Melanie Stoneground Words (2-CD)

(Neighbourhood Records) 21 tracks, digisleeve

Originally it was supposed to be a double album, but the plan was scrapped - Dave Thompson talked to Melanie to find out what it would look like, and here we present the remastered deluxe version. Woodstock and Glastonbury Fayre icon Melanie had been working on the deluxe vinyl and CD reissue of one of the most legendary albums in her long catalog, Easy Action, before she sadly passed away.

In 1972, Melanie and her producer and husband Peter Schekeryk began work on their most ambitious album to date. Stoneground Words was to be a double album - the first such release by a female rock artist. It was also to be the first worldwide release on Neighborhood Records, the label she and Schekeryk had founded in 1971 - another first, as she was entering territory that only the Beatles, the Stones and the Moody Blues had tread before.

More crucially, however, it was her personal response to the enormous success of the hit “Brand New Key” - the “bicycle song” that so many remember. Stoneground Words went back to the drawing board. Ten songs were chosen, the rest were set aside, and the album was released to generally positive reviews, with Melody Maker claiming it was “the most sophisticated she's ever made”. The naivety [of the past] has been replaced by deeper, more inclusive methods of expression” She is the first to admit that the new edition of Stoneground Words is not a true facsimile of the original. The documents for all three projects have long since disappeared, as have the tapes (“who knows where?”).