The word that has dogged Lene Lovich for much of her career is "weird.' Over the past 10 years or so, the singer has remained an eccentric, rather shadowy cult figure. Despite her four-octave range, she has become best known for her chirpy yodeling style and her flamboyant stage presence.
Best known for her first album, Stateless and a handful of great singles including Lucky Number and Say When, Lovich has not released an album in years, largely because of contractual problems.
"I've been locked in the dungeon of Stiff Records for three years,' she said by telephone from New York. "They didn't like the musical direction I was taking.'
Even though their styles are quite disparate, Lovich has tended to be lumped with fellow avant-garde singers Lydia Lunch and Nina Hagen. Weird.
Her latest project does unite Lovich and Hagen in a cause that has become dear to both singers, the campaign for animal rights. The two have become spear carriers for a group called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that is waging an increasingly vocal battle to stop the use of animals as food, in research and for fur. Lovich will stage a benefit concert Friday night at the Starck Club.
PETA has enlisted several other stars, including Howard Jones, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Morrissey of The Smiths and Alain Jourgensen of Ministry in the war against scientists, furriers and human carnivores. Lovich and Hagen recently released a single, Don't Kill the Animals, that has become a dance club hit. The two also have hit the road on a concert tour on behalf of PETA.
A Detroit native who has lived in Britain for the past 20 years, Lovich is a relatively recent convert, having joined the cause a year ago.
"I have been a vegetarian since May 1, 1986,' she said. "I started about five years ago saying I wouldn't eat any more babies. No more chicks. All God's creatures have a right to a life.'
But she didn't quite follow up on that sentiment. Then one day her friend Nina Hagen showed up at Lovich's house in Norfolk.
"She came up to my house to make a demo for another song,' Lovich recalled. "She told me about this (PETA) thing and she had already written half a song, and I wanted to help her finish. These ideas had been going through my head, and I decided to go ahead and do it. We just put a piece of paper on the table and started writing.'
The result was Don't Kill the Animals.
"It's the fastest song I've ever written in my whole life,' Lovich said. "Usually my songs are left available for the audience to tune in to whatever plane they wished. But this time I wanted to be sort of a newscaster and set the discussion.'
The collaboration with the German singer led to an education course for Lovich.
"At that time I wasn't really aware of the total picture,' she said. "I received a whole lot of information from PETA, and the next day I became a vegetarian. I was not just doing it because of animals but because of people. I wanted to make an effort to get rid of world hunger. It's a very simplistic argument, but I do believe that if we left the animals to their own world and concentrated on our own we could rid the world of starvation.
"Animals don't even get the diseases for which they are used in experiments, so how can their systems react? Seventy percent of the testing done on animals is non-medical. It's for everyday products like shampoo, makeup, oven cleaners. It's a multi-million-dollar industry. We have this image of researchers as angels in white coats trying to save the world, and that's not really a total picture.'
PETA, Lovich said, is not just trying to turn out pious vegetarians.
"This organization is talking about closing down some of these places, laboratories -- legally. These things (experiments) are all going on behind closed doors. If they're so wonderful, why aren't they taking people around on guided tours?'
Lovich said she believes people will be receptive to the PETA message because it makes sense.
"I'm not here to judge people. I'm here to inform people,' she said. "I think it has to be a spiritual decision, a social decision. It has to come from within. Science is wonderful. You know, I wear canvas shoes, and I also wear, you know, pretend leather.
"What we (PETA) say is, just get into vegetables. You'll find that your sensitivity, your taste, just develops -- because it's been deadened all this time. And you can save so much money.
"I say get into those vegetables, those grains. I'm really into fakes. Fake burgers, fake sweet and sour. And for those who really like the activity of eating meat, there are some just wonderful mushrooms that give you the same ripping-into-flesh sensation.'
http://www.waxtrax-not-subpop.org/interviews/Lene_Lovich_Dallas_Morning_News_5-20-87.html
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