With over 70 albums to her credit in a career spanning six decades, singer/songwriter Dana Gillespie, added a new chapter with the release of her most recent album First Love.
A deeply personal album, it marks a shift for Gillespie who teamed up with close friends Marc Almond and Tris Penna who co-produced the album. Together, they put together an inspired collection of songs, each related, in some way, to her extensive career and interpreted in her individual style.
The first single released from the album was a cover of Morrissey’s ‘Spent The Day In Bed’. “We’d never met,” said Gillespie, “but he sent this amazing email saying ‘Your version is far better than mine!’ The 7” single was released as limited editions in orange vinyl and black vinyl and sold out as it entered the Official Vinyl Singles Chart at Number 3 and the Official Physical Singles Chart at Number 6. Remarkably, the single also gave the singer, who released her first single at age 16, her very first UK singles chart entry, at Number 74, at the age of 75! It appears she also recently met Morrissey in London and they got on famously.
You can check out the video for ‘Spent The Day In Bed’ here at RAMzine.
“It’s very unusual for me to do an album on which I haven’t written all the songs” said a Gillespie, “and it’s the first time in years and years that I’ve let someone else produce the album for me. Normally I do everything but, in some ways, it’s a bit of a relief and a joy to give it over to Tris and Marc, who’s are old hands at this.”
“I have some reason for having every song on this album,” she explained, “they’re not just thrown in there, randomly.” First Love opens with a Gillespie’s version of Green Day’s ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’. “I heard this on the radio and I thought the lyrics were particularly poignant.”
Discussing other tracks she continued: “Leonard Cohen’s ‘Dance Me To The End Of Love’ was Marc’s suggestion and we do it as a duet. I’ve never sung a Dylan song before but I’ve always loved ‘Not Dark Yet’. It was a joy to sing because it’s not like his version – There’s a darkness to it. Marc wrote ‘Brewer Street Blues’ and I know Brewer Street well. This song captures the area where I used to hang out, so I could relate to it. ‘Gods And Monsters’ (Lana Del Rey) is so quirky, I can smell California when I hear this song because it absolutely paints a picture of an era for me.”
“I had a boyfriend who played the frantic lead guitar on (Python Lee Jackon’s) ‘In a Broken Dream’ and I kept hearing this song. Then, of course, Rod Stewart sang it and suddenly it became a bit of a hit in ’72. I sent my version to (the writer) Dave Bentley, in Australia, and he sent an absolutely glowing ‘Thank you’ and ‘It’s my favourite version of them all!’ email back to me which is nice.
“I heard Bowie’s early demo of‘Can You Hear Me’ and we stuck to this version as it’s so simple. Tris suggested it would be nice to include one of Bowie’s songs because Bowie played such a big role in my life, in the 60s and 70s.
“Quite often his songs are not, really, emotional. He’s very good at writing the abstract. This seems to be more heartfelt so I’m not sure who he was writing it for – it wasn’t me, I know that! He wrote the song ‘Andy Warhol’ for me and that is about as abstract as you can get,” she laughed. “I was singing on the album Ziggy Stardust and I was privileged – it was an honur – to be part of this extraordinary scene with this extraordinary artist.
“I wrote the lyrics for ‘First Love, Last Love’. I like to write about emotions and heart issues. Being older, I can look back at my first love, my last love and all the ones in between, but the first and the last are the most important of all. “Stevie Nicks’ song ‘Dreams’ was recorded literally at the end of the sessions; we had about half an hour left so we thought ‘Why not try it?’ It’s really down to the barest bones, just the piano and the voice.”
In full First Love features: ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ (Billie Joe Armstrong/Tré Cool/Mike Dirnt), ‘Spent The Day In Bed’ (Gustavo Manzur/Morrissey), ‘Dance Me To The End of Love’ – featuring Marc Almond (Leonard Cohen), ‘Not Dark Yet’ (Bob Dylan), ‘Brewer Street Blues’ (Marc Almond/Neal Whitmore), ‘Gods And Monsters’ (Elizabeth Grant/Tim Larcombe), ‘In A Broken Dream’ (David Bentley), ‘Can You Hear Me?’ (David Bowie), ‘Simple As This’ (Jake Bugg), ‘First Love, Last Love’ (Dana Gillespie, Nick Hogarth, Leslie Davidson) and ‘Dreams’ (Stevie Nicks).
Available through Fretsore Record, First Love is available on CD, standard black and limited edition translucent red vinyl here.
Gillespie’s bluesy vocals are backed by a class musical line-up of Dom Stockbridge (guitars). Harry Whitty (bass guitar, trombone and trumpet), musical director Matt Gest (piano and keyboards) and drummer Evan Jenkins. “The voice is very much the dominant thing on this album but it sounds good because it’s complimented by such wonderful musicians,” Gillespie enthused. “All the musicians are actually guys that play in my blues band and I know that they’re so good they would be able to do something really interesting.”
