Stephin Merritt is the dour, diminutive, acerbic, painfully intellectual, imbittered Cole Porter of NYC's Lower East Side. He also has a thing for aliases, having recorded, with various combinations of musicians, as The Baudelaire Memorial Orchestra Orchestra Future Bible Heroes, the Gothic Archies, the 6ths &, most prolifically, Magnetic Fields. The 6ths feature Merritt's songs performed by a selection of his favorite singers.
I was given a gift of his Magnetic Fields 3 CD set- 69 Love Songs by my buddy Eiric (a very handsome, sexy yoga instructor) & I was really engaged by the tender tunes. I downloaded an album released under his own name- Showtunes, the title clearly chosen for its suggestion of Elaine Stritch singing Sondheim at The Carlyle, but Pacific Overtures it is not. The album consists of songs Merritt wrote for 2 Chinese plays, one dating from 1330, the other from 1699 & a "plotless show" based on the life of Hans Christian Andersen, which were performed at Lincoln Center in 2003- 2005. All are performed on traditional Chinese instruments & in Chinese idioms. A warning to Magnetic Fields fans: these are the highlights of “original cast” recordings.
Born on this day in 1966, having never met his father, folk singer Scott Fagan, Merritt was raised by his bohemian mother. Merritt attended high school at the Cambridge School of Weston, where his reputation as a musical genius was established. Merritt is openly gay. At his best, the music is witty & warmhearted. He plays the ukulele. He named his Chihuahua named Irving Berlin.
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