Chords for Dusty Springfield - Interview

_ _ _ Back in the _ 60s, as I said, we used to get goose bumps every time we heard this lady's husky voice.
All those wonderful records, you don't have to say you love me, just be close at hand, I only want to be with you, wishing and hoping, stay a while.
And of course, Son of a Preacher Man, which we open with today.
Dusty Springfield, give her a big, big welcome. _ _ _ _
_ You haven't been to Stratheast since what, [G]
1969 I think it was.
1969.
What were your impressions when you came back?
Oh boy, well it's changed a lot.
First of all, I only came in to do one thing, I went down to Melbourne to do an industrial show for DATS and they were unveiling some new car.
Right.
And so it was meant to be sort of literally coming to Melbourne for one night, but what's happened is I've run into so many people and old friends that I know, that they can't get me to leave.
_ _ Came up to Sydney to _ _ do your show, to do some radio shows and things, and I'm having a really good time.
Oh, it's lovely to see you again.
I remember the first [Ab] time we met, it was back in the early 60s, at the old stadium here in Sydney.
You were one of the stars of a show.
Oh God, Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Was it the Beach Boys as well?
No, but all I remember was it was in a boxing ring and it had a revolving stage and every time you go through, you don't have to say you love me, it would stop halfway around and go back around the other [G] way again.
Which is very disconcerting to me when you're singing a ballad because you expect to fall over all the time.
That's right, it was a funny old place, wasn't it?
It used to hold 14,000 people and it was a big tin shed.
It was an amazing place.
And you told me then that you_
A night to remember.
You told me then that your name was Mary O'Brien.
Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien.
Wouldn't be Irish Catholic, would it?
That's Lithuanian.
Lithuanian.
What's that again, Mary?
Mary Isabel Catherine, with a C, _ Bernadette O'Brien.
How did you get all those?
I don't know.
My mother thought it was a good idea at the time.
To be sure.
To be sure.
_ What_
the last four or five years, we haven't heard much of you at all.
Occasionally, everyone says, whatever happened to Dusty Springfield?
It's nice that they said that.
_ I was living in Los Angeles.
I'd sort of had a good run of success in England.
I'm a very restless person.
When I feel I've used up my time, I'll go off somewhere else.
So what I did was go to the States and worked quite successfully for a while there and then just literally ran out of energy.
Did you?
Because I've been singing since I was 16 years old and the longest time I ever held a job before that was three weeks at the co-op insurance company. _ _
And what did you just think?
I've had it.
I've really had performing.
I just said, there must be something else in life.
Was that one of those?
Yes, it was a foolish thing to think because actually there isn't for a singer.
It's the main thing in life.
It took an inordinate length of time for me to discover that.
It seemed very self-indulgent.
But I was just really very, very tired and lucky enough to be able to stop. _
Not everyone has the kind of job that they can do that.
You know what I mean?
You get stuck with it.
And what did you do to fill in your time?
Did you find you were driving yourself mad?
I wish I could say I did anything profound like pig farming or potato farming in Idaho or something like that.
But I didn't actually.
I just sort of loomed around and as I say, took a great deal of time to discover what I was best at in life, at doing.
Back to singing.
What was the feeling when you, because your comeback to me seemed to be quite a jolt.
I thought that's pretty brave.
You put on concerts in London.
Yeah, I went back.
It was the first time I'd sung live in London in six years.
And they sort of talk about jumping in the deep end.
I can't swim anyway.
But I went into the Albert Hall, which is a huge place.
About 8,000 people.
Yeah, and also the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, which is almost as big.
And you get that terrible feeling that no one's going to show up.
Well, it worked very well because it was packed every night and it was a very emotional sort of experience.
Yes, you are one of those people who's lucky enough to have that quality that people still want to know for a long, long time.
Because the other thing too is although you hadn't made records for a long while,
your records are the sort of things that are always being played as flashbacks on radio programs anyway.
So despite the fact you're in retirement, your name was still very much to the fore.
I've been very lucky both here and in the States.
People did play the records quite a lot during the time when I wasn't actually live performing.
Yeah.
We've got some footage here from the old days.
What? _ _ _
Do you want to see how it was when you came to Australia the first time?
White beehive and pink ribs.
That's right.
We all went through it. _
Remember how you used to look like Dusty Springfield when she looked like this?
[D] Oh, God.
_ [G] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Dm] _ [N] _ _ _
That's where I'd get a [Eb] bird with a beehive.
It looks like me doing an impression of Debbie Reynolds. _ _ _
_ _ _ All that backcombing and that, I [G] suppose.
Well, yeah, part of it was and part of it wasn't.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
The front part was me, the rest was not.
The rest was on high.
Yes, right.
What about those eyelashes of yours?
That was the other thing.
You always had veranda-like eyelashes on.
Oh, yeah.
People still do that.
Look at Diana Ross's.
They're out to here.
_ _ The eyelashes are still very useful for stage.
But I used to wear a lot of jet black eye.
That's right.
You really looked like one of those panda bears, if you don't mind me saying.
That's right.
With those black eyes and all those blobby ears.
That's exactly what I did.
That was the look.
That's exactly why I did it.
Do you find that the public still has that image of you and get surprised when you don't look the black eyes and the blobby ears?
Sometimes, yeah.
People resent change, I think, in some ways.
_ But they forget that they've changed too.
I think most of us change for the better rather than the worse.
Yeah, I think it's true.
There's a funny thing about fashions and looks too, isn't it?
Everyone looks so ridiculous in them when you look back at them.
I know.
When you look back, I mean, if you look at the shops now, the clothes are so great and the things that are available to the public, much broader range.
You had a reputation for being a bit stormy in those days.
Do you acknowledge that now?
It hasn't changed much.
It has.
Still got a good Irish temper.
I do it in different countries.
_ _ _ _ One of the stories I heard about you was throwing a pie at a head waiter in a London restaurant.
Do you remember that incident?
By the time that story reached Sydney, it had become a pie.
It started out as a very small quiche Lorraine. _
_ It was some award ceremony and there was a new waiter and he was trying to do his best and he had his boss on his back all the time.
He was a real hill-clicking idiot head waiter, you know, arrogant. _
And he was sort of really being so nasty to this waiter that I just let fly at him.
By the time it actually ricocheted off the chef and sort of hit about three different people, which is not what I meant to happen at all.
_ _ _ No wonder the pie was like that.
Because the big news, and I'd love to tell everyone if you don't mind, is that you're getting married very soon.
That's right, next month.
How about it? _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ Is the blessing bright?
_ _ _ _ It's taken you a while [G] to decide.
I haven't brushed yet.
_ Who's the man?
It's about time.
He's a Toronto musician, you wouldn't know.
We're not going to?
Oh, you might.
Just stick around.
Tall, dark and handsome? _ _
Taller than I am, very dark and very handsome, [Gm] yes. _
Extremely.
And you've got [G] that look in your eyes.
Yes, I'm beaming like a ringer to you.
So that's next month?
Yeah.
Well, congratulations from all [Eb] of us.
Thank you, Jimmy.
We've got [G] a little something for you just to take home while you're here in Sydney.
Oh, I thought you were going to throw a cake at me for a bit.
_ No, we couldn't get a cake. _
How much a [N] cake?
Beautiful. _ _ _
Now, Phiu, the canteen was out of quiche, so we thought we'd give you some flowers instead.
They're absolutely gorgeous.
Well, it is lovely to see you, and do come back soon.
I know that you've got lots of fans in Australia who'd love to see you in concert.
I'm dying to come back, hopefully in the autumn.
So, why don't you come back for us?
You will, in autumn?
Oh, yeah.
[Cm] Well, [G] whatever, that's your spring, isn't it?
Well, [Eb] October, November, sometime like that.
That's your spring?
That'll do.
Yep, let's do it.
You want spring in October, November, you can have it.
Right. _
We look forward to seeing you, and I hope we catch up with you again.
Thank you very much.
Dusty Springfield, ladies [Gm] and gentlemen.
Come to the place.
[Fm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _