Tracks...

It's that time again - a bunch of tracks that I am currently listening to (although some of these were actually released a year or two ago). Enjoy!

Her Happiness...

Amanda Lear is releasing her new album on March 17th - and it's an Elvis Presley cover album!

Track List :

Burning Love (3:28)

Suspicious Minds (5:03)

All Shook Up (2:14)

Are You Lonesome Tonight (3:07)

It's Now or Never (3:22)

(You're the) Devil in Disguise (2:39)

Viva Las Vegas (2:24)

Heartbreak Hotel (3:50)

What Now My Love (3:11)

Trouble (2:44)

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (3:08)

Can't Help Falling in Love (3:26)

My Happiness (2:47)

The first single is "Suspicious Minds" - the official music video should debut later this month! While I would have preferred an album of new material (similar to her 2012 album I Don't Like Disco), it is still great to have her back with a new album.



UPDATE:

The music video for "Suspicious Minds":

Fashion Pack...

Madonna. Grace Jones. Amanda Lear. Mylene Farmer. Boy George. David Bowie. Sade. Eurythmics.

It's the spring/summer show from Gaultier - with a special guest.

SOTD...

It's finally Friday, thankfully! And here to ring in the weekend is the legend that is Amanda Lear.

"Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)" was released in 1979 as the lead single from Amanda's fourth album, Diamonds for Breakfast. The lyrics, written by Amanda, address the ever-running rumours about her alleged transsexuality: "Surgeons built me so well that nobody could tell that once I was somebody else". The song became a chart success in Europe and remains one of Lear's most recognizable songs of the disco era.



The question Amanda's sex at birth has been the subject of much speculation for decades. Lear's origins are unclear, with the singer herself providing different information regarding her background and keeping her birth year a secret even from her long-term husband. Contested facts include her birth date and place, her birth sex, names and nationalities of her parents and the location of her upbringing. Most sources claim 18th of November 1939 to be her birth date, but in a 1996 interview the singer revealed her birth year was 1946. However, in 2010, during an interview with a French newspaper Libération, Lear presented her identity card to a journalist, which read: "born 18 November 1950 in Saigon".



Lear's alleged transsexual background has been commented upon in the media and in the biographies of those who knew Lear earlier in her life, including Salvador Dalí. April Ashley, a famous transsexual entertainer, has long claimed that in the 1950s and early 1960s, she and Lear, whose real name she claimed was Alain Tapp, were working together in transvestite revues in Paris. In her book, April Ashley's Odyssey, she recalls Lear performing drag acts under the stage name Peki d'Oslo.

Similar facts have been reported by Romy Haag, a transsexual artist living in Germany, who ran a popular nightclub Chez Romy in Berlin and knew Amanda closely and Bibiana Fernández, a Spanish transsexual actress and singer. Some sources even insinuate that it was Dalí himself who sponsored Lear's sex change operation in 1963. Rumours claiming that Lear was an actual man in drag or even referring to her as a hermaphrodite were circulating at the beginning of her singing career, but they cleared off after she posed nude for Playboy in the late 1970s.



Despite Lear herself contradicting transsexual rumours already in the 1970s and explaining they were a part of strategy to draw public attention, they have persisted to date. When asked by Carmen Thomas in a 1976 interview whether it was true that she was born a male, Lear replied that it was "a crazy idea from some journalist" but then immediately contradicted herself stating that the rumour was started by Salvador Dalí as a publicity stunt. She would later tell the same story in the Interview magazine, however, this time claiming that it was David Bowie who started the rumour.

She would also address these rumours in her songs "Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)" and "I'm a Mistery" (deliberately misspelled as to reference the word "mister"). Despite some sources claiming her transsexual background is an open secret, she would always flatly deny it. However, an excerpt from an article from an Italian newspaper surfaced online in November 2011, including a reproduction of a copy of Lear's birth certificate, which states that she was born Alain Maurice Louis René Tap on 18th of June 1939 in Saigon. The article also included a picture of Lear as a young man.



Either way, does it really matter if she used to be a man? I adore her (but I have always said that no woman can be THAT camp...). She is currently working on a new album, which should be out later this year. But for now, here she is with the Song Of The Day - being all fa-fa-fa-fabulous!

Lethal Leading Lady...

As I had previously written about here, fans of Amanda Lear are finally getting her debut album on CD.Now, Gold Legion have started taking pre-orders for the CD, which comes out on August 30th.

The release will be remastered from the original master tapes and comes with four bonus tracks and a 16 page booklet. The album will be made available with two different covers to choose from. Click here to pre-order.

Track Listing:

1 Blood And Honey 4:50
2 Alphabet  3:56
3 These Boots Are Made For Walkin' 3:18
4 Tomorrow  4:10
5 Pretty Boys 2:55
6 Alligator 4:35
7 The Lady In Black 3:36
8 I Am A Photograph 4:25
9 La Bagarre 3:27
10 Blue Tango 2:43
BONUS
11 Queen Of Chinatown 4:15
12 Blood And Honey (12" Version) 8:55
13 She’s Got The Devil In Her Eyes 3:05
14 Lethal Leading Lady 2:52



Video album:

She's A Photograph...

Gold Legion, a small company in the US that re-releases rare vintage albums on CD, is currently working on a release of the debut album from Amanda Lear.

I Am A Photograph was released in 1977 and many years later became my introduction to Miss Lear when I bought a used copy of the LP. The album is a total campfest and remains one of my favorite album of hers.

In Allmusic's review of the album Michael Freedberg writes: "Lear, previously known as a Roxy Music album cover model and a protégé of Salvador Dali, appears here as a cabaret countess. She enunciates sexually naughty suggestions in a smoke-and-velvet rasp. Her best subversions hit a dancer's most salacious fantasies dead on. Most of these songs support their studied lewdness with absurdly different music, creating tangible friction (e.g., "Alligator" — funk bottom, frothy violins on top) that makes Lear's tape-loop voice feel even naughtier. All of Lear's tempos assault disco norms, either as sleaze or ultra-fast high-energy. An album not to be missed."

No release date has been announced yet, but I will of course post more info here when it has been made available. I already own the excellent reissues Gold Legion released last year of Fame and Muse by Grace Jones. The releases from the company are generally only available from their website, so don't expect to find them anywhere else.

http://goldlegion.com/

Tracks...

Time of for some of the recent tracks that I love. And we start with the comeback of the one true queen of pop!

Yes, Madonna is back. And after her head turning, breathtaking, record braking and just allaround FABULOUS performance at the SuperBowl, the whole world knows it!

The first song from her forthcoming album MDNA is IMO certanly not one of her best. But it is still quite good, and works well as a "general public" single. I am personally (along with many of her longtime fans)hoping for some more solid music on the album - but in the meantime, I am of course giving the queen all my love! (The video is FAB)



From the queen of pop, we move to The Boss! People always seem surprised when they find out that I am a Bruce Springsteen fan, but the truth is that I have been a fan of his for as long as I can remember. He is back with an excellent new single, he is releasing a new album and about to go on yet another massive tour.



Another singer I really like is Leonard Cohen. He is now 77 years old, but just released a massive new album. "Old Ideas" charted at #1 in countries such as Belgium, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Netherlands and Finland, at #2 in the UK, Australia and Sweden and at #3 in the US. Here is beautiful track from the album:



Yet another legend - Amanda Lear has just released an album that both fans and critics are calling "her best album in more then 30 years". While I still havent gotten my hands on a copy, judging from this song I am pretty sure I agree! This is the first music video the diva appears in since "I Just Wanna Dance" back in 2002. And she looks fabulous!



I rarely like it when people cover Madonna songs - let alone when they cover my very favourite one! "La Isla Bonita" has been covered many many times before, and never really to my liking. And while I cant say I love the version Ricky Martin has done for Glee, it is still a lot better then I would have expected - the song suits his voice pretty well. Still - Madonna owns this song! (And Glee is still on the air??)



And finally: a fabulous new single and video from Gloria Estefan, taken from her album Miss Little Havana. The track has already topped both the Latin and the Club charts in the US. The video pays an homage to one of my favorite films of all time too - have a look:

Tracks...

Another batch of recent tracks I like:

Who Doesn't Like Disco?...

Amanda Lear will release a brand new album in september, called (of all things) I Don't Like Disco. Well, you might think that the former disco queen has a lot to answer to with that title! But thankfully, this being the wacky Miss Lear, the title is probably a lot more tounge n' cheek then it sounds. The album will include the tracks "La Bete Et La Belle", "I Don't Like Disco", "I Need Silence" and of course the rather fabulous single "Chinese Walk".

Tracks...

You know the drill - here are some of my favourite recent tracks. Good too see the likes of Kate Bush, Amanda Lear, Stevie Nicks and Martha Wash (and even Grace Jones) still here in 2011! Roisin Murphy NEEDS to make a new album, I officially love Clare Maguire and Cocknbullkid - Lady Gaga on the other hand seems to be going downhill very fast. While I do like parts of her new single, it is still a far cry from her pre- "Born This Way" work. And the less said about the "Judas" video, the better...