperate Character, Polydor released her, so shereturned to Stiff, whohad put out herfirst Fromthere, Kirsty entered into a writer'sblock and a divorce,so, otherthan oneoriginal and a singles.She released a few 45s,such as "He's OnThe Beach ", whichis abouta malefriend who coverof "PerfectDay" with EvanDando on a greatesthits packagein 1995,she fell silent until movesto Australiato 'becomesomeone else' and 'be happy',as he'longed for changes',and is now 2000,with TropicalBrainstorm . Inspiredby her visits to Cuba,it hasa moreunified sound than 'out of reach' and has' changedsomehow'. I hear a coming-out story, andthe fact that it soundslike its predecessors,as the basictracks were done by her and PeteGlenister. The gleefully wicked "In a Smithstrack increasesthe homoeroticsensibility. TheseShoes?" received the campkiss of approvalfrom BetteMidler, while "Treachery" and "Here
Forcedinto inactivityunder her ownname , as shewas unable to get hercontract with the bankrupt ComesThat Man Again" reflect the complicatedmix of dreadand lust that characterizerelationships Stiff corpsebought out, she managedto continuein a camp/ironicmode, through her duet with for somewomen these days.
ThePogues on 'Fairytaleof NewYork '. Not everyoccurrence of 'faggot'speaks to the authorbeing Rightafter finishinga songwith Phillip Chevronfor a proposedmusical (yes, her last recordingwas homophobic- the narratorand the writerare not identical. on a showtune by a gayman - what morecrowning moment of campand irony?), shewent to
WithThe Smith s, shesang on 'GoldenLights' , theTwinkle song, in a ghostlyarrangement that I adore, Mexicofor a vacationwith hersons, a destinationrecommended by Morrissey.The sad storyis well and' Ask', whichrivals The Tiger Lil lies ' "Slough"in termsof over-the-top reactionsto howboring reportedfrom here.
RIP,Kirsty, my Queen of the HighCamp . 18 19