Laura Nyro - The First Songs
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CD Details
Artist: Laura NyroEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-02-01
Music Label: Sbme Special Mkts.
Soundtracks:
- Wedding Bell Blues
- Billy's Blues
- California Shoeshine Boys
- Lazy Susan
- Goodbye Joe
- Flim Flam Man
- Stoney End
- I Never Meant to Hurt You
- He's a Runner
- Buy and Sell
- And When I Die
- Blowin' Away
Music reviews of The First Songs
Music Review: Not Another "Singer-Songwriter"
Rating: 5 Stars
Why does everyone feel the need to so consistently throw Laura Nyro into a group with the blandness of 70s singer-songwriters and contemporary guitar strummers? Laura's miles and miles beyond anything Sarah McLachlan or Sheryl crow could do. A totally different ballpark. Joni Mitchell probably had as good a sense of harmony and was definitely Nyro's lyrical equal - but in her wildest dreams, Mitchell could never create catchy hooks and blood-heating rhythms the way that Laura did, it would seem, with one hand tied behind her back.
Anyway, this is Laura Nyro's first record, and from a certain standpoint, her best. She would go on to very successfully stretch the limits of pop song structure and arrangements on "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession" and go a bit nuts with "New York Tendaberry", a record on which it seems the jury is still very much out. But this record will appeal to both the Laura Nyro lover and the music fan in general. Never again would her singing be as disciplined, careful, and beautiful. Nyro always had a very nice voice - but later on the producers would give her enough creative freedom and proverbial rope to hang herself. Sometimes given to excessive experimentation, Nyro would later occasionally waste a very good song by reducing the vocal melody to high pitched and aimless screeching (see "Captain for Dark Mornings"). Here she is kept well in hand by the producers, and on track after track delivers a performance to stand toe-to-toe with Streisand, Springfield, or Warwick.
Another interesting aspect to this album is that it is the only one on which Laura does not accompany herself on the piano. Since Laura wasn't playing anything, the arrangements could be built from scratch, and so there's a little more variety in the orchestrations and production - you have a nice mix of folk rock, jazzy cabaret stylings, and pure, delicious girl-group pop, to which Nyro adds a lyrical intelligence not to be found elsewhere. Some VERY attractive backup vocals are provided by the High Fashions, and there's some very beautiful harmonica playing too. The diversity of the material prevents the record from ever stagnating - the folk-gospel of "And when I die" somehow sits very nicely with the nightclub jazz balladry of "Billy's Blues" and "Buy And Sell", while the pure pop punch of "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Flim Flam Man" will get even the staunchest of puritans up and dancing. "I Never Meant To Hurt You" could easily pass for a 60s broadway number out of "How to succeed in business without really trying" or "Sweet charity". We even get a taste of rootsy country music with "California Shoeshine Boys" - a side of Nyro that would not be seen again.
I highly reccomemend this album to anyone who loves Bob Dylan, Dusty Springfield, Barbra Streisand, girl group pop, R&B, and intelligent, beautiful, above-all CATCHY music in general. Paired with Eli, it makes a great introduction to the music of this wonderful lady. God bless her soul.
Description of The First Songs
David Geffen gave up his day job to manage Laura Nyro after he heard these songs. Artists then knocked on his door begging to record them. But no one sang them sweeter than Nyro herself; not Blood, Sweat & Tears with "And When I Die," The Fifth Dimension with "Wedding Bell Blues," or even Barbra Streisand with "Stoney End." This is a remarkable collection of mature songs for anyone, much less the 20-year-old Brooklyn girl who penned them. Nyro, of course, would go on to make ever deeper, richer, sweeter soul-inflected music; but she would never be as shyly innocent or as patently joyful as on First Songs. --Michael RubyGeneral CDs
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