Lamya Al-Mugheiry, singer, writer, poet. (1973 – 2009)
A chance taken on an old CD. A CD buried in a charity shop, in a box of forgotten dreams. Memory lane to the 90s and early 20s. Panning for gold in a barren stream and suddenly a nugget of real weight was revealed. A gift that was unexpected. A singer, who was a poet underneath.
THE WOMAN WHO
Well, I’ve been puppetised
Oh, how I have compromised
But definitely every thing’s changed
Somehow I’m different now
Drifting from girl who tries
Misconstrued
Drifting to woman wise
So long, so long overdue
Ooh, I’m the woman who
Can undo quite a few
Things done wrong
Wrong things done
So long, long overdue
Ooh, I’m the woman whose
Three wishes came true
Fell in two, found the one
Now I come and go as I choose
Wearing my red magic shoes
Well, I want to leave a legacy
Of love and beauty
Want to know I’ve lived to love
Loved to care and dared to dream
Cause under the weight of the world
Waits a girl
‘Til the wonder of fate unfurled
Under the girl uncurled someone new
Ooh, I’m the woman who
Can undo quite a few
Things done wrong
Wrong things done
So long overdue
Ooh, I’m the woman whose
Three wishes came true
Fell in two, found the one
Now I come and go as I choose
Wearing my red magic shoes
With my soul in my heart
And my heart in my mouth
Steppin’ in and steppin’ out without
Familiar flickers of self-doubt
I’m starting to be what I’m all about
From understudy in the dress rehearsal
To the lead in a role reversal
As my impossible dream debuts
I’m the woman who’s
Got the red magic shoes
Ooh, I’m the woman who
Can undo quite a few
Things done wrong
Wrong things done
So long overdue
I’m the woman whose
Three wishes came true
Fell in two, found the one
Now I come and go as I choose
BLACK MONA LISA
But oh I am not afraid
To be a lone bohemian
I can paint a portrait of myself
I will call me
A black Mona Lisa,
Mona Lisa
Come to discover
I am your daughter
The sky above me is silent and empty
I am an island
A little freak of melancholy
But these hands
They un-bead your rosary of wisdom
Bewitched, spellbound
I’m found and returned from superstition
You are my martyr
I’m a vestige of a revolution
My alma, my mater
And now I can let go my old addictive solutions
But oh I am not afraid
To be a lone bohemian
I can paint a portrait of myself
I will call me
A black Mona Lisa,
Mona Lisa
Come to discover I am
I used to be a connoisseur of hate
Hate cum gratis I connected every kind
Sipping it like red wine
The ties that bind were my design
But oh I am not afraid to be a lone bohemian
I can paint a portrait of myself
I will call me a black Mona Lisa, |
Mona Lisa
Come to discover
I am your daughter
The sun is still unkind
To those like you and me
Seekers of sanctuary
Though I’m not afraid
I’m sanctified
Fortified because you sacrificed
I can call myself Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa
Men have adored you
Lamya Hafidh Sultan Al-Mugheiry was of Omani and British descent, born in Mombasa, Kenya, and raised in Oman and Sheffield, England. She was a Swahili-speaking singer and writer who had trained as an Opera singer. She possessed a five octave vocal range but gravitated to the world of modern music: soul, pop, dance, rock. Mostly she performed as a backing singer with the likes of Soul II Soul, Duran Duran, David Bowie.
It was her debut album Learning from Falling that was buried under so much false gold. It is the only solo album she ever made. It is a collection of songs written by her, taken from poems she had been writing her whole life.
These are women’s songs. Songs of a woman’s journey. They have a depth and quality of lyric that in my opinion place her amongst the poet lyricists (Joan Armatrading, early Tracey Chapman, Asa, Rokia Traore).
Lines like:
* ‘there I was splitting atoms with my desire/there you go building castles with your ego’
* ‘Wide-open big sky country/sweet space to be when I’ve become/Sweet fate only knows when I’ll be done’
* ‘I’ve found and returned from superstition’
* ‘drifting from girl who tries/drifting to woman wise/so long overdue’
* ‘I will call me a black Mona Lisa/Come to explore’
* ‘that’s my life that you’re throwing down the back of your throat/Those are my dreams heading for an overdose’
The imagery and word play is emotional and sophisticated.
To my mind the production values of the album, clearly expensive and thorough and very much of its pop/soul era (2002), doesn’t explore her vocal talents or showcase the power of her words nearly enough. She finally made the pop/soul album she may have been dreaming of for years, but it’s not the music but her words that hold her power.
So I have put her words up for you to read. The recordings are so much easier when you read the words.
EAST OF ANYWHERE
Feeling lost in familiar places
Having fallen from a few good graces
So many sandy years, dusted and wasted
How, from there did I get here?
I wanna be east of anywhere
Take me out of the everywhere into the here
Sublime to ride, reside up high
In wide-open big sky country
Sweet space to satisfy me
Alone on the front line of life with no foundation
Return to my train of thought but I miss the station
Wake up every morning heading for yesterday
How do I make all my troubles go far away?
I wanna go east of anywhere
Take me out of the everywhere into the here
Sublime to ride, reside up high
In wide-open big sky country
Sweet space to satisfy me
It was easier for me to see without looking too far
The more that it changes, the more it stays the same
plus ça change plus c’est la même chose
And so it goes, nobody knows why we’re here
I wanna go east of anywhere
Take me out of the everywhere into the here
East of anywhere
Take me out of the everywhere into the here
Sublime to ride, reside up high
In wide-open big sky country
Sweet space to elevate me,
Sweet space to satisfy me
Sweet space to be when I’ve become
Sweet fate only knows when I will be done
Lamya died on January 8, 2009. She was visiting Muscat in Oman. Most reports say she died of a ‘sudden heart attack’ but one source says that she was in Muscat for an emergency medical procedure. There is very little information on her life but her songs speak of heartache, reflection and growth. And whether consciously or unconsciously, the poet penned a poem/lyric that 13 years after her death speaks, with only a few short lines, as a portent of her early departure.
PINK MOON
I saw it written
And I saw it say
Pink moon is on its way
And none of you stand so tall
Pink moon gonna get you all
It’s a pink moon
Yeah it’s a pink, pink, pink
Pink, pink moon
At the time of her death Lamya was due to record her second album, Hiding in Plain Sight. It never happened.
What I wonder, is this, where are those lyrics now? She must have already written them if she was about to begin recording. So, are they lost in a box, or a draw somewhere, yellowing with age and covered in dust? Or were they discarded by the music industry machine? Lost forever?
‘Never is such a long time.’
I’m grateful to have found her work. It was an artistic journey worth travelling and one I think you will appreciate taking too.
FULL FRONTAL FRIDAYS
(better read I think, but here’s the YouTube.)
I sleep and dream that life is all beauty
I wake and find that life is all just duty
But in the days before the dilution
Music Pollution
Oh we positively sparkled on TV
Yeah from Full Frontal Fridays
To Flashback Ruby Tuesdays
Same old picture in a brand new frame
But the song remains the same
The first time was better
Playing by new rules
Age old game – double the pressure
Half the pleasure
City full of windows and design
Towering towers of lies
To climb and climb and climb
Dreams of the view from the top
Pushing for the pressure to drop
Don’t want to end where the mystery stops
I wanna be where the Sun never sets
On a city that never skips a beat
Sun always shines on a set that never sleeps
Sound bites, set
Betting our hedges
Trapped in the meshes
Stuck in the marshes
And only time, time, time marches on
…
From Full Frontal Fridays
To Flashback Ruby Tuesdays
Glossing over where you placed the blame
Remember my name
You’ll be screaming it later
Scream my name
You’ll remember it better when it hits ya
In the shiny glow of 90210
Before Jerry Springer
The thongs, thongs and the video-ho
Back before we were tangled in drama
Douching for dollars, bimbo to scholar
Oh, we positively sparkled on TV
From Full Frontal Fridays
To Flashback Ruby Tuesdays
Lazy Sunday,
Bloody Mary Sundays, a switch on make-believe
Mondays always look better
Gleaming in my reverie
So much better sparkling on TV…
70s kitsch and woman power. Love it.
‘Bring me men to match my mountains’
Discography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamya#Discography
https://web.archive.org/web/20090423093514/http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/lamya/artist.jhtml#bio
https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/remember-the-artist-lamya-did-you-know-she-passed-earlier-this-year-at-age-35.202522/
http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/lamya/artist.jhtml
I was thinking of this Plan
Of codes and anagrams divine
The juxtaposition of past and present time
That was mine
I spent blind
In someone else’s state of mind
I lost my way
In all the shades of grey
And grades of shade
Shadows put away to be forgotten
I lost but didn’t lose the lesson
Yes I’m learning from falling
I’m learning from falling down
Hard
Lessons
Yes I’m learning, learning from falling
I’m learning from falling
Down heavily
This immortal span of every mortal man
And the grand stand
And I’m holding on tight with an open hand
Keeping in mind the grand design
With sight in hind
And you never get a second chance
At the first time
What I thought I knew
What I thought was true
I cast away, cast away
I am learning the hard way
I’m learning from falling
I’m learning from falling down
Hard, lessons
Yes I’m learning from falling
Learning from falling
Learning from falling
Down heavily
My words like empty shells
Of a rusty gun
Fall
None
Fire
Every one backfires
Oh and there I was, there I was
Splitting atoms with my desire
There you go, there you go
Building castles with your ego
I know better now, I know better now
I’m learning from falling
I’m learning from falling down
Hard, lessons
Yes I’m learning from falling
Learning from falling
I’m learning from falling
I know, I know better now
I know better now