Not a big fan, as you know, but those lyrics strike a big blue stadium filling chord.
"You have long been my goal, been my chasing, been my soul. I have wandered on the edge, but I couldn't let you go. Is it time to forget, close your eyes, get ready set? Walk me down this fall I'm taking, but don't let me go yet. Now let me go, sweetheart throw me, around you like you know me. And remember me too, from a dream I had of you..."
My favourite ever album is probably Mary Margaret O'Hara's Miss America. I wrote about it recently in my piece on 'timeless' music and noted that it was a debut that has never yet seen a follow-up since its initial release in 1987.
Strictly speaking, that statement remains true. However, via an ex-colleague I recently discovered that last year she had handled the music for a Canadian film called Apartment Hunting. Through the joy that is the web, I discovered that the soundtrack was available on CD and ordered my copy direct from Canada's MapleMusic.com. I also discovered that Apartment Hunting has its own website, which focuses equally on the film and the soundtrack. O'Hara actually appears in the film (as the singer Homeless Helen) and the site gives a good overview of her multiple careers to date.
Is it possible to fall in love with a song? Not just in a figure of speech kind of way, but genuinely in love - jittery in its presence, pining during its absence, utterly fulfilled and completed during the time you spend with it? If so, I am in love with Dream I Had (i). Its impressionistic lyrics (quoted above) make no sense, yet perfect sense. Check it out yourself - the video is available on the website.
The album as a whole is excellent. Sometimes when a singer or musician means a lot to you, a soundtrack project can be a mixed blessing. It's often an opportunity to see a different side of their work, but equally frequently it can be a disappointment because the singer's individuality takes second place to the needs of the film.
Not in this case. O'Hara appears on thirteen of the seventeen tracks, moving adeptly between torch songs (Was You, If You See My Love (ii)), evocative soundscapes (Rain), linguistic parody (Scary Latin Love Song, Chez Le Nez Suite) and uplifting country-tinged rock (Have You Gone).
One unexpected benefit of the process of obtaining this CD was that I found out much more about what O'Hara has been doing over the past fifteen years. She has been involved in many more collaborations than I previously realised, which I'll be aiming to track down over the coming months. I also discovered that she is the sister of the actress Catherine O'Hara, very famous in her native Canada, who international audiences will probably know best as the stressed mother in the film Home Alone.
I'd like to think that this soundtrack album marks the beginning of O'Hara's return to the mainstream music scene, though of course things are never that straightforward. In fact, I accidentally saw her perform in July 1999 during Nick Cave's curatorship of the Meltdown festival in London. Attending the Harry Smith project evening with Prol to see Gavin Friday, I was amazed when out of the blue she joined Gavin and Jimmy Scott on stage to sing a medley of When That Great Ship Went Down and Nearer To Thee.
Press and anecdotal reports about O'Hara's rare stage performances suggested that she was either an incredibly emotional performer or an out-and-out fruitcake, depending on whose perspective you trusted. Based on my own experience, I can certainly see where these two extremes of perception come from. Her performance was almost Tourette-like in its arm-waving, stuttering intensity.
However, my favourite memory of the performance wasn't actually the song at all. Just before/after the song, a fan shouted "Mary, we missed you!" She squinted out into the audience past the blinding stage lights, grinned manically and replied "Well I didn't miss you!"
If you're a fan of O'Hara's, you need this soundtrack album - it's as simple as that. If you don't already know her work, you might like to check out the video mentioned above and also the samples at Amazon. I'm so pleased that my friend pointed me towards this CD, because as far as I can tell it has had no press in the UK. Having given up waiting for any new material, to have it fall into your lap almost unannounced makes it even more of a pleasure to experience. Now we just need the film to be released on DVD and life would be perfect.
Posted by Hg on Monday 23 September 2002 at 13:20.
Received 4 comments so far.
Comments
This reminded me that my old cassette copy of Miss America is nearly worn out. I stopped playing it for fear that it would break, and since then I'd almost forgotten about MMOH (as nobody in particular calls her). But I am sorely tempted to hunt down that soundtrack album . . . sounds magical.
Synchronicity indeed! It's years since I did a web search on M2OH's name and I only did so yesterday to check a few facts as I was planning to write something about Eleni Mandell who has more than a touch of O'Hara's unsettling mix of vocal perfection, warmth and waywardness. Check out her album Snakebite if you can.
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