#463: Laura Nyro, 'Eli & the 13th Confession'
Columbia, 1968
Linked is a google doc of reputable donation options to support Ukraine: https://how-to-help-ukraine-now.super.site/
I apologize for the delay. I didn’t feel comfortable publishing my feelings about Laura Nyro during the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
I was horrified and felt it would be out of touch to send out an email saying, “Hey - let’s get talkin’ about groovy gal Nyro and all her hippie dippy melodies.”
My family is from Eastern Europe, my brother and sister both speak Russian and my other sister speaks Slovenian. These wars within the Slavic world are not new, they are familiar and continue to repeat but we must stop this cycle.
We also must stop the patterns of genocide against the Palestinians, the Uyghurs, the women and LGBTQ populations throughout the world. There is much work to do, but we can only do it together.
We must gather, like chicks under a hen - protected by the ideals of humanity and self-determination. This applies to Ukrainians who “look like white Americans,” thank you racist journalists, and people who do not have blue eyes or who are not living under the gender binary.
The last two weeks have been all about Laura Nyro in my house and I am grateful. She is radical, she is interesting and she is brilliant.
Laura is of Russian Jewish and Russian Polish descent. She is from the Bronx and she is bisexual. In Putin’s world, both her ethnic background and sexual backgrounds forfeit her the right to life.
Her songwriting is wild. Barbra Streisand recorded many of her songs and were definitely early hits.
Laura Nyro’s wikipedia page is very worthwhile. Artists from Elton John to Kanye West have sampled her and paid tribute to her. Elton John was supposedly obsessed with her.
I remember when I first learned about Laura Nyro. It was about 7 years ago, I was 22 and sitting on the floor in my parents basement listening to music with my dad. He pulled out her “The First Songs” album and played Stoney End.
I loved it.
He loved it.
He loved her.
And now I am married to her.
I was in Brooklyn trying on some clothes at a vintage store a few months later when a lady in the booth next to me started chatting me up. We had one curtain divider between us and somehow I told her that I just found out about Laura Nyro. The lady opened the curtain and yelled, “LAURA!”
This 50+ year old, artist with one arm in a dress, bra exposed and zipper caught, met Laura Nyro at a party and then followed her across the country.
She also loved her.
Everyone loved Laura Nyro. In fact, everyone who knows Laura Nyro loves Laura Nyro.
And so do I.
If the ideologies supporting Putin’s invasion succeed, then artists like Laura Nyro will not survive.
Linked is a google doc of reputable donation options to support Ukraine: https://how-to-help-ukraine-now.super.site/
Top songs: Luckie, Sweet Blindness, Eli’s Comin’, Timer, Stoned Soul Picnic, The Confession