{"id":269,"date":"2013-03-05T19:52:47","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T19:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/blog\/?page_id=269"},"modified":"2020-12-07T02:52:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T07:52:20","slug":"elegy-for-a-one-woman-girl-group-kirsty-maccoll","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mediafunhouse.com\/?page_id=269","title":{"rendered":"Elegy for a One-Woman Girl Group (Kirsty MacColl)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl\u2019s death brought a sudden, sad end to a brilliant career<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

(First published on time.com and used with the written permission of the author and publication of first instance.)<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ed Grant<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the liner notes to the album Galore: The Best of Kirsty MacColl<\/em>, ex-Pogues frontman Shane McGowan, posed the question that haunted MacColl\u2019s fans for years: \u201cWhy isn\u2019t she massively successful?\u201d In the wake of her recent tragic death, this question takes on an added poignance, since McGowan, like many of her fellow musicians, was effusive in his praise of the “magic things” about MacColl’s personality, performances, and songwriting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer to McGowan\u2019s question could best be provided by music-industry analysts who would doubtless point out that singer-songwriters sell only to certain (read: older) audiences these days. They might also note that MacColl was a \u201chard sell\u201d for record labels: a blunt talker who settled comfortably into a plus-size figure at various points, she eschewed the sexpot role required of female performers (playing the game for only a short while during her earliest \u201cnew wave\u201d incarnation). She made only a handful of music videos \u2013 each of which emphasized the song, not the singer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kirsty MacColl was thus a bona-fide enigma: an immaculately talented artist who achieved a certain level of notoriety in her native England, but still couldn’t find a record label in the late 1990s. Here in the United States, her sole claim to fame was having written Tracey Ullman’s hit “They Don’t Know.”<\/span><\/p>\n

All this would be lamentable but unremarkable \u2014 given that a number of other talented musicians are uniformly ignored by both the music industry and press in this country \u2014 were it not for MacColl\u2019s untimely, and horribly tragic, death on December 18th of last year. MacColl, 41, was on a Mexican vacation with her two sons, Jamie, 17, and Louis, 15, a vacation reportedly taken to cheer up one of the boys, who was mourning the recent death of a friend. While scuba-diving off the coast of Cozumel with her sons, MacColl was struck and killed by a speedboat that strayed into a swimming-only area. The scuba instructor working with MacColl and her sons attested to the fact that her last gesture was to push her son out of the path of the boat, thereby saving his life. The instructor had the daunting task of informing the teens that their mother was dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though MacColl deprecatingly described her music as \u201cjangly, luscious, melodic pop music\u201d with \u201cbitter, twisted lyrics,\u201d her songs often betrayed deeply personal concerns \u2014 albeit in such a clever, witty way that prompted Bono to hail her as \u201cthe Noelle Coward of her generation.\u201d This aspect of her work made the news of her death even more untenable to her fans, who registered their sad, sweet tributes to the departed singer on Internet message boards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, MacColl\u2019s tragic death has not boosted the sale of her music in the U.S. Why? Because at the moment absolutely nothing she recorded is in print over here. Various Internet sites and British-owned \u201csuperstores\u201d stock the two CDs that are in print in England: her final, Latin-tinged album Tropical Brainstorm<\/em> and a charming, unessential collection of acoustic performances for BBC radio, What Do Pretty Girls Do?<\/em> Usually, an artist\u2019s work flies out of stores when he or she dies \u2014 whether it be a death that is intentional (Kurt Cobain), accidental (Elvis), or out of the performer\u2019s control entirely (John Lennon). In MacColl\u2019s case, her delightful body of work isn\u2019t available, so even impassioned tributes from the few savvy radio personalities who do still care about quality pop music haven\u2019t stirred a heavy interest in her work.<\/span><\/p>\n

An interesting footnote: the fact that MacColl\u2019s music is out of circulation actually proved to be a mixed blessing for her friends and fans on these shores. The tabloid press, which might ordinarily have dwelled luridly \u2013 and at length \u2013 on a tragic death like hers looked the other way, no doubt finding her demise lacking in true celebrity bloodlust value. Even that foremost bastion of journalistic ethics, \u201cThe New York Post,\u201d only devoted one small article to the story of the British singer who died saving her son\u2019s life, and let it go at that.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, interested souls may be better able to appreciate MacColl\u2019s contribution to the pop scene with some biographical details and information about her albums. Her harder-to-find work is, predictably, going for perverse amounts of money on the dreaded eBay. LPs and CDs that were failures in their time \u2013 and compilations that she disapproved of \u2013 are now the stuff of a collector\u2019s dreams, going for up to $100.00. The used LP and CD bins of adventurous local music stores are a more advisable source for MacColl material.<\/span><\/p>\n

MacColl was born in 1959 to choreographer Jean Newlove and folk singer Ewan MacColl, best known as the composer of \u201cDirty Old Town\u201d (a Pogues hit) and \u201cThe First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face).\u201d Kirsty resented the assumption that her songwriting talent was a birthright, noting that her father left her when she was quite young, and the formative musical experiences of her childhood were discovering the Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cGood Vibrations\u201d and Neil Young\u2019s Harvest<\/em> LP.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her first foray into music was a ragged affair\u2014as a teenager she made her debut in a pseudo-punk band called \u201cthe Drug Addix,\u201d whose only record included a song with the Tubes-like title \u201cGay Boys in Bondage.\u201d The Addix fizzled, but an audition they had done with Stiff Records resulted in a contract for Kirsty \u2013 thereby placing her among an incredible roster of talent who shared her ability to produce intelligent-but-still-rockin\u2019 tunes (foremost alumni including Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Lene Lovich, and the late Ian Dury). Her first single, \u201cThey Don\u2019t Know\u201d (1979) got radio play but didn\u2019t sell \u2013 until it was re-recorded by television comic Tracey Ullman and became a hit in both the U.K. and the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n

Difficulties with her record labels recurred throughout her career \u2014even when she produced top-20 U.K. singles, companies would still drop her, due to their own bankruptcy (Stiff) or acquisition by a larger conglomerate (Virgin). In spite of these troubles, her recordings always demonstrated her devotion to her craft. Her sweet, melodious tones (David Byrne declared that she had \u201cthe voice of an angel\u201d) made her an ideal backup singer; in fact, she was multitracked so much on some of her early recordings that she sounded like a one-woman girl group. After initial troubles with Stiff, and the birth of her first son in the early \u201980s, Kirsty kept herself in the game by doing backup work for a variety of artists, including the Smiths, the Pogues, Van Morrison, Talking Heads, ABBA\u2019s Frida, and the Rolling Stones.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most interesting aspect of MacColl\u2019s career is that three of her four most popular British singles were songs written by others; this links her to Harry Nilsson, another top-notch songwriter whose biggest hits in his own country (\u201cWithout You,\u201d \u201cEverybody\u2019s Talkin\u2019\u201d) were tunes he didn\u2019t write. MacColl\u2019s breakthrough was Billy Bragg\u2019s \u201cA New England,\u201d which set the standard for the work to come: a lush production, upbeat melody, and a lilting vocal that underscores the plaintive lyric (\u201cI loved you then as I love you still\/Though I put you on a pedestal, you put me on the pill \u2026 I don\u2019t want to change the world\/I\u2019m not looking for a new England\/Are you looking for another girl?\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

Though MacColl\u2019s own \u201cThere\u2019s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He\u2019s Elvis\u201d (\u201cHe\u2019s a liar\/and I\u2019m not sure about you\u201d) did break the top 20, her biggest hits were two gorgeously sad items: a cover of the Kinks\u2019 elegiac \u201cDays\u201d and the cynical-yet-sentimental Pogues tune \u201cFairytale of New York.\u201d Considered by many fans and critics to be one of the best recent Christmas tunes, the song finds an Irish immigrant couple (Kirsty and Shane McGowan) recalling happier times while hurling insults. Only MacColl could have found a lovely way to sing the gloriously nasty lyrics (\u201cYou scumbag, you maggot\/You cheap lousy faggot\/Happy Christmas, your arse\/I thank god it\u2019s our last\u201d). It\u2019s no wonder that fans consider it a terrific song to cry over and the \u201cperfect antidote\u201d to the Yuletide season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFairytale\u201d appears on the best introduction to MacColl\u2019s work, the sadly out-of-print 1995 release Galore<\/em>. Her development from sassy, lovelorn young thing to wry-and-wiser grown-up is charted through the inclusion of all her major single releases and favorite album tracks. Galore<\/em> demonstrates that MacColl\u2019s was a unified, consistent body of work, a feat that is all the more remarkable when one considers that she released only five original albums over a period of two decades. This was due to a variety of factors, including her familial obligations, a grave case of stage fright (which she began to conquer in the 1990s), and admitted bouts with writers\u2019 block. Her albums thus preserve her in amber at different stages of her growth as a person and performer. Desperate Character<\/em> (1981), her first full-length release, features her earliest incarnation \u2013 the slim, knowing wiseass who mourned \u201cI\u2019m just a lonely alcoholic teenager in love.\u201d Nick Lowe produced this out-of-print gem (which this writer has not battled with eBay habitu\u00e9s to obtain).<\/span><\/p>\n

1989\u2019s Kite <\/em>was produced by MacColl\u2019s then-husband Steve Lillywhite; the couple had met in 1983 when Kirsty did background vocals for Simple Minds. All the stops are pulled out, as this \u201crejuvenation\u201d of Kirsty\u2019s career found her incredibly focused as a songwriter, addressing social concerns and offering a mature view of breaking up. In \u201cNo Victims,\u201d the \u201cnew\u201d Kirsty proclaims \u201cI’m no victim to pity and cry for\/From some sad desperate collision the night before\/No, I’m not tearing my heart out for you dear\/And when you wake up\/I’ll be miles away from here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Once she\u2019d honed her lyrics, MacColl set to work on her melodies, incorporating elements of hip-hop and Latin music on her next album, Electric Landlady<\/em> (1991). The album\u2019s \u201cemphasis track,\u201d \u201cWalking Down Madison\u201d focused on the then-prevalent problem of homelessness in Manhattan, but its highlight was unquestionably Kirsty\u2019s jubilant declaration of independence \u201cMy Affair\u201d (\u201cThat’s how I want to keep it\/I kiss the boys in secret\/Making eyes at perfect strangers\/I know that it could be dangerous\/So if the phone should ring and\/There’s no one there\/Then it’s my affair\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1994, MacColl released Titanic Days<\/em>, an album that she later revealed was crafted as her marriage was disintegrating. A few songs betray her downbeat state of mind, but true to form, MacColl transformed her anguish into delicious black humor in songs like \u201cBad\u201d (“I’ve been an awful woman all my life\/A dreadful daughter and a hopeless wife\/And I’ve had my eyes on that carving knife\/Oh, you’ve been lucky so far\u2026\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

After her marriage ended, Kirsty stepped away from performing for a while, and began exploring one of her greatest passions, Brazilian and Cuban music. This musical \u201cresearch\u201d led to her exuberant, flat-out brilliant Tropical Brainstorm<\/em> (2000) which, it has been announced, will get its official U.S. release from Instint Records in late April. She is at the top of her game here, layering her vocals over Latin rhythms, retaining her own sound throughout (not for her the Paul Simon\/David Byrne method of cultural assimilation). As a result, Brainstorm<\/em> has infectious melodies, some of MacColl\u2019s most ethereal singing, and a number of blithely amusing tunes about two of the most inextricably linked topics in Western culture: female sexuality and the male ego. Kirsty trots out a number of nefarious gents, from a Dutchman who woos her over the Internet to a horde of fantasy men who want to make love in exotic climes (her response is contained in the song title: \u201cIn These Shoes?\u201d) to a married man she nearly fell for (\u201cOK, I didn’t mention my kids\/I thought I’d wait a bit\/But I am free and single\/and he’s a lying git\u201d) to \u2013 the unkindest cut \u2013 a fan who\u2019s forgotten her in favor of a new pop princess (\u201cI’m stalking a fan\/He’s gone to the record store\/To buy a CD\/By some other girl, not me\/He’s taking her home\/Getting her out of her box\/And putting her on\/And dancing around in his socks\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

Being her last completed work, Brainstorm<\/em> also contains a few songs that became especially resonant in light of the supremely senseless nature of her death. The most touching of these is the eight-line \u201cAlegria\u201d: \u201cI close my eyes\/another dream arrives\/Deeper and deeper into the sweet water\/Filling my senses with happiness and joy\/Happiness and joy\/Alegria\/Happiness and joy\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

MacColl\u2019s wicked sense of humor and her consummate skill as a lyricist led to several instances in which she mused about her own mortality \u2014 most obituaries quoted a remark she made about the recording process: \u201c…I always operate on the principle that I might get hit by a bus tomorrow and I would hate the obituaries to have read \u2018her last album was her not-very-good album.\u2019\u201d Fans found solace in citing lines she had sung from familiar tunes like Ray Davies \u201cDays\u201d and curiosities like \u201cThe Butcher Boy\u201d (an Irish traditional she recorded for the audio book of the eponymously-named novel), which closes \u201cPut a marble stone at my head and feet\/And in the middle a turtledove\/So the world may know I died of love.\u201d Perhaps her most amusing \u2013and supremely British — statement on the way one is remembered is contained in \u201cThe One and Only\u201d: \u201cSome lives read like a postcard\/And some lives read like a book\/I’ll be happy if mine\/Doesn’t read like a joke from an old Christmas cracker.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering Kirsty\u2019s wicked sense of humor, one can guess which tributes to her work would have pleased her the most. One would have to have been the moment during a January 20th tribute at St. Martin-in-the-Field church when her friend Holly Johnson (of Frankie Goes to Hollywood fame) led the assembled in a rendition of her rousing \u2013 and quite snotty \u2014 country opus \u201cDon\u2019t Come the Cowboy with Me, Sonny Jim!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The salute that might have given her the biggest chuckle, however, appeared on a bulletin board that BBC News put up following her death. \u201cCelia from the U.K.\u201d posted \u201cHow sad I was to read the news of the death of Kirsty MacColl. Many a drunken night I have spent lying on the floor singing my heart out to \u2018Fairytale of New York,\u2019 \u2018New England,\u2019 \u2018Free World\u2019 and others.\u201d Given the tales told about Ms. MacColl\u2019s free-spirited behavior, one gets the impression that Kirsty would\u2019ve been proud to be down there with Celia, singing right along.<\/span><\/p>\n

c. 2001, 2013 Ed Grant<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl\u2019s death brought a sudden, sad end to a brilliant career (First published on time.com and used with the written permission of the author and publication of first instance.) 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