The music world hasn't been the same since that day in December 2000 when Kirsty MacColl was killed in a freak boating accident while on vacation in Cozumel, Mexico, with her two sons. Her death was doubly sad for me because unlike, say, the death of John Lennon, I didn't have anyone to grieve with here in America. (I wasn't very Web-savvy back then or else I probably could have reached out to her large U.K. fan base.) Although in England she was regarded as the female Elvis Costello and the Dorothy Parker of Pop, here in the United States she was perhaps best known as the chick on the Pogues' holiday classic, "Fairytale of New York," or as the writer of the Tracey Ullman hit, "They Don't Know." But MacColl was so much more than that. The daughter of Ewan MacColl ("The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"), she was a brilliant and accomplished songwriter, musician and performer with 20 years in the business under her belt at the time of her death. I've long regarded her dark 1993 masterpiece, "Titanic Days," as my favorite album of hers, although I've recently gotten the remastered and expanded versions of "Kite" and "Electric Landlady" and they all sound so good it's hard to pick one.
I had the good fortune to see her perform live at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., back on St. Patrick's Day 1995 and regard it as my favorite concert ever. With my 41st birthday just around the corner it's even clearer to me now than it was back in 2000 that she -- 41 also -- was far too young to die.
"Terry" (1983)
"A New England" (1984)
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Music Box: Kirsty MacColl
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2 comments:
The death of Kirsty MacColl was a tragedy, that's for certain. I have a total soft spot for the song "Us Amazonians"
He'll learn to hunt and I'll teach him to fish
We'll boil up our rice in a satellite dish
We'll plant cassava wherever we can
Us Amazonians always get our man
odd that this is the second place that I've had the chance to comment on one of my all time favorite ladies in the past few days. Kirsty was a breath of fresh air, and while her work with Shane and the Pogues is outstanding, I always thought her best collaborator was Johnny Mars. And her single best piece of work -"Walking Down Madison". I have a CD maxi single with four different mixes of WDM, and each one sparkles.
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