Michelle Shocked
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Michelle Shocked is a singer-songwriter whose music and performances seem influenced by her Texas roots, her political activism, and a self-assured style that her first major label producer likened to troubadors such as Joni Mitchell, Spider John Koerner, and Dave Van Ronk.
She was born Karen Michelle Johnston on February 24, 1962, in Dallas, Texas, the daughter of a carpenter and a woman who would end up committing her to a psychiatric hospital twenty-something years later. She graduated from high school in Gilmer, Texas and received her bachelor's degree in the Oral Interpretation of Poetry from the University of Texas in Austin.
Michelle's stage name dates back to the name she gave when arrested in 1984 at a protest for fair housing during the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, California. Her nickname was 'Chel, so Michelle Shocked was a play on words intended to resemble the phrase "shell shocked". The front cover of her (arguably) best-known album, Short Sharp Shocked, shows her restrained by the chokehold of a San Francisco policeman in a supposedly authentic photograph of this incident. However, some indie music critics of the time observed that the style of this image showed a strong similarity to a photo that appeared on an album cover from British punk band Chaos U.K. This led some to assert that she plagiarized the concept, but the accusation was never answered nor seriously pursued.
Michelle Shocked received her first international exposure in Europe, particularly Britain, with her debut album The Texas Campfire Tapes. The album was originally recorded as a field recording directly onto a Sony walkman at the Kerrville Folk Festival by Pete Lawrence, the co-owner of British music label Cooking Vinyl. Her break into U.S. national renown came with the appearance of her 1988 album Short Sharp Shocked on college radio rotations around the U.S., which was met with strong acclaim from listeners. On the crest of this independent momentum, her 1989 album Captain Swing in 1989 was accompanied with a strong promotional push including a MTV-aired video of the single "On the Greener Side." However, commercial success did not follow, and she returned to making music as a grassroots singer/songwriter.
Selected discography
- The Texas Campfire Tapes (1986)
- Short Sharp Shocked (1988) #73 US
- Captain Swing (1989) #95 US
- Arkansas Traveller (1992)
- Kind Hearted Woman (1994, with label release (on Private Music) in 1996)
- Artists Make Lousy Slaves (with Fiachna O'Braonain, 1996) sold only at performances, now issued as CDR's and MP3's at michelleshocked.com
- Good News (1998) sold only at performances, now issued as CDR's and MP3's at michelleshocked.com
- Deep Natural (2001)
- Dub Natural (2001) sold only at performances, later issued as a bonus disc with "Deep Natural"
- Don't Ask Don't Tell (2005)†
- Got No Strings (2005)†
- Mexican Standoff (2005)†
†The last three were included on a triple album packaged as "Threesome".
Starting in 2002 with the release of Deep Natural, Michelle established her own label, Mighty Sound. She re-issue expanded versions of her entire catalog, a plan made possible by having been sharp enough to retain ultimate ownership of her work when she signed with Mercury Records in 1987. The label got her work for a ten-year period. After litigation which dates back to Mercury's refusal to release a gospel record she wanted to work on, ownership has now reverted back to her. Shocked sued on the basis of the violation of the 13th Amendment (anti-slavery).
Mighty Sound re-released two-CD versions of her Mercury releases - Texas Campfire Takes (April 22 2003), Short Sharp Shocked (September 23 2003), Captain Swing (March 16 2004) and Arkansas Traveler (September 14 2004). Kind Hearted Woman is out of print and has not been re-released. (Sony BMG Music Entertainment owns the Private Music marque and presumably still retains the rights to the release.)
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
| US Hot 100 | US Modern Rock | US Mainstream Rock | UK | |||
| 1988 | "Anchorage" | #66 | #16 | - | - | Short Sharp Shocked |
| 1988 | "If Love Was a Train" | - | #20 | #33 | - | Short Sharp Shocked |
| 1989 | "On the Greener Side" | - | #19 | - | - | Captain Swing |