There was something opulent, perhaps even fragrant, to the way she wrote: the arrangements layered, her voice given to unexpected contortion and richness and texture, so that to listen to her can seem an assault on the senses. As one early reviewer summed it up: “ Laura Nyro is a total experience who explodes on and within you in a way which borders on the mystical”. But her refusal in later years to promote her music in the customary ways, her tendency to turn down lucrative syncing opportunities, to play predominantly with female musicians, to disseminate animal rights literature at her concerts, meant that in her lifetime she never returned to the mainstream glare. Thereafter a gap, motherhood, and a musical re-emergence. In part this is because of the brevity of her life – Nyro died in 1997, aged 49 – and the brevity of her career: signed at 18, by the age of 24, then five albums deep, she had married a carpenter and retreated to rural Massachusetts, far from the grasp of the music industry.įollowing her divorce, there were other records – 1976’s Smile and 1978’s Nested, for instance, both included here. Instead, her name bubbles up occasionally – the subject of an anniversary tribute, or as a reference point for other celebrated songwriters (more recent fans have included Kanye West, Jenny Lewis and Tori Amos).
Her extraordinary melding of pop and R&B and jazz and avant-garde piano compositions suggesting a wellspring of musical talent, and a degree of finesse that seemed somehow at odds with her beginnings: the self-taught daughter of a piano-tuner from the Bronx who grew up singing on street corners and subways stations.ĭespite her fervent supporters, these days Nyro rarely receives the immediate deference she deserves.
ORDER NOW: The Beatles are on the cover of the September 2021 issue of Uncut.But perhaps the definitive compliment came from Alice Cooper, who once described the experience of listening to Nyro’s second album, Eli And The Thirteenth Confession, with awe-struck simplicity: “You sit there and go, ‘That’s songwriting.’” And Bette Midler, who inducted Nyro into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by noting how “she could make a trip to the grocery store seem like a night at the opera”. Peter, Paul and Mary, Barbra Streisand, and Three Dog Night, who covered her songs.
There was David Geffen, of course, who managed her. Over the years, Laura Nyro has not been short of admirers.
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