Post by gremashlo on Aug 10, 2010 8:42:14 GMT -5
one of my great weak spots in my music collection is that I tend to avoid "artists"--you know, the rather pretentious folks that critics love, even though they sold squat (Hell-o, Leonard Cohen!). And , for years I tended to lump the late Laura Nyro in with that bunch...I knew of her as a popular pop songwriter who simply couldn't sell her own stuff, but found that others were making careers off of her material; the Fifth Dimension should have put her on permanent retainer, for crying out loud.
I gave her a shot once--I tried listening to her original "Eli's Coming", but found it a bit irritating, as I loved the cover by Three Dog Night. And that was it, until last month when I found her debut single on Verve/Folkways in an antique store for a buck. I figured, "I'm a collector--I'll just buy this and never play it."
The hit that never was was "Wedding Bell Blues", which to me is a rather forgettable song that the Fifth Dimension made far better than Laura's attempt at being commercial.
But, I did play the flipside when I got home--"Stoney End", which Barbara Streisand turned into a huge hit (as well as my all-time Babs song)...and I was stunned...
Nyro's voice is incredible in this version (which she disavowed, as she was not allowed to play piano by a producer not sympathetic to her music, plus the first verse was rewritten as her original "I was raised on the Good Book, Jesus/ 'till I read between the lines" was deemed too risky), and I actually like the production (especially the drumming) when compared to Streisand's rather bombastic take.
But what haunts my interp is the lyric--whether Babs knew it or not, the lyric is about Laura's first lesbian encounter (replace "he/him" with "she/her") and her confusion that followed...and her fear that she could never tell her mother--and the "stoney end" (being stoned to death) was the Biblical punishment for such sins.
What was just a great song to Streisand was a searing contemplation for Laura--and for my money she never sang another song with quite this feeling...
I gave her a shot once--I tried listening to her original "Eli's Coming", but found it a bit irritating, as I loved the cover by Three Dog Night. And that was it, until last month when I found her debut single on Verve/Folkways in an antique store for a buck. I figured, "I'm a collector--I'll just buy this and never play it."
The hit that never was was "Wedding Bell Blues", which to me is a rather forgettable song that the Fifth Dimension made far better than Laura's attempt at being commercial.
But, I did play the flipside when I got home--"Stoney End", which Barbara Streisand turned into a huge hit (as well as my all-time Babs song)...and I was stunned...
Nyro's voice is incredible in this version (which she disavowed, as she was not allowed to play piano by a producer not sympathetic to her music, plus the first verse was rewritten as her original "I was raised on the Good Book, Jesus/ 'till I read between the lines" was deemed too risky), and I actually like the production (especially the drumming) when compared to Streisand's rather bombastic take.
But what haunts my interp is the lyric--whether Babs knew it or not, the lyric is about Laura's first lesbian encounter (replace "he/him" with "she/her") and her confusion that followed...and her fear that she could never tell her mother--and the "stoney end" (being stoned to death) was the Biblical punishment for such sins.
What was just a great song to Streisand was a searing contemplation for Laura--and for my money she never sang another song with quite this feeling...
