Tribute to Lucia Pamela

For my 100th blog post, I’m doing something a little different.  This post is a tribute to the memory of a little-known singer by the name of Lucia Pamela.  Lucia was a singer and a multi-instrumentalist who began her career in 1908 at the age of four. She spent most of her life entertaining.  But she did not release her first album, “Into Outer Space with Lucia Pamela” until 1969.  It’s a very low-fi venture with her singing and playing several instruments.  The songs are simple and catchy but somewhat silly.

The amazing thing about this recording is the folklore behind it.  Lucia claims she and her band recorded it on the Moon.  Yes ... The Moon.  Accordingly, they traveled there in her pink Cadillac, landed on Moontown and played at an Eskimo wedding.  And that's just the beginning of the story. The recording itself is not great quality because as  Lucia explained, “the air is different up there.”

Lucia up to the day she passed away never varied from her claim. As improbable as this is, the whole story is endearing.  In addition to the record, Lucia created a coloring book that documented her adventure to the moon and held an international coloring contest that never ended.

“I’m so full of ideas, and here’s a good one. Ha-ha-ha!”

Lucia utters this line at the beginning of her song, "You and Your Big Ideas."  It's also sampled at the beginning of Stereolab's tribute song, “International Colouring Contest.” Honestly, it was through the Stereolab song that I became aware of Lucia and it was that sample that was the impetus for dedicating this post to Lucia.

This is my 100th post and frankly I’m surprised I've discovered this many ideas to write about.  Some of have been good ones (I least I thought so) and some not so (no problem with consensus there).  At this point, I definitely feel like I have been to some celestial body and back and brought back some ideas.  Some have been simple, some silly and some serious but always striving to be interesting.

Lucia lived an interesting life.  Some of her stories have been validated; some have yet to.  But nevertheless, throughout Lucia's career she reinvented herself many times and ignored the conventions of popular music.  Even though her Moon travels could never be substantiated, I love the spirit behind her story.  It's not about deception. It’s about performing, entertainment and art.  It’s also about letting yourself travel to “the Moon” and back and documenting the whole thing for the world to see.  Kind of like life.  Kind of like blogging.

Lucia's story shows us all that no matter how crazy it sounds, you can never let yourself be held down by gravity.