The Laura Nyro Songbook
29 songs 5 plays
I always say that an artist is a person who can make 1+1=3. Anyone can make it add up to 2 but an artist adds a part of themselves to the equation and make it equal 3. I love every song and every performance on this playlist. Laura Nyro was an incredible artist, a woman who could craft music and lyrics and create perfect songs in almost any genre. She was born in The Bronx (as was I) and made her first money in the music business when she sold her song "And When I Die" to Peter, Paul And Mary for $5000. And despite all the great songs that she wrote, her biggest chart hit was a cover of "Up On The Roof." Among her favorite musicians were John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Pete Seeger, Curtis Mayfield, Van Morrison, and girl groups such as The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and the Shirelles. When David Geffen was her manager they started a publishing company with the name "Tuna Fish Music." She was an original. She had soul and depth and could cast the blues as well as any of her contemporaries. She wrote an incredible number of hit songs for other people and a few of them are included here. Nyro died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 8, 1997, at the age of 49; the same disease had claimed the life of her mother at the same age.
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