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Since this website was created, I've never found time and words to write a biography about Natalie Merchant. Specially after her album-history at Official Website, it was clear a biography would offer nothing else than weak impressions. Using the timeline offered at Elektra Website, I gonna try to add some information: _____________________________________
{1963} Natalie Merchant was born on October 26, in Jamestown, NY
- the city of comediant Lucille Ball. Third of four.
Daughter of Anthony Merchant (jazz musician) and Ann Merchant (secretary and fan of classical music) -divorced when she was 6 to 7. Her stepfather was a college professor.
1967 Move to Detroit, MI ("We used to watch 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridge Family' on TV, used to wear polyester clothing"
1968 Return to Jametown
Enroll in Euclid Avenue Public School
1975 Move to Westfield, NY, a town of about 5,000 people outside Jamestown
1975 Enroll in Westfield Academy & Central School
1980 Return to Jamestown
Enroll in Jamestown Community College
Granted diploma from WACS
Meet Steve Gustafson and Dennis Drew, from Jamestown College Radio
1981 Granted degree from JCC
1981 Join band called Still Life (Rob Buck, Steve, Dennis and later, John Lombardo)
1981 Join 10,000 Maniacs
1982 Record & Release HUMAN CONFLICT No. 5
1983 Record & Release SECRETS OF THE I CHING
1984 Tour United States.
Sign recording contract with Elektra Records, at 1984 fall
1985 Move to London, to record Wishing Chair and touring
Record & Release THE WISHING CHAIR
1986 Return to Jamestown
Tour United States & Europe
1987 Record & Release IN MY TRIBE. Opened for REM.
Move to Woodstock
1988 Tour United States & Europe
February: Saturday Night Live presentation
Meet Tracy Chapman (~ july)
1988 July - In My Tribe turned gold
Start recording Blind Mans Zoo
1989 Move to New York City
Release BLIND MAN'S ZOO (May 12)
1990 Tour United States & Europe (Time Capsule Tour)
1991 Full year off (Merchant works with children in a Harlem homeless shelter)
Release of Hope Chest (January)
1992 Record & Release OUR TIME IN EDEN
1993 Tour United States & Europe
Record & Release 10,000 MANIACS MTV UNPLUGGED
Leave 10,000 Maniacs (August)
1994 Full year off (Nice Q&A at Q Magazine)
1995 Record & Release TIGERLILY (July 20 - Top 20 Billboard)
1996 Tour United States & Europe (Opened tour for Sting)
1997 Full year off (with new line-up, 10,000 Maniacs released Love among the Ruins)
1998 Record & Release OPHELIA
Tour United States & United Kingdom
1999 Tour United States & Japan
2000 Release Live in Concert.
November: Tigerlily audio DV
December: Rob Buck died, at 42
2001 Record (August/September) & Release Motherland (November 13).
Curious facts:
Jamestown: "The only hostile audience we ever had was here" ( in Maniacs early years - it was Punk times... it was the time 10kManiacs covered Joy Division songs.). 1986: "lt's a remote microcosm, where the year's biggest event is the American Legion pig roast. Sometimes my mother would drag me home in the middle of a gig"
When Natalie Merchant was younger, she went around telling people she would commit suicide when she reached twenty-five.(Vogue, 1989) "I used to think I didn't want to live past 25 but now I'd like to be the old aunt with all the clutter and the candy." (Melody Maker, 86)
Sickness: Her brother had had spinal meningitis, she says, and she believes she caught it at the same time. But she was unwilling to endure the pain and possible complications of a spinal tap for testing (Musician 89). Natalie also had lice when I was 4, and she had to cut all her hair off (US Mag 1996).
Drugs: "My drug period was between the age of 17 and 18. That was a time when I was experimenting with a lot of things, I was experimenting with sleep deprivation, fasting. The longest fast I ever did was 12 days. You go that long without food and you hallucinate. I would take this powder made out of guarana seed, my friend Mary would bake it up like cocoa in muffins and leave them on my doorstep. My drinking period was when I was 13, 14. Drugs fascinated me for a short period of time but not any more. A glass of wine puts me in a weird enough state."(NME, 1995)
TV: "I grew up as a TV baby, with my TV babysitter, up until I was about 10," she said. "Then my mother just ripped the thing out of the wall and put it in a closet, and we didn't watch it. I have that sort of ability to become addicted to it. And I'm just so fascinated by it once I turn it on, I'm not even that aware what's there. I'm just watching it. So I don't ever turn it on. I get my news from the newspaper. I don't want to watch the Hollywood news product on TV.... There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV." (Orlando Sentinental, 1992)
Worst and Best songs at Maniacs: "Groove Dub is the most embarassing song I ever wrote. I was just spewing garbage. Dust Bowl is my favourite 10,000 Maniacs' song."
Stepfather: an atheist. (He was, says Merchant, a sculptor and a photographer and a writer, and a nudist Republican.)(London Independent, 93)
Stipe & Nat: "Maybe we should just come out and tell the truth about it. I think the reason we don't is that it would just disappoint everyone. We dated on and off for three years - but it was so long ago, it's just ancient history."
Her brothers: "Like I've written a couple of different songs about my brothers - I wrote a song called Cotton Alley about Chris, and the song Gun Shy is about my little brother Jude after he came back from boot camp. So I have some songs I've written about people in my life. (Performing Songwriter, 96)(Some days Chris works in a restaurant in NY). Her sister is a teacher. Natalie once hoped to become a teacher.
Her mission (1984): "I'd like people to learn", "I've found out how overwhelming the media is and the way it drills things into your head, it's almost like a mind control. If I could control prople's minds, I'd like to put something useful in".
Painting: I always thought Leonardo da Vinci was God's son - he must be, to paint like that." And Michelangelo? "To be honest with you, I'm more impressed with the murals at the RCA Building."(US Today, 89)
Worst day in her life: "I think when both my grandparents died within five days of each other. That was the worst period ever. My mother had a car accident and broke her back and my sister was hit head-on by a drunken driver and had a broken hip; my father had open heart surgery; and both my grandparents died all within two months. That was the worst period ever. Nothing else that bad has happened." (NME, 88)
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