WOMAN of REPUTE
CHAPTER ONE
EARLY SUCCESS
CHAPTER ONE
EARLY SUCCESS
Born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien on April 16, 1939, Dusty's first introduction to music was through her father's love of Beethovan and other classical composers. Jazz was also a genre of music popular in the O'Brien household, with Jelly Roll Morton, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee being major influences on the young Dusty. In her teenage years, Dusty's older brother Tom introduced her to Latin-American and other ethnic sounds ensuring an eclectic dimension to her musical development that would remain evident throughout her career.
"My Dad's an income tax consultant. He goes to court, talks with the barristers and sorts it all out. He's in league with my accountants. If he handled all my affairs, I'd probably punch him in the nose. He always used to help me with my homework and we became bitter enemies."
"My mother is a pure innocent Irish Catholic - her prayers get answered! I come from a journalistic family. My maternal grandfather was a parliamentary correspondent for the IRISH INDEPENDENT. And he was editor of THE KERRYMAN, the County Kerry paper. Mother's first recollection is tea at the Houses of Parliament. I've seen pictures of her when she was young and she had black hair and bright blue eyes, color in her cheeks. People always think of the Irish as red-haired but they forget that when the Spanish hit Ireland, boy, they had a good time! You see black-haired men with eyes like Paul Newman's - so beautiful it takes your breath away! When I was a kid my hair was red. 'Carrots' was my name because of my hair and [because] I used to eat carrots to improve my eyesight."
"I was born in Hampstead and my father was a bit posh. He went to a good school. He was born in India. The poor fellow was shoved off to a public school in Derbyshire at the age of seven. He'd go back to India for the holidays. The boat went so slowly that he must have had only time for a plate of curry before it was time to turn round and go back to school again. No wonder he was so very shy and withdrawn all his life. In some ways I take after him."
"I've had it [the name Dusty] since childhood. You see I was a bit of a tomboy and my friends thought that Dusty was an appropriate nickname for a girl who liked to play football in the streets with the boys . . . No! I don't play anymore. I retired gracefully at fifteen!"
"My music upbringing wasn't restricted. I was torn between jazz and Aaron Copland. My parents made me listen - without me realizing it - to all sorts of music. They'd have the Home Service on all the time, a kind of news and good music station. I got to be very concert-minded and learned about all sorts of vague composers. I never actually learned to read music, which is my shame. But I have a very good ear, which compensates for my sight - I'm extremely nearsighted."
". . . It was my brother who had the most influence on me. He loved jazz and so I got into it. The very first record I ever bought with my own money was Stan Kenton's ARTISTRY IN BOOGIE. My brother brought me to see my first two movies - THE BODY SNATCHERS and WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING. I think I saw every musical 20th Century-Fox ever made. I idolized June Haver and Dick Haymes and I was very faithful to 20th - I hated MGM, though I'd drift occasionally over to Warner Bros."
"I was very self-conscious and plain at school. I wore National Health glasses and was very fat and shy. Then when I was 16 I did a really brave thing. I don't know where I got the courage from, but I made a conscious decision to change my appearance. I must have hated myself so much. One minute I was a librarian-looking convent schoolgirl, the next I was off to Harrods for a black sheath and a chevignon. I realized that there was a whole world out there and I wanted to be part of it. It didn't have anything to do with sexuality. I think I just loved the glamour of it all, and if I'd stayed as I was I would have died inside."
". . . I always used to say the same thing: 'I want to be a blues singer.' God knows what that meant . . . I thought it would be appropriate. Besides that, I had a fierce crush on Peggy Lee's voice. That's who I wanted to be. I wanted to be Peggy Lee."
Answering a press advertisement, Dusty joined a trio called the Lana Sisters in 1958. Moderate success followed with novelty-type records such as Seven Little Girls Sitting On A Back Seat.
"I answered an ad for 'established sister act needs member' and thought that would be . . . a hoot. I needed stage experience as I had none . . . I [wanted to join] something--an act--that actually worked, not in the sort of semi-amateur way but actually got booked by Tito Burns and things and actually went and did American air bases. Wah! If you can survive that, it's excellent training . . ."
". . . We used to wear gold lame pants . . . no they were silver lame . . . with pale blue tulle skirts with draw-strings which would pull and whip back our skirts, like flashers, half-way through the act to reveal these little lame numbers underneath."
" . . . I never really fitted in . . . The first time I appeared on stage--it was at the Savoy . . . Clacton! I had fallen down the stairs . . . with nerves! And I wasn't used to wearing those little high-heeled sandals. I managed to catch myself on the railing and, unknown to me, I put my knee through the silver lame trousers--I was never known for having dainty knees--so, consequently when I whipped the tulle skirt back there was this hole! I was the original tulle and lame punk rocker."
"We [The Lana Sisters] were rivals to the KAYE SISTERS. We hated THE MUDLARKS because they were successful. Not that we were unsuccessful. We didn't have hits but we had records. It taught me about lighting set-ups and microphones and television techniques because we used to appear on SIX FIVE SPECIAL and DRUMBEAT." When THE SPRINGFIELDS came along, I actually was the only one that had set foot on a stage before. So in that way it was good tough training."
In 1960, Dusty accepted the invitation of her brother Tom to join him and friend Tim Field (later replaced by Mike Hurst) in what was to become the internationally successful folk-pop band, the Springfields.
"[THE SPRINGFIELDS were] absolutely cheerful as hell . . . In actual fact, we weren't, but we appeared to be and we didn't sing very in tune but we sang quite loudly and there was a niche there for us at that time . . .We were able to do semi-country, [and] were very affected by people like THE WEAVERS who were an American folk group."
"The one that we made that I did like was SILVER THREADS AND GOLDEN NEEDLES. It was a big hit in the States but wasn't released in England. It was almost pure country, and I think it really worked. It obviously did work 'cause it was a big hit. I was pleased with that because it sounded more genuine and more country, and it just had, excuse me, more balls. It was just a stronger sound and I was pleased with that."
"We managed to make . . . a record that sounded semi-country which was an enormous hit in the States[SILVER THREADS AND GOLDEN NEEDLES] so they grabbed us off there thinking we were a country group and we weren't remotely. It served us very well and when we split up it was, not as some people viewed it, my going off on my own. I mean, my brother had 'had it'. He wrote some very successful things thereafter for THE SEEKERS and things which sort of followed on from THE SRINGFIELDS [which was great] for him. We were all in it . . . to gain experience and . . . enjoy it as much as we could."
"At that time Tom was definitely the boss, musically speaking. I was sort of at the front and the one that was in the middle, obviously, the woman, and it was strange 'cause I was so used to having a boy on either side of me [that] when I first went on my own I thought what will I do? I was so used to having my hands pinned to my sides. I suddenly discovered I had these things that I could wave around and it was glorious freedom after almost the first week of being a solo singer. I felt I was swatting flies in all directions. I thought, I've got arms! I can use them to express myself. This is probably where I got the reputation for using my hands and arms a lot when I work . . . Perhaps I should have been Italian or something. I'm Irish - I'm not English at all. I was born there and I suppose you might call me British but there's not a drop of English blood in my veins."
Leaving the Springfields in 1963, Dusty's initial solo success with "I Only Want To Be With You", was followed by a string of hit singles, including "Stay Awhile", "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself", "Losing You", "In The Of Nowhere" and "Little By Little".
"I swiped anything that I heard from the States that wasn't going to be released here. That's the truth of it, but then we all did. Cilla did it, the Beatles did it, we all did it . . . But in those days, I actually did sort of sound fairly daring for a white singer. I knew that if Carole King wrote it, I was going to be able to sing it right. And some early Bacharach stuff. I mean, my voice certainly wasn't such a good marriage to Bacharach's music as Dionne Warwick's was. But there were certain songs by Bacharach and David that were totally right, like I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF."
"LOSING YOU was written by my brother and it was OK. I mean, I didn't like the record but it was a hit. YOUR HURTIN' KIND OF LOVE wasn't a hit and that was a shame as it was a good record, and IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE was an awful record and it was a hit!"
"TWENTY-FOUR HOURS FROM TULSA . . . Yeah, that was one of the first times a woman took a song that was essentially male and by singing virtually the same words, it became a different song. Now it would be nothing but then, it was basically . . . if you turned it around and a woman sang it, it was driving off into the night and being picked up at some gas station and . . . this, that and the other . . . and it was actually quite outre."
RELATED ARTICLES:
Dusty Does It -- Solo! November 1963.
Mary Was A Tom-Boy by Tony Bromley, New Musical Express, July 2, 1965.
