Cyndi Lauper’s Still Unusual
On the surface, Cyndi Lauper hasn’t changed that much since 1983,
when her debut album catapulted her to fame next to other
then-newbies Madonna and Prince: She still has a larger than life
New York personality, a skewed fashion sense and a powerful
operatic voice. Her old songs are still fresh, mostly because she
has not lost enthusiasm for them. She is clearly having fun with
her life and her music. Behind the gloss, however, the older
(forty-nine) and wiser Lauper is poised to stay relevant, even if
the general public views her as an amusing relic.
Heading this effort is Shine, a lively,
independently-produced EP that contains a microcosm of past
Lauperisms. There is the ovaries-out title track — used as a set
opener — that allows her to sing at the top of her lungs, tear
around the stage and affirm life. The buoyant and punky “It’s Hard
to Be Me” fits neatly in a 1980s slipper, while the slinky “Madonna
Whore” has a modern don’t-fence-me-in theme. The ballad “Water’s
Edge” rounds out the set.
Currently Lauper is opening for Cher’s “Farewell Tour” through
December, playing most of Shine and a smattering of her
best and best-known songs. The Shine available through
retail and sold through her Web site (www.cyndilauper.com)
is something less than what it once was. In a perfect world, it
would have continued the creative arc of 1992’s Hat Full of
Stars and 1997’s Sisters of Avalon. Both were
skilled, experimental albums that pushed the limits of her talent,
logical progressions from her chock-full-of-hits 1984 debut,
She’s So Unusual. But, according to Lauper, these later
efforts were too, well, unusual, for her record company,
Sony/Epic.
“I thought [Sisters of Avalon] was a great record, but
my record company had issues,” she says. “I was out there touring,
pregnant, opening for Tina Turner. Tina was on Virgin at the time,
and their people felt so sorry for me they helped with my
promotion.”
When the tour ended Lauper asked to be released from her
contract. Sony agreed, but only if she recorded a Christmas album.
“I went along with that, because it was something I wanted to do
anyway,” she says. “And I did everything right. I opened the
lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center. I did Rosie,
did Letterman, but people still couldn’t get the records.
They were promoting someone else that year. Maybe they didn’t like
the idea that I called it Merry Christmas — Have a Nice
Life!“
Lauper admits that some of her record company problems originate
from her own lack of diplomacy. “Whenever I’m talking to someone
important there’s always a moment where the other people in the
room choke on their food because of something I said.”
Released from Sony, she recorded the full-length Shine,
which was set for release last year on Edel Records, but Edel went
under before the album came out, and Lauper began looking for
alternatives. Surprisingly, she’d play the new songs and audiences
started singing along, prompting her to put something out for the
fans.
“I didn’t want to shoot my whole wad, but wanted to put
something out and picked the ones that people were singing along
with,” she says. “Although I have no idea how they heard them in
the first place.”
While Lauper attempts to find the complete Shine a
home, she admits it’s somewhat outdated. Written and recorded
before last September’s terrorist attacks, the album is “very 2001,
which is not where I am anymore.” As a result, there is an entire
second album in the can, but there are no concrete plans for its
release.
But in the battle of Lauper versus the suits, the odds are good.
“The gatekeepers will come and go,” she says. “But I’ll always be
here. I know how to sing. I know how to write. When I was a little
kid I could always win anybody over by singing. When I thought my
house was haunted I figured that if I could sing a song and charm
the ghosts they wouldn’t kill me. And it must have worked . . . I’m
still here.”