Backed Up
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| Backed Up | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1978 | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Label | Lucy Records | |||
| Producer | Ferron, Keith Maillard | |||
| Ferron chronology | ||||
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Backed Up is the second album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Ferron, accompanied by a backing band. Produced by Ferron and Keith Maillard and released in 1978 by her own independent label Lucy Records, it includes early versions of several of the artist's most notable songs. The album was distributed by Ladyslipper Music.[1]
All songs written by Ferron.
- "Boom Boom"
- "The Kids Song"
- "Dear Marly"
- "Willow Tree"
- "White Wing Mercy"
- "Light of My Light"
- "Soggy Dream"
- "I Come to Your Window"
- "Call Me Friend"
- "Misty Mountain"
- "Testimony"
Production and release
Backed Up was recorded with the same process and equipment as her previous album, on a two-track tape machine at a Vancouver television studio, with minimal processing except for equalization and peak limiting.
By March 1978, the album was completed and awaiting enough funding to manufacture it. Only 1,000 copies were subsequently pressed.[2][3]
The closing song "Testimony" was written for the Bonnie Kreps film "This Film is About Rape." A friend of the filmmaker, Ferron was asked to contribute music. After struggling to fulfill the task, she drew upon her own experience as a rape survivor and finished the song the night before the deadline. "Somebody could say, 'What is the formula for writing a song like 'Testimony'?'" Ferron said in a CBC interview in 2017, who recalled writing the song in Toronto while searching for her biological father. "I don't know, almost die? Be very depressed and not know who you are and who your father is and where you're going and what is the purpose of life and why does everybody hate each other and why did they hurt me? If you put all that together and sit down somewhere and weep, you might write 'Testimony'. It's not a craft. Survival was the craft."[4]
"Testimony" has gone on to be one of her signature songs, re-recorded as the title track of her 1980 album and covered by a number of other artists.[5]
Another "fan favorite," "Misty Mountain," was written at age 22 while living in the basement of friend (and album producer) Keith Maillard. Strumming her guitar in total darkness, "I just started singing it and it was, I suppose, a prayer."[6]