Gather Me

Product Information

Buddha was a relatively new label that had been spun off Kama Sutra Records (which had made it with the Lovin' Spoonful), when its distribution deal with MGM ended. I'm convinced it's a bit of a mickey-take - a metaphor has to make sense on one or both levels, but this can only be read (with difficulty) as, nothing more and nothing less than, a "hymn" to a night on the town. Brand New Key had even been banned by some radio stations because its lyrics could be read as something less innocent than the song sounded when Melanie recorded it in the little girl voice she sometimes used.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The only time I felt good about myself when I was in front of you, and we were together, and I could see and sense that all was well.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Allmusic stated that the album "is one of her most accomplished and confident albums, a set that allowed Melanie the room to indulge her lyrical obsessions while Schekeryk created superb musical accompaniment from her simple but forceful melodies.

The album also features the singles "Some Day I'll Be a Farmer" and the Top 40 hit "Ring the Living Bell". Interestingly, the album with her catchiest little pop hit was more folk oriented than the hit single would suggest and only Some Day I'll Be a Farmer is a "cute" song like Brand New Key. The arrangements are mostly quiet and acoustic and even when strings are added they're not overwhelming. There's no discernible concept to this - it's hard to figure out what purpose is served by the quaint covers, 30-second fragments, half-finished works-in-progress and near-wordless guide vocals that cast a disproportionate shadow over the rest of the album.Though she would release six more albums through 1976, this would be her peak on the radio and record charts.

My Favorite album from Melanie's stint with Buddha Records, All great songs, with a lot of complex arrangements. Some Day (I Got Devil) has the Spanish guitar intonations and sound as well as the same passion found in her song Tuning My Guitar, from the Melanie LP.

My personal favorite is the melancholy Railroad, an intimate, confessional song with a nice arrangement of strings, guitar and winds.

The whole album presents a grown up Melanie with a interestingly wide range of material and the same intensity that marked her earlier albums and along with her sincerity was a defining characteristic.

I have a very well-worn vinyl copy of this album, and I have a feeling I’ll be spinning the digital version just as much. Gather Me was Melanie's first album on the Neighborhood label which was founded by herself with her husband and manager Peter Schekeryk (to whom she stayed married until his death in 2010).