"Someplace Else Now" Interviews
In 1972 when "Someplace Else Now" was released, Lesley spoke about the album in her interviews. Since the album was recently released on CD, I thought it would be interesting to share what Lesley said about it. Below is a transcript of a radio interview Lesley did for the program "Wrap Around" on November 26, 1972. In order to access the entire article, click on the rectangular shape in the lower right hand corner, next to the + and - buttons. This will enable you to see the complete article in full screen mode. You can then enlarge or reduce the pages by clicking on the + or - buttons in the right hand corner. You can also print the article by pressing "Ctrl" and "P" at the same time.
Cashbox , September 23, 1972: Lesley Gore: Someplace Else Now
...Her album, "Someplace Else Now," was released this summer on the MoWest label. "I met Joe Porter in January," she says, talking about how the album came to be. "I had started writing, and had eight or nine songs completed at the time. He flipped over the material and played it for several other people; they loved the material, but they weren't ready to take me with it, if you know what I mean. They wanted to take me, but do "It's My Party" all over again, and use the material for their other artists. We couldn't do that: we recorded four sides and Joe Porter brought them to Motown. The timing has been so incredible here because two or three years ago no one would ever have thought of putting me with Motown...but now, with their efforts to branch out, it's worked just perfectly." "The album is a very personal statement, especially where I wrote the lyrics," Lesley says. (Seven of the twelve songs on the album were written in collaboration with Ellen Weston; one, with Lesley's brother Michael.) "We start off with an introduction that says, in effect, I've been waiting for this opportunity to tell you what I've wanted to say and to sing for you the material that I've always wanted to sing. The album has much of my philosophy in it, much of my feeling toward the past nine years - in show business and out - for my career during that time. The title of the album, 'Someplace Else Now,' kinds of wraps it up." "I always wanted to sing something different than I'm known for, but it was very hard to do then. Music has changed drastically since - and so have I - but people tend to categorize you from the things you have done. I've spent the past few weeks talking to a lot of people - disc jockeys, program directors, promotion men - and it's a whole new regime of people. So it's really like starting from scratch. "Once an album is released, it's kind of like having a child and putting it up for adoption. Then, it becomes a number. You know they're waiting for results, not just for your album, but for fifty or sixty others. And while Motown is one of the best as far as keeping a personal relationship with an artist, that feeling still exists." Each of the songs on "Someplace Else Now" seems to be a reflection, a statement about the state of a heart: "People ask me 'what do you mean, what are you saying?' in the songs; and you really don't want to tell them exactly when you mean. You want them to take something away for themselves. And some of the meanings that I place on the songs are really personal, and nobody could read anything into that...they would take it on a whole different level. For instance, there's one song called 'What Did I Do Wrong,' and it seems to be about a love affair, but I can recall when I wrote it, it wasn't so much about a love affair that had fallen apart, but what it seemed as if my whole life didn't have much holding it together. I think it was looking back at a career that I had, and where it went; knowing I had put time and effort into it. 'Mine' is another song that was done in a tremendous state of flux, where I was evaluating what I had done, the kind of duplicity, the Jekyll and Hyde existence that I led when I was 16; and the outcome was that I was not a terrifically happy person. When I wrote 'Where Do You Go (When You Get Home)' I was on an airplane going to visit my parents in New York; and I really did wonder whether I was going home or not. It has a lot to do with the thought of 'Someplace Else Now.' "Obviously, when it came time to name the album, we wanted in some way to indicate that it was a 'new' Lesley Gore, but God knows we didn't want to say 'The New Lesley Gore' or 'Lesley Gore Today.' And 'Someplace Else Now' seemed very appropriate, because I am, in time; where I live; and here, in my head. So it really encompasses the whole thing. " 'She Said That' - the single - is the story of a lady who have lived a very special kind of life, very isolated, who didn't seem to have much going for her, and waited for a love that never came, and ultimately killed herself because there was nothing else to live for. Now, the story as it's told is an objective look - I think we all know that lady, we all know that man - at a person. At the same time there, there is in there that subjective side. Anybody can be that person. And I think that at various times in your life, you have to analyze what you're doing with your life, so that when you die, people don't say it's a blessing. " 'Don't Wanna Be One,' I think, is one of Ellen's finest lyrics. It was the first song we wrote together. She gave me the lyric and I came home and wrote the song in about twenty minutes, and kind of loved it. "I guess I consider that, in the album, everything has relevance to me - and I can only hope there's enough universality so that someone else can say, 'Hey, wow, I lived that too.' I have very special feelings for this album because, obviously, for some time I've been trying to make a transition. The transition has been inside of me; the problem has been finding material to say this, which is why I got into writing. It gives me a fresh slate...I mean, there has got to be a group of people who would say, 'Oh, wow, a new Lesley Gore album I'm not sure I can handle that,' and wouldn't put it on the turntable. But the reaction has been - from those who do listen - really positive. This is part of the reason we're making the promotional tour. We're going to visit 'underground' or FM stations, who would not touch a Lesley Gore album at this time; not that I think that after I visit them, I'll run right out to the car, turn on the radio, and they'll be playing my album. But I think it does set up a relationship, and it will be closer to them than their image of the early Sixties, and perhaps they'll be more open to it. "Basically, I had to find room for myself to open up, and get some of these things out that have been on my mind and in my heart for a long time. And writing has allowed me to do this." Part of me is living And part of me is dead Part of me is giving And part of me is wed To the little girl I see in photos Lined up on the shelf To the little girl with big green eyes I don't know as myself Mine This is mine That's a lyric from Lesley's song "Mine." It's a song that took a Hollywood lifetime to write, and it's there for all to hear. She's a good lady with a lot to say, and she says it very well indeed. Claire Brush