Comments on: Laura Nyro Reconsidered

Laura Nyro Reconsidered

y2karl — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 00:53:28 -0800

An Enigma Wrapped In Songs. Here is Laura Nyro.com, the home page of the late Laura Nyro. Laura Nyro.net is the most elaborate fan page ever, with not only photos, interviews, articles, audio and video clips but two virtual reality galleries in VRML!--it's truly the labor of love of all labors of love. The Ectophiles Guide To Good Music! has an informative Laura Nyro Page. Here's a link to a mianfei's So you'd like to... Understand The Legacy Of Laura Nyro --I'd never thought I'd link to an Amazon customer's fan page but she's got Nyro's story in a nutshell, so there it is. And those famous philistines at Wilson and Alroy's Record Reviews presents a, shall we say, more sanguine and detached perspective.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 01:00:24 -0800

I was thinking of the late Laura Nyro tonight and how I came upon a copy of Eli and The Thirteenth Confession in the window of Campus Music in 1968, and, mesmerized by the mysterioso Roman Catholic Saint's Calendar Breck Hair ad iconography photo on the cover, went in and bought it. Oh, God, her voice, the songs, the soul inflected horns--there was simply nothing like it at the time. The first pressing came with a lavender lyric sheet inserted--when you opened the album, you found it was faintly perfumed. That was one of the al time high points of record album production values, I'll tell you that. I wish I still had my copy. I saw her perform at the Seattle Opera House in 1970. Incidentally, that year the Seattle Opera put on a performance of the who's Tommy, starring an as yet little known Johnny Carson regular by the name of Bette Midler. I was walking across the lobby before the concert, looking over my shoulder, when I bumped and then softly sank into the ample bosoms of the very young and diminutive Miss M. Time stood still. It was like falling slowly into a jar of orange blossom honey...I looked down. Our eyes met, she smiled sweetly up into my face... ...and then the worst y2karl girlfriend ever, with the baleful expression of a malevolent and rabid toad, jealously inserted herself between us. Then I knew how Coleridge felt when interrupted during the composition of Kubla Khan... Laura Nyro performed alone--it was just her and a grand piano. The concert was simply wonderful. Her first three or four Columbia albums are classics.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 01:04:33 -0800

previous derail continued-- fyi: Midler played the Acid Queen. /derail

By: mojohand

mojohand — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 13:13:53 -0800

To really hate Laura Nyro you have to be my age, and recall having to listen to the seemingly endless 'New York Tendaberry' played in the dorm rooms of sensitive young women, hoping to get laid. [shudder] Not over the young women, who in memory are all very sweet, even if they didn't succumb to my charms, but Nyro. Yeesh.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 13:37:17 -0800

Oh, God, her voice, the songs, the soul inflected horns--there was simply nothing like it at the time.
Oh, God, there still isn't.
I came to her music rather late for a child of the 60s and 70s - about 10 years ago I ran into a vinyl copy of Eli in the used bin for a buck and bought it, as I knew some of the songs (Stoned Soul Picnic, Eli's Comin, Sweet Blindness) and was curious enough to spend a buck. Poverty Train and Eli just blew me away - the rest of the album was pretty good, but I didn't get all of it. Then I saw a cassette copy of New York Tendaberry for 50c and it barely played. In the process of transferring it to CD, I listened to it enough that I fell in love with it, listened to Eli again and realized just how great it really was. I have almost everything now. It's all good and often great - I've found that her later stuff does sneak up on you if you listen to it enough.
And mojohand ... if only I had met one of those young women - not to get laid, but to discover Laura's music earlier than I did. I listen to her more than I do the Dead and Neil Young these days - and I've been into them for 30 years. I can't comprehend why she's so obscure - she was one of the greatest musicians of her time. Anyone who hasn't heard her should give her a listen.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 14:29:57 -0800

I can't comprehend why she's so obscure - she was one of the greatest musicians of her time. After learning, from the sites linked here, far more about her than previously I knew, I can say I totally comprehend why. She was enormously talented but, sheesh, what a Joan Q. Sensitive prima donna she was in her younger days. And, gack, the crunchy granola she churned out in her late career is truly cringe-worthy. I am fascinated by the David Geffen's part in her career--he seemed to specialize in being a full service boyfriend manager to a number of high maintenance women singer-songwriters. Now his is a story which interests me more and more. Another name that popped out at me was Charlie Callelo, who arranged Eli And the 13th Confession. He did the same for Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band on their first record, and he co-wrote The Four Season's Let's Hang On. There's a guy with bonus mileage.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 16:53:12 -0800

what a Joan Q. Sensitive prima donna she was in her younger days.
In a way, I guess you're right - making up that story about being booed at Monterrey wasn't exactly modest in a sense ... I think though, that looking at the life of the average rock star, she decided that she wasn't going to live like that, but have a balanced life. It's a sane and admirable decision, but it cost her a lot of sales. Still, it seems that she should be more known than she is.
And, gack, the crunchy granola she churned out in her late career is truly cringe-worthy.
I guess if I paid attention to the words, it might bug me too, but unlike any other artist I know, when she starts singing my mind just shuts off and I find it hard to really register what she's saying sometimes, especially with the later stuff. I'll see lyrical quotes and say, "She sang that? I missed it!" I've heard "Mother's Spiritual" is really preachy and I've listened to it several times and I just can't register enough of the words to figure out that I'm being preached to, I guess. It's weird. I'm so caught up in the emotion and melody and phrasing that I forget about the words.