Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro

by Michele Kort

Overview

Laura Nyro was a beloved and pioneering singer-songwriter of the 1960s and 1970s, whose songs were covered with great success by the Fifth Dimension; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Three Dog Night; and Barbra Streisand. This first biography uncovers previously never revealed details, including a love affair with Jackson Browne, and her relationship with painter Maria Desiderio.

Unappreciated in her time, Nyro's legacy is currently experiencing a revival. With her groundbreakingly honest and passionate lyrics, her unusual and innovative rhythms and melody, Nyro's influence is still felt by singers and songwriters today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312303181
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/14/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	1,121,014
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Michele Kort, Los Angeles-based writer and editor, has been a journalist for over twenty years. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Songwriter, Ms., Los Angeles Magazine, L.A. Reader, Redbook, InStyle, The Advocate, and L.A. Weekly, she has won numerous awards. She also coauthored the memoir The End of Innocence with Chastity Bono.

Editorial Reviews

It was always my road to have high drama onstage-Laura Nyro gave me a map.” —Rickie Lee Jones

“She wrote about the world I lived in but infused it with so much passion that ordinary things-the weather, the river, the streets, the kids-glowed with a spiritual energy. Though we were plain, ordinary, nasty kids, when she sang she made us beautiful.” —Suzanne Vega

“Laura Nyro you can lump me in with, because Laura exerted an influence on me. I looked to her and took some direction from her.” —Joni Mitchell

From the Publisher

Young women growing up in the tumultuous 1960s found that the music of Bronx-born singer/songwriter Nyro was something they could cling to. Journalist Kort, who obviously felt the same way, here portrays the enigmatic performer in this first account of her life (1947-97), cut tragically short by ovarian cancer. Nyro was just a teen when she began what would become a long recording career, though renditions of her works by others (e.g., the Fifth Dimension, Barbra Streisand) would generally be more successful commercially than any of her own. Kort gathers every date, description, and dialog to draw a complete picture of her subject. For the legion of now middle-aged fans, there is perhaps too much minutiae regarding studio sessions, musical arrangements, chord variations, personnel changes, and industry infighting. Nyro's relationship with eventual power-broker David Geffen (her agent, representative, and friend) is more interesting, though the ending of that tale remains somewhat ambiguous. There is nothing here from Nyro herself, except what is culled from numerous interviews and the shared memories of family, friends, and fellow musicians. Musicologists and students of the history of popular music will wallow in the preponderance of information, especially as it pertains to Nyro's unquestionable influence on the music industry and the growth of women as both performers and composers. Those of us who knew every lyric of every song (and still do) would prefer a more accessible portrait of our goddess. Still, this biography is recommended for academic and public libraries. (Photos not seen.) Bette-Lee Fox, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A detailed biography of the influential singer-songwriter. Laura Nyro (1947–97) was underappreciated in her time, journalist Kort argues persuasively in her debut, noting that this is the first substantial look at the artist's life and music. However, Nyro's unique songwriting inspired great early interest and later on an obsessively loyal fan base that included luminaries like Joni Mitchell and Peter Buck. She first gained attention as a shy, Bronx-bound teenager with a prodigious production of ethereal piano compositions combining jazz, pop, and folk influences. Her early contacts with the music industry were marked by, as Kort puts it, "disdain for her looks and style uneasily coexisting with a recognition of her talent and commercial potential." Nyro, who said, "I work months and hours and years and a lifetime on my songs," dropped her initial management for her Verve debut, More Than a New Discovery (1967), in favor of David Geffen, portrayed as the young singer's soulmate. (Their friendship dissolved when she chose to stay with Clive Davis's CBS Records, instead of moving to Geffen's startup label.) Her songs became hits for acts like the Fifth Dimension and 3 Dog Night; the royalties from "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Eli's Coming" allowed her "to follow her muse wherever it led her." Nyro stood out in the decadent late-1960s rock milieu; her drug use was tame, and her personal life discreet. After several unsatisfying traditional relationships, including a tumultuous marriage to a Vietnam veteran and a briefer affair with an Indian national, with whom the increasingly feminist-identified Nyro had a son, she found lasting contentment in a low-profile relationship with painter MariaDesiderio. Fans will enjoy this bio, although others may note its sedate pace and aversion to critical views of its subject. Since Kort's research unearthed many reviews that now seem like snide misappraisals, one can understand her advocacy of Nyro here. Captures the essence of a widely admired, improbably successful artist

Kirkus Reviews