After Carole King's Tapestry LP in 1971, there was an explosion of female singer-songwriters, or (like in Simon's case), just singers. Arriving with the second wave of feminism, there reception was ambivalent (as Johnny Fever's line indicates). King had been part of the stable of songwriters at the Brill Building in the early-1960's, writing many hits with her partner Jerry Goffin. Finally getting a chance to record her songs herself, Tapestry showed a more mature song-writer, a woman whose words and music reflected a coming of age.
Cyndi Lauper, like Carly Simon, was destined to have her image overwhelm he abilities. Working with her long-time personal and music partner, the founder of the band The Hooters, she wrote and released She's So Unusual in 1984, and became a sensation in the midst of an era obsessed with visual imagery at the expense of anything else. While "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" managed to make a mark in the brief era when music videos actually meant something, her songwriting was never better than in "Time After Time".
I'm not a huge fan of Sarah McLachlan. The Canadian singer-songwriter spent far too much time trying on personae, trying to "fit", in an age when image seemed so important. Yet, some of her songs really capture me. "Possession" is a fascinating piece; the lyrics are actually quotes from letters she received, and she wrote the song because she was fascinated by the way some, certainly unbalanced, people responded to her. There is something quite scary about this song, which might be why I like it so much . . .
