Laura Nyro and the Language of Love

“What if I have nothing to say?” she asked when she agreed to an interview after many years. I promised her that wouldn’t happen, but she was really concerned since Laura Nyro hadn’t spoken to the press or really participated in the machinery of the music industry in more than a decade. Like many of our greatest artists, burned by a company that often throws icons in the trash, she has been reluctant to have conversations that might include, “Where have you been all these years?”
But since she had been an American treasure for a long time, one of the most soulful and unique singer-songwriters of all time, the focus was on her songs, on the beauty of the melodies, the unlinked individuality of the structures, the lush chord changes, her unique abbreviation of soul -Texts. She had nothing to worry about.
We talked for three hours, after which she said, “That was great. Can we do it again tomorrow “And we did.
She wrote a variety of wonder songs in her short life. “And When I Die”, “Wedding Bell Blues”, “Stoned Soul Picnic”, “Save the Country”, “Stoney End”, “Blowing Away”, “Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp”, “Eli’s Coming” and so many more than that, everything poured out of her heart like honey.
“You are dealing with the language of love.”
Although she didn’t die until she was 49, she did a lot at first. And it started with greatness. With the exception of the extraordinary John Prine, who wrote many of his masterpieces prior to his first album, most songwriters spend years in the trenches before writing something great.
But her first song – written when she was only 17 – wasn’t just great in terms of the sophistication of the craft. It also had text that contained real wisdom. Which usually takes many years to acquire.
And when I die
And when I’m gone
A child is born
And a world to go on
Keep going
From “And when I die”
From Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro, “And if I die”
“Nothing heals as well as time and love.”
Phoebe Snow, “Time and Love”
From then on she composed a number of masterpieces. Despite being a white Jewish girl, her songs were so soulful and full of real joy that many of them became hits as recorded by black artists and groups, including The Fifth Dimension who recorded five of their songs, all of which were hits were: “Blowing Away”, “Wedding Bell Blues”, “Stoned Soul Picnic”, “Sweet Blindness” and “Save the Country”.
“Can you surrey? Can you picnic ”
The fifth dimension, “Stoned Soul Picnic” by Laura Nyro
Her music has also been recorded by artists of all genres, from Peter, Paul & Mary and Blood, Sweat & Tears (both cut “And When I Die”) to Barbra Streisand (“Save the Country”) and Three Dog Night (” Eli is coming “). Their music profoundly shaped the sound and spirit of the 1960s. Later there were other great covers, especially Phoebe Snow’s “Time and Love” which is timelessly funky.
For Laura lovers who are fanatical in their devotion, all covers are meaningless. To her, it was Laura’s own recordings, some of the most intimate soul recordings ever made, like New York Tendaberry, which paved the way for blue soul landscapes for subsequent heart-to-heart masterpieces by Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and others.
“When you have a vision of peace, it is strange to live in a world of war. When you’re a woman who values your roots, it’s strange to be in a male-dominated business. ”
Born October 18, 1947 in the Bronx, Laura Nigro was surrounded by art and jazz as a child and said she was “already deeply into music” as a teenager when she absorbed the compositional brilliance of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Unlike most musicians who are introduced to music by learning its limits, their first lesson was that music has no limits, and this understanding has forever shaped their art.
“I’m not interested in conventional restrictions,” she said. “As an artist, I can do anything, say anything. It’s about self-expression. It doesn’t know a package. “As she memorably wrote in” And when I die “:” Give me my freedom … All I ask of life is not to have chains on me. “
A year after she wrote her first songs, she was on stage at Hungry I in San Francisco when Clive Davis heard her and asked her to audition for Columbia (which she did in his hotel room with all the lights on but a television). and won him.
He signed her and she made a name for herself, recording a number of landmark albums and having her songs covered by almost all of the great singers of the time, from the above to Aretha Franklin, Cass Elliot, Frank Sinatra, Carmen McRae, Chet Atkins and many other others.
Unlike many songwriters who complain that the process of songwriting is excruciating, she loved him.
“All I know,” she said, “is when I start getting serious about songwriting … it’s like a playground.” All responsibilities elude and you are with your essence. There can be joy and self-discovery there. You can dance there … I consider it my serious playground. “
She is famous for writing songs of extreme extremes, from the deepest melancholy to sheer exultant joy. Like Carole King and Joni Mitchell, she knew all the rules of songwriting and why they should be broken.
But the rules dictated by the industry were never easy to follow, and like most artists, she felt lost in the corporate structure of the music business.
Three dog nights, “Eli’s Coming” by Laura Nyro
“When you have a vision of peace,” she said, “it is strange to live in a world of war. When you’re a woman who values your roots, it’s strange to be in a male-dominated business. “
When asked how she managed to overcome these mismatches, she said by connecting with the joy of music.
“You get beyond suffering. And you focus on the sweetness of your vision. “
She said that singing – whether her own songs or songs she loved – connected her to the source.
“There is a certain feeling when I go out to sing that happens to everyone. It’s a healing thing. Some of the old songs remind us of the sweet, innocent child in us. You are dealing with the language of love. “
“Children of the Junks”
From Laura Nyro
Flowers in the sun
Luminous
To the children of the world
The night is coming
Sleep for me
It’s nothing, just moon-hewn garbage
On the sea
Kowloon
All junk sleep
Spin flowers in the shade
All junk sleep
But street cats and renegades
Laura Nyro, “Upstairs By A Chinese Lamp”
Above by a Chinese lamp
From Laura Nyro
Market on the cool white morning
Traders sell while women buy
Milk, tobacco, soap and matches
Mop the floor
While the dishes are drying
Spring whispered in her ear
Like gentle Mediterranean wailing
Sleepy woman at the window
Dream in the morning air
From the one who takes her sweetness
With a Chinese lamp above
The steam of the porcelain tea
You could hear the woman singing
In the soft flames of spring
Spring has swept the scarlet back streets
Stroke the winds, undress, invite
Above by a porcelain lamp
They talk quietly in the cool spring night
Barbra Streisand, “Stoney End”, written by Laura Nyro
The Roches, “Wedding Bell Blues”