From: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org (jinglejangle-digest) To: jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Subject: jinglejangle-digest V4 #127 Reply-To: jinglejangle@smoe.org Sender: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jinglejangle-digest Friday, November 2 2001 Volume 04 : Number 127 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [MLL] MLL's Golden Ears, Episode 29 [Recordings@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 17:19:04 EST From: Recordings@aol.com Subject: [MLL] MLL's Golden Ears, Episode 29 Reading the L.A. NEW TIMES today, I noticed an ad for an album by MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS, and the name rang a bell. I found her website and read the bio: daughter of San Franciscan "arty" types, she moved to L.A. in the mid-90's to pursue both a modeling and music career, culminating in the release of her Virgin album, THE HERETHEREAFTER. Her website has an extensive photo gallery: she's a green-eyed blonde, and as you'd expect of a model, something of a looker (though for me she doesn't hold a candle to Mary Lou.) But what does this have to do with Ms. Lord? On June 18, 1997, Mary Lou was playing an outdoor "showcase" for SONY distributors at the Santa Monica Promenade. This was her last night in L.A. after recording GOT NO SHADOW, and the Promenade had been her unofficial busking home for months. I arrived a little late with my wife and baby son to find a large crowd listening to a blonde folksinger with an acoustic guitar - NOT Mary Lou. "My god," I thought, "Mary Lou has spawned an imitator ALREADY!" My wife, who grudgingly tolerates my infatuation with Ms. Lord, thought ML had ditched the gig altogether and happily pronounced: "Mary Lou FUCKED you!" Or so it seemed, as I choked down a messy grande latte I'd purchased for Mary Lou. As my son played in the fountain, the blonde's voice bounced off the pavement. "Wow, I've never played for so many people! And look at all that money!" I didn't much care for her songs, but she sounded enough like Mary Lou that I thought about using her as a "sound-alike" vocalist on one of my recordings as a joke. Just as we were about to leave, Mary Lou magically appeared behind the guitar. "That was Miranda Richards," she said, "and I'm kind of playing A & R person tonight. I'll be giving her my busking pass when I leave, so be sure to come back and see her play." There was another street musician who had attached himself to Mary Lou, selling CDs and dealing with crowd control (there is always a lot of maneuvering for this job.) I ran into him much later and he was still angry about that night: "I thought she was gonna let ME play! At least I would've been better than MIRANDA RICHARDS!!" I watched my video from that evening, and sure enough, there's Miranda Richards hovering around in the background. And once again, my brain reels in amazement that MARY LOU ALWAYS SEEMS TO SPOT TALENT WAY BEFORE ANYONE ELSE. She really SHOULD be an A & R person! I'd need to hear Ms. Richards again to make a value judgement, but I'd say having your debut disc released by Virgin qualifies as SOME sort of success. Dino ------------------------------ End of jinglejangle-digest V4 #127 **********************************