Great essay! She was very influential on other musicians, in particular Todd Rundgren who was "knocked out" (his words) by her first album. On his first album Runt, the song "Baby Let's Swing" is for/about Laura, and her influence is very evident on his next LP Ballad of TR as well.
Absolutely - I'm going to touch more on Todd Rundgren in the third part of essay when I get to 'Mother's Spiritual' which he worked on, for a while, mostly to try to help Nyro get more organized and disciplined (it has mostly for naught, as it almost always with her - she was fiercely protective of her music and I think, on the balance, that was a good thing).
Having been on Todd relatively early (about '72--I was 17--then rapidly going backwards to discover his Nazz days), and NOT at all on Nyro (for much of the same reasons I didn't appreciate Joni 'til much later....a teenage boy, this one, anyway....had trouble relating to sensitive female singers, when I chose to surround myself with Sabbath, Alice, Tull, and Deep Purple!), I find it stunning that Todd felt so emboldened to encroach upon a fellow artist to (and one he was a fan of, to boot!), ostensibly, tell her how to better do her job!!
I look forward to reading more about THAT encounter in your part 3, Robert! I actually kinda hope Laura gave him a piece of her mind! Now, I guess, I should read THIS one.....I tend to start with the comments, especially if I'm late to an article (like now)!!
There won't be any fireworks but illustrative of a recurring theme which is that Ms. Laura followed her own muse and you had to go along with her as opposed to her going along with you.
Cool. Todd's autobiography "The Individualist" - which is made up of short, non-chronological chapters - has one chapter devoted to Laura Nyro. I wish he had written more but what's there is really interesting.
I have an interview with him in a small book of interviews of musicians, etc. who know her. I'm not sure I agree with his assertion that she lost the spark after 'Eli...,' which is part of what 'Baby's Let Swing' is about, but deeply appreciate and identify which how her music deeply affected and influenced him.
Thank you for the kind words and shout-out! It was such an honour for me to feature your fantastic contribution to my Vital Records series. I've also been really enjoying getting to know more about Laura Nyro with your expert guidance.
Outstanding, Robert. A glorious encomium to one of the most underrated, misunderstood artists of the 20th century. The fact that critics dismissed as shrill or as hypersentive and unselfconsciously romantic, as Bobby Christgau did, is an endurng reminder of how gendered and ill-informed many writers were in approaching her work. Few really seemed to get what she was doing (Bobby gave her guff for not cracking jokes but her work is humorous and warm). She was a synthesist. A poet. A talent who could switch up tempo as deftly as any prog rocker. And the ending of Save the Country feels scarifying and almost soul shaking in its complexity such that never fails to leave me in awe at her talents. She was unmatched and opened the door for art pop and art rock that was carred on by Patti, Tori, Laurie, and Kate.
I think all those criticisms are baloney. Christgau also termed Laura's sensuality as bullshit which says more about him than anything else. Robert Hilburn was far more enlightened when it came to her.
And yeah, she was funny too (more later on - check out 'The Japanese Restaurant Song' or 'The Right to Vote' or 'American Dreamer') and the ending of 'Save the Country' is earth-shaking - at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's staggeringly good.
Thank you, Emm, for the very kind thoughts on the essay. More to come! Stay tuned!
When Laura Nyro first surfaced with Eli's Coming, I climbed on board and became a 20 year old fanboy. Gonna Take A Miracle became my favourite of her albums, and over time, she drifted off my horizon. I re-captured some of the magic during the Napster years, when some bootlegs and whatnot became available, and yes, I was stricken when she caught the last cab at such a young age.
You've done a lot to make her come alive in my imagination again, Robert, and thank you for that! This morning, while doing back stretches, I listened to Eli once again, and marveled at the scope of her imagination as a writer and the depth of her soul.
On another matter (a digression): I just got around to reading your essay on Chris Dalla Riva's book in The Metropolitan Review. You wrote a good piece about a book that left me cold. In this data-driven world, where people wear rings to keep track of their vital signs, or have luxurious cat litter trays that weigh their felines and keep track of their 'output', I say basta! If I compare a book like this statistical overview with Dave Marsh's several book of lists, with his personal take on songs and albums, I'll take Marsh every time. Wading through statistical analysis to arrive at an aesthetic understanding of *anything* is abstruse.
Keep up the great work, Robert. I enjoy your stuff!
You're very welcome, Terry - so nice to hear this. I really wanted to write with the passion I feel for her music but to also summon Laura Nyro's as well, and to let certain sections burst with the vibrancy of her music and her lyrics. The process of writing it made me an even bigger fan of hers (which I did not expect because my love of her music was already about as deep as it can get).
Thanks as well for the kind words about my review in The Metropolitan Review.
I have loved Laura Nyro’s music since I was fifteen. Of course, at that age I thought I was in love with her directly, which is how I still feel when I sit down with Eli or Tendaberry. I no longer weep at Poverty Train or Lonely Women, but I’m no less slain.
I saw her live once, a couple of days before Christmas 1971 at the Fillmore East, just Nyro and piano, glad that I had no date so I could focus.
Thanks for your keen insights and for reminding me to dig them potatoes once again.
Thanks, C.L., for sharing your thoughts and for checking the essay out. I share your feelings. I have been a fan for more than 20 years now and the music retains an impact that familiarity does not dull. "Slain" is bang on!
There is a tape of one of her nights at the Fillmore during that run--the 22nd of December--and it is magical. How I wish I would have been around back then to have seen her live. I write a bit about how I think it would have felt like in the second part of the essay.
Thanks for this. I knew OF her as a songwriter back in the day, but no one I knew had her records. So now I've been checking her out on YouTube.
What an incredible voice. She wasn't just a songwriter. When I hear her records, I'm mentally comparing them to the hits, and what I conclude is:
She needed a better producer. What the hits did was basically strip them down to basics. Her versions are wonderful, but they have a lot of stuff happening. But maybe being famous and having #1 hits wasn't her goal in life.
Now I'm going to read your essays and check out more Laura. You can totally take credit.
This is wonderful - so glad to hear to this, and thanks for sharing!
Many of the covers of her songs are fantastic - I guess I'm partial to those that engage with the eccentricities, smooth them down a bit but still keep a lot of the stuff in them. The 5th Dimension's version of 'Stoned Soul Picnic' may be the best example of that. Three Dog Night's version of 'Eli's Comin'' may be the worst example (for what it's worth, Laura once said that one of her greatest musical thrills was hearing a male sing that song and also that she liked about 95% of the covers of her songs). I may be a bit biased as hearing her version of that song instantly turned me into the rapid devotee I remain to this day.
From what I've read of her, she did not enjoy the fame game. I feel her falling out with David Geffen in the early seventies was the last straw on that. She was also very protective of her music, to an extent that calling her stubborn, dogmatic or even bratty is not unfair but also I feel these qualities made her music truly unique.
I love it. It sounds to me like they were trying to cover the song in Laura's style albeit in a more commercial manner.
One of the most interesting things I did when writing the essay was put the second Blood, Sweat & Tears album on and listen while pondering their connection to her: she dated Jim Fielder, the group's bassist, while it was recorded and she flirted with joining the group as its new lead singer. According to Bobby Colomby, they rehearsed once on 'Eli's Comin'' and if he is to be believed, it was fantastic. What I would have given to have been able to hear that!
She was married briefly to David Bianchini, whose last name her son shares, but they didn't have children. The father was a gentleman from India with whom she had a brief romance in late seventies.
Am so glad to have seen this treatment of one of the most fully realized, mature voices ever.
I’m sure you’ve gotten to this - I hope to read it - that she could be a magnificent interpreter of other writers’ material. Her reading of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” absolutely knocks it right out of the park.
Absolutely - that's a big part of part two of the essay: https://www.listeningsessions.ca/p/the-laura-nyro-experience-part-two where I discuss her cover of 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' as well as her version the Moments' 'Love on a Two Way Street' (it's stunning) and the whole Gonna Take a Miracle album.
Robert, you have surpassed yourself with these first two Laura Nyro essays. There's so much heart and intelligence in them that I'm on my third go round. There's also more of you. Not just your insightful perspective on the artist but you personally. Not just what you think but how you feel. That's especially true in the second essay. Maybe you've written this way before and I've missed it. Really glad I didn't miss these. I'm hearing and thinking of this prodigious artist as I never have before, and I have you to thank for that. Eager to see the third essay. Well done, sir!
Thank you, Andrew. I have been personal before but perhaps not in such a way as here. To tell this story I need to share how Laura Nyro's music makes me feel because there are few artists whose music moves me as much as hers. She's fundamental to my listening and my musical taste.
Finally finding the quiet time to sit and read this, and of course it is every bit as brilliant as I thought it would be. Your love of the artist and her muse (NY City) come across so palpably, and as another Laura Nyro superfan, I understand completely how immersive an experience her music becomes, and remains. When someone sits down and writes this effortlessly about a subject, you know it is one they deeply love.
Heading to Part II now, and looking forward to discussions of her later work, which I have come to appreciate very deeply over the past couple of decades. Fantastic work, Robert, as usual!
Thank you, Marshall - I really appreciate you checking out what I've been doing here. As I wrote, I vividly remember the first time I really dug into her music and was astonished by what I heard - it was like hearing Duke Ellington for the first time.
It's only been in the past two months that I've heard what she recorded after 'Nested' and it's given me a deeper appreciation of her as an artist, as a songwriter, as a vocalist and as a paragon of artistic integrity, and the holiness of creation.
“That’s not what I mean. I already know what you’ve done with your music. We want to know who you are. Just tell us about yourself, the stuff we don’t know.” I love this. She’s digging and that’s the artist’s duty: to scratch below the surface.
I agree. The whole scene Charlie Callelo tells in the Madfish CD boxset of first meeting Laura and hearing her play 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession' is moving - it's his most evocative telling of that unforgettable night.
I got into Guy Stevens and his first love of American rhythm and blues then descent into the madness of 1970s and early 80s rock music. It was like watching the asphyxiation of creativity and I had to get away from the project at least for now.
Thank you so much for this. I've been a fan of Laura's from the start, and I know her music like I know the back of my hand. But your writing this made me experience her magic all over again. I was lucky enough to see Laura and then her return in 1975 and then see her final return in the 90s. There was never any other artist like her. Even Joni Mitchell admits that she took inspiration from Laura.
There's a quote from Joni saying that she'd be OK with being compared to Laura Nyro. I wish I could have been around to have seen her live, especially when Miles Davis opened for her at the Fillmore in June 1970. Now that would have been something else!
Glad you liked the start of the essay - I tried to find the words to describe how her music feels which is hard. It never gets old, it never feels stale. The excitement I felt when I first really heard it remains 20-plus years later.
Over the past few months and years I’ve often thought of your last foray into the head and heart of Laura Nyro — it meant so much to me! I wrote something in the Comments then about how I’d long felt that when I die I want to go to wherever Laura Nyro went. And now you’ve gone back and taken an even deeper dive into her work — I look forward to see where you’ll take us next, with parts two and three. Thank you.
Thank you, Bill. To think that she was 17 when she wrote 'And When I Die.' Laura was on a different level!
I got the big Madfish CD set about a month ago and got lost in the vortex and just felt the need to go deeper and try to sum it all up. Part two will deal with the seventies and part three will be about everything that came after (it's only been in the last month that I have heard everything she released after 'Nested').
As you've mentioned that you were working on this, I've been excited to see the final results and this is wonderful.
Reading it, I feel a variety of emotions. Enjoyment of your appreciation for Laura Nyro, of course, and it also makes me think that I can't recall the last album that I listened to all the way through eight times. There are many albums that I could say that about, but none recently. It is a comment on the coincidences and circumstances that shape what music is braided into our lives.
Obviously it's not possible to listen to all of the wonderful music in the world with that attention, so we pick and chose, sometimes consciously and sometimes by happenstance what music we hold dear. I salute you for honoring that connection in your essay.
Also, thinking of New York, it also makes me think about My Dinner With Andre (one of my favorite films) and the sense of the New York as a place that can be exhausting and inspiring. Intense, and overwhelming with room for so much searching.
Thank you, Nick! The comparison to 'My Dinner With Andre' is apt. When I saw it, I didn't think of a connection to Laura Nyro and her music but it's there. I also feel it in Chantal Akerman's News From Home.
I also can't recall the last album I listened to eight times (and prior to the past month, I had listened to 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession' many times!) but, as I write in the essay, each time, it knocked me out. She wrote the album when she was 19 and recorded it when she was 20 - that, in itself, is stunning considering how complex and deep the music is. I came to her music at the right time - the day after a deeply exciting trip to New York - and it just hit me so hard - it was the same feeling the first time I heard Duke Ellington, for example, (and to me, she is at the level of Ellington) and how others felt when they first heard her music. Charlie Calello's story of hearing her perform 'Eli...' in her apartment and being barely able to speak afterwards resonates deeply with me, both as an example of how powerful her music is but that it was exactly how I felt.
Thinking about it now, I realize that I thought of My Dinner With Andre not only as a companion New York piece (which it is) but also because Wallace Shawn's arc is a more dramatic version of the story about Artie Mogull in the piece. He starts out trying to fit Andre Gregory into a comfortably structure and ends up appreciating the insights from Gregory's boundary-pushing.
And, yes, of course you've listened to 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession' more than eight times in total, but I was still struck by that note about both giving attention and fully entering the world of the album.
Any time you do that it says something both about the album (which is brilliant) and about you. That, of the various brilliant recordings in the world this music has spoken to you. I appreciated that aspect of the piece.
(I do wonder if you may intimidate some readers with the comment, "There is, at least it’s what I have found, no such thing as being a casual fan of hers. To answer that question: are you in or are you out?, the answer can only be one of two things: I am in as deep as can be or I am stuck on the outside, peering in . . . " For myself I am, more or less, a casual fan. I deeply appreciate some of her music but haven't ventured as deeply into her world as you have, but I appreciate you marking the path inward . . . )
That's a really good point about 'My Dinner with Andre' - thank you for sharing!
Thank you as well for raising that paragraph about what Laura Nyro fandom means. I would hope it isn't meant to intimidate but mostly my observation that there is something about her and her music that inspires a pull beyond most other artists which may explain why she remains, in a sense, unsung. In other words, an invitation to explore an artist that could be life-changing. It's also related that in continuing to write this piece, I've been listening to her music a lot and noticed how it has made feel better, more relaxed, happier. It's something I'll explore in the third part of the essay.
Great essay! She was very influential on other musicians, in particular Todd Rundgren who was "knocked out" (his words) by her first album. On his first album Runt, the song "Baby Let's Swing" is for/about Laura, and her influence is very evident on his next LP Ballad of TR as well.
Absolutely - I'm going to touch more on Todd Rundgren in the third part of essay when I get to 'Mother's Spiritual' which he worked on, for a while, mostly to try to help Nyro get more organized and disciplined (it has mostly for naught, as it almost always with her - she was fiercely protective of her music and I think, on the balance, that was a good thing).
Having been on Todd relatively early (about '72--I was 17--then rapidly going backwards to discover his Nazz days), and NOT at all on Nyro (for much of the same reasons I didn't appreciate Joni 'til much later....a teenage boy, this one, anyway....had trouble relating to sensitive female singers, when I chose to surround myself with Sabbath, Alice, Tull, and Deep Purple!), I find it stunning that Todd felt so emboldened to encroach upon a fellow artist to (and one he was a fan of, to boot!), ostensibly, tell her how to better do her job!!
I look forward to reading more about THAT encounter in your part 3, Robert! I actually kinda hope Laura gave him a piece of her mind! Now, I guess, I should read THIS one.....I tend to start with the comments, especially if I'm late to an article (like now)!!
There won't be any fireworks but illustrative of a recurring theme which is that Ms. Laura followed her own muse and you had to go along with her as opposed to her going along with you.
Todd used to tell EVERYBODY how to do their job!
Certainly can’t disagree!😎
Cool. Todd's autobiography "The Individualist" - which is made up of short, non-chronological chapters - has one chapter devoted to Laura Nyro. I wish he had written more but what's there is really interesting.
I have an interview with him in a small book of interviews of musicians, etc. who know her. I'm not sure I agree with his assertion that she lost the spark after 'Eli...,' which is part of what 'Baby's Let Swing' is about, but deeply appreciate and identify which how her music deeply affected and influenced him.
HUGE/deep impact on my 16 year old being that remains reverberating.
Me too although I was 25 when I first heard her music.
Thank you for the kind words and shout-out! It was such an honour for me to feature your fantastic contribution to my Vital Records series. I've also been really enjoying getting to know more about Laura Nyro with your expert guidance.
Thanks, Andres! The piece for your 'Vital Records' series was one of the most rewarding things I have done here.
You have no idea how happy that makes me feel! 🙌🏻 Thank you!!!
Outstanding, Robert. A glorious encomium to one of the most underrated, misunderstood artists of the 20th century. The fact that critics dismissed as shrill or as hypersentive and unselfconsciously romantic, as Bobby Christgau did, is an endurng reminder of how gendered and ill-informed many writers were in approaching her work. Few really seemed to get what she was doing (Bobby gave her guff for not cracking jokes but her work is humorous and warm). She was a synthesist. A poet. A talent who could switch up tempo as deftly as any prog rocker. And the ending of Save the Country feels scarifying and almost soul shaking in its complexity such that never fails to leave me in awe at her talents. She was unmatched and opened the door for art pop and art rock that was carred on by Patti, Tori, Laurie, and Kate.
I think all those criticisms are baloney. Christgau also termed Laura's sensuality as bullshit which says more about him than anything else. Robert Hilburn was far more enlightened when it came to her.
And yeah, she was funny too (more later on - check out 'The Japanese Restaurant Song' or 'The Right to Vote' or 'American Dreamer') and the ending of 'Save the Country' is earth-shaking - at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's staggeringly good.
Thank you, Emm, for the very kind thoughts on the essay. More to come! Stay tuned!
Very much agreed and very much looking forward to where you go next!
Thanks, Emm. I appreciate your support and encouragement.
Always, Robert. Your writing is lovely and you've always been supportive of folks on substack. Plus, you have good taste...
When Laura Nyro first surfaced with Eli's Coming, I climbed on board and became a 20 year old fanboy. Gonna Take A Miracle became my favourite of her albums, and over time, she drifted off my horizon. I re-captured some of the magic during the Napster years, when some bootlegs and whatnot became available, and yes, I was stricken when she caught the last cab at such a young age.
You've done a lot to make her come alive in my imagination again, Robert, and thank you for that! This morning, while doing back stretches, I listened to Eli once again, and marveled at the scope of her imagination as a writer and the depth of her soul.
On another matter (a digression): I just got around to reading your essay on Chris Dalla Riva's book in The Metropolitan Review. You wrote a good piece about a book that left me cold. In this data-driven world, where people wear rings to keep track of their vital signs, or have luxurious cat litter trays that weigh their felines and keep track of their 'output', I say basta! If I compare a book like this statistical overview with Dave Marsh's several book of lists, with his personal take on songs and albums, I'll take Marsh every time. Wading through statistical analysis to arrive at an aesthetic understanding of *anything* is abstruse.
Keep up the great work, Robert. I enjoy your stuff!
You're very welcome, Terry - so nice to hear this. I really wanted to write with the passion I feel for her music but to also summon Laura Nyro's as well, and to let certain sections burst with the vibrancy of her music and her lyrics. The process of writing it made me an even bigger fan of hers (which I did not expect because my love of her music was already about as deep as it can get).
Thanks as well for the kind words about my review in The Metropolitan Review.
I have loved Laura Nyro’s music since I was fifteen. Of course, at that age I thought I was in love with her directly, which is how I still feel when I sit down with Eli or Tendaberry. I no longer weep at Poverty Train or Lonely Women, but I’m no less slain.
I saw her live once, a couple of days before Christmas 1971 at the Fillmore East, just Nyro and piano, glad that I had no date so I could focus.
Thanks for your keen insights and for reminding me to dig them potatoes once again.
Thanks, C.L., for sharing your thoughts and for checking the essay out. I share your feelings. I have been a fan for more than 20 years now and the music retains an impact that familiarity does not dull. "Slain" is bang on!
There is a tape of one of her nights at the Fillmore during that run--the 22nd of December--and it is magical. How I wish I would have been around back then to have seen her live. I write a bit about how I think it would have felt like in the second part of the essay.
I’d love to hear that recording!
Jackson Browne opened that show. As I recall, he sucked. I may be wrong - it was almost 55 years ago - and I didn’t care about him.
Moving on to Part Two!
Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4R1Hzdf0Uk
Thanks for this. I knew OF her as a songwriter back in the day, but no one I knew had her records. So now I've been checking her out on YouTube.
What an incredible voice. She wasn't just a songwriter. When I hear her records, I'm mentally comparing them to the hits, and what I conclude is:
She needed a better producer. What the hits did was basically strip them down to basics. Her versions are wonderful, but they have a lot of stuff happening. But maybe being famous and having #1 hits wasn't her goal in life.
Now I'm going to read your essays and check out more Laura. You can totally take credit.
This is wonderful - so glad to hear to this, and thanks for sharing!
Many of the covers of her songs are fantastic - I guess I'm partial to those that engage with the eccentricities, smooth them down a bit but still keep a lot of the stuff in them. The 5th Dimension's version of 'Stoned Soul Picnic' may be the best example of that. Three Dog Night's version of 'Eli's Comin'' may be the worst example (for what it's worth, Laura once said that one of her greatest musical thrills was hearing a male sing that song and also that she liked about 95% of the covers of her songs). I may be a bit biased as hearing her version of that song instantly turned me into the rapid devotee I remain to this day.
From what I've read of her, she did not enjoy the fame game. I feel her falling out with David Geffen in the early seventies was the last straw on that. She was also very protective of her music, to an extent that calling her stubborn, dogmatic or even bratty is not unfair but also I feel these qualities made her music truly unique.
what do you think of BS&T’s And When I Die?
I love it. It sounds to me like they were trying to cover the song in Laura's style albeit in a more commercial manner.
One of the most interesting things I did when writing the essay was put the second Blood, Sweat & Tears album on and listen while pondering their connection to her: she dated Jim Fielder, the group's bassist, while it was recorded and she flirted with joining the group as its new lead singer. According to Bobby Colomby, they rehearsed once on 'Eli's Comin'' and if he is to be believed, it was fantastic. What I would have given to have been able to hear that!
I just watched Bette Midler inducting her to the Rock HOF. Her son comes out and speaks.
He’s really making an effort to sound black, isn’t he? Was her husband black?
She was married briefly to David Bianchini, whose last name her son shares, but they didn't have children. The father was a gentleman from India with whom she had a brief romance in late seventies.
Thanks. It still seems like the black accent is an affectation, then.
Am so glad to have seen this treatment of one of the most fully realized, mature voices ever.
I’m sure you’ve gotten to this - I hope to read it - that she could be a magnificent interpreter of other writers’ material. Her reading of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” absolutely knocks it right out of the park.
Absolutely - that's a big part of part two of the essay: https://www.listeningsessions.ca/p/the-laura-nyro-experience-part-two where I discuss her cover of 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' as well as her version the Moments' 'Love on a Two Way Street' (it's stunning) and the whole Gonna Take a Miracle album.
Thanks as well for the kind words!
Robert, you have surpassed yourself with these first two Laura Nyro essays. There's so much heart and intelligence in them that I'm on my third go round. There's also more of you. Not just your insightful perspective on the artist but you personally. Not just what you think but how you feel. That's especially true in the second essay. Maybe you've written this way before and I've missed it. Really glad I didn't miss these. I'm hearing and thinking of this prodigious artist as I never have before, and I have you to thank for that. Eager to see the third essay. Well done, sir!
Thank you, Andrew. I have been personal before but perhaps not in such a way as here. To tell this story I need to share how Laura Nyro's music makes me feel because there are few artists whose music moves me as much as hers. She's fundamental to my listening and my musical taste.
Finally finding the quiet time to sit and read this, and of course it is every bit as brilliant as I thought it would be. Your love of the artist and her muse (NY City) come across so palpably, and as another Laura Nyro superfan, I understand completely how immersive an experience her music becomes, and remains. When someone sits down and writes this effortlessly about a subject, you know it is one they deeply love.
Heading to Part II now, and looking forward to discussions of her later work, which I have come to appreciate very deeply over the past couple of decades. Fantastic work, Robert, as usual!
Thank you, Marshall - I really appreciate you checking out what I've been doing here. As I wrote, I vividly remember the first time I really dug into her music and was astonished by what I heard - it was like hearing Duke Ellington for the first time.
It's only been in the past two months that I've heard what she recorded after 'Nested' and it's given me a deeper appreciation of her as an artist, as a songwriter, as a vocalist and as a paragon of artistic integrity, and the holiness of creation.
“That’s not what I mean. I already know what you’ve done with your music. We want to know who you are. Just tell us about yourself, the stuff we don’t know.” I love this. She’s digging and that’s the artist’s duty: to scratch below the surface.
I agree. The whole scene Charlie Callelo tells in the Madfish CD boxset of first meeting Laura and hearing her play 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession' is moving - it's his most evocative telling of that unforgettable night.
I got into Guy Stevens and his first love of American rhythm and blues then descent into the madness of 1970s and early 80s rock music. It was like watching the asphyxiation of creativity and I had to get away from the project at least for now.
Excellent piece as usual, Robert. I've saved a copy for my files as I love your analysis. Looking forward to the next.
Thank you, Ellen! Stay tuned for more!
Well done, Mr. Gilbert! You listen with a passionate ear!
Thank you, Chuck - this is some of my favourite music. I also think it is truly great music.
I couldn’t agree more!
I enjoyed this immensely. Looking forward to the next installment.
Thank you, Blair. Part two (which I'm working on) is coming May 1 and part three either on May 11 or 15.
Thank you so much for this. I've been a fan of Laura's from the start, and I know her music like I know the back of my hand. But your writing this made me experience her magic all over again. I was lucky enough to see Laura and then her return in 1975 and then see her final return in the 90s. There was never any other artist like her. Even Joni Mitchell admits that she took inspiration from Laura.
There's a quote from Joni saying that she'd be OK with being compared to Laura Nyro. I wish I could have been around to have seen her live, especially when Miles Davis opened for her at the Fillmore in June 1970. Now that would have been something else!
Glad you liked the start of the essay - I tried to find the words to describe how her music feels which is hard. It never gets old, it never feels stale. The excitement I felt when I first really heard it remains 20-plus years later.
Over the past few months and years I’ve often thought of your last foray into the head and heart of Laura Nyro — it meant so much to me! I wrote something in the Comments then about how I’d long felt that when I die I want to go to wherever Laura Nyro went. And now you’ve gone back and taken an even deeper dive into her work — I look forward to see where you’ll take us next, with parts two and three. Thank you.
Thank you, Bill. To think that she was 17 when she wrote 'And When I Die.' Laura was on a different level!
I got the big Madfish CD set about a month ago and got lost in the vortex and just felt the need to go deeper and try to sum it all up. Part two will deal with the seventies and part three will be about everything that came after (it's only been in the last month that I have heard everything she released after 'Nested').
What a lovely opening essay.
As you've mentioned that you were working on this, I've been excited to see the final results and this is wonderful.
Reading it, I feel a variety of emotions. Enjoyment of your appreciation for Laura Nyro, of course, and it also makes me think that I can't recall the last album that I listened to all the way through eight times. There are many albums that I could say that about, but none recently. It is a comment on the coincidences and circumstances that shape what music is braided into our lives.
Obviously it's not possible to listen to all of the wonderful music in the world with that attention, so we pick and chose, sometimes consciously and sometimes by happenstance what music we hold dear. I salute you for honoring that connection in your essay.
Also, thinking of New York, it also makes me think about My Dinner With Andre (one of my favorite films) and the sense of the New York as a place that can be exhausting and inspiring. Intense, and overwhelming with room for so much searching.
Thank you, Nick! The comparison to 'My Dinner With Andre' is apt. When I saw it, I didn't think of a connection to Laura Nyro and her music but it's there. I also feel it in Chantal Akerman's News From Home.
I also can't recall the last album I listened to eight times (and prior to the past month, I had listened to 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession' many times!) but, as I write in the essay, each time, it knocked me out. She wrote the album when she was 19 and recorded it when she was 20 - that, in itself, is stunning considering how complex and deep the music is. I came to her music at the right time - the day after a deeply exciting trip to New York - and it just hit me so hard - it was the same feeling the first time I heard Duke Ellington, for example, (and to me, she is at the level of Ellington) and how others felt when they first heard her music. Charlie Calello's story of hearing her perform 'Eli...' in her apartment and being barely able to speak afterwards resonates deeply with me, both as an example of how powerful her music is but that it was exactly how I felt.
Thinking about it now, I realize that I thought of My Dinner With Andre not only as a companion New York piece (which it is) but also because Wallace Shawn's arc is a more dramatic version of the story about Artie Mogull in the piece. He starts out trying to fit Andre Gregory into a comfortably structure and ends up appreciating the insights from Gregory's boundary-pushing.
And, yes, of course you've listened to 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession' more than eight times in total, but I was still struck by that note about both giving attention and fully entering the world of the album.
Any time you do that it says something both about the album (which is brilliant) and about you. That, of the various brilliant recordings in the world this music has spoken to you. I appreciated that aspect of the piece.
(I do wonder if you may intimidate some readers with the comment, "There is, at least it’s what I have found, no such thing as being a casual fan of hers. To answer that question: are you in or are you out?, the answer can only be one of two things: I am in as deep as can be or I am stuck on the outside, peering in . . . " For myself I am, more or less, a casual fan. I deeply appreciate some of her music but haven't ventured as deeply into her world as you have, but I appreciate you marking the path inward . . . )
That's a really good point about 'My Dinner with Andre' - thank you for sharing!
Thank you as well for raising that paragraph about what Laura Nyro fandom means. I would hope it isn't meant to intimidate but mostly my observation that there is something about her and her music that inspires a pull beyond most other artists which may explain why she remains, in a sense, unsung. In other words, an invitation to explore an artist that could be life-changing. It's also related that in continuing to write this piece, I've been listening to her music a lot and noticed how it has made feel better, more relaxed, happier. It's something I'll explore in the third part of the essay.