Madfish Music has announced it will release Laura Nyro Hear My Song: The Collection 1966-1995 on December 6, 2024. The deluxe box set is a limited edition 19-CD affair featuring 10 original studio albums, 6 live albums (including 2 previously unreleased live concerts), Laura’s original demo tape from 1966 plus bonus discs of rarities including mono versions, alternative versions and live tracks. Also included is a coffee-table book with in-depth liner notes by Vivien Goldman, a foreword from Sir Elton John, and testimonials from John Sebastian, Jackson Browne, Lou Adler, and others.
Laura Nyro was one of the top artists who appeared on the scene in the late 1960s. Unlike Browne, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, Joan Baez, and other singer/songwriters of the era however, Nyro never achieved commercial success with her own recordings of her songs. Yet, commercial success never seemed like an ultimate goal for her. She retired from the music business at age 24, reportedly because she was uncomfortable with attempts to market her as a celebrity. She returned to music a few years later but still remained wary of commercial exposure.
Included within this set from Madfish Music are all ten of Laura’s studio albums: More Than A New Discovery (1967), Eli And The Thirteenth Confession (1968), New York Tendaberry (1969), Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat (1970), Gonna Take A Miracle (1971), Smile (1976), and Nested (1978), Mother’s Spiritual (1984), Walk The Dog & Light The Light (1993) and her posthumously released masterwork Angel In The Dark (2001).
Nyro’s recordings were never lacking in artistry. On the contrary, from the release of her first album – More Than A New Discovery – critics loved her. They praised her songs for their strength and inventiveness. She was hailed as evocative and adventurous. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (3rd Edition) note that her songs “… contained a near religious gospel fervor, early rock & roll vocal stylings, Brill Building songcraft, and, especially later, urban jazz influences with her highly personal, evocative lyrics.”
While her recordings did not do well commercially, Nyro’s songs became best sellers for other artists. Blood, Sweat, & Tears had a hit with “And When I Die.” The 5th Dimension moved up the charts with “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Stone Soul Picnic,” while Barbra Streisand did the same with “Stoney End.” A Number 1 hit for Three Dog Night was “Eli’s Coming.” Nyro’s highest charting song was a cover of The Drifters’ “Up On The Roof” written by Gerry Goffen and Carole King.
Laura Nyro was born Laura Nigro on October 18, 1947 in Bronx, New York. Her father, Louis Nigro, was a piano tuner and jazz trumpeter while her mother, Gilda, was a bookkeeper whose record collection introduced Laura to such artists as Leontyne Price, Nina Simone, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, and classical composers such as Debussy and Ravel.
Nyro claimed her childhood was not an especially happy one. She found solace in music and poetry and began writing songs when she was eight years old. It has been said Nyro performed an early version of “Eli’s Coming” while in junior high school in an attempt to convince her music teacher that rock and roll “wasn’t junk.” Singing with harmony groups was one of the joys of her youth.
She became interested in the social consciousness of certain songs. Her mother and grandfather were progressive thinkers and so Nyro felt at home in the peace movement and the women’s movement. These influences would help shape her music. She considered herself a feminist, which influenced her songwriting “…because that’s how I see life.”
Artie Mogull signed Nyro to a recording and management contract for Verve Folkways records. She recorded More Than A New Discovery for the label in 1966 when she was just 19. “And When I Die,” “Stoney End,” and “Wedding Bell Blues” were on the album and would later become hits for the artists previously mentioned. Verve would reissue the album in 1969, retitled First Songs.
She would soon make her first extended professional appearances beginning with month-long nightly appearances at San Francisco’s hungry i starting on January 16, 1967. Nyro appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival on June 17, 1967. For years a story made the rounds that her performance was a fiasco and she was booed off the stage. Newsweek reporter Michael Lydon did give her set a negative review, writing that “the evening hit bottom” during her “melodramatic” set. Lydon’s comments notwithstanding, Nyro’s performance was well received as video recordings later made public show.
David Geffen took control of Nyro’s career and landed her an unprecedented multi-million dollar contract with Columbia records. She was allowed more artistic freedom and control than her contract with Verve. The result was the 1968 release of Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. This, her second album, merged pop structure with inspired imagery, rich vocals, and avant-garde jazz. It is widely considered one of her best works.
Some described Nyro as a “white soul sister and a female Bob Dylan.” Despite being highly regarded, she was all but forgotten for many years. Her reclusiveness, lack of commercial success, and early death at 49 from ovarian cancer are possible reasons for her disappearance from the public consciousness.
Madfish Music’s release also includes six live albums: Spread Your Wings And Fly: Live At The Fillmore East (1971), Season Of Lights… Laura Nyro In Concert (1977), Live / The Loom’s Desire (1993 & 1994), and two previously unreleased concert recordings from San Francisco (1994). Rounding off this complete collection is Laura’s first ever demo tape Go Find The Moon (1966) and a collection of Rarities.