Thank you to all of you who write so beautifully of your heart and soul. Laura's music was introduced to me when I was a high school student while visiting an older friend attending Cornell University. In a tiny cell-like dorm room my life was suddenly expanded and forever changed within minutes of hearing Laura's music. It was as if her music had a direct feed into my soul. Laura cried my own unwept tears for me that were locked inside a broken heart. Her delicious music and the depth & beauty of emotion within it provided comfort, glistening sparks of hope and a sense of accompaniment that will always fill me with incalculable gratitude. As an adult, far from the angst of those teenage years, I am still often elevated to tears when hearing her music and consider this a gift to be so touched by every morsel of her enormous talent and ability to connect.
Even beyond the immense joy she created as an artist she was also a healer.
THANK YOU, LAURA !
Blessings,
Wendy I first heard Laura in music college in 1968. I wore out the first album and had to buy another and wore that out. I was obsessed with the way she wrote and sang. It was way ahead of her time and it changed the way I listened to and wrote music forever. I still, play that album (Eli) on my iPod at the gym. I thought I would find her and let he know what an impact on my life she made, but today I found that has been gone for over 10 years. I have wept for hours and my Thanksiving day will be to thank her for those songs she gave us and for that amazing voice. I was truly in love with her and will forever be. I never saw a picture of her except for the first album cover. Today I found so many images of Laura and found that she was beautiful. If can smile through my tears today it will be because of that.
Art
Musician for life Like everyone who loved her, I started listening to her at age 16, in a small town in Texas in 1969, the album was "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession" how I found her album, that memory evades me, but i do know that I couldn't wait to buy the next album. To this day I am still listening to her wonderful music and singing at the top of my lungs with such joy. If you asked me what song did I love the most I really dont think I could give you a truthful answer because I love them all, however, Tom Kat Goodbye rocks. What a gift she gave us. It was great to find this website and to read the rememberances and the comments of all, I feel privaleged to be amoung those that loved her.
Teresa San Angelo, TX It was the spring of 1963 or 1964. I cut school and rode the subway into Manhattan with my friend Peter, a student at the High School of Music and Art. We first dropped in at a coffee shop type hangout near the school, where Peter admitted to spending most of his free time consuming coffee, No-Doze, and cigarettes. There he introduced me to some of his school friends, including Laura Nyro. Peter and Laura were both natural born musicians and songwriters, to whom music came as easily as walking.
After about an hour of just chatting, the group announced they were going outside to give a sidewalk concert. I stood there for an hour listening to Laura and her friends sing, with Peter accompanying them on his bassoon when not singing tenor.
I'm so glad I crossed paths with Laura, even for only an afternoon. From one former Bronxite to another - thanks Laura, for your songs.
Dave in California Great story! I heard Laura perform once - University of Kansas 1970. But I was in love with Laura before that. New York Tendaberry did it. Over and over. You don't love me when I cry....Tomcat Tomcat where you been to?...they hang the alley cats on Gibsom Street....street angels...meet me Captain St Lucifer darlin'i'll be there...a single minor chord -- been on a train...i loved her.
Bob I have just discovered Laura Nyro, what an incredible voice and such talent, her lyrics are beautiful poetry, this woman is exceptional. Inspiring and incredibly gifted. Brilliant that someone has a site like this in memory of this wonderful singer/songwriter.... I am from the UK, I Loved Laura the very first second I heard her (around the mid-70's) and never stopped. I cannot think of anyone I'd rather have seen perform (and I've seen most of the good ones!). As a musician, I'm in awe, how could anyone cross boundries as beutifully yet as simply as she did?
Shes an inspiration. I've now introduced my 13 year old daughter and 15 year old son to Laura, I think they believe she's still 19 today and will be headlining at a gig they can attend very soon.
Ian I started the Christmas Season 2008 and found Laura on my mind. I was lucky enough to see her peform twice: once at the Three Rivers Art Festival in Pittsburgh and a second time at an intimate concert hall.
How can anyone explain her captivating, on-stage presence? She could move the room with a smile and bring it to laughter with a quiet self-deprecating joke. (I remember she was making a transition between songs with a a repeating chord rift and said "I wonder if anyone has figured out that I use the same three chords on all my songs.") Not true, of course. But you could tell that she was "in the moment" of the chord progression and its calming rhythm.
To get throught the week, I have been playing Laura's albums--in my house, in my car, in my head. With songs like "Money" and "Sweet Blindness," she could outright rock. With songs like "Upstairs by the Chinese Lamp" and "He's a Runner" she could slow time and stop you in your tracks.
So, here's my insight: I am thinking of Laura this Christmas because it's a time for giving thanks and I am thankful for the music of this wonderful woman. The airwaves are saturated by over-processed songs by vapid, one-name divas with limted vocal ranges who need ten piece bands to hide their limitations.
Bless Laura and her gift of music to us.
--Sue
I miss you Laura, this April it will be 12 years that you have been gone. I miss the talks we used to have, those sometime lunchs we would have, and the late night phone calls every once in a while we would have.
Some ways it seems longer than 12 years, and at other times it seems you were here yesterday.
I miss you so much ................. Dave M.
I understand i discovered years after the event that i had been listening to Laura unbeknownst as a boy fresh out of seminary and lost and alone in the big world. somehow i came accross an album which was a mix of artists. the two tracks i listened to over and over were Gibsom Street by Laura and one by Joni Mitchell. I didn't know their names and it wasn't until much later when i came into each of their music quite separately that i realized they had both been with me in a very special way coming out into the world on my own way back then. i cherish that memory.its a privilege to have laura nyro in my life. Music is a tonic for me. Hard pressed, I could not name my top 10 artists. Few people who love music really can. We have different moods, the artists bring different nuances to our listening experience, so ask me now for a Top 10, you will not get the identical answer tomorrow.
Having said that, if I was to name my favorite male solo artist, female solo, groups, duos, I could come up with a list, a list of those who I feel are ascendant over their fellow artists. It is subjective of course; there are people who don't like the Beatles. That is the magic of music, we like what WE like, it's akin to food. Do we argue what is the best meal? Is my diet more delicious than yours?........likewise, my taste is my taste, so to state our opinions is simply to indicate our tastes.
To that end, there are many females I listen to, and I don't have a very long list of icons; yes I like Joplin very much, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, and more.....oh my, Christine McVie, of course.
But there are two female artists who sit atop the ladder. One is Linda Ronstadt. The singer/songwriter of that duo tho is Laura.
We lost Eva Cassidy too soon. We lost Susannah McCorkle too soon. Oh my, Laura left us at a time when we need(ed) more than ever the beauty of her talent.
It's become a very ugly world at times; from those dying of hunger, from suppression, an environment deteriorating, minority groups still singled out for hate, an economy that has a world angry, as if it needed to be more angry than it was.
Health care is an industry, but not a right to help us not only live freely, but to enjoy the lives we have, those of us who are fortunate. The beauty of Laura's voice, her songs, her presentation, reminds us, reminds me, that there is beauty still around us. Sometimes we hear lyrics that speak of the ugly in addition to the beautiful, but that too serves a purpose. We are bonded, and we need to remember the beauty. As it's embodied in Laura, we will always remember. Thinking about Laura Nyro tonight.Came across her music in my ipod. The song "When I was a Freeport and you were the Main Drag" always gave me a powerful feeling. Over 30 years ago I would sing along with the record player- lol! remember being that young? I was always giving it my all to the part that goes... "and YOU WERE THE MAIN DRAG"... until all the stress was gone. Because everything i was feeling was in that song. Because there weren't so many songs that made a woman feel powerful. and I was always getting my heart broken then - like all of us. That song was so cool! I did see her in concert. But really i always wanted to meet her. I didn't try. talked my self out of it i think. Anyway if i could have met her and skipped all the fan meets artist stuff- I might have simply complimented her on capturing a "decisive moment"- like Henri Cartier Bresson. You know? That
is what she did so very well- she caught moments.
johannah Beautiful analogy to Henri Cartier Bresson I was introduced to Laura as a teenager in 1970. I was a rabid fan and was thrilled to either introduce others to Laura's music or hear other fans rhapsodize about her. But this is what moves me now: I have grown with her music, and now appreciate her later works, such as "Nested" and "Mother Spiritual." When these LPs were first released, Laura's music company (Columbia) did not promote her work as they should have. I know I would have bought anything of Laura's and I never saw her albums in the record stores! (I think Laura should have stayed with David Geffon because Columbia really didn't respect her.) In 2000, when I finally bought a $50 copy of "Mother Spiritual" from Amazon, I was pretty mad at Columbia for not letting me have access to her music for all those years. I still get a pang, thinking how I would have learned and survived motherhood so much easier if I had had Nyro's later albums. (Remember, in those days there was no Internet access so the record stores were all we had!) So, enjoy her early albums when her passion was high. However, continue to grow with Laura and experience her later works. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Maybe her later albums will become your favorites, just like they are for me.
Being a big Barbra Streisand fan I can across the name Laura Nyro when I bought the sheet music to Stoney End. I didn’t think much of it until I saw Elton John on Elvas Costello’s interview show and all he (Elton) talked about was how much he was influenced by Laura Nyro. I check on YouTube to see if there were any videos of this Laura Nyro and there were several. I started listening/watching some of these videos and realized that this was one very talented musician and I was kind of ashamed that I, someone who loves music so much from the 60’s and 70’s, didn’t know much, if anything, about her.
I have since purchased several CDs of Laura Nyro and I’m loving them! I can’t get enough of them and look forward to driving to and from work just to listen to her CDs. As Elton John said on the Costello show, it’s a mystery why she wasn’t more successful in her performance career and is mostly thought of as a writer/composer. Save the Country, Capt. St. Lucifer, Sweet Blindness, and many more… how were these performances not hits!? Great songs and performed by a true talent.
I look forward to enjoying Laura’s music for years to come and I have passed on her work to several friends to enjoy.
Rob
Sacramento, CA
I am now 61, I was a then, a young trumpet player from the prairies of Kansas. In the late 60's I found myself in NY,later Boston. I left the old R&B group in Lawrence,Kansas and by chance met Laura. She then and to this day has my heart and admiration. I owe her twenty bucks! What I wouldn't give for the chance to pay her back. My old group is now in the Kansas Music Hall of fame,we couldn't have carried Laura's equipment on the stage. I couldn't stay in N.Y. but I will always have a piece of it in my soul. Thanks Laura, I still owe you that twenty. "Wheezer Borum" She spoke of you, Reno It's time I told those responsible that this website has been a cherished companion of mine at many points in my life for quite a few years now. I love to journey back and relive my 37 year long love of Laura--her soul-penetrating voice and her one-of-a kind delivery of beautiful and "uniquely Laura" compositions, which started for me in college as a 20 year old. I am now 57. The gift of a different song choice every time I seem to visit the website is the ambrosia that makes my journey complete. I too missed seeing Laura in person. She appeared at a little nightclub called "The Frog and Nightgown" in my city, Raleigh, NC, the very weekend that I was in Washington, DC seeing Paul McCartney for the first time. Had I know she was coming beforehand, and especially that she would leave us so early...but that's a scenario I've pondered too many times! I too shed tears after reading the small newspaper article about her death with the beautiful picture of her from "Walk the Dog and Light the Light" that stayed on my refrigerator for a couple of years. I'm still waiting for "Mother's Spiritual," the only cherished album I don't have in cd form. I'm dying to hear "Talk to a Green Tree" once more!
Amanda
Walnut Cove, NC So, I am a 20-year-old college student who is so disappointed and frankly, angry with the music of today. Most of it is too unintelligible, with lyrics that I can't follow due to the throbbing loud banging of 808 beats. The rest, I would not care to hear the lyrics because they are meaningless and don't make anything better. I always thought myself weird to challenge something as short as a four-minute song to make things better; but then, I listened to Laura Nyro. At first, I was captivated by the melodies that she effortlessly pounded on the piano. All of a sudden, the piano had more power than any electric guitar. Then I sat down and read the lyrics and listened to the feeling she gave delivering the lyrics--no, her delivering each note is captivating. Never have I been able to sit down and listen to a Laura Nyro without reversing back on my iPod to hear some kind of subtlety in her voice. It would behoove me to see someone listen to her sing "God Save the Country (preferably a live version, thankfully accessible on YouTube)" and not feel suddenly inspired to put faith in some higher power that everything and everyone will be better. She is simply an amazing singer, songwriter, pianist. The world was better for her, and continues to be. I'm a straight guy, and I've loved Laura Nyro ever since my older sister brought home Eli and the 13th Confession. I used to smell the perfume and listen to the tunes over and over. I'm not a fan of her later work, kind of reminds me of the great artist who does her best work early. My opinion.
But her early work, with Eli in the center of the target is, along with Tim Buckley, in my top 10 all time rock and roll singer songwriters. Maybe top 5.
Laura, from the Bronx like my wife, is rhythmic and melodic at the same time, and very very few American pop musicians have ever attained this combination. Normally, you have to go to Brasil to find such a killer combo, and Laura does it effortlessly. I guess I'd say Stevie Wonder, but who else, really? Laura Nyro and Stevie Wonder, cant' argue with that.
Love your site, but add more lyrics to the lyrics page! I came here looking for Woman's Blues, so I could paste it into my iTunes.
Peace and Obama,
Phil (cellist with Mahavishnu Orchestra, 1974-75) I finally got to see "A Home at the End of the World" recently, it has a powerful scene with one of my very favourite actresses, Sissy Spacek, in the role of a house wife dancing with the boyfriend of her son to Laura's "It's gonna take a Miracle". Last time I was so moved by something must have been the first time I heard the album myself, it all came back and I felt like it was the first time once again that I listened to the album, even though it was probably the 100th. Even though I have most of her albums 'Gonna Take a Miracle' means something very special to me, it being the very first of Laura's albums I had.
Kristian. Wonderful film! I heard Laura on FM radio in the late 70's. There was something about her voice and lyrics that touched me deeply. I bought "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession" and listened to it often, but always alone; somehow Laura's music was very personal for me.
I did not know, until finding this site, that Laura was gone. Thank you all for sharing the beautiful memories and impressions this gifted lady has left behind.
Angela, Newton, NJ 3/5/09 One year or so ago i went to hear a friend from Ohio's daughter sing in new york city (where she came to be a singer/songwriter/musician). i had seen laura a number of times. i even seem to remember her opening for the grateful dead in Cincinnati, Ohio. well, this friend's daughter took me back to a lot of the feeling of laura. while she was entirely different, there was some spark of life and creativity that flowed through the music and the performance. i mentioned laura to her after her performance. i was astounded when she said she had never heard of her. (oh, this younger generation!) when i mentioned the songs she wrote, this woman's eyes widened. she loved those songs, and yet had never looked up their author. their mother. i sent her a compilation album and she raved about her and was flattered to even be compared to her. that's the story, but i feel good having nourished laura's eternal flame by passing on her music to someone, who i know, will now pass it on as she goes ... I grew up in a crap town on the coast of Texas. It was rife with humidity, refinery filth and green air with a profound stench that permeated sheets, shirts, car upholstery and stockings. The name of said town? Port Arthur. Home of Janis Joplin, a friend of mine who became quite famous as a memoirist and, of course, the painter, Robert Rauschenberg. These well-known artists make it seem more palatable. But it wasn't. It was horrifyingly wretched. My relief was Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry. I was wholly infatuated with it, with her, with the idea of New York. So I took off in an old Fairlane and drove from the coast to The City.
I walked up and down Broadway for days, glancing into Automats because I'd read in a magazine that she frequented such places. I was 18-years old. I didn't go to the Guggenheim. I didn't go to the Metropolitan. I looked for Laura Nyro. It was as if my soul had been halved with an imperfect symmetry and I was dead set on "righting things" in any way I could comprehend.
I never got to see Ms. Nyro in concert. But I listened to her music incessantly for years. There was something completely engaging about it. And "engaging" doesn't cover it. I was possessed. And I looked at her face on the cover of Eli and Thirteenth Confession and felt as if she were a Madonna. And I didn't know what a Madonna was. I was smitten. But not in the usual sense. Her voice was an Annunciation and I was awakened. I wanted to take taxis and live in NY and hear jazz and let the world unfurl.
God Bless Laura Nyro. She was a chapter in my life. So difficult to explain. If there's reincarnation, I've known her and I'll know her again.
I wish her peace. PAX.
PM You are one fine writer! I remember the sound of gypsy moths and reading your comment about Laura hearing them reminded me of Laura , who helped me keep my life together with her music when my mom died in 1969. I was fifteen and really alone and I heard Alison Steele mention that BS&T song "And When I DIe" was written by New York's own Laura Nyro, I had to go to the source and listened to Eli and New York Tendaberry over and over. Somewhere deep inside are the chords of continuity and remembrance that help us carry on. The genius of Laura, for me, was taking the pain of loss and longing and taking it head on and carrying on. Always in my head and swirling around when the wind blows. Thanks. Bill Beautifully thought and written
