By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
CAMBRIDGE – Known for her trademark helmet, her space music and psychedelic pop performances, Susan Dietrich aka the Space Lady was a local favorite in Harvard Square during the early 1970s to mid-1980s. Born to parents who were musicians, the Colorado native played haunting ethereal covers of rock and roll classics while wearing a silver plastic helmet with white wings and a flashing red light on top.
California transplant
Formerly known as Suzy Soundz, the Space Lady arrived in the Boston area in 1972 with her husband Joel Dunsany in a Volkswagen bus, after living off the grid in a cave on Mount Shasta in California. Dunsany was trying to evade the Vietnam War draft and he had destroyed their identification documents. She switched from playing an accordion that was purchased from a Jamaica Plain thrift store in 1983 to a Casio tone MT-40 battery-operated keyboard, which was played through a battery-operated amp. The husband and wife team also formed a four-piece ambient synthesizer and short-lived guitar band called “Blind Juggler.”
Photo/Wikimedia Commons
Many recalled seeing the street musician and shared their stories on Facebook.
Michael S. Martin wrote:
“My wife and I used to see her all the time in Harvard Square, Cambridge. Then on our honeymoon in ‘86 we went to San Francisco. We’re walking down near Ghirardelli Square when I heard this music. My wife and I looked at each other at the same time thinking the same thing. Sure enough, we turned the corner and there was Space Lady!!!! I never knew she actually had a following. Haha.”
Scott Williams added:
“I remember seeing her on the street several times when I lived in Boston in the early ‘80s. What a flashback!”
Also dubbed “Street level Superstar,” the singer stated that she was initially terrified to sing in public without her accordion, but she and her husband had a young baby with no other income coming in. She played old familiar tunes like “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” on St. Patrick’s Day, which were particularly appealing to the city’s large Irish community. Her classic song “Synthesize Me” was written by her late ex-husband Joel Dunsany. Her helmet, with its blinking red-light bulb affixed, was originally used by him in his “Cosmic Man” persona, marking the emergence of her otherworldly persona.
Previous accounts describe early audience reactions as captivated, with passersby stopping to listen despite her fumbling delivery in the early days. During one 1970s holiday stint in Boston’s financial district, she collected $200 in tips, which was considered as generous commuter support for her integrity-driven performances.
Acclaim decades later
The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits was released in 2013 with a track list to include titles like “Humdinger,” “Ghost Riders In The Sky,” “I Had Too Much Dream (Last Night)” and “From The Womb To The Tomb.”
In 2014, she became even more popular when her first LP showed up on The Guardian’s list of The 101 Strangest Records on Spotify. “Synthesize Me” was used as soundtrack for credits at the end of the documentary film on female pioneers of electronic music, “Sisters With Transistors,” released in 2020.
Some consider the Space Lady’s sound to be outsider music. In a 1996 article for Pulse! Magazine, music historian and producer Irwin Chusid coined the phrase, describing it as a genre encompassing music created by self-taught or otherwise untrained individuals who operate outside conventional musical norms, often producing works that are perceived as “wrong,” “inept,” or “naïve” by mainstream standards, yet driven by sincere artistic compulsion.
Although she has long since moved away from the Boston area, the Space Lady continues to tour and spread her music throughout the country and Europe.
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