Mandy – “Now That I’m A Woman” (Jimmy Webb Cover)
These days, Melkbelly’s Miranda Winters is making music under the name Mandy. Her new solo album Lawn Girl comes out later this week, and we’ve already posted her singles “High School Boyfriend” and “Forsythia.” Today, she’s dropped her cover of a song from a cartoon that’s been tripping kids out for entire generations.
When I was a kid, I thought The Last Unicorn, the 1982 animated fantasy, was both scary and fascinating. A couple of years ago, I showed the movie to my kids, and they felt the same way. Jimmy Webb, now 77, is the famed songwriter behind hits like “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” and “MacArthur Park.” The Last Unicorn is a kind of psychedelic musical, with songs by Webb. The band America performed most of them, but Mandy has covered the number that the movie’s titular unicorn sings when she becomes human. Mia Farrow voiced the film’s unicorn, but Katie Irving sang “Now That I’m A Woman.” Mandy’s take on the song is spare and lo-fi. Here’s what she says about it:
“Now That I’m a Woman” is a cover of a song from one of the greatest movies ever made, The Last Unicorn. When Molly Grue meets the unicorn she says, “Where were you twenty years ago, ten years ago? How dare you, how dare you come to me now, when I am this?” For me, this is a song about coming to terms with life and commiserating (with Lady Amalthea, you know, the unicorn transformed and trapped in the body of a mortal woman). I recorded this song when I was especially sick because I like the sound of a heavy vocal fold.
Below, check out Mandy’s video for her cover, as well as the “Now That I’m A Woman” scene in The Last Unicorn.
Lawn Girl is out 4/26 on Exploding In Sound.