In June of 1977, aspiring Cleveland musician Adele Bertei, who’d been part of the local underground music scene that spawned Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys, checked into New York City’s legendary seedy Chelsea Hotel, home to several generations of musicians, artists, writers and poets.
Thus she began a long career in music and writing which found her working with artists such as Brian Eno, the Contortions, Thomas Dolby, Lydia Lunch and Tears for Fears. She also directed and appeared in underground films, and more recently wrote books about her musical relationship with Cleveland underground legend Peter Laughner and the female vocal trio Labelle.
Recently she released her first solo music in 34 years, the single “American Elegy,” which she has posted online.
“Inspired and heartbroken by the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in May 2022 that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers as well as the countless other injustices being doled out to minorities everywhere, I was compelled to finish this song,” she says. “I could not remain quiet after the Uvalde terror and the murder of those children. It keeps happening and I’m so sick of feeling powerless. Music is power. As Woody Guthrie wrote on his guitar, ‘this machine kills fascists’.”
She’s also asking people to follow her and “like” her on soial media, saying “It pains me to say it, but I won’t be able to continue recording and releasing music unless I have ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ on social media. Actually, I just read a report saying that moral-emotional words such as disgust, shame, or gratitude drive algorithms toward more engagement. True? Let’s try it out with the following EMOTIONALLY HONEST graph. The DISGUST I feel when coming across packs of online bullies actively attempting to SHAME people over perceived infractions due to warring ideologies sickens me. On the other hand, I am extremely fortunate and GRATEFUL that I have you here, my friends, paying occasional attention in this vast, oceanic deluge of factual and fraudulent info and entertainment.”
She adds that she has more new songs nearly mixed and mastered which she plans to release as a four-song EP later this year.
She says, “Instead of launching another fundraiser and asking you to donate to finance more recording, I’m going to ask a simple favor of you. Please donate clicks!”
Here are her links:
If you’re on Twitter and would like to help, here’s the YouTube link to Elegy lyric video: https://youtu.be/eMFWHMW1HkY
my new Twitter handle: (I rejoined):
https://twitter.com/KingFantomette
Insta:
https://www.instagram.com/adelebertei/?hl=en
Spotify artist channel:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3oJuD6TaCTAhjuL0il2tnS…
Spotify American Elegy:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5YpLp2YXBGszfU45lTwq8y…
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuOIb9zNrsjKjUB4MMr6YWw
YouTube Elegy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMFWHMW1HkY