Laura Nyro achieved fame during her lifetime mainly just as a songwriter. She penned major hits for the 5thDimension, including 1968’s “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Sweet Blindness,” 1969’s chart-topping “Wedding Bell Blues,” and 1970’s “Blowing Away” and “Save the Country.” Blood, Sweat & Tears, meanwhile, had a 1969 bestseller with Nyro’s “And When I Die,” while Three Dog Night scored that same year with her “Eli’s Coming” and Barbra Streisand had a 1970 hit with Nyro’s “Stoney End.”
The New York native’s uncompromising own recordings, which were less radio-friendly, didn’t fare nearly as well. Ironically, given that she was a superb songwriter, her biggest commercial success came with a 1970 cover of Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s “Up on the Roof,” a recording that reached no higher on the charts than No. 92. Her only other charted singles arrived in 1966 with “Wedding Bell Blues” and in 1972 with a rendition of “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle,” by Teddy Randazzo, Lou Stallman, and Bob Weinstein. Both those songs stalled at No.103 on Billboard’s charts. Several of her early albums did a bit better, but none achieved Gold status.
These weak showings say much more about the marketplace than about the quality of Nyro’s music, which was superb from the word go, thanks to her soulful mezzo vocal work, intimate and poetic lyrics, surprising rhythmic inventions, and unique blend of pop, Motown, doo-wop, rock, folk, jazz, gospel, and R&B. Critics loved her, and so did David Geffen, who became her manager and brought her to Columbia Records’ Clive Davis, who signed her after the release of her debut LP.
Nyro, who died of ovarian cancer at age 49 in 1997, has since been cited as a major talent by dozens of artists, including Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Alicia Keys, and Bette Midler, who inducted her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. But she remains underappreciated by the public. No doubt many music fans don’t even know her name and many of those who do know it only from reading songwriter credits on other artists’ albums.
“I do feel like Laura has been under-recognized over the years,” singer Sara Bareilles told Rolling Stone at the time of Nyro’s Rock Hall induction. “But I have to say, she’s a tough nut to crack musically. She’s not an artist that you can throw on and everyone is going to necessarily take to it immediately, but there’s so much depth and so much passion and so much bravery in her work.”
Hear My Song: The Collection, 1966–1995, a massive new limited-edition anthology, backs up this assertion with more than 15 hours of remastered music on 19 discs. The box comes with an oversized and lavishly illustrated 94-page hardcover book that contains a foreword by Elton John, liner notes, and appreciations from John Sebastian, Lou Adler, Jackson Browne, Clive Davis, and many other music-world luminaries.
The set delivers all of Nyro’s 10 studio albums, starting with More Than a New Discovery, her fully realized 1967 debut, which is presented in both stereo and mono and features “Stoney End,” “And When I Die,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” and “Blowing Away.” Next, the box offers 1968’s Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, also in stereo and mono, which embraces “Eli’s Coming” and such other standouts as “Lu” and “Emmie,” and 1969’s New York Tendaberry, whose program includes “Save the Country.” Here, too, is Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, from 1970, which Arif Mardin produced along with the Rascals’ Felix Cavaliere. Notable for the soulful “When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag,” it features guest appearances by leading Muscle Shoals session musicians as well as Duane Allman and Alice Coltrane.
Also indispensable is 1971’s Gamble & Huff–produced Gonna Take a Miracle, where Nyro teams with Labelle to showcase her love of Motown, “girl groups,” and early rock. The set begins with a largely acapella reading of “I Met Him on a Sunday,” the 1958 Shirelles tune, and also includes such numbers as Ben E. King’s “Spanish Harlem”; Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street,” “Jimmy Mack,” and “Nowhere to Run”; the Miracles’ “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me”; Major Lance’s “Monkey Time”; and James Brown’s “The Bells.” There are a couple of obscure doo-wop covers, too: the Charts’ “Desiree,” from 1957, and the Diablos’ “The Wind,” which was originally released in 1954 and was a Lou Reed favorite.
Other studio albums in the box, all of which have their strengths, include Smile (1976), Nested (1978), Mother’s Spiritual (1984), and Walk the Dog & Light the Light (1993). These later albums incorporate songs about animal rights, politics, and feminism. (Nyro tackled the latter subject as early as 1968 when she sang “you were born a woman, not a slave” in a song called “The Confession.”)
There’s also the posthumously issued Angel in the Dark (2001), which Nyro recorded in 1995. That CD includes seven strong originals and finds the singer showcasing her influences with nine powerfully delivered covers. Again tapping Martha and the Vandellas (“Come and Get These Memories”), the Shirelles (“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”), and the Miracles (“Ooh Baby, Baby”), she also delivers such tunes as “Let It Be Me,” which provided hits for Jerry Butler and others, and “Walk On By,” the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition that rose to No. 6 for Dionne Warwick in 1964.
But wait, as they say in late-night TV commercials, there’s more: the box also makes room for six concert albums, two of which were previously unreleased. They include a pair of 1994 San Francisco performances; 1993 and 1994 Christmas Eve shows from New York’s Bottom Line, in which Nyro’s vocals are accompanied only by backup singers and her own piano; a Fillmore East concert from 1971; and Seasons of Light, which was recorded at various venues during a 1976 tour. These shows, which feature commentary from the singer, showcase some of Nyro’s best-known songs, lots of deep cuts, and many of the covers that also grace the studio sets, including sublime acapella versions of “The Wind,” and a few other oldies, among them yet another nod to the Shirelles (“Dedicated to the One I Love”).
There’s an 18-track disc of rarities, including single, alternate, mono, demo, and live versions. And there’s Go Find the Moon: The Audition Tape, which was first released by the Omnivore label in 2021. This recording finds an 18-year-old Nyro delivering stripped-down, remarkably polished performances of several originals, among them “And When I Die,” as well as snippets from such tunes as Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be with You” and the jazz standard “When Sunny Gets Blue.”
While Hear My Song offers an exemplary deep dive into the musical world of Laura Nyro, it’s just a tad short of perfect. For one thing, its 19 CDs don’t quite capture her whole catalog: completists will have to separately acquire Trees of the Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan, a 1994 recording that Omnivore issued in 2021. (The box, though, includes readings of all its tunes, all but one in live versions.)
Also, Hear My Song’s credits evidence more mistakes and omissions than you’d expect from an otherwise meticulously assembled set like this. For example, the Bottom Line albums incorrectly credit authorship of “Let It Be Me” to Nyro and their jackets erroneously say they were recorded at Carnegie Hall in New York and three locations in Colorado, Massachusetts, and California. Also, the rarities disc lists no recording dates and gives incorrect writer credits.
But these are quibbles. Hear My Song is the definitive compendium from an artist who deserves way more attention than she has received to date.
Also Noteworthy
The Rain Parade, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (Deluxe Edition). The so-called Paisley Underground movement, which began in Southern California, owed debts to 1960s outfits like the Byrds, the Velvet Underground, and Love. It resulted in a shelf-full of excellent albums from such groups as Green on Red, the Dream Syndicate, and most famously, the Bangles. Though not as commercially successful as that last outfit, one of the best of the bunch was the Los Angeles–based Rain Parade.
That band’s 1983 debut album, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, has just been reissued in a deluxe two-CD edition. Its first disc includes a remaster of the terrific original LP and a bonus track, “Look Both Ways,” which previously appeared in the U.S. only on cassette. A second CD adds six live recordings and seven studio tracks, a few of which are alternate versions of numbers on the debut LP. It comes with a booklet that includes reminiscences by members of the band and their musical contemporaries and notes about the bonus material.
Replete with Byrds-like ringing guitars, ethereal vocals, dreamy melodies, and judiciously employed violin and sitar, this is vital psychedelic rock. Without ever sounding dated, it recalls Syd Barrett–era Pink Floyd and such Beatles creations as “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Rain.”
Author’s Note: Due to the holidays, this column will not appear next Friday. It will resume on January 10. Happy New Year!
Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains five decades’ worth of music reviews, interviews, and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.
