Laura Nyro appreciation thread.

Divine

Her original Eli’s Comin’...

...and the version that became a hit. I much prefer Nyro’s.

Up on the Roof

Tori Amos Troll Thread.

Kill it with fire.

...and the hit version.

I think it’s interesting that her songs were covered by both men and women.

WHOOPS! Nope. I am wrong. Up on the Roof is a Carole King song. :-/ All the others mentioned above were written by Nyro.

Laura Nyro also wrote and recorded what is arguably the first lesbian love song, Emmie, which is a beautiful work. She got the way to move me...

Love Laura Nyro, but 'Walk on By' was composed by Burt Bacharach, with lyrics by Hal David.

Audience member: We love you!

Laura: I love you too.

Audience member: You're for real.

Laura: I love you too. And you know, no matter how insane the world seems, or bad the times seem, the vibrations that you people put into the world is very important. You know, it all goes down in the book of life.

Her original versions of ‘Stoned Soul Picnic’ and ‘Stoney End’ are also superior to the covers.

She’s great. I really like her later albums - Smile (1976), Nested (1978), Mother’s Spiritual (1984), and Walk the Dog and Light the Light (1993). They don’t get much attention, but I might prefer them to her earlier albums.

Thanks for the tip r12

Elton John adores her.

Carole King was so influenced by her, she wrote Laura's song "Up On The Roof"

Touché, R15.

I was a huge fan of Laura’s when I was in college in the mid-70s. Her album “Gonna Take A Miracle” with LaBelle is a classic mix of Motown covers. Their version of “The Bells” and also the title song, with simply amazing harmonies, still resonates after all these years. We lost Laura far too soon. Thank you for posting this, OP.

THIS...Wedding Bell Blues...so much better than the 5th Dimensions version

Simply exquisite.

Thank you for starting this thread OP, and thank you to those posting the videos. I have forgotten how glorious her voice was.

Here’s Sara Bareilles milking Stoney End. I like it better than Streisand’s version.

Toward the end of her life. Her voice was still powerful.

R8, I first heard Laura Nyro's version of "Emmie" about 20 years ago. Previously, I was only familiar with the fantastic recording by Ronnie Dyson (a presumed homosexual) which makes it all the more interesting -- a gay man with a somewhat androgynous sound singing a lesbian love song.

Laura Nyro is the only female artist that Joni Mitchell regarded as a peer.

R25 Really? Do tell.

Sure, r26. In a 1998 interview in Mojo magazine, Joni said the following:

"Yeah, I'm sick of being lumped in with the women. Laura Nyro you can lump me in with, because Laura exerted an influence on me. I looked to her and took some direction from her. On account of her I started playing piano again. Some of the things she did was very fresh. Hers was a hybrid of black pop singers - Motown singers - and Broadway musicals, and I like some things also from both those camps."

When I was a teen, I was a big Carole King fan. When my music teacher at prep school heard this, he told me that King had been influenced by Laura Nyro. I had never heard fo Nyro so he played Stone Soul Picnic to our class. The opening piano part sounded exactly like a Carole King song.

Two years later, I got the opportunity to see Nyro live at a very small club. I sat less than 10 feet from her piano. She was amazing.

R27, given that Joni's reputation for trashing other musicians (she's even compared herself favourably to Mozart), that's high praise indeed.

R27 That reminds me of Tori Amos, actually. She was originally compared a lot to Kate Bush, called a ripoff, and she has always said she admires Kate Bush but that Kate Bush was not a significant musical influence on her—that it was mostly all men such as Robert Plant, because there were not a lot of female musicians out there when she came up and she related to male rock musicians. She has cited Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro as influences. But she lauds Bush, as well, and at the same time insists despite comparisons she didn’t have a big influence on her music. And during Lilith Fair, Amos didn’t participate because she wanted to be an individual, independent musician, not part of a political movement.

Kate Bush also has said almost all her musical influences were men.

I think there really just were not many known female *actual* musicians being produced during these women’s formative years. Today’s artists can’t claim the same.

She was good friends with Sondheim.

She wrote "Lu" for Peggy Lipton about Lou Adler.

I never knew exactly what it was about Laura Nyro but her music always made me tingle right down to my toes, the hair on the back of my neck stand up a bit, and shivers all down my spine. Then to see pictures of her, she was a real natural beauty inside and out. My dream woman.

Her voice was really strong and also had a lot of character. I’ll never understand why songwriters like her can only find success by selling their music to people who make bland, whitewashed versions of it.

I love her singing and her song-writing. Good-bye Joe is one of my favorites, as is When I Die.

But when I mention her to anyone under the age fo 50, I get a blank stare. I guess she's another forgotten star.... and I guess that most of the people posting above are eldergays. As I am....

".... Motown singers - and Broadway musicals, and I like some things also from both those camps."

Did Joni ever record a show tune?

R30, Tori stopped sounding like Kath Bush after Little Earthquakes. I don't think anything Tori did after Little Earthquakes reminds me of Kate Bush at all.

R37 I agree. She was very obviously styled like Bush and probably produced to sound sort of like her for Y Kant Tori Read—and even shipped over to the UK, where Atlantic Records expected her to be accepted, but not in the U.S.—and I suspect it wasn’t her design. Despite both playing keyboards, having high voices and writing nonlinear lyrics, the content of their music has absolutely nothing in common. Tori is a confessional poet and a musical essayist, and Kate is more of a short story fiction writer most of the time. They’re always compared (and made into competitors) because they are both unique women with a vague resemblance. That’s why women resent being compared to women.

She retired from the music industry and lived an idyllic life in the country with her long-time female partner raising Laura’s son from a brief prior marriage. Laura died of ovarian cancer in her 40s and sadly her partner also died of ovarian cancer not long afterward. I LOVED her and her music in my teens.

R38, I completely understand why Tori would hate the Bush comparisons (but she has always been gracious about the comparisons). Whitney Houston would always go from 0 to 100 when asked about Mariah. People would compare here to Mariah all the time since they both had large vocal ranges. But their tone sounds nothing alike at all. I never would mistake a Mariah song for a Whitney one.

Some really beautiful music, what a talented soul

R40 Aside from both having astonishing voices, Houston and Carey’s music and their performance of it has absolutely nothing in common in my mind.

I've read people saying that they mistook Mariah for Whitney when "Vision of Love" came out. I don't get that.

R43 Nope. Those people have terrible ears or else they didn’t really listen to Whitney Houston at all. I do not get the comparison.

Going down on my pony's end

I never wanted to go down on my pony's end

I knew I had a real a-prob-a-LEM

When I went down upon my pony's end

She's my favorite, I like Joni and Carol just fine, but Laura was incredible. She could've been inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame for this song alone.

Sammy Davis Jr. did a version of And When I Die when he guested on Here’s Lucy. It was off the fucking chain. He sinks into it like a black revivalist preacher and goes full throttle right to the finale.

It’s not on YouTube because Lucy’s estate won’t allow anything posted, but it should be streaming on Amazon.

[quote] I've read people saying that they mistook Mariah for Whitney when "Vision of Love" came out. I don't get that.

It sounded like Whitney only because at that point Whitney's melismatic vocal delivery was still distinctive -- then Mariah and everyone else started doing it. And Sony invited directed comparisons to Whitney

[quote] I love her singing and her song-writing. Good-bye Joe is one of my favorites, as is When I Die.

Ditto. Laura's vocal style was charismatic and emotive and she didn't care if she was pitch-perfect. She was about conveying emotion. Like r17, I love this version of "The Bells" recorded with Labelle. She is really taking off and you know it's hard to remain front and center with Patti on a record.

I’d love an interview with Patti Labelle talking about Laura Nyro.

Patti talked about Nyro in her autobiography. She really liked her.

R51 😃😃😃 I will read it! Thanks!

Eerie coincidence: Both Laura and her mother died of ovarian cancer, both at age 49. Laura’s partner, painter Maria Desiderio also died of the same illness, two years after Laura.

Also of interest to DLers, Laura performed at Michfest in the 1980s.

Laura liked the pole and the hole, but was exclusively lesbian after about 1980. Early on, she was in a relationship with Jackson Browne and was briefly married to a carpenter named David Bianchini in the mid-‘70s.

She had an affair with a man named Harindra Singh and gave birth to a son, Gil, in 1978. Inexplicably, she gave him her ex-husband’s last name.

In the early ‘80s, she began living with painter Maria Desiderio, who she apparently met when they were both teenagers taking piano lessons from Alice Coltrane (wife of sax legend John Coltrane) in the 1960s. Evidently, Laura met Maria again when she was pregnant with Gil. They were together until Laura’s death.

The Improbable Rap Career of Laura Nyro’s Son

Laura is flawless.

[quote] Also of interest to DLers, Laura performed at Michfest in the 1980s.

That's hilarious. And fabulous.

Which means Gil stayed at Brother Son.

OMG I loved huh!

One of my favorite Laura songs is "Captain For Dark Mornings." I love her recording and the one by Tuck & Patti.

One of my favorites is Poverty Train.

The way she sings Eli's coming reminds of an orgasm.

Janis Ian went to HSPF at the same time and said she was virtually musically illiterate. She also said she always dressed in black and resembled Morticia Addams. Ironic for Ian to talk about anyone else since her catalog is music to commit suicide by.

I remember some family members being offended at this remark by Patti LaBelle after her death: “'She was a soulful, fat mama, and I loved her.”

She had a good life for 17 years after retiring from the music industry rat race.

The heart of Nyro's existence was domestic but not hermetic. She lived for 17 years with Maria Desiderio, a 43-year-old painter, who has equally thick, flowing dark hair. On a bucolic property in Danbury, Conn., complete with babbling brook and duck-filled pond, they raised Nyro's son, Gil Bianchini, who is now 19. Their house was spare and uncluttered, decorated with Isamu Noguchi paper lamps, a grand piano and hundreds of books (mostly by women). They cooked and hiked and traveled the country in a camper. Nyro had never liked signing autographs, but it was rarely a problem, for she was seldom recognized.

'The business of music was something that was never comfortable for Laura,' Ms. Desiderio, a Brooklyn native, said. 'She saw a lot of fake friendships and false emotions. But the business of life -- Laura lived very fully. She was nothing like a hermit.'

A close friend, Zoe Nicholson, portrayed the relationship between Ms. Desiderio and Nyro as a profound personal and artistic bond, 'like Stein and Toklas, or Dali and his wife, or Kahlo and Diego Rivera.'

She also described a 1970's-vintage feminist spirituality that dwelled in their home. 'Don't be worried about overemphasizing that Laura lived a woman-identified, goddess-driven existence,' Ms. Nicholson said. 'Everything was about female energy with the exception of her son.'

Asked to elaborate, Ms. Nicholson said, 'Mother earth, mother nature, looking to the moon.'

I remember seeing her perform live in the early 70s. I idolized her and loved her music. I was a bit taken aback when she came onstage because she was really, really big. Like muumuu-wearing HUGE. I still love her music though.

R63 R64

She didn’t retire. She was recording and performing up until her death.

R65

She was VERY weird. This is from Janis Ian's memoir "Society's Child":

My agent, David Geffen, wanted me to meet some local people closer to my own age. He was also representing Laura Nyro, and he arranged an evening out for the three of us. We spent most of it in his limousine, riding around downtown and smoking pot. I invited Laura to dinner at our new apartment, promising to cook. On September 24, I opened the door to see her standing there, clutching a portable television.

"Laura, we have a television here", I said. She explained that her friend Peggy Lipton was starring in a new show called "The Mod Squad", premiering that night, and she didn't want to miss it. So we watched tv through dinner, smoked some dope and and made our goodbyes.

I'd known Laura vaguely from Music & Art, where she was two years ahead of me and had a reputation for being weird. You could hear her coming; she wore a long coat that clanked as the Cheracol bottles hidden in her pockets collided. She'd sip from them throughout the day, her eyes getting duller by the hour. In her bright red lipstick and long black dresses, she looked like Morticia Addams, with bigger hips. But she was an amazing songwriter and I really respected her. In fact, for my next album, I'd deliberately chosen Charlie Callelo as producer, based on his work with Laura.

Still, she was strange, and oddly inarticulate for a songwriter. Charlie once called me in a panic and asked me to rush down to a session they were doing. Laura was having hysterics because the band couldn't play what she wanted. I arrived to see Charlie walking out of the studio with Laura slung over his shoulder. She was kicking and screaming and crying with frustration. After we got her calmed down, I asked what she wanted the song to sound like. She looked around the room, pointed to a purple chair and told me, "Like that. I want it to sound like THAT."

I walked back into the studio, looked at the chart, and told the musicians, "She wants it legato. A deep, mysterious legato. Not quite largo, but legato." They got it on the next take and congratulated me on my translation skills. I

R67 She sort of semi-retired. Retreated to the woods.

She was reclusive only in the industry's view; she didn't play arenas or go on major tours or make music videos. Instead, flush with the money of her early success, she cobbled a quieter life for herself, in which she wrote what she wanted when she wanted, put out an album when it felt ready and performed in places where she felt accommodated, like the Bottom Line in New York.

Being as strange as she was, she was ill-suited for stardom. No wonder she went to live in the woods.

R70, I don't care what the music industry thinks. The media loves to say that Greta Garbo was a recluse, and that has become the popular view. She wasn't a recluse. She had friends and family and traveled extensively. Recluses don't leave their homes. She just didn't give interviews and didn't care for people trying to snap her photo.

Nyro didn't play by the industry's rules, so the industry says that she "retired" or "went off to live in the woods." It's horse shit.

R72 The article I quoted says that she was not a recluse, that that was a myth. Learn to read.

Great songwriter, but she had a very unpleasant voice with that terrible break between her chest and head voice. Mark of an amatuer singer.

Eat shit, R73.

ANYway...

Here's a favorite of mine from her album Nested, recorded around the time she had her son.

I loved that album so much back then, R76. I must have listened to it hundreds of times.

I haven't clicked all the links, so forgive me if "To A Child" has already been posted. Beautiful song, and I love the line "what is life? Did you read about it in a magazine?"

And the above poster who said Laura Nyro wasn't a good singer is full of shit. She had a gorgeous voice.

Nah, she's definitely an acquired taste and takes a tin ear drum to enjoy. She did not have a pleasant voice nor was she a disciplined songwriter. But she was bold and original, for sure.

God, r79 you couldn't be more wrong.

Midler gave her a heartfelt introduction and of course Sara Bareilles CAN sing, beautifully. The reason Nyro's songs were bigger hits for others is obvious. Her voice was hippie white girl faux black soul. Her songs were an interesting pastiche of styles, influences and structure, mostly good.

The reason Nyro's songs were bigger hits for others is that Nyro hated getting out there and doing promotion. She didn't want to tour or do press or anything that artists need to do to really have hits. She did tour when she got older, but only in the small clubs she felt comfortable in, and it was a very small number of clubs. She just didn't put herself out there.

Sara Bareilles can sing, but there's nothing distinctive about her voice. She sounds like a hundred other singers.

r79 r80 Though I love Laura Nyro and her music—New York Tendaberry is one of my favorite albums of all time—I recognize that her recorded sound can be hard to take, particularly on CD in the modern era on better stereo equipment. There's something very shrill and steely about the SQ that no amount of remastering was able to get rid of. Aphex Aural Exciter?

Thank you to the poster who called Janis Ian's catalog 'music to commit suicide to,' you made me laugh.

I once asked Tori Amos to do a mashup of “And When I Die” and “Happy Phantom” (which begins, “And if I die today, I’ll be the happy phantom”). She said, “Laura Nyro? Oh...wow! That’s INTERESTING!” I thought she’d do it but she did not. Harrumph.

I love her SO much.

This is a great example of what she did so well - took a regular pop song, infused it with Broadway phrasing and her own unusual sense of timing.

Live version of The Descent of Luna Rosé - the studio version is from the album Walk the Dog and Light the Light. On the album, Laura dedicates the song "to my period."

Laura being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Bette is a mess. Laura's son Gil accepts on her behalf. He's oddly fuckable.

I don’t really like “Stoned Soul Picnic” at all, but I do love “red yellow honey sassafras and moonshine.” Inspired.

Swing Out Sister did a great cover of Stoned Soul Picnic.

Life Magazine Jan. 30 1970 with article about Laura / pre internet era ....unimaginable now / you were so grateful to read anything about her...

Nyro was a terrific writer. I love her versions of the songs she wrote.

Streisand should be repeatedly bitchslapped for what she did to "Stoney End", "Time and Love" and "Film Flam Man" when she decided to assault us with her bad taste covers of Nyro, Mitchell and King songs in the early 70s.

I was never THAT enamored of crazy-ass Laura, particularly in light of the way she crashed and burned at the Monterey Pop festival. I only missed out on performing at Woodstock on account of that frigging Cavett interview. And at least Baez, Judy C., Carole, Carly and Judee Sill all knew their places when compared to me.

Stevie Wonder said in an interview with The Guardian that he wrote 'If You Really Love Me' in Laura's apartment, but the article gave no further details, and it's not an anecdote I've seen referenced anywhere else. Would love to know the story behind it...

this LIVE Bottom Line is worth seeking out / not streaming /

I love that scene in "Home At The End Of The World" when Sissy Spacek is enchanted by Laura's "Desiree" and takes a hit of pot.

Although I love Nyro's voice, I think the popular covers of her songs do the songs a great justice.

Her big hits were songs that had a Broadway musical/ Tin Pan Alley feel to them and a group like the 5th Dimension was able to showcase that. Not such a bad thing at all.

Even Blood, Sweat and Tears gave "And When I Die" a B'way musical sound.

bump

[quote]I walked back into the studio, looked at the chart, and told the musicians, "She wants it legato. A deep, mysterious legato. Not quite largo, but legato." They got it on the next take and congratulated me on my translation skills.

Janis Ian is a pretentious cunt for writing that about a musician far superior to her.

Laura was my favorite, since the first time I heard her in the late 60's. When I was shattered by the 2016 election, all I could think about was the first lyrics to "Christmas in my Soul"

I LOVE MY COUNTRY AS IT DIES IN WAR AND PAIN BEFORE MY EYES

That aside, I saw her live twice, in the early 70's and then late in her career at the Bottom Line. Brilliant both times. But I can tell you she has to be the most photogenic woman ever, because I was shocked both times at how homely she was. You'd never know it from her beautiful photos.

"Janis Ian is a pretentious cunt for writing that about a musician far superior to her."

How can Laura Nyro be "far superior" to Janis Ian, when only Ian had the musical wherewithal to figure out what the hell Nyro was trying to articulate. Actually Nyro sounds like she was a crazy cunt.

Though I love Laura Nyro and her music—New York Tendaberry is one of my favorite albums of all time—I recognize that her recorded sound can be hard to take, particularly on CD in the modern era on better stereo equipment. There's something very shrill and steely about the SQ that no amount of remastering was able to get rid of. Aphex Aural Exciter?

I've noticed that over-EQ'ed quality on Laura's voice that seems to be poor choices by the engineer or producer as well. The Aphex Aural Exciter was invented after most of her original recordings, I think, and would certainly add to the problem if it had been used (among other things, it adds 'brass' to the high end by generating even order, generally pleasant sounding, harmonics). I maintained a recording studio, among other weird things, for a couple years.

[quote]How can Laura Nyro be "far superior" to Janis Ian

Because Janis Ian had one, maybe two, songs anyone knows. Whereas Nyro had many.

Ian sounded very pretentious. So what if she knows the right Italian words? Nyro wrote better music.

"Ian sounded very pretentious. So what if she knows the right Italian words? Nyro wrote better music."

You must not have heard much of Ian's music, because she wrote a lot of good songs, many of them as good as anything Nyro ever did. Laura Nyro sounds like she was a musical illiterate. And crazy as shit.

I think Between the Lines is a masterpiece, but musical literacy is not as big a gift as being able to create.

Many great composers couldn't read/write music. Most can, but it's a different part of the brain.

Not everyone can be Carole King, who can write the songs and then orchestrate them.

This is the Laura Nyro appreciation thread, not the Trash Laura Nyro Because You Like Janice Ian Better thread.

R108 Kindly, fuck off, control freak.

It's perfectly reasonable for an appreciation thread to be about appreciation and not trashing or comparing the artist unfavorably to others. Go start a Janis Ian thread and fuck off yourself, R109.

Nyro is revered by other musicians, and plenty of artists are 'crazy'.

[quote]It's perfectly reasonable for an appreciation thread to be about appreciation and not trashing

Welcome to Datalounge, poster! I hope you are enjoying your very first day here.

Boy, are you in for a surprise.

"Nyro is revered by other musicians, and plenty of artists are 'crazy'."

Lots of musicians are "revered" by other musicians. And when it comes to crazy Laura Nyro seems to be in a class by herself. Saying she wants her song to be like a purple chair? What a wacko.

[quote]Saying she wants her song to be like a purple chair? What a wacko.

Yeah, but people will still be humming her songs long after you are composting and long forgotten.

So there is that.

I don’t think it’s wacko. People experience things differently and create differently.

I “see” and experience colors and textures and movement very clearly in my mind’s eye when I hear certain music and certain sounds. It’s just the way it is. It’s not all music and not all sounds, but some reliably always project/conjure the same mental phenomena. I would describe Tori Amos’s song “Concertina” as pale pink and blue cloudlike abstract formations converging and dissipating. I’ve made several paintings of “still frames” of images (mostly abstract, not all) created by music, and made one painting of a room that a James Joyce short story created in my mind’s eye. Some people see/feel differently than others, and some communicate differently. I think it is entirely normal for a musical composer, a dancer or a poet to describe what they hear or feel as a purple chair.

"Yeah, but people will still be humming her songs long after you are composting and long forgotten."

Yeah, there are SO many people out there "humming" Laura Nyro songs. And when you're composting there will be celebrations by all who knew you, after which you will long forgotten and your grave will be untended and unmarked. And yes, by God, there certainly is THAT.

I love this version of Sweet Blindness, even with Frank's Austin Powers get up.

"Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", "Save the Country", "And When I Die", "Blowing Away"...all big hits and in a span of just 2 to 3 years.

How many other writers had so many successes in such a short time? The Beatles certainly, but others?

And I forgot: "Eli's Coming"

R117 You won’t like this, probably, but...Just Dance, Poker Face, Paparazzi, Alejandro, Bad Romance, Telephone...all in a couple of years.

What exactly is a Stoney End?

R19 Nyro wrote the music and lyrics. Gaga co wrote. And I doubt anyone will ever do covers of those "songs".

Oooops forgot "Stoney End" Too.

That's a lot of hits.

[quote]Welcome to Datalounge, poster! I hope you are enjoying your very first day here.

I've been here for 20 years, bitch. It doesn't make it any less tedious when we have a nice thread going and then other people come in just to take a giant shit in it and fuck it up for the people who were enjoying it.

Thank God for ignore.

Fuck off, Barbara Joan at R120. I saw a clip from one of your four dozen retirement concerts where you condescendingly agreed to sing "Stoney End" and then peppered your performance with your worst, stereotypical, Borscht Belt shtick as though to make it clear that you were too good for the song.

Fuck you, Barbara Joan. May you have an endless stoney end up your ass.

I don't know how much Joni was influenced by Laura, but Laura was on a very short list of artists that Joni respected.

Her Nibs felt that most other female artists were derivative.

I named my cat Timer after her song

New York Tendaberry was one of the three best albums of 1969 (if you were there, you know the other two; if you weren't, Abbey Road and Gimme Shelter).

Oh, and ENOUGH, ALREADY with Tori Amos, Tori Amos troll.

Has anyone watched "A Home At the End of the World? They play "Desiree" during the scene where Sissy Spacek gets high with her son and his friend starts to dance with her. That was the best part of the movie!!!

I HATE it when ignoramuses start threads about people like Laura Nyro with a bio - like they think we've NEVER HEARD OF HER.

I HATE it when ignoramuses think all threads about people like Laura Nyro should start the way they want them to start -- like they think everyone should be JUST LIKE THEM.

I hate all you heaux.

[quote]Saying she wants her song to be like a purple chair? What a wacko.

Synesthesia.

Someone needs to do a movie based oh her.

r132 Don't give Lea Michele any ideas.

Compared to a lot of the trash they might try to foist upon us, r133, Lea Michelle might not be too bad. But is her voice just right?

R128/R129, we can hear you just fine. No need for the RANDOM SHOUTING.