Monday 6 July 2015

The Space Lady ‎– "Recorded Live In San Francisco" (Self-Released Cd-r) 1990


Well, How do you follow the uncategorisable 'Blind Man Who Walked Past The Supermarket'?
Hows about 'The Space Lady' who played space-age lounge music outside the supermarket?
If you want the genuinely 'Wierd' the only place to go is the domain of the 'Outsider' musician. Jandek, Moondog, Daniel Johnston, Wesley Willis, and now we have 'The Space lady'. A street Musician from san Francisco in the Moondog tradition, who wears a winged helmet not unlike Asterix the Gaul.
On this self-produced Cd-r,sold from her street pitch, we are treated to one woman/lady, cheapo electronic lounge covers of glam favourites like Radar Love and Ballroom Blitz; the best ever version of dull biker anthem "Born To Be Wild"; a David Lynchian version of "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night",and a previously impossible to imagine, dee-rocking of Brit'n'roll classic "Shakin' All Over". There are no taboo's as to who gets the Space-lady treatment,as Elvis gets a severe case of being put in his place too!
There are a handful of unfathomable original compositions too that further compound the relevance of Space Lady's application for Nutdale Funny Farm. This is why the lunatics should run the asylum.

Tracklist

1Humdinger
2From The Womb To The Tomb
3Slapback Boomerang
4Synthesize Me
5Major Tom
6Radar Love
7Born To Be Wild
8Ballroom Blitz
9All Shook Up
10Shakin' All Over
11Too Much To Dream
12Ghost Riders In The Sky
13Domine Libera Nos
14Fly Like An Eagle
15Puttin' On The Ritz
1620th Century Fox

DOWNLOAD the space lady's decaying orbit HERE!

13 comments:

Alan Burns said...

holy crap, this sounds absolutely fantastic.

Mr Fab said...

Ah yes, one of the classics...to paraphrase the Bonzos, she's the urban space(wo)man, and is still out there, still performing. Apparently she came down here to LA in Feb and I missed it. Why don't people tell me these things?!

Michael said...

Holy crap, Alan´s right.
Thank you Johnny

Bruce the Moose said...

Best treatment of some rock classics since the Moog Cookbook.

I'm planning on using her "Puttin' On The Ritz" in my new radio station novelty tune show coming (hopefully) later this month, and dedication it to that image of the Russian president on the round cracker.

Bruce the Moose

Ollie Stench said...

This
is
AWESOME!!!

Anonymous said...

Downloading this and a load of other stuff - just discovered your blog, never heard of a lot of it but definitely sounds fucking weird! Looking forward to listening.
Cheers
Stuart

Mark A. said...

Wow--what a find! This brings back memories. I used to see her performing all over SF, most memorably in front of the old Bank of America building on the corner of Castro and Market. Thanks for making this available.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Well, The Space Lady seems to be popular.Checked her facebook page,and it seems she plays all over the world these days.

TipsyDave said...

And she's a very nice person, too.

Jonny Zchivago said...

She should change her name to The Nice Space Lady?

the saucer people said...

As a huge aficionado of 'space' related music, I have got to say, this has been one of my all time favourite DIEORDIY2 posts. I played her cover of the Electric Prunes 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night' to death (the Prunes classic was actually a version of an old country song, obscure fact fans) when it surfaced on the 2nd 'Songs In The Key Of Z' compilations (there is a third volume apparently, though don't know anyone who has grabbed it yet, came out a couple of years ago) - but I had no idea she ever did an album - so this one is marked down for a payday purchase.

Always been a bit of a sucker for cover versions done in different styles, but the Space Lady really takes it to a different level and her original songs, like Synthesize Me are just cosmic, man. I really loved the back story as well - that she originally started playing on the streets in the early 70s as she and her partner went 'underground' to avoid getting drafted to Vietnam and they needed a quick way of making some cash to survive - more space ladies, less first ladies!

PS> Speaking of legendary outsiders, you got the new ATV album yet? The promo track on You Tube is rather splendid to say the least (though the video was clearly watched by someone who still remembers when 'unbreakable' CDs first appeared on Tomorrow's World back in the early 80s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN0Udtu

Jonny Zchivago said...

No,not got the new ATV record yet! The you tube link says it don't exist!?
Perry can do no wrong for me.
Though in an act of madness,i did slag off an ATV gig for some shit fanzine in the mid nineties around the "Apollo" album.Mainly because everyone was saying what a legend Mark P was. I was a lost soul then,into modern music and crap like that.I have now given up on such silly pastimes.Modern music is always shit after you're past 23.......especially NOW!
Cheers for the Space Lady info; she deserves all the praise she is getting.

Paul said...

I love this.