There’s nothing like hearing the news that a former favorite celebrity freak is coming back into the limelight. They give you so much pleasure, both with their art and their nutso personality, that when they decide to return to the public eye you get positively giddy with anticipation.

One of my all-time favorite freaks is Fiona Apple. And now that her much-plagued, much-delayed CD Extraordinary Machine is due for release this Fall, she is finally back where I like her, in the public eye and in front of a microphone, a constant threat to produce great sound bites, and god willing, great music.

With any good favorite freak, it has to start with the art. Whatever that person does best, whether it’s Dennis Rodman grabbing rebounds, or Anna Nicole Smith um… showing her boobs all the time, or even Tom Cruise jumping over couches, you have to crave seeing them do their specific thing. And I crave me some Fiona Apple; I have from the start.

Much like my first experience with Avril Lavigne, where I downloaded her music by accident and fell into instant like, I found Fiona Apple by mistake. I was watching MTV back when they used to show actual music videos, and at three in the morning her video for Shadowboxer came on. If you don’t remember the video, let me sum up: it’s just her singing in the recording studio, nothing fancy. And at first I just forgot about it. But I woke up the next morning humming that song. I just couldn’t get it out of my head. After a couple weeks of this I said screw it and bought the album. And it was probably the best music buying decision I have ever made, short of picking up a used copy of The Immaculate Collection for six bucks at Tower Records.

That first album, Tidal, is so filled with anger, passion and beautiful imagery, I couldn’t turn it off. At the time, music was making the awkward transition away from grunge and over to pop music, and Fiona bridged that gap for me perfectly. And as I became a fan, the rest of the country slowly caught on. So by the time I had been spinning her praises for what seemed like months, the infamous Criminal video was released and she became a star. And THAT is when my love for her transcended to a near insane level.

I made a point of watching all of her live TV performances. I caught the terribly produced and criminally short Unplugged episode, and then marveled at her piano focused performance on SNL. I even tried to stay up late once and catch her on Conan (back when Conan wasn’t even funny, so you know it was dedication). Every time I saw her, I was impressed. A more accessible version of Tori Amos, but with a higher cool quotient (because it was OK for a guy to like her), Fiona was my first big musical crush. And like your first important crush, you forever wear rosy-colored glasses when it comes to their actions. And so it is that I ignored the fact that she was getting skinnier. And I laughed off the odd dancing and the unfocused eyes. But at some point in any relationship, the wheels have to come off and you must decide whether your loyalties truly lie. For Fiona Apple and me, that moment came at the MTV Video Music Awards.

You all know where this is going. She wins for Best New Artist, gets on stage and immediately launches into an insane tirade about the hypocrisies of our pop culture-laden society. And she got booed. Mercilessly. All of a sudden, it was cooler to hate her, then to like her. I’ve been through that with other girls, so I know how it works. You either have to cast them aside, slightly regretful that they just couldn’t pull it together in front of your friends and family, or stubbornly refuse to admit that she did anything wrong, and hide your love from the world. I went with the latter. I just liked her too much. She is responsible for one of the best music-related moments of my life: sitting under a star-filled Jamaican sky, on the beach at three in the morning, playing Tidal over and over again, engulfed by a grasp of creativity I could only dream of attaining.

You just don’t get over the ones you love. You may agree that they’re certifiably nuts, but you never stop loving them. And so it was with a sad heart to see her descend into parody. First there was the ungodly long second album title (later shortened to “When the Pawn…”), then the impenetrable PTA-directed music videos, as well as the pure-hate filled anger in her new music (as opposed to the mournful, anger-twinged, yet optimistic music that made Tidal so great to listen to). And just as quickly as she came, she went. No one wanted to pay anymore attention to the crazy girl in the corner. So she did what any other good freak does, she went into hiding.

And now here is what I love about pop culture: slowly, over time, people forgot how crazy Fiona Apple is, and just plain missed her music. And out of nowhere, she was relevant again. And not relevant in that “oh my god, did you see what Fiona said on TRL?” way, but in that “wow, her music touched a lot of lives” kind of way. It was finally cool to like Fiona Apple again. The only problem was that she was nowhere to be found.

As more and more people searched for Fiona, we all learned a valuable lesson. You can take the crazy out of the spotlight, but you can’t take the crazy out of the girl. Apparently, she recorded a third full album, titled Extraordinary Machine, but the Sony brass hated it. Her downward spiral into negativism doesn’t help when the only singles that sell are the ones by people smiling. She refused to record a hit single, so they shelved the album. And Fiona quit the business. PTA had dumped her, the “H” problem had made her hard to work with, and just about no one thought she had a big enough fan base to bring her star back to life. But everyone was wrong.

I won’t go into the specifics, but basically, Fiona fans returned in droves, sending the Sony Music brass bushels of apples every day in an attempt to get her album released (You can read more about this phenomenon HERE). Several magazines started printed “where are they now” pieces on her. And now, after much, much, MUCH delay, the CD is finally being released. And I finally have my freak back.

I’m looking forward to the sounds bites, the live performances, the admissions of drug use, the tearful speeches railing against human atrocities, and all else that entails a Fiona Apple product launch. And I don’t care that she’s crazy. I don’t care that she’s past her prime. I just care that the music is good. That she can deliver to me just one more good music memory. I’m standing by my freak, and I’ll say it loud and pride: “I love my crazy Fiona Apple”.

Bangarang, “When the Pawn… Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body To Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and if You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where To Land And if You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right“!

Buy a copy of Fiona Apple’s latest CD “Extraordinary Machine” HERE.