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Songs she wrote

Laura Nyro

Nyro began writing songs as a young girl. She went to the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and concentrated on writing songs. A successful songwriter, who never carried a tune of her own onto the charts, was 19 when she recorded her first a lbum, More than a new Discovery. It was a commercial disaster but the bright side was various artists covered songs taken from it, namely Wedding Bell Blues and Blowin’ Away (The fifth Dimension), Stoney End (Barbra Streisand) and And When I Die (Blood, Sweat and Tears). Her second and third albums, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry were critical triumphs, lavishly praised for its poetic lyrics and Gospel-Soul fusion. Nyro became known for her strange, intense phrasing, unexpected rhythm changes and distinctive, alternately whispering, wailing vocals. Her early works were entrenched in black, urban genres as opposed to folk and her lyrics, while impressionistic and obtuse, could be explicit and challenging. You were born a woman, not a slave from The Confession is often cited as a feminist slogan, yet the same song promises a ‘super ride inside my love thing’, a rare sexual boast in so-called women’s rock of the time. Nyro brought forth two more albums, Christmas and the beads of Sweat and Gonna take a Miracle, before taking a hiatus at age 24. Nyro did not release any new material until the much awaited Smile. Her music took a quieter turn from then on as she wrote on lost love, motherhood (she had a son) and a nature oriented spirituality, a feminist world view that would prove influential on a number of woman singers and songwriters.

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