From: stegner_g@cubldr.colorado.edu
Subject: Laura Nyro (was Nyro/unreleased songs)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 23:24:05 GMT

RICH@DCS.GLA.AC.UK writes:

>It was very good to read your posting.  It has long been my belief that 
>Nyro is the finest female pop/rock/whatever singer I have heard.  Her 
>albums "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession" and "Christmas and the Beads 
>of Sweat" are particularly wonderful.  I also remember a magical 
>concert at London's Royal Festival Hall - just Laura and a piano.  This 
>must have been about 1970.

>But I hadn't heard anything of hers for at least 15 years.  Is her 
>later stuff as good as she once was?

>Rich


Well, all depends from what perspective you approach her newer material.  
There is general concensus among most baby-boomers and people slightly 
younger (like myself) that "the 60's were the 60's".  Meaning that this 
was a decade of incomparable heights of achievement in the rock music 
world -- that is, to say, no one compares the Clapton of today with the 
Clapton of 1966, or the Dylan of today with the Dylan of 1963.  This 
does not necessarily mean that these artists are just churning out 
garbage today (although many are, you might argue).  Nyro definitely 
fits into that class of musician that has definitely stuck by her 
ideals.  Although she's mellowed a bit (no more "Poverty Train" or 
"Gibsom Street" renditions), her newer music is indeed very good, in my 
opinion.  Most of these new songs are very honest in their 
interpretation, giving them a spark of magic most definitely lacking in 
the music of her peers these days.

I can definitely testify to this, because the first Nyro albums I heard 
were her work from the mid-late 70's.  Just one listen to "Smile" and 
that was it.  By the time I got around to her earlier work, she was 
definitely confirmed in my mind as the goddess of rock.  She also put 
out "Season of Lights", a live album from her Spring '76 tour, and 
includes some cuts recorded here at the University of Colorado, where I 
am a computer science major and work in the admissions office.  "Nested" 
came out in 1978, and she toured around that album too.  Then that was 
it for about 10 years.  Aside from a good album that came out in 1984, 
"Mother's Spiritual", she stayed pretty out of the music business (which 
makes sense, as she was raising her son, Gil, now 14 years old).  Then 
came the 1988 tours, and things really got rolling for her.

You should be able to get "LAURA LIVE AT THE BOTTOM LINE" on CD over 
there (Cypress Records, 1989).  That just about covers all the new 
material she introduced in the late 80's.  She also renders old 
favorites like "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Emmie", "And 
When I Die" (very good version of the song, mellow, with mandolin and 
harp-sounding keyboard), and a few others very well.

She has a very close, personal (spiritual?) contact with her audience.  
She is definitely not your conventional "rock star" by any means, she 
does not have an inflated ego about herself in any way.  She really 
appreciates her audience (she calls them her "tribe"), yet there is 
still a touch of shyness there, so it's not that easy to get backstage 
to meet her.  Sandy and I just got lucky that one time - her stage 
manager and all-around confidante, Roscoe Harring, let us go back for 
about 5 minutes to speak with the goddess.  There, she was sitting in a 
chair at one end of the room, surrounded by a circle of her close and 
trusted friends.  We talked about music (I'm a keyboardist and used to 
play in nightclubs in New Jersey at that time) and how I was influenced 
by her.  She said "I know who you are... Didn't you send me a tape of 
your music?"  At first I didn't know what she was talking about, then 
suddenly I remembered that I had on many occasions given her tapes of my 
music along with other things (see my previous posting) - Yes, she 
really does read and listen to things her fans give her!!  She then 
said, "You sent me pictures of your family and sent me an article you 
wrote about me in a college newspaper."  She asked how my musical career 
was coming along.  I said, "well, it's a humble beginning."  She 
chuckled and sipped on her glass of wine.  All the time I was there, I 
felt like the first time I ever took an LSD trip, but I wasn't on 
anything but her vibrations.

"Animals, trapped by man's endangered soul
 Killed by science, sport and fashion
 I heard ...the wolf is gone
 And the baby seals
 Sister, on whose back does that fur belong?
 Who are we?  Where we going?
 To be so willing for the killing
 Of the Wild World
        Wild World ...oh, it's all around you
	    Wild World
	    Wild World"

...from "The Wild World", c1988 Laura Nyro.

Let's keep the thread going!!


Glen Stegner
University of Colorado at Boulder
stegner_g@cubldr.colorado.edu
                                ----------------------------------------
				"Boulder! - what a lovely town!"
				-- Margaret Thatcher on her visit to
				   Boulder, Colorado, September 1990.
                                ----------------------------------------
				"Go away, you old windbag!"
				-- Glen Stegner, on Margaret
				   Thatcher's visit to Boulder.
                                ----------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk