‘In 1988 Fats Waller came back to me in a dream. He was sitting at a piano and said he he really liked what I did with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. He told me I should do the old songs and reinterpret them in my own way, like Joplin did in hers. It wasn’t until some 20 odd years later when Allen Toussaint played that descending line into Shattered Dreams that I was able to answer that dream.’
As To Memphis With Love opens, and Cyndi’s voice kicks in over a rehearsal scene of her in action with her band, filtered through a lens tinged with an...
Touring with her album Memphis Blues, Cyndi bursts into Colston Hall filled with energy. After offering spirits to the stage (and similarly splashing a fair bit of liquid on her band) she begins by running along the stage and belting out Just Your Fool. It soon becomes clear that whilst the genre might have shifted, her attitude and charisma is very much in tact. Thrashing her arms, Cyndi is backed by a talented band but it’s her who conducts the show and as she hits every note in Shattered Dreams it becomes apparent that tonight is going to pack a punch.
She might be presenting another...
Photos of Cyndi Lauper at Colston Hall, Bristol on 27th June 2011. Taken by Jo Cox.
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Ready to embark on another European Tour, MTTM caught up with Cyndi Lauper to find out more about her creative process and why charity work is so important to her.
MTTM: Over the years you’ve spanned a variety of genres, styles and themes, from covers to collaborations and self penned works. Is there a particular remit which you prefer to work with, or does each approach have its own merits?
CL: Each has its own merits. I try to follow my muse honestly and sometimes that means doing covers and sometimes it means writing songs. Just depends. For example with At Last I had three goals –...
