Cyndi Lauper is a lot of country on her new ‘Detour’
‘Detours’ takes the punk diva in a whole new direction
Pink hair no longer turns heads in Nashville. Neither do rock stars who decide to try on a Stetson and see what happens when they aim their next single toward country radio.
Cyndi Lauper doesn’t worry about any of that. First of all, she more or less invented punk couture. On her, it’s not just fashion; it’s who she is and always has been, even before her emergence more than 30 years ago as a bona fide cultural and musical phenomenon.
As for her upcoming country recording debut, Detours, her intention was never to masquerade as a honky-tonk diva. “I don’t think of myself as an insider,” she says. “I’ve always been on the outside. I’m not pretending to be something I’m not. I’m just interested in good music.”
Lauper’s catalog bears this out, with explorations of the blues ( Memphis Blues) and the American Songbook ( At Last). “Listen, there are two incredibly soulful cities in Tennessee,” she says. “One is Memphis and one is Nashville. At some point they walk hand in hand. And I always did want to sing a little country. I thought it would be unbelievable to come down and play with the Nashville cats. It was kind of a bucket list.”
Even before dominating the pop charts with Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Time After Time, She Bop and other hallmarks of the 1980s, Lauper was drawn to what we now recognize as classic country. Back then, though, that’s not what she called it.
“When I was growing up, these country singers weren’t country singers to me,” she remembers. “They were freaking pop stars and TV stars. And they were glamorous.
“But I didn’t know all of them,” Lauper, 62, admits. “I didn’t know Ray Price. When I heard him, I was like, ‘Omigod!’ Then I tried to sing like Ray Price and I sounded like Ethel Merman.”
Not wanting to make any similar mistakes on Detour, Lauper sought out material she could honor through her own interpretation. Seymour Stein, co-founder of Sire Records and executive producer of Detour, sent her scores of songs, from which she chose the ones that best fit the country music tradition of telling stories. Then she flew to Nashville to record with those studio aces she had always admired from afar.
That’s when a bit of culture shock set in. “When I got to the studio, they were all set,” Lauper says. “They play the song, they’re out. That doesn’t work for me, so right up front, I said to them, ‘This is starting to feel like a boys’ club. You guys connect with each other but not with me. And if we don’t connect, there’s nothing.’ ”
Lauper smiles slyly as she continues. “You see, I’m not a Southern woman at all. I’m very straightforward. I know what I want. That’s because of the years of my experience but also because I believe that things should be aesthetically pleasing.”
With this new understanding, Lauper, the musicians and producer Tony Brown completed two tracks: the timeless Skeeter Davis ballad The End Of The
World and Lauper’s own composition, Funnel Of Love. “Everybody was like, ‘Oh, wow! It’s magical!’ ” she says. “And I said, ‘We’re telling stories and we want to evoke a little magic, a little imagination. So tell the story in what you play.’ ”
The key to Detour, then, was to find the magic in country music and bring it into the light of Lauper’s artistry. “I’m not reinventing the wheel,” she sums up. “I’m just paying homage to songs of a simpler time.”
“I’ve always been on the outside. I’m not pretending to be something I’m not. I’m just interested in good music.”