[.ca] Stoned Soul Picnic: Best Of

laura's comin':
My first encounter with Laura Nyro occured in 1978 when, armed with a few extra dollars and a desire to expand my vinyl record collection, I came across a gleaming review of her newly released LP, 'Nested', in an issue of Rolling Stone magazine. I wouldn't say I was surprised that the album was as good as it turned out to be as I had some peripheral awareness of her talents, especially as a songwriter. I was sufficiently impressed however to also pick up the live album she had released a year previous, 'Season of Lights', and was pretty content with that little corner on Nyro's catalog. Twenty-six years later I'm looking to expand my CD collection, and find myself suffering a dearth of female artists. Truth be told, if I were able I would have picked up CD copies of 'Nested' and 'Season of Lights' once again, but unfortunately both are not available (go figure). The only place I could find to pick up any of those tracks, and slim-pickings it was, was on this fine retrospective. Laura Nyro was, in my opinion, at her best when she produced blue-eyed soul, which for the most part encompassed her first two albums, 'First Songs' and 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession'. By the time 'New York Tendaberry' was released, Nyro and her work had evolved into much more progessive, less easily pigeonholed fare. There was a good deal of blues, jazz and classical elements taking a more dominant theme, and her lyrics sacrificed tender romantic images for difficult to comprehend abstractions. I suppose it's a matter of taste as to which appeals the most, but for me, songs such as 'Wedding Bell Blues', 'Stoney End', 'And When I Die', 'Eli's Comin', 'Sweet Blindness', and 'Stoned Soul Picnic' (though I have no idea what a surry is, other than a slang marriage of 'so' and 'hurry') are the ones to relish. Nyro herself refers to her 'New York Tendaberry' period as a time of "very wild exploration", and I'm a bit too limited to follow the unbeaten path she treads. In 1970 Nyro returned to her roots, tapping one of the masters of blue-eyed soul, Felix Cavaliere of The Young Rascals, to produce and play on her 'Christmas and the Beads of Sweat' release. Songs such as 'When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag' harkened back, even to the extent of having no idea what a 'Freeport' is. One can question why Nyro did not have Top 40 success with her compositions, which artists such as 'Blood Sweat and Tears' ('And When I Die') and Three Dog Night ('Eli's Comin') parlayed into major hits. Nyro is not lacking in vocal talent, though the arrangements and tempo others put to Nyro's compositions may be more appealing. Nyro is not inhibited about expressing her feminist/feminine perspectives however, and this may have limited her capacity to attract a mass following. While it's accepted for women to traverse the gender divide in appreciating art, men are less comfortable or even likely to consider the female perspective, making it difficult for songs focusing on "nightgowns" and "lipstick" ('Blackpatch') or "the broken dishes of our love" ('Mr. Blue') to gain mass appeal. Whatever the reason, it is difficult to see why Nyro's renditions of these great songs never made a Top 40 ascent. One can also question Nyro's own choices for the songs featured on 'the best of laura nyro'. The focus is squarely on her first four releases, marketed between 1967 and 1970, and her final release in 1993. 'Eli and the Thirteenth Confession' draws the most attention, claiming 7 tracks on the 34 track compilation if you include the single version of 'Save the Country'. Twenty-four songs are drawn from these 5 albums. There are two unreleased live recordings, but only 8 selections from Laura's 5 mid-career albums. Since the two unreleased live recordings repeat studio tracks already on the CD, you would think some of Nyro's other work, such as 'My Innocence' and 'The Sweet Sky' from 'Nested' would have produced a more balanced and appealing second disc. Similarly, it is hard to justify 5 tracks from her last recording, 'Walk the Dog and Light the Light'. Laura Nyro has to be one of the most underrated and underappreciated artists of the second half of the twentieth century. This retrospective makes a good effort to rectify her omission, but could have made an even better case for her inclusion among the elite artists of her day.

A Solid Collection--But Short of Ideal:
Laura Nyro (1947-1997) originally made her name as the author of a host of tightly written pop songs that hit big when covered by other artists--but she quickly evolved into an uncompromising artist who wrote without significant concern for popular taste. The result was a series of albums that proved too advanced for most listeners, and although she received tremendous critical attention and developed a powerful cult following, she would never be a commercial pop star in any sense of the phrase. This double disk compilation collects what I would call the "obvious" Nyro recordings from such releases as THE FIRST SONGS, ELI AND THE THIRTEENTH CONFESSION, NEW YORK TENDABERRY, GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE, and CHRISTMAS AND THE BEADS OF SWEAT--and if you have never before encountered Nyro, or if you have only a limited interest, it is a good place to start. But established fans may be somewhat disappointed. Simply stated, nothing short of a full box set could do justice to an artist of Nyro's caliber, and this particular collection makes the mistake of duplicating certain songs in both studio and live versions--not a bad idea per se, but not a good one when it leads to the exclusion of such essential recordings as "Brown Earth," to name but one. And even Nyro newcomers are likely to find the second CD a bit weak in terms of content. Still, all the recordings sound great, and if you really don't want to go to the effort or expense of purchasing Nyro's work in full, STONED SOUL PICNIC will do nicely until a better thought out Nyro compilation comes along. GFT, Amazon Reviewer

• Wedding Bell Blues
• Blowing Away
• Billy's Blues
• Stoney End
• And When I Die
• Lu
• Eli's Coming
• Stoned Soul Picnic
• Timer
• Emmie
• Confession
• Captain Saint Lucifer
• Gibsom Street
• New York Tendaberry
• Save the Country \oSingle Version\c
• Blackpatch
• Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp
• Beads of Sweat
• When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag
• I Met Him on a Sunday
• Bells
• Smile
• Sweet Blindness \oLive\c
• Money \oLive\c
• Mr. Blue
• Wilderness
• Mother's Spiritual
• Woman of the World
• Louise's Church
• Broken Rainbow
• To a Child
• Lite a Flame (The Animal Rights Song)
• And When I Die \oLive\c
• Save the Country \oLive\c