“I hated it”: Dusty Springfield on her worst decade in music
Musical history is chock full of hopeful artists who have been lured into the industry only to be chewed up and spat out. However, a select few artists remained unfettered by the aggression of the industry, staying true to themselves and their unwavering artistic aims. Dusty Springfield was one such figure, consistently dancing to the beat of her own drum and refusing to bend to the wants and desires of record company executives, even if her defiance caused her music career to nosedive.
Springfield burst onto the scene in 1963 with the release of her debut single ‘I Only Want To Be With You’. Although she had previously gained notoriety with The Lana Sisters and, subsequently, The Springfields, the peroxide-blonde revolutionary was always destined for stardom in her own right. Her early releases were typified by catchy pop songs and chart successes, but the vocalist soon exemplified her innate individuality.
As her discography progressed, the singer affirmed her defiance and individuality with tracks like ‘You Don’t Own Me’, with which her powerful voice denounced the popular patriarchal attitudes of the time. She was also an ardent supporter of Motown Records and the Black soul artists coming from America, who initially failed to gain much traction in the UK. What’s more, she staunchly opposed apartheid in South Africa, refusing to perform for segregated audiences and being kicked out of the nation as a result.
In other words, Dusty Springfield was a true original, driven by her own desires and attitudes rather than the allure of commercial success and record executives. This attitude served Springfield well until she was torn down in a joint effort by the music industry and the tabloid press. In 1970, she told The Evening Standard, “I know I’m perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy,” during an interview.
This apparent admission of bisexuality was akin to career suicide within the oppressive society of 1970s Britain. Although her brave discussion of sexuality had provided a sense of hope and representation for the LGBTQ+ community during a time in which homosexuals were treated abhorrently – homosexuality was only legalised in the UK in 1967 – it gave record company executives ample motivation to shelve Springfield’s recording career.
She continued to record material throughout the 1970s, but aside from a minor hit with ‘Spooky’ in 1970, these recordings failed to gain much attention. As the vocalist recalled to Mojo in 1995, “I just plodded on making rather unsuccessful pop records in the States. Then I didn’t do it any more because I hated it.”
Explaining the reason for this lack of success, Springfield explained, “Every time I made a record, the company got bought by another company, and there was a new budget that I wasn’t part of.” Adding, “I thought, ‘If you’re going to buy this place out, giving my entire promotional budget to Yoko Ono, then I’m sorry, I don’t see the point. I’ll go and prune the roses. I’m not going to care so much that I destroy myself.’”
Continuing, Springfield shared, “I went with management that saw me as a ‘shan-toozie’, as Variety would have it, and I did the nightclub circuit. I pulled it off sometimes, but I was uncomfortable with it because it was… Vikki Carr. I didn’t have the stamina to do one night in Long Island, then the next you’re in Des Moines. Hats off to Engelbert if he wants to do it, fine, and he will always be well off.”
Springfield concluded, “But I am a maverick and will probably never be terribly well off. I get bored too fast.” Although her career during the 1970s might have been a sore subject for the vocalist, her unwillingness to conform to the industry’s expectations of her perfectly summarises why she was so important both as an artist and activist.
She might never have made the big bucks of her contemporaries, but the fact that she was urged back into music during the 1980s by the likes of Pet Shop Boys is reflective of her pioneering influence over future generations of musicians.
