Watch CBS Videos Online

For the intellectual, a portion of the film could be devoted to Gloria Steinem and Camille Paglia discussing whether Lauper was worthy enough to be Ms magazine’s woman of the year in 1985 and whether or not “She-Bop” is really a song about female masturbation. Enter Polaroids of Captain Lou Albano, slides of her zany fruit basket concerts and overlapping images of every album she released (with transparent floating Billboard charts as background) and “She-Bop!” the film is almost over.

Towards the ending of this imaginary flick, a home movie premise: Cyndi’s newest album Sisters Of Avalon is being recorded in Tennessee, New York, New England and finished with Cyndi meeting Japan’s rock group Shang Shang Typhoon to record “Mother”. The one through line: The fabulous muddle that Lauper was, is and presumably, will continue to be. Elio Iannacci: IT SEEMS THAT YOU, LADY MISS KIER AND CRYSTAL WATERS ARE THE LAST GROUP OF POP SOCIALISTES IN NEW YORK.

Cyndi Lauper: Oh, you’re kidding me, no. I don’t think so, really ? I don’t know if [the places I hang out] are really hobnob. Maybe I go to Lips, and hang out, that’s pretty slick. I adore Junior [Vasquez], so when he’s playing I go and sneak in.

EI: YOU MADE QUITE AN IMPRESSION AT THE GAY GAMES WITH YOUR DRAG TROUP…
CL: The Gay Games were really important to me. And I just try to make time for things that are really very important. I actually did the Gay Games [because] I’ve always wanted to. I have a very close friend [Chris Tanner] who is an artist and performs in drag. He helped put [everything] together for me. He was saying, “You should have your own float with all of us on it”, and I said “Well how am I going to do that in two weeks ?” He said “You can do it, you’re Cyndi Lauper !” And actually it was fabulous. I really felt gay pride. I was with my friends and my sister, and it just made me feel so proud. Greg Louganis was on our float so we felt very important.

EI: SO YOU’VE SPENT A LOT OF TIME WITH THE QUEENS.
CL: Well, I was on tour with these drag queens when I had to do some promotion in Europe. I toured through Italy and Spain and Copenhagen. We were in Amsterdam, we were wild. And in Italy we were in a tour bus driving.

EI: JUST YOU AND THE DRAG QUEENS IN FULL DRAG ?
CL: Well, they were…They live like that ?

EI: IN THE MIDDLE OF ITALY ?
CL: Yeah. It was wild. They were yelling out: “Daddy !Daddy !”- it was hysterical ! When we were in Spain we went on this TV show and we really did this number and it was kind of hysterical ’cause I’m not a dancer, so it was kind of camp. When you do something camp, you can do anything. We got there, we run on stage, we do our number, and it’s for Spain, and they’re all just sitting there, just looking at us. I felt like we were bad, like I was in Catholic school again, and I did something really bad. [The audience] was kind of shocked.

EI: WAS “THE BALLAD OF JOE AND CLEO” BASED ON YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THEM ?
CL: The people that I wrote it for will know that it’s not really [directly] about them, it’s just the human side of being different. Like my friend Chris Tanner told me once, “You know, when I dress up in drag I dress like a woman, but because I feel like more of a man when I do.” And I thought, I understand that, so I wrote it.

EI: HOW WOULD YOU SAY SISTERS OF AVALON IS DIFFERENT FROM YOUR EARLIER WORK ?
CL: Sisters of Avalon is more relaxed. I think there’s more of me. And I always try to write about the people I know and love because if you’re a writer, that’s the one thing you’ve gotta do. Obviously from listening to this record, my circle of friends are…(laughs)… well, this is my circle of friends, you know. I always felt that in life there’s that grey area [that is] always more difficult. There’s people who don’t fit into the square pegs and round holes.

EI: YOU ONCE SAID IN ROLLING STONE THAT “IT’S NOT TOUGH TO BE YOURSELF.” DO YOU STILL BELIEVE IT ?
CL: It’s harder to be someone else. Although, you’re always refining yourself. There are some habits that you have that stink, So you have to change them. I just think that sometimes people refine the fabulous out of themselves and make themselves very humdrum, plain and have strange values on what they think is important, and just for me, with music I had to remember the joy of music because I’d forgotten. I got tied up in being a star.

EI: WHEN AND HOW DID THAT HAPPEN ?
CL: About 1986 and 1989 was the worst of it, and I just said “forget it.” I walked away. If I didn’t walk away I’d still be a hamster on a treadmill. It’s still hard to maintain what it is you want, what makes you happy, to keep it all in balance.

EI: IT SEEMS THAT IN THE 80′s WITH “TRUE COLORS”, YOU COINED THE PHRASE FOR A WAY OF LIFE. WHAT’S YOUR NEW MESSAGE TO US ?
CL: Oh my. Me, a new message ? I don’t know. I just wrote these stories. I write what I know but I don’t know about new messages. [Sisters] is a journey, I just hope that people can listen to the music and that it will be empowering. In the 80′s I tried to write about what I say and heard around me. I tried to capture the pulse and the sound. But this record is about now. There’s great moments right now.

EI: DID YOU READ THE FILM SCRIPT BEFORE WRITING “UNHOOK THE STARS” ?
CL: I read it, and of course I say it. That’s my husband in it, he played Frankie [David Thorton]. I read script first, and that’s when I started writing it. I had spoken with a lot of women who told me [how] their husbands passed away- they were older and one woman especially really moved me. [After talking with her] I read the script [again] and I said “Oh, my god, I know what this is.”

EI: IN AN ARTICLE YOU WROTE IN THE MELODY MAKER, YOU LISTED CELIA CRUZ AS AN IDOL. HAVE YOU MET HER YET ?
CL: I did ! I burst out crying…I was such a jerk…I could hardly talk to her. So stupid though, ‘cuz you feel like an idiot. She’s fabulous, she still dances and sings ! She’s a hot woman !

Lauper has been at Epic her entire solo career, since 1983′s “She’s So Unusual.” The singer, who says she is already meeting with suitors, is also in talks with NBC about a sitcom. (She won an Emmy for a guest spot on “Mad About You.”) Epic would not comment on Lauper’s departure.

“Merry Christmas” includes standards like “Silent Night,” plus originals by Lauper with co-writers, including Jan Pulsford and Rob Hyman, with whom she wrote “Time After Time.”

As diva of ceremonies, Lauper performed three songs, including the apropos “Disco Inferno,” originally recorded by the Trammps in 1977. The longtime gay pride advocate was backed on Sunday by a brilliant chorus line of drag queens, similar to the dashing beauties that have toured with Lauper in the past.

Following rousing renditions of “The Ballad of Cleo and Joe” and “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” Lauper left New York’s Bryant Park for her home and studio in Connecticut, where she is currently recording a Christmas album. With 7-month-old Declyn overseeing his mother’s creative process, Lauper has written a batch of original songs for the disc, spokesman Chris Luongo told JAMTV on Tuesday.

Merry Christmas and Have a Good Life will contain some standard holiday fare and will debut late this fall, Luongo said.

Meanwhile, Lauper’s babysitter will no doubt have her hands full as the celebrity mom prepares for yet another public appearance in New York tonight. The relatively toned-down singer will perform four or five songs at Milk Studios for a Night of Zero Tolerance event. The show will benefit Sanctuary for Families — a charity organization that provides legal services, job training, education and advocacy for battered women and their children.

In addition, Lauper spent a few hours at the VH1 studios in Manhattan yesterday taping a host session for the music video channel’s upcoming “History of Videos” special. She may host the mid-’80s segment — just a wild guess.

While The Band’s Levon Helm hoots and hollers through “Gimme A Stone,” The Band’s keyboard maestro Garth Hudson made the Largo theme ebullient and Ellingtonian. The Chieftains lent certain songs an authentic Irish quality. (“We had to struggle to figure how many we could afford,” jokes Hyman. Members of the legendary ensemble ended up paying their own way.)

A “pregnant-as-hell” Cyndi Lauper sings the piss out of the eight-minute blues jam “White Man’s Melody.” Lauper’s screeching character Liza arrives in America as a Caruso fan only to wind up digging Jolson and getting orgasmic over Liberace.

PBS and VH1 are currently filming pieces about Largo which will air in the future. On May 6, Hyman, Bazillian, Taj Mahal, Lauper, Osborne and Foreman will perform Largo live at NYC’s Bottom Line and will appear on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Largo may be a musical term denoting a slow tempo, but for Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Joan Osborne, Taj Mahal, The Chieftains, Carole King and Cyndi Lauper among others, the word also refers to their collective project of the same name. On April 28, Mercury will release Largo, a 16-track self-titled concept album masterminded by producer Rick Chertoff (Osborne’s Relish, Lauper’s She’s So Unusual) and ex-Hooters Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian, all of whom play various instruments on the CD.

The record was inspired by our mutual love of Dvorak’s Symphony (No.9) From the New World,” Chertoff tells ICE, “particularly the second movement, which is the Largo. Dvorak was an established European composer who heard American folk music in a way that no legitimate composer ever had before, which is to say that he thought it had real value. He’s the beginning of the line that includes [Aaron] Copland, [Duke] Ellington, [George] Gershwin and The Band.

The Largo is based on, among other things, what were known as plantation songs, or what we now call spirituals. For this record, we made his piece the sun which our musical planets revolved around; we let the spirit guide us as best we could, and just tried to have fun with it.”

When it came time to assemble the ensamble, Chertoff and company “picked musicians that we love, pure and simple. Rob and I were college roommates, and we used to listen to Taj’s first two albums all the time. We’re total Band fanatics, and Paddy Moloney (of The Chieftains) is one of our heroes as well. Joan, Taj, Levon–everyone on the record sings so beautifully. In fact, Cyndi lauper sings White Man’s Melody just like Billie Holiday.”

Cyndi Lauper is the mother of a baby boy, as of November 19, 1997. Cyndi Lauper is also a drag queen. She’s been one since she was a kid. While her sister wanted to play “boyish games,” Lauper wanted to play dress-up. And she’s been playing dress-up ever since.

Now she’s writing and singing about it. On her latest CD, Sisters of Avalon, she sings the “Ballad of Cleo & Joe,” where “the working boy [Joe] becomes a dancing queen [Cleo].” It’s not just a great dancing tune, it’s also a great listen. And so is Lauper.

During the day of my interview with Lauper, she was very pregnant, so it was rescheduled a couple of times. It seems that she had put in some very long hours the night before . . . but let her tell you the story. She’s good at it.

Blase DiStefano: Are you and the baby doing okay?
Cyndi Lauper: Yeah, I thought my water was breaking. I pulled a long night last night – that wasn’t very smart. I guess while I’m in this condition, I can’t work like that.

BD: So you were working.
CL: I was editing, yeah.

BD: Till the last second!
CL: Well, no, you know what? I wanted to get this tape done for the “Cleo and Joe” song. I wasn’t really sure we were gonna do a video, so we were doing the promos because I couldn’t fly to go see anybody. I wanted to do something kinda special, and then I said, “Just get the boombox and let’s get a turntable,” so we did something like in 1980 when people used tape . . . it was kinda cheesy great. I thought it would be fun.

BD: So it’s finished?
CL: Yeah , I did it in two nights. I wish I had one more night to look back. Maybe it’s not as good because I should have done more edits, but I think it’s fun and it’s nutty. We put little tiny mirrors on my stomach to make it look like a big dance floor. I’m still trying to make myself look good, even though I’m a very large pregnant woman. So it’s wild. You know I’m a big old drag queen anyway.

BD: [Laughter] I know. It’s real obvious you don’t have problems with other people doing drag. But what if your little boy or little girl grows up to be a drag queen or drag king?
CL: You know, listen. Everybody’s different. Your kid is who your kid is. As long as he’s not a serial murderer – I think I’d have a problem with that.

BD: Do you think it’s gonna be a little boy or a little girl?
CL: It’s a little boy. He’s been working with me all the way through. We worked on the Tina Turner concert [in Houston]. He did this shoot with me. He went to the Halloween ball with me – we went as a belly dancer. We raised money for AMFAR. RuPaul came this year, so that was good. It’s getting bigger and better.

BD: Speaking of bigger and better, I listened to your CD night before last. It’s wonderful.
CL: Thank you. Not everyone feels that way, but thank you very much. I love it. I wouldn’t have put it out if I didn’t.

BD: How did “The Ballad of Cleo and Joe” come about?
CL: I wrote that because I was on tour in ’94 and ’95. I worked with drag performers from all around the world. I know people who perform in drag, but when you travel and you work shoulder to shoulder, you see things – the same things you see all the time, you see them differently. It really changed my perspective. It was quite wonderful. I wanted to write something for them.

BD: “Say a Prayer” was especially beautiful. You sang about people who you’ve lost.
CL: I wrote that because my best friend was really ill. That was before the cocktails came out. Still, everybody struggles, but the cocktails have made it easier. And then there are people who are still trying to find out which ones don’t work. And that’s been really tough for a few of my friends. I’ve been really excited about my buddies, but when I wrote that song, I had just come back from his house, and he wasn’t doing good. I love this person very much, and it was the first time I really had to consider what was going on. It was really tough.

BD: I hope you don’t mind if I change the subject, but is this your parents’ first grandchild?
CL: Yeah, my mother’s ecstatic. My stepfather passed away in the spring, and that was pretty traumatic and sad. But I told him before he died that I was pregnant, which was kinda good. I wasn’t gonna tell my mother because it was so early, but I told her anyway because I wanted her to have something to look forward to. This baby’ll probably teach us all a lot of things. I feel like I’ll be pregnant forever, but when I see the cradle, I think “Oh, my God, the baby’s really coming.” Today I went through a little fright, but it’ll be fine.

BD: I’m making an assumption that your parents know that your sister is gay.
CL: Well, she’s a big girl now. I’ve been fortunate enough to have her as a role model in a lot of ways. She’s very heroic. She’s always wanted to help people. She’s a wonderful acupuncturist and herbalist. She works a lot out of a clinic because she wants to help people, and she works with HIV-positive people who have no money. And she has her own practice, but I know the clinic is where her heart is. She’s a really incredible gal. And my brother is a remarkable fellow. He’s not talkative about what he does, but he also does a lot of charity stuff.

My mom somehow had the wisdom to raise three very individual people, despite the fact that [in those days] they never really promoted freedom of thought in women, and Italian immigrant families never nurtured the women. She wanted us to be able to grow up and think and be able to do something in the world.

Also, when we were growing up, that’s when Kennedy got shot. That left a big impression on us – knowing what goes on behind the scenes. But what we got out of it was what you could do for people, what you could offer to the world as opposed to what you could take. So I think that all of us wanted to do something. I feel fortunate to have those kind of siblings.

BD: What are the ages of the three of you?
CL: She’s a year and a half older than me, and my brother’s five years younger than me. But I always felt like wherever my sister went I would go. If she had other friends, I would be very jealous. When she played with other kids, I would chase her down the block all the time. I told her she had to play with me because I was born to be her friend.

BD: That’s rather sweet.
CL: Well, it was annoying. Everything she did, I did. And then when she graduated high school and I was left, I was so heartbroken. Everything was gone. I was devastated.

BD: So you stayed that close even till then.
CL: Oh yeah. It was like, [said very fast, almost without a breath] “Ellen, Ellen, Ellen, Ellen, Ellen, Ellen, Ellen, what are we doing today, what are we doing tomorrow, what are you wearing, I’ll wear this, I’ll wear that, stay out my drawer, now! I’m drawing a line down the middle of the room. You can’t use the door.” Hopefully, my son will not be anything like me.

BD: [Laughter] Have you thought of a name yet?
CL: Oh I don’t know, whatever he answers to. We’re trying to figure it out.

BD: Speaking of names, here at OutSmart we’ve been having an ongoing discussion about using the words “gay woman” or “lesbian.”
CL: Now, my sister told me a long time ago, there’s a difference between gay and lesbian. Gay is referred to male, and lesbian is referred to women. But now things are changing again, language is changing. So I don’t know.

When my sister first came out 10 years ago, maybe eight years, I’d go visit her. Sometimes she’d have a group of angry women with her. And boy oh boy, no matter what I did, I was always wrong.

But you know, watching my sister develop, all I ever wanted was to see her be happy and be a normal well-adjusted lesbian woman, which has happened. But before [being lesbian] was really chic, you always had your heart in your mouth. I mean, I did. I would get angry for her, you know? We’d go to a wedding and they’d go, “Oh, your sister is the . . .” and I’d say “photographer.”

BD: Yeah, but it’s still hard for a lot of people, depending on where they’re at.
CL: It’s very hard for a kid. There are all kinds of circumstances. But when we were growing up, my sister always wanted to play with guns – see, she was even angry then . . . just kidding – and play boyish games. She wasn’t into the doll action at all. And my mother kept trying to make her wear the frilly clothes and give her the perms, and she was absolutely miserable.

Me, I was just so ecstatic once I learned how to set my hair. Iwanted the nylons, the jewelry, the purses, the hats. I was into it – I wanted the whole nine yards. At a very early age, I was into that drag thing.

But she wasn’t, and I saw that struggle going on, and that was kinda tough. I think a parent knows sometimes that a kid has to develop and be who they are, they can’t be who you want them to be. But you have to understand and be fair that this is a person, and you’re born with certain genes – it’s in your genes.

That’s how I feel, and the Jerry Falwells of the world, they piss me off. He has a right to be who he is, but sometimes when people are that vehement, I always think they have a swing set in the closet.

BD: [Laughter] Let’s just say, for some unknown reason, that you were chosen to be the one to decide who would be elected president and vice president in the next election, who would they be?
CL: I don’t know. Somebody open-minded, really qualified and somebody really good with figures – like accounting, not female figures, which this president seems to be good at. No, I don’t know.

One thing you gotta keep in mind – every time you hear about these different lawsuits and stuff, anybody can sue anybody in this country and anybody can accuse anybody of anything. A lot of times it’s a nuisance suit. I was sued once, and that’s when I learned.

BD: What were you sued for?
CL: “Change of Heart.” The woman lied to me. I paid for her administration to publish the song, and then some past deal that she made came back, and the guy sued me and accused me of the wildest things, and then even made it sound like I didn’t write any of my own things. For a minute I started to believe it myself. And then I said “Hey, hello, wake up. You’re not in The Rose Tatoo with Anna Magnani, you know, this is not a movie. This is real life, this is what they do. Get over yourself.”

FOXY BROWN: Hi, Cyndi !
CYNDI LAUPER: HOW ya’ doin’, doll ?

FB: Fine. I’ve been telling people, “I’m talking to Cyndi Lauper !” and they’re all like, “Yeah, right.”
CL: Well, you’re doing the interview now, hon.

FB: I wanted to ask you, being a female in the music industry, do you think the industry is sexist ?
CL: It is, but I don’t dwell on it, because my world isn’t like that. I decided a long time ago the only way to change things was for me to change my environment.

FB: Oh my God, I did that same thing. I have enough pressure, being that I’m young and with the things I talk about. You know, people say, “All Foxy does is talk about sex.” I get a lot of criticism for that and I don’t need anybody in my own camp [criticizing me too].
CL: Yeah, but what the hell is L.L. [Cool J] doing ?

FB: [laughs] My thing is I was always open with my sexuality, you know what I mean ? I feel there’s nothing to hide. And it’s been done. Everyone talks a little about sex. Even you !
CL: Who, me ? Well, I’ve talked about different kinds of things. “She Bop” was more [about] masturbation.

FB: See ?
CL: Well, it’s the safest kind of sex there is, doll.

FB: And you’re enjoying yourself at the same time !
CL: Can I tell you something ? What I got from your record was a certain view of life, of where you grew up. That’s what I heard.

FB: Really ? That’s strange, because if you listen to any news station, they’re always like, “Seventeen-year-old X-rated teen rapper [Foxy Brown].”
CL: Oh, fuck what everyone says. Don’t you know that everyone is always going to try and pigeonhole you ?

FB: I used to believe that, but now I can’t help but care what people say.
CL: NO, no, no. Wait a minute. Now, when you started doing this, sure you wanted to be successful, but in the end you know and I know that the joy is in the doing. It’s in the moment when all the rhythms click and the rhyme fits in just the right way. That’s the joy–the music–and that’s what nobody can ever take away from you. And, yeah, you may be pretty–lucky you–but it’s not about that. Even though you’re talking about sex, where is it taking place ? In what neighborhood ?

FB: Yeah, you’re right.
CL: Because really, as artists our job is almost like being a reporter. For my new album, “Sisters of Avalon”, I travelled around the world and wrote about the people close to me, the people I love.

FB: AS far as [my album] III Na Na, if I had had more experience, I would have had more input. ‘Cause [when we started working on it] everything, down to what I was wearing, was left up to the record company. After the album went platinum and I had a little leverage, I was like, “Look, check this out. I want my makeup artist, I want this, I want that.”
CL: You know, I was originally signed as only a singer and I guess that’s what they expected, but I had my own ideas. What I did (which you might want to do) is, I got a really simple set-up in my home–an Akai board–so I wouldn’t have to negotiate over the music that I did. And the less negotiation I had to do, the more music I could make. I play things like the omnichord–

FB: The omnichord ? I love that !
CL: Yeah, it’s dope-simple. On the new album I wrote the chords and I played the omnichord and the harmonium. I played that guitar solo on “Unhook the Stars,” too. [singing] “Da-da-na” ?

FB: Yeah, that’s the joint !
CL: You know what track I responded to on your CD ? “As If. . .”

FB: Yeah, that was straight from my heart.
CL: Well, it hit mine, and that is what you should focus on–that is what will make you a cut above. You’re not just selling sex, sweetie. You are a sexual human being, that’s all.

FB: And is there anything wrong with that ?
CL: Well, you know–it’s just that they sent all the Puritans over here.

FB: What I’m getting from you is good advice. Because sometimes I feel like I don’t know which way to go. I really enjoyed talking to you, Cyndi. Thank you so much.
CL: Good luck, sweetie. Knock ‘em dead.

Produced by the singer with Jan Pulsford and Mark Saunders, the album plays to Lauper’s considerable strengths as a vocalist and her marked maturity as a songwriter, with broad stylistic leanings that range from textured hip-hop and dance to guitar-driven alterna-pop. Despite its seemingly disparate musical elements, ”Sisters Of Avalon” is a cohesive and remarkably powerful collection that is notable for the absence of the novelty ditties that have long been associated with the singer.

But is the world ready for the ”serious” Cyndi Lauper ? ”There are certainly some preconceived notions that we have to overcome,” says David Massey, senior vice president of Epic (U.S.). ”There have always been two sides of Cyndi. There’s always been a musically adventurous side, as well as the zany personality that became dominant in the ’80s. We believe that with perseverance and the right exposure, we can gradually knock down any barriers ahead.”

”She’s one of those unique artists who has loyal followers that literally clamor for every bit of music or memorabilia they can get their hands on,” says Marlon Creaton, manager of Record Kitchen in San Francisco. ”I agree that there are some people who will initially write this album off without listening. But it’s a good-enough record to change a lot of those minds. If the label stays committed to the record for longer than a couple of months, I think they will.”

Ironically, Lauper doesn’t view ”Sisters Of Avalon” as such a dramatic departure. ”To me, this album is a natural progression from the songs on ‘Hat Full Of Stars,’ ” she says, referring to her 1993 album, which showed her dabbling in more textured, experimental rhythms and weightier lyrics.

If there is a difference between ”Sisters” and the albums from her ’80s heyday, Lauper says, it’s in the way these tunes were assembled.

”While I was on tour for ‘Hat Full Of Stars,’ I found myself fortunate to be working with musicians I felt I could record with,” she says. ”Remember, I started out as a singer/songwriter in a band called Blue Angel. Those are my roots. It’s always been strange to go into the studio with one set of people, and then go on the road with an entirely different group of people. I was longing to have a more cohesive experience.”

It was during the worldwide tours supporting ”Hat Full Of Stars” and the 1995 greatest-hits collection ”12 Deadly Cyns And Then Some” that some of the songs for ”Sisters Of Avalon” started to take shape. ”I cannot begin to explain what a fabulous experience it was for all of us to be jammed into my hotel room every night, spontaneously putting our ideas together,” she says. ”It was exciting because everyone comes from such different backgrounds and perspectives.”

Among the band members with whom she most closely connected was Pulsford, a keyboardist who first tweaked Lauper’s interest with a tape of a world beat/funk groove that would eventually evolve into the song ”Searching.” ”It was while I started putting words to that piece of music that I started to understand that we were on a special journey that felt so right,” the singer says. ”Jan and I are extremely compatible collaborators, because she is so well-studied and I approach music in a real primal manner. We complement each other perfectly.”

Once the tours ended, Lauper and Pulsford recruited Saunders and began seeking an ideal setting in which to assemble the various ideas accumulated on the road. Their search led them to a mansion in Connecticut that they renovated into a studio.

”It was ideal in that we were able to make it as technically proficient as we needed it to be, but it also provided a warm and homey space that fed our souls,” Lauper says. ”It was so beautiful to be working on a vocal and smell lilacs.”

With the experience of recording ”Sisters Of Avalon” a pleasant memory, Lauper says, she is itchy to get out on the road again. ”I’ve never been more proud of a group of songs,” she says. ”It will be interesting to see the shape they take onstage. I can’t wait to find out.”

Not so fast. It may be hard to fathom, but Wham! happened a full ten years ago. With ’90s music innovations like, um, gangsta rap, is it any wonder why the ’80s are making a comeback?

The songs of the ’80s are returning in the form of shockingly true covers. HiNRG artists like Nicki French are cashing in with beaucoup-BPM remakes of hits of ’80s classics. Nobody has remade any Cyndi Lauper songs yet. Who’d dare? Who has a four-and-a-half octave voice and a Queens accent that would make even Archie Bunker cock his head and grunt, “Huh?”

Cyndi herself, that’s who. The quirky singer of 1984′s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” is riding the crest of the ’80s revival with a new song. But she’s one-upping the nostalgia buffs by redoing her own most famous hit.

Lauper has a new hit with “Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun),” the debut single from her greatest hits release Twelve Deadly Cyns … and then some. Her collection of 14 songs was a worldwide smash in 1994. It was a hit everywhere … except in America, where it was finally released by Epic in July.

Still brandishing the brassy humor and accent that made her famous, Lauper is more sophisticated. Gone are the eye-popping thrift-store rags of yesteryear. She dresses distinctly, but with a downtown flair. Her face is made-up like a ’40s film star’s, and she looks 15 years younger than her true age of 42.

Cyndi Lauper talks as freely as most people think. She doesn’t hold anything back. For example, she is upfront about why not all of her biggest hits made Twelve Deadly Cyns. With characteristic frankness, she grimaces of her No. 10 movie-theme hit “The Goonies ‘R’ (Good Enough),” “I hated that.”

Besides ten certified hits and “Hey Now,” her CD contains a brand-new song, “Come on Home, ” which has been whipped into club-ready techno by co-composer Junior Vasquez.

The multi-talented Lauper directed the video to “Hey Now” herself. The video for the original featured girls led Pied Piper-style down the streets of Manhattan by urchin-chic Lauper, sporting her trademark orange hair. In the update, Lauper’s hair is canary and the girls are, well, boys: Director Cyndi playfully chose a cast of drag queens as her co-stars, always out to shock the hinterlands.

“Hey Now” will shock listeners with its fresh reggae beat. The revamping happened when she tired of singing the same old “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” over and over in concert. It was a stroke of genius that has sparked an international comeback.

“Hey Now” marks a return to form for Lauper. Though her debut She’s So Unusual sold more than 4.5 million copies in the U.S., she lost the ears of many fans when she championed the virtues of pro wrestling, and of her then-sidekick Captain Lou Albano. As Lauper learned the hard way, hanging out with a guy wearing a rubber band in his cheek will get you nowhere fast.

When Lauper’s outrageousness wore thin, so did her success in America. Her last Top 40 hit was 1989′s cover of Roy Orbison’s “I Drove All Night.” Her most recent studio album, 1993′s critically praised Hat Full of Stars, failed to chart in the U.S.

But pop culture is fickle. Acts deemed laughably passe five years ago are irresistible today. Cyndi’s comeback was inevitable. Lauper sang “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” a ballad she first recorded with her old band Blue Angel, at both last year’s Gay Games and at the Pier Dance after the 1995 New York Gay Pride Parade. Her appearance in the parade on her float with Greg Louganis and her performance at the dance were greeted enthusiastically.

Following are excerpts from an interview with Lauper.

MR: How was your gay pride weekend?

CL: It was really fabulous. I have a great company: They got me a float and then they gave me Greg Louganis!

MR: What was Greg like?

CL: He’s so sweet. And cute. And shy. Poor little one, he’s shy!

MR: What do you think of your gay following?

CL: That you always have to remember-no matter what you’re told-that God loves all the flowers, even the wild ones that grow on the side of the highway.

MR: Speaking of God, you’ve always been an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church-

CL: [Interrupting.]-That’s because I’m a recovering Catholic. I went to a few of their organizations and schools. I speak from experience. … There’s, y’know, the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, and it just so happens that I was with the Sisters of No Charity and No Mercy At All.

MR: Were all the nuns and priests who schooled you rotten?

CL: When you take a group of people and you repress them and they cut themselves off from their feelings as a human-and a human being has sexual feelings, has bodily feelings-what you are handing over to children is a monster….

Maybe God’s a woman … I’m against their teaching that women are evil and that their power and their sexuality is evil. [The Church] is losing popularity anyway. They’re not selling the tickets that they used to.

Ever-outspoken, Cyndi’s a proud liberal who says she voted Democrat in 1992, despite the fact that Tipper Gore once spear-headed a campaign that labeled Cyndi’s No. 3 hit “She-Bop” -a veiled ode to another favorite Catholic pastime, masturbation-as “filthy.” The flap enraged Lauper, though she laughs over it now. Tipper is not forgiven.

CL: I voted for Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Gore! [Giggles mischievously.]

MR: Your message has always been feminist…

CL: It is not a dirty word, “feminism.” We are taught not to like ourselves as women, we are taught what we’re supposed to look like, what our measurements are supposed to be. And there’s a lot of angry women. Me? I’m trying to deal with it. I’m gettin’ to the point now where I’m hopin’ that it’s really my own belief system…

MR: Do you channel your anger into performing?

CL: For me, singing is magical. You feel hooked in, grounded, and connected above and below. I feel alive. There’s something very healing about music.

MR: How was it growing up in Queens as such a talented kid?

CL: I felt like an alien. This counselor made my mother cry. He told her that-’cause at the time my mom was a waitress-”Do you want your daughter to wind up being a waitress, too, and have no career and no life?”

MR: You can answer the question “Are you big in Japan?” with a resounding “Yeah!”

CL: It’s really great to come back home where it’s nice and calm. It’s hard to be famous. ‘Cause it’s really just me, anyway. Always was.

Cyndi Lauper in 1995 remains who she has always been: A woman whose love of music keeps her working non-stop, whether singing, writing, producing, directing, or even acting-last month she won an Emmy nomination for her recurring role on NBC’s Mad About You.

Cyndi Lauper is not desperate for a comeback, but this is one star of the ’80s who may have to give up her stateside quiet time if her new song-and her old material-takes off.