Customer Reviews

Gather Me

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Melanie's career never really took off. Certainly, during the early 70's she was one of the most creative forces in music. But, her commerical decline was fast and abrupt, here today; gone tomorrow.
There are numerous reasons for her decline,the main being, poor management and bad choices.
Gather Me is her best album, hands down. It is not, however, without flaws. "Baby Day" is too cute for its own good and reinforces her hippy-dippy image. The rest of the songs are the strongest of her misguided career.
"Steppin" is the most intelligent song about breaking up since Carole King's "It's Too Late". "Ring The Living Bell" although now dated, showcases her vocal strength and her ability to work a song for all its worth. "Some Say I Got Devil" is an incredible song with a near perfect song structure. "What Wondrous Love" captures Melanie at her heart- felt best. She sings this song with great passion and conviction, or to put it simply, I was moved. "Brand New Key" & "Some Day I'll Be A Farmer" might appear as cute little ditties, but beneath their cute surfaces are shades of deeper meaning. Sadly, most people missed her messages in both these songs. "Brand New Key" is about the joy of liberation whereas "Farmer" is about the joys of not having lofty goals, but goals that are and simple and pure.
This is Melanie best album, even better than the much acclaimed "Photograph", wherein she tries just a bit too hard. The Melanie of Gather Me is Charming and honest, a point missed by almost everyone. This is a woman who had so much promise, but sadly the forces that guided her career just saw her as an ideal, an ideal that was already terribly dated.

After all the hemming and hawing, GATHER ME remains one of Melanie's very best recordings. Of course there are the Melanie purists who complain about the orchestration. Fans who feel presenting their Goddess with anything more than an acoustic guitar and a microphone is presenting a sullied Goddess indeed. But the musical arrangements on this album are almost uniformly brilliant providing an advantageous setting for both Melanie's vocals and songwriting. Her singing also matures dramatically with this album. She never had difficulty belting it out, but the quieter phrases here are much deeper and sustained. There is a mellow, rich quality throughout this album that, nearly thirty years later, is still quite effective. Of course this is also the album that contains BRAND NEW KEY, the huge hit that unfortunately pegged her forever as a novelty singer of cute little ditties. The speed with which this single sunk her commercial career is remarkable. Something that often gets lost in all this is just what an effective and appealing pop song BRAND NEW KEY is. The lyrics, not nearly as precious as one might suppose, mesh delightfully with the 30's nickelodeonesque arrangement. How unfortunate that doing something well backfired so completely. The other remarkable thing about BRAND NEW KEY is how much of an anomally it is to the rest of this album. Most of these songs are thoughtful, sophisticated efforts burnished with an ascendent maturity. The world weary, almost country western LITTLE BIT OF ME, the simply briliant STEPPIN', RAILROAD and KANSAS, are virtually flawless. SOMEDAY I"LL BE A FARMER and BABY DAY revisit the BRAND NEW KEY territory a bit, but there is a sardonic aspect to all these songs that resolutely removes them from overly cute catagory. CENTER OF THE CIRCLE, perhaps not her strongest bit a songwriting benefits immensely from the gorgeous, almost cinematic musical and vocal arrangement. There are some slips. WHAT WONDEROUS LOVE IS THIS, doesn't quite work and RING THE LIVING BELL, the second, smaller hit from this album hasn't aged terribly well. As time passes it seems more and more like an uninspired attempt to mine the anthemic vein so successful in CANDLES IN THE RAIN. Yes, she may have been edgier earlier on, yes, she is brilliant alone and unaccompanied, but GATHER ME marks her arrival as a fully realized artist. A period that would continue through the next four or five studio albums she produced. Melanie was at her best here. How unfair that, due to BRAND NEW KEY fallout, these fine pieces of work were largely ignored.

I have been humming these songs in my head since I was young, and now that I have my kids singing Simon and Garfunkel, I'm dying to introduce them to Melanie! There are songs and versions of songs on this album that aren't on the other CD's currently available. Please release this album!

I grew up listening to this album as a young child, I remember almost all the lyrics still, and sing "ring around the moon" to my daughter every night as her lullaby. I wish this was available to purchase for a reasonable price! Cynthia

This CD is so great. It is a shame that it's not available. This is so great a CD and it is not available anywhere I know of...shhheetttttt.

Gather Me is classic, vintage Melanie and I beg for it to be re- issued. Somewhat schizophrenically, this album dips between the moody, melancholy numbers such as "Some Say I got Devil" and insanely happy melodies like "Some Day I'll be a Farmer". Whatever the mode, Melanie evokes some kind of Mini Hippie Opera, taking us from comedy to tradgedy and everywhere inbetween during the course of the album. Melanie's seems to live in a psychedelic playground were all is well that ends well. She invites us to share this world and as you listen to the words although they may sound ridicuous at first you will probably be identifying with them at the end of the track and seeing things her way, which is quite scarey: "I got Satan's Cat and I got God's big Dog too".(Rail Road). Of course this album contains the popular "Brand New Key" but it in no way over shadows the rest of the album. Although it has a catchy hook, it actually starts to sound quite weak compared to some of the other songs which are lyrically stronger and more anthem-like. This album still sounds fresh after so many years and it is rare to find a talent as original as Melanies.

"Gather Me" is a wonderful collection of songs from one of the late '60s--early '70s lyrical geniuses. I have three Melanie albums on vinyl (the way all music should be presented for depth and richness of sound), but sadly, my faithful turntable finally died a few years ago. So today I am stuck trying to replace my many, many vinyl LPs on CD.

For this album to be out of print and even unavailable used, is first, a travesty; and second, a tribute to the greatness of the album and the singer/songwriter who created it.

I would give my left arm to hear "Steppin'" right this minute; to attempt to raise my voice in chorus with Melanie's distinct and oh, so beautiful voice, in this proud lament to lost love.

Melanie gave us several true anthems, and "Ring The Living Bell/Shine The Living Light is truly great. I cannot imagine anyone hearing this and not lifting their own voice to join in. I love to listen to it in my car (on Beautiful People-Melanie's Greatest Hits), with all the windows up so the acoustics are so fine, hearing the song go 'round and 'round the speakers and me singing along, feeling my soul rise along with the music and Melanie's indefinably beautiful voice.

I consider "Brand New Key" to be far below Melanie's level of talent, and I often skip it completely.

The album ends sweetly with "What Wondrous Love", "Baby Day", and "Tell Me Why", leaving the listener always wanting to hear it "just one more time".

I don't know what I'll do if something happens to my album...anybody who is a fan of folk music should have this.

This was one of the finest "albums" I have ever listened to. I say album because I have not been able to get a copy on either cassette or CD. I would to get a hold of these incredible songs on CD. I would however be happy just with a cassette. As far as I am concerned Melanie was one of the major female influniences on music. I would compare her to Joni Mitchelle, and Janis Ian.

This album was my favorite not because of the hits but because of "Railroad" and most notably "center of the circle". The orchestration on this song still sends chills up my back. She didn't need to burn her bra. She already had our attention. I just wish i could go back in time and hear it for the first time again.