Scent of a Woman: With a new acoustic album of revisited old favorites, Cyndi Lauper gets folky fresh and smells great doing it.
By Brandon Voss
Time after time, Cyndi Lauper has wowed fans with her unique vocals, unusual style, and unparalleled energy. On her ninth album, The Body Acoustic, she gives her hits an extreme makeover with the help of the dulcimer, a string instrument popular in American folk music, and an all-star lineup of guests, including Sarah McLachlan, Vivian Green, and Puffy AmiYumi. I caught up with the vocal gay rights activist by phone as she scrambled through JFK Airport to catch a flight to some gigs in Japan (upon her return, she’ll kick off her U.S. tour in New York). After first showing her true colors 25 years ago, La Lauper shows no signs of slowing down. Is it any surprise she prefers the “Now & Forever” fragrance?
HX: Hi, Cyndi! Are you, as they say, big in Japan?
Cyndi Lauper: I’m much taller.
You’ve reinterpreted your classics on The Body Acoustic. Why futz with perfection?
Well, I was doing this stuff live anyway at benefits, and they always say, “If you can keep the cost down…” so that more money goes to the cause. So I just started showing up with my dulcimer. I did this one event where the record company happened to be there, and they really loved it and wanted to have it down on CD.
But this isn’t your typical sleepy acoustic album.
No, I didn’t want to make a Prozac record. I love the Americana sound — that folky, back porch singing stuff. I wanted that feel of people getting together after dinner to sing and play. But I also wanted it to rock out. [Gasps.] [To entourage:] My ticket and my passport! I’m not quite sure! [To me:] Hang on a second. [A minute passes.] Are you still there?
Yep.
So, listen, I forgot my perfume. I’m just gonna buy it here at the airport. I say Coco Chanel — you can’t go wrong, right? Because it always smells the same. Or would you do Shalimar? But Shalimar’s very sweet. It kinda makes me a little sick. Oh, Paris — you can smell like roach spray! What about Opium?
That’s nice.
Nah, it smells like a guy’s thing. I still say Chanel No. 5. Let me see what it smells like. Spray it in the air and then walk in and sniff! [Coughing.] Oh, the whole place stinks of that now. Now I have a headache.
Maybe that’s not the best choice, then.
No, I say it’s gotta be Coco. Or is it too pedestrian? See, I love the bottle — I gotta love the bottle. Gaultier’s cover is beautiful, but I’m trying to figure out what that smells like… [Gagging.] I got that in my mouth! Now what’s this? Oh, Mademoiselle — I don’t like that. They gotta have the old-fashioned stuff for the old geezers. [To cashier:] Why don’t you have a tiny one of Coco? You’re killin’ me! [To me:] All right, what was I saying?
I’m not sure.
I’m going to have to buy this big-ass thing. It won’t even fit in my purse! [To cashier:] Do you have a smaller bottle of that? But don’t you know that we’re traveling and some people just need a fragrance?
Speaking of traveling, do you ever miss touring the land with Cher?
Nah. It’s not that I didn’t love her or anything — I thought she was the best. But it was fun!
Will you ever announce your own Farewell Tour?
No, hon. The Farewell Tour will probably be the New Orleans band that’s dancing by my casket.
Cyndi, my favorite song of yours is the 1988 single “Hole in My Heart” from the Vibes soundtrack, which is absent from both The Body Acoustic and your 1995 greatest hits disc, 12 Deadly Cyns. Do you ever sing it live?
Oh, it’s a lot of people’s favorite! Sometimes I sing it by myself. Well, at the end of a concert I always want to do something that surprises you…
Ooh! If you want to surprise us with that one at your New York show, you can say I personally requested it.
Okay! I’ll try. You know what, I’ll try to learn it on my omnichord. And then I’ll just sit down, pull it out and say, “Here’s a song that radio told me was just too darn fast.” They said, “We’re only doing slow songs now.” I had a rough time in that time period because radio became so corporate. My big dream is to have enough time to do my tours, write and have a little radio show in the back of the bus — like pirate radio — and go from town to town and say, “Here’s what they’re playing here, this is the local music. Let me know what you think!” I don’t know if you can really do that; that’s just a fantasy of mine.
You can do anything if you put your mind to it, Cyndi.
Yeah. I just want to get my next record out. There’s so much in my head that I need to get out. I’d like to write a few songs all by myself; I always start and three-quarters or half in, I’m like, Oh, no, I can’t finish it, it’s not good. But I just want to finish my thoughts. There’s something to be said for the rhythm of your own speech and the storyteller’s real story. Then I’ll call it Original Cyn! [To cashier:] $71 for that?! Yeah, why not, I’m at the airport. [Laughs.]
HX, November 2005.
Like a Rainbow: With a new CD and Splash-set video, Cyndi Lauper lets her true colors shine again.
By Brandon Voss
After launching last summer’s inaugural True Colors Tour, which celebrated and raised awareness for LGBT rights across the country, what more could Cyndi Lauper possibly do for her loyal gay fans? Just pick up a copy of her new European-flavored dance pop album, Bring Ya to the Brink (for which she collaborated with such producers and remixers as Basement Jaxx, Dragonette, Digital Dog, Richard Morel, Kleerup, Axwell, and the Scumfrog), and you’ll see.
Producer-composer Peer Astrom, best known for his work with Madonna and Britney Spears, lent his talents to Lauper’s latest single, “Into the Nightlife,” a love letter to New York City’s after-dark scene that she says captures “little snapshots of club life.” The video for the single was even shot at Chelsea’s famed Splash Bar on May 20. “I went to Splash because I know the people,” she explains, “and I asked some of my friends to be in it — and it’s not fair that they’re so easy on the eyes! We got some beautiful shots using the stage with the water coming down, and I also used the stalls downstairs because they’re stunning; you could put silhouettes of dancers behind the class, which I thought was really impressionistic.”
So of all the colorful cities she’s visited around the world, how did NYC’s nightlife earn such a special shout-out? “Well, I’m from here,” explains the Brooklyn-born, Queens-bred 54-year-old, also recalling the many nights of local gay club-hopping she enjoyed with costar Alan Cumming while appearing in Broadway’s The Threepenny Opera in 2006. “They say it’s the city that doesn’t sleep, but who knows, because they’re trying to make this a bedroom community — they want to make the bars close at two o’clock in the morning, which is kind of stinky.”
Fans can hear “Into the Nightlife” and other new tracks from her 12th album when Lauper headlines the second-annual True Colors with The B-52s and host Carson Kressley, along with rotating special guests such as Rosie O’Donnell, Regina Spektor, Indigo Girls, The Cliks, Kate Clinton, Wanda Sykes, Tegan and Sara, Deborah Cox, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Nona Hendryx, and, one of Lauper’s personal favorites, Joan Armatrading. “She’s one of my big heroes,” the Grammy winner gushes. “I swear to God, I love her stuff so much, I’m gonna die. Obviously I have to act like a mature, tough person, but meanwhile, I’ll be on the side crying — I love this song!”
A joint venture with the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG, Centerlink, and the True Colors Fund of the Stonewall Community Foundation, the 24-city cross-country trek kicks off May 31 in Boston before stopping by New York’s Nikon Jones Beach Theater on June 1 and Radio City Music Hall on June 3.
Along with five hours of music and comedy, the shows will also provide resources for enlightenment and education. “You and I know that the LGBT kids are really at risk, because they’re targeted for any kind of discrimination there is, so it’s important to have information available. While you’re having a good time, laughing and dancing, if you need to go over and find out something, it’s there.”
But despite her political passions, you better believe the unusual girl we first fell in love with more than 20 years ago still wants to have fun, even as she fights the good fight. “I don’t want to be heavy handed,” she says. “I want people to just feel good about themselves and raise their voice. There’s a spot for everybody here; it’s important to find your spot in this world and stand in the center of it.”
HX, May 2008.