From: stegner_g@cubldr.colorado.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk
Subject: Re: Laura Nyro
Date: 17 Dec 92 06:57:07 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder

In article <u8RuVB2w165w@bluemoon.use.com>, buzzsaw@bluemoon.use.com (Patrick Buzby) writes:
> 
>      Interesting to see that some people are even more moved by Laura Nyro 
> than I am.  I bought "New York Tendaberry" used on an@ impulse, and it 
> immediately became one of my all-time favorites.  "Christmas and the Beads 
> Of Sweat" is another great one.  I've never seen her live, unfortunately, 
> and I'd be curi^ous to know if she'll be touring any time soon.
>      Anyway, the only news that I have of her is that she's working on a 
> new album with Gary Katz, the former producer of Steely Dan.  Katz made a 
> passing reference to this in an article about Jeff Porcaro's death.  Hope 
> it comes out soon.
> 
>      Pat Buzby          
>      Grove City, OH     

Yes, most people I've conversed with on the net mention "Eli", "Tendaberry", or
"Christmas" as their fave Nyro album... that's no surprise, as these three make
up what came to be known as her 'trilogy' of works, each successive album
showing a different side of her compositional work, and exploring newer and
even more 'bizarre' territory.  They represent the 'definitive' Nyro.  However
there is some good Nyro to be found on other albums... Her first album,
released on Verve in 1966, but later re-released on Columbia as "The First
Songs", has some really haunting and beautiful ballads.  This was the album she
was promoting when she made her now infamous appearance at 1967's Monterey Pop
Festival, where she got 'booed' off the stage for not being 'psychedelic'
enough.  But what do you expect from a bunch of completely stoned, unsensitive
hippies?  Nyro was a few light years ahead of that crowd, anyway.

Also check out "Smile" (1976) - side one really stands out as a classic, as
good as anything she ever did.  "Children of the Junks" and "I Am The Blues",
two devastatingly haunting ballads from that album, not only are two of her
best songs, but two of THE best songs of their kind in rock music, in my
opinion.

Since I moved to Boulder, I've been somewhat out of touch from my sources in
the New York area, and therefore suffer from a lack of the 'inside word' I got
from various sources on the east coast.  However a good friend of Laura's, the
guy who does her album cover art here in Boulder, said he'd keep me posted on
concert appearances.  At one point I used to receive a newsletter put out by
two fans of hers in Englewood, NJ.  But they either lost me or stopped
publishing altogether.

As for her upcoming studio record, this is something she has in fact been
working on since she started touring again in 1988.  She decided to postpone
release of the studio cuts she put together in '88 in favor of the release of a
live record.  Those cuts have been sitting in the can ever since.  About this
Gary Katz business you report on... is this recent news?  I'd be very surprised
if she uses a producer like Katz, or an outside producer at all, since she's
been producing her own albums for over 10 years.  But if this is what you've
read, it'd be interesting to see what comes of it.

"In a world of war
 I can't find my laughter
 I can't see the night sun
 And I can't see my freedom
 I guess I can't see too much no more
 Baby, till I lose my blues
 Fly thru the sky like superfly
 Over the stars we climb
 Over this sweet red wine
 Flying so high
 A plane in the sky
 Listen to the music of the night wind..."

- from "I Am the Blues", c1976 Laura Nyro.


Glen Stegner
University of Colorado at Boulder
stegner_g@cubldr.colorado.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk