Arts Entertainment
Free Spirit
New biography and remastered CDs introduce
Laura Nyro to a new generation of listeners.
MARTIN NATCHEZ
Special to the Jewish News
A
lyrical refrain that Laura
Nyro wrote when she was
only 16 years old has the
resonance of a fortune
teller's prophesy: 'And when I die/ And
when I'm gone/ There'll be one child
born and a world to carry on."
The song is "And When I Die,"
first recorded by Peter, Paul & Mary
in 1966 and a 1969 gold record for
Blood, Sweat and Tears. Its lyrics
eerily foreshadow the fate of the
New York-born singer-songwriter,
who died in 1997 of ovarian cancer.
Before she died, Nyro had given
birth to one son. And her legacy is
a fertile crop of music that is
blooming once again with a fresh
arrival of newly remastered CDs.
Nyro was a gifted Jewish woman
who influenced the musical direc-
tion of the 1960s on her own intimate
terms. Yet she's better known by cover
versions of her songs than by her own
performances.
Topping the charts with Nyro's songs
were such bands as the 5th Dimension
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("Stoned Soul Picnic," "Wedding Bell
Blues" and "Sweet Blindness"), Three
Dog Night ("Eli's Coming") and
Barbra Streisand ("Stoney End").
Nyro can also be credited for estab-
lishing the piano-playing female per-
former genre a full five years before
Carole King's hugely successful Tapestry
album, in 1971, triggered a feminine
renaissance in the music business.
"Some of today's
female vocalists have
no idea they exist
because of Laura
1Vyro," says Michelle
Kort, author of
"Soul Picnic: The
Music and Passion
of Laura Nyro."
A new book, Soul Picnic: The Music
and Passion of Laura Nyro, by Michele
Kort (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's
Press; $25.95), simultaneously cele-
brates the singer's musical accomplish-
ments and penetrates a deep smoke
that surrounded Nyro's private life of
failed love relationships and bisexuality.
Kort, who says she is gay and "proud-
ly Reform," became enamored with
Nyro's music long before she knew
both she and the singer were Jewish.
She took three years to write the
book, interviewing more than 100
family members, friends and acquain-
tances, and believes she's succeeded in
framing a serious biographical portrait
that was long overdue.
`I thought [Nyro] was so totally
overlooked," explains Kort, whose
father grew up in Oak Park. "People in
their 30s seem to have missed her com-
pletely, especially during the 1980s,
when she wasn't performing.
"I really wanted to restore her to her
rightful place. And, for myself, I wanted
to write about her, because I was a huge
fan and she was such a mystery. Super
private. No one knew much about her."
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7/19
2002
82
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The Spiritual Atheist
Nyro was born Laura
Nigro (pronounced
NIGH-gro), the daughter
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Photo by David Gahr