# American Icon ADELE BERTEI Releases Provocative New Single “American Elegy”

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/american-icon-adele-bertei-releases-provocative-new-single-american-elegy/
- Published: 2022-08-26T13:00:00-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/97b13bee-
3fc9-3059-247b-7b5271bef736.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

“Throughout over three decades of our friendship Adele has never failed to demonstrate
her total commitment to the musical arts. She is a gifted collaborator, performer,
composer, vocalist and teacher. In her work with inmates in the Jail Guitar Doors
songwriting workshops over the last few years, she has consistently changed lives
and inspired people. In today’s challenging times, we could use a million more Adele
Bertei’s.”  **– Wayne Kramer, MC5, founder of Jail Guitar Doors**

“Singer Adele Bertei is an icon, or should be. A fierce aliveness, a face you have
to love, a potential star…watching Bertei isn’t like watching some rock game. There
is no distance, no props, just a small human being insisting that she won’t be ignored,
that she’ll have her day.”  – **_NME_**

“She smolders more than burns, an approach that fits the Chet Baker connection hand
in glove.”  – **_Rolling Stone_**

“If there was a queer Cleveland answer to Patti Smith, it would have to be Adele
Bertei.” **_– Bay Area Reporter_**

**Inspired By The Unrest in The World,
ADELE BERTEIReleases Her First Single in 
34 Years“American Elegy”

**Purchase link [here](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=a6eb35219c&e=615f2b8493)**

“_If we ignore what’s happening, we’ll move toward fascism. If we all become engaged,
we can work to erase some of the recent injustices and move toward a more egalitarian
understanding. I know it seems nearly impossible at this point. But we have to try.
If we don’t, we are lost_.” – **Adele Bertei**

**AUGUST 26, 2022 (New York, NY) — **“Our country has become a place I no longer
recognize, and I’m hardly alone,” observes celebrated musician/author/artist/actor/
provocateur **ADELE BERTEI**, in response to why she wrote her incendiary and politically
pointed new song “**AMERICAN ELEGY”** which is released today, **August 26, 2022**
independently on Bertei’s label **Imperial Dagger **_via _[**Distrokid**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=31458212d5&e=615f2b8493).

Adopting a stance that many artists today are too timid to take lest they lose fans
who might disagree with their own political views, Bertei is no stranger to confrontation.
But aggression isn’t her weapon. Knowledge is. “We need a new wave of protest music,
activist artists and indie radio stations who are not afraid to play resistance 
music. As Woody Guthrie wrote on his guitar, ‘this machine kills fascists’. Music
can influence culture. It has before, and it may again. Silence equals death.**”**

AMERICAN ELEGY by ADELE BERTEI

[⌊AMERICAN ELEGY by ADELE BERTEI⌉⌊AMERICAN ELEGY by ADELE BERTEI⌉
Watch this video
on YouTube

**Adele Bertei “American Elegy (lyric video)”**

An artist whose history stretches back to the 70s, Bertei fronted the adored punk
band **Peter and the Wolves** in Cleveland, OH with Pere Ubu bandmate **Peter Laughner.**
His sudden death however prompted her move to NYC in 1977 where she immersed herself
in the counter-culture movement of art, film, music and literature. A founding member
of **The Contortions **(produced by none other than **Brian Eno**), she dove deep
into the underground, having toured the world with her other band **The Bloods**,
one of America’s first all-girl bands.

Her musical history is essentially a who’s who of 80s music, performing and recording
as a backing vocalist for artists such as **Culture Club, Whitney Houston, Sandra
Bernhard**, and **Matthew Sweet** among others. She released records as a solo artist
with both the Geffen and Chrysalis labels and has had international dance and pop
hits with **Thomas Dolby** (“Hyperactive!”) and **Jellybean** (“Just a Mirage”).
She has also written songs for artists as diverse as **Scritti Politti, Sheena Easton,
Arthur Baker, Jamaaladeen Tacuma**, **Lydia Lunch, **and the **Pointer Sisters**,
among others.

Aside from fronting the **Anubian Lights **on the album _Phantascope _in 2007, she
has remained out of the musical spotlight for 34 years. The downward direction of
the deeply polarizing world and its descent into moral and political bleakness however
prompted her to re-emerge with “American Elegy.”

“I was tired of feeling powerless, and the power of music should not be underestimated,”
she explains adamantly. 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, she was
compelled to write the song. Surveying the current musical landscape however, she
saw a dearth of protest songs. “I wrote ‘American Elegy’ because I could not remain
quiet after the Uvalde terror and the murder of those children,” she sighs. “It 
keeps happening and I’m so sick of feeling powerless.”  

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/6e126c36-
9ff8-180f-9778-ea81f6ac29c9.jpeg?w=1290&ssl=1)

**Adele Bertei**
Photo credit: Jeanne Vienne

Born in 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio to an Italian immigrant and a ballroom dance instructor,
Bertei was always an upstart. Becoming a ward of the state in 1967, she spent the
rest of her childhood in foster homes and reformatories. She was one of the first
women to work on the assembly line at the Ford Motors plant in Lorain, Ohio. Aside
from her musical career, she performed poetry and prose in downtown NYC sharing 
stages with **William Burroughs**, **Kathy Acker**, and **Allen Ginsberg**. An actress
as well, she appeared in several underground films, including a lead role in _Born
In Flames_ by **Lizzie Borden**, films by **Scott & Beth B**., and films by Irish
filmmaker **Vivienne Dick**. She’s been the subject of artists and photographers**
Kiki Smith, Richard Prince, Nan Goldin, Zoe Leonard**, and **David La Chappelle**.

An accomplished author as well, her first book _**Peter and the Wolves**_** **(a
short memoir of her rock and roll education _via _the aforementioned legendary Cleveland
musician Peter Laughner), was released in November 2020 and her second tome _**Why
Labelle Matters **_(a scholarly account and tribute to the the trio of women – Patti
Labelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash) was published the following year. She is 
planning a third book in early 2023 about her formative years as a young, queer 
punk woman finding her artistic voice. More info on that book soon.

“We’re facing a crucial moment where we’ll be defining the country,” Bertei continues,
circling back to her provocative single “American Elegy” and the responsibility 
she feels in presenting it to the world. “If we ignore what’s happening, we’ll move
toward fascism. If we all become engaged, we can work to erase some of the recent
injustices and move toward a more egalitarian understanding. I know it seems nearly
impossible at this point. But we have to try. If we don’t, we are lost. How my song
is perceived, well, that’s something I can’t control. If it inspires a few people
to do something, vote, write songs, join marches, that would be wonderful.”

**Adele Bertei**’s **“American Elegy” **was produced by **Noisecastle III **and 
is released today independently on Bertei’s label **Imperial Dagger. **It is available
_via _[Distrokid](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=519115aa25&e=615f2b8493),
[Apple Music](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=d33c5c9ad4&e=615f2b8493),
and [Spotify](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=6bd65d1d56&e=615f2b8493).

**AMERICAN ELEGY**
lyrics and music by Adele Bertei, music by Scott Bruzenak  

america
hijacked bywhite men who hatemen who only demonstrate how torock the toxic
shock ofpolitical strychninein a genocide of the collective mindwe’re doped on cellphone
slot machinesall these screens won’t liberate mehow long we gonna wait for it?when
we had facebook playing us allwe took the bait for itwill we mourn our countryas
she diesin rage and painbefore our eyesamericahome on the rangewhere the hatred 
livesamericaSuicide on the runDown the barrel of a gunColumbine Parkland Sandy Hook
Pulse Topps UvaldeHundreds of mass shootings  in a yearThere’s no there there, the
war’s right hereHow much of the earthcan they kill for a buckwe work and we workwe
let them do this to uscontrolling our bodies controlling our livesfor the need and
the greedof the men who dividenazis on the march with torches and pulpitsthrowing
brown babies in campsand how have we turned our headshave we made our beds?as we
trudge through thetreasonous lies they spread?The jails & prisons are filled to 
the maxsouls chained to Jim Crow corporationsfascist groove bang bangshooting up
another schooljust like the other schoolthey’re all bitches for the NRAkings of 
capitol the devils we paywith jesus as a bulletand God as a gunwill there be any
justicefor the treasonous sons?how does it feel to be an americanare we proud of
what we’ve becomewith weapons of war killing our childrenthe american dreamnow american
red-hat greedgiving guns to the wayward sonsforcing our daughters to breedwe’re 
playing russian rouletteeach time we go out in these streetsit’s a killing machinehow
much money does a muthfuckah need?amerikkkahome on the range where the hatred livesamericasuicide
on the rundown the barrel of a gunwill we mourn our countryor will we riseto fight
for our livesto resist and defyhome home on the rangewhere the bullets flyand the
children dieamericais there something here to save?are we the land of the freeor
the home of the brave?

**[Website](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=722c0ac69d&e=615f2b8493)
| [Facebook](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=19db3b8ece&e=615f2b8493)**

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