The Very True Story of My Cyndi Lauper Obsession

Friday is fun, because it's all about music. And there's playlists too. And lots of links. Music, music, it's such a tonic, y'all!

Back in 2005, I had my car door smashed. The lucky thing about any car issues back in the day, was my old man having a yard; a business. So I left the vehicle in Hastings to be fixed and was able to borrow ‘a bomb’ to drive around in. There was one concern: tape-deck only. And I had ditched almost all of my tapes by then.

I searched for anything that might work on the drive back, Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Status Quo…um, no thanks. Not in that context. No way.

Then I found True Colors on tape. It wasn’t mine. And I don’t mean that in a doth protest too much kind of way, I just know that it had been given to me later on. But, ah, more on that, um…later on…

When I was really young I liked Cyndi Lauper. Straight away. Which is to say, I liked the songs when I heard them on the radio. The big ones I knew were She-Bop and, of course, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I was probably six or seven when I first heard those songs, and I had my first tape-player so I would record favourite radio songs onto a C-90 cassette tape and play it on a loop.

When I was a kid there was some weird energy around buying tapes by female artists. And maybe it was just me. Maybe other young boys bought their favourites whatever they were. But I just didn’t. I bought Michael Jackson and Prince tapes. But I didn’t own anything by Madonna, Cyndi, Janet Jackson or Whitney Houston. I remember wanting the first Cyndi Lauper album and never buying it. Same with Whitney’s debut. (Same with Mariah Carey actually).

Some sort of bullshit stigma. It was a weird perception game. Fleetwood Mac was fine. Grace Jones was fine. Patti Smith. Blondie.

They were cool. Serious.

The pop stuff that I adored – Bananarama, The Bangles, Alison Moyet, Belinda Carlisle and all of those names I mentioned up above, as well as things a bit more flash in the pan like T’Pau – were secret-shames or something. But fortunately I had an aunty with the best damn tape collection going. She had all of those things. And more. She was into all of the 80s pop stuff. Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, Level 42, Terence Trent D ’Arby. You name it. The works. Men At Work. Midnight Oil. Sheena Easton.

So when she got into CDs, and I got over myself, somewhere in my teen years, I inherited about 100 of the best damn 80s albums and compilations going. And I added them to my giant selection of 50s, 60s and 70s music that I adored. And then all the pop and rap and metal and grunge of the late 1980s and early 1990s that I was loving as I was living through it.

In my final years of high school and early university, I used to have a car with a tape-player. So tapes got a thrashing, covers smashed, loops of tape strewn about the front seat, sometimes they were thrown out of moving vehicles –in frustration – on road trips. (Not cool).

So there I am in 2005, borrowing this old shitter of a car to use for a few weeks, and grateful that it was easy to do that. But I worried about my music selection. I wasn’t going to go buying up tapes again…and I sure wasn’t feeling the Clapton of the 80s and the Dire Straits of the I Want My MTV-era, with their Miami Wine Cooler aesthetic. And sweatbands.

So I decided I would have another hoon on True Colors.

There is only one way to explain what happened next: I became obsessed with Cyndi Lauper.

I purchased True Colors on CD and then quickly grabbed She's So Unusual also. That album (of course) became the favourite. But I didn't stop there. I went on a rampage, grabbing A Night To Remember and Hat Full Of Stars; revisiting her 2003 collection of show-tunes and jazz-standards, At Last (I had actually reviewed this when it was released and though it was pleasant enough I was just chewing through whatever was being served up as homework, moving through it and moving on…)

I was in deep with Cyndi. And if you couldn’t tell this already, just know that I used to own The Body Acoustic - reworkings of her famous songs with guests like Ani DiFranco, Sarah McLachlan, and, erm, Shaggy. So, now you believe me, I was obsessed.

My favourite Cyndi songs are mostly from that debut, still.

All Through The Night, the cover of Prince’s gem, When You Were Mine (love his version, love her version) and Money Changes Everything.

I was a huge fan of the Goonies song too. Because, well, dur, that movie was huge for me!

But there really are some great tracks on the follow-up album, True Colors. Especially the big opener, Change of Heart. It’s overblown, and frankly all the better for it. That’s some big, big production.

And the title track is perfect. Sublime. Gorgeous. A modern standard. A wonderful piece of balladry.

When I went in so deep on all this Cyndi Lauper appreciation now nearly 20 years ago, I was hooked on her abilities as both song-interpreter and songwriter. Many of her biggest songs that feel like she must have penned them (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, All Through The Night) are covers. But some of the songs she did write have such great hooks. And if she only wrote Time After Time that would be enough, surely?

Incidentally, there was a band she was in prior to going solo, Blue Angel. I really reckon the Blue Angel album is a must too. (Wee bit of trivia, it was the first album I bought on iTunes).

I remember starting an online petition to get her to play The Mission. I even interviewed her, albeit via email. It made it onto the front page of Dominion Post though. This was on the whisper of an idea that she was touring here. It never happened. (And even though the interview was a record-company assisted, email Q&A, as a wrestling fan I still got in a question about her being part of the first Wrestlemania. Yes, you know I did!)

But now, this year, she is booked to be the opening act for Rod Stewart at The Mission. A bunch of people asked me if I was going. I’ve seen Rod already. So, I would have preferred Cyndi to be the headliner. I guess I’m sitting this one out.

Which feels like a shame.

But I’ve always got She’s So Unusual and True Colors to get me through. Seriously, I still listen to one of those albums, or bits and pieces off both, most weeks. What superb songs. What a sense of style she had. And then there was the huge heart and humanity and humility; her philanthropy and activism.

She also wrote one of the better music memoirs on the market about a decade ago. So if you missed that at the time, seek it out.

That’s my Friday yarn for you this week. Sharing some Cyndi love. All of her great music too.

And of course, there’s our regular weekly playlist that has nothing to do with Cyndi Lauper this week, and always aims to have everything to do with finding and grouping a bunch of great songs. I hope you enjoy it.

But do share your stories about Cyndi if you have them. Are you a fan? Favourite songs, albums, etc…and have you already seen her live? Or do you have tickets to an upcoming show?