Re: What Gives? was Holden Caulfield & Allen Ginsberg


Subject: Re: What Gives? was Holden Caulfield & Allen Ginsberg
From: Michael Ross (mrr@teleport.com)
Date: Sun Apr 13 1997 - 20:14:51 GMT


To: mrr@teleport.com
Subject: (fwd) Sound Advice: CD Lays out a `Stoned Soul Picnic' for Nyro Fans
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Subject: Sound Advice: CD Lays out a `Stoned Soul Picnic' for Nyro Fans
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        The history of pop music holds its share of unsolved mysteries, and
one of the most curious could be called The Strange Case of Laura
Nyro. What's been baffling about the Bronx-born singer-songwriter ever
since she made her recording debut in 1968 is simply this: How could
someone who saw so many of her compositions become hits for others
never have any hits of her own?
        Nyro wrote the words (ital) and (unital) the music for Three Dog
Night's ``Eli's Coming,'' Blood, Sweat and Tears' ``And When I Die,''
Barbra Streisand's ``Stoney End'' and several hit singles by the Fifth
Dimension (including two that reached the Top 10, ``Wedding Bell
Blues'' and ``Stoned Soul Picnic''). But even though her own versions
of these tunes generally were released earlier than their respective
covers, none of her singles ever reached the Top 40, and only one of
her albums did -- and that LP, ``New York Tendaberry,'' (CQ) just
barely qualified, peaking at No. 32 in 1969.
        Columbia/Legacy's new two-CD collection spanning the
singer-songwriter's career might seem just the thing to shed light on
the mystery.
        Just the opposite, I'm afraid.
        Even though ``Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro'' is the
first compilation of her work since the only other one, the 1980 LP
``Impressions,'' and it's far more comprehensive -- with 34 tracks and
a 24-page booklet loaded with the artist's own observations -- it only
deepens the mystery.
        That's because rather than showing how there was something
non-commercial about Nyro's renditions, the set is loaded with
stunning performances. Hearing her sing ``Wedding Bell Blues,''
``Eli's Coming'' and the rest just as well as the hitmakers did -- and
always with more sensitivity and passion -- makes it only more
incredible that pop-chart success eluded her.
        Born on Oct. 18, 1947, to musical Italian-Jewish parents, Laura
Nigro (cq) began composing at age 8 and was still a teenager when she
wrote ``And When I Die,'' ``Wedding Bell Blues'' and the other songs
she sang on her 1966 debut album (under her new name Nyro), ``More
Than a New Discovery'' (re-released by Columbia in 1973 as ``The First
Songs'').
        The LP sold poorly, and an appearance at 1967's Monterey Pop
Festival somehow drew bad vibes from the peace-and-love crowd, but
soon new manager (and future mogul) David Geffen got her signed to
Columbia. There she recorded ``Eli and the Thirteenth Confession,''
which contained ``Eli's Comin' '' and ``Stoned Soul Picnic.'' Eight
more Columbia albums followed over the following 25 years, plus a live
album released in 1989 on the Cypress label.
        As a performer, Nyro never attained mass popularity, but she did
attract a fervently faithful cult following. It's easy to understand
why after hearing the new two-CD set's superb selection. The roughly
chronological 34 tracks, which range from early classics to '90s
recordings (including a couple of previously unreleased live
performances), reveal how wonderfully she sang her own material and
put into perspective her various artistic phases.
        Nyro's early work was her most accessible. Disc One's 11 selections
from her first two albums include all the big-hit material plus such
other youth-belying masterpieces as ``Billy's Blues,'' ``The
Confession'' and an enchanting ode to idyllic innocence, ``Emmie.''
Never again would the trademarks of Nyro's songwriting skills --
hypersensitive lyrics, gospel-and-soul-steeped melodies and
rhythmically daring, dramatic arrangements -- be displayed with such a
balanced blend of poignancy and playfulness.
        The dark side of Nyro's idiosyncratic intensity took center stage
on ``New York Tendaberry,'' (CQ) a 1969 album that journeyed into the
depths of sexual passion and spiritual pain. Some Nyro fans shun this
third album because of its forbidding tone and say it sealed her fate
as a limited-audience artist; others consider it her most accomplished
album. Disc One's three excerpts -- including the provocatively
disturbing ``Capt. St. Lucifer (cq) -- support a lean toward the
latter view.
        Several songs on Nyro's 1970 album ``Christmas and the Beads of
Sweat'' explored a similar vein with less satisfactory results. But
then Nyro made a 180-degree turn, thoroughly lightening up on her next
release. Linking up with the female R&B trio LaBelle, she paid tribute
to the music that had most inspired her with an entire album of
soul-classic covers, ``Gonna Take a Miracle.'' Perhaps the biggest
disappointment of the two-CD set is that it features only two samples
from this album -- marvelous renditions of ``I Met Him on a Sunday''
and ``The Bells.''
        After ``Miracle,'' Nyro's disgust with the music business and her
marriage caused her to retire from recording until she returned,
following a divorce, with 1975's ``Smile.'' On this and subsequent
albums (particularly 1984's ``Mother's Spiritual'') her songwriting
took a more mellow turn. Her compositions may have become less
striking (but never mediocre), but her voice retained most of its
persuasive power, as best demonstrated on the set by ``A Woman of the
World,'' ``To a Child'' and ``Like a Flame (The Animal Rights Song).''
        The set's two final tracks are previously unreleased live
performances: a superbly sung ``And When I Die'' from a 1993 Bitter
End engagement and an equally impressive ``Save the Country'' recorded
at the same club in 1994.
        So why wasn't Nyro more successful singing her own songs? ``Stoned
Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro'' doesn't answer that question,
but it does restore some justice, some respect to a talent who never
got enough on the pop charts.
                     
-- end of forwarded message --

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