Laura Nyro “Eli and the Thirteenth Confession”
Wikipedia:
Laura Nyro (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (196 and New York Tendaberry (1969), and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th Dimension recording her songs. Her style was a hybrid of Brill Building-style New York pop, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, show tunes, rock, and soul.
Between 1968 and 1970, a number of artists had hits with her songs: The 5th Dimension with "Blowing Away", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", "Save the Country", and "Black Patch"; Blood, Sweat & Tears and Peter, Paul & Mary with "And When I Die"; Three Dog Night and Maynard Ferguson with "Eli's Comin'"; and Barbra Streisand with "Stoney End", "Time and Love", and "Hands off the Man (Flim Flam Man)". Nyro's best-selling single was her recording of Carole King and Gerry Goffin's "Up on the Roof".
In 2012, Nyro was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Review:
Laura Nyro is Randy Newman without the Disney movie soundtracks. Known more for the songs she has written for other people that have gone on to become monster hits than her own releases, her musical output rivals only Carole King as one of the greatest singer song -writers of her generation and a hit-making machine. A partial list of Laura Nyro penned hits includes “Stoney End” for Barbra Streisand, “Eli’s Coming” for Three Dog Night, “Wedding Bell Blues” for The Fifth Dimension, and the fantastic “And When I Die”, that became a monster hit for Blood Sweat and Tears.
The real talent that Laura had that was unmatched by her peers was to combine her unique vocal styling with intricate, haunting arrangements that included elements of Jazz, classical, pop, rock, soul, and rhythm and blues. The start-stop tempo changes in her songs heavily influenced the songwriting of Elton John in the embryonic stages of his career so much that, as he told Elvis Costello in his “Spectacles with Elvis Costello” episode, that his song, “Burn Down The Mission” from Tumbleweed Connection was heavily influenced by the start top signature timing made famous by Laura Nyro. Give his song a critical listen and see if you don’t agree.
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, released in 1968 was by no means a critical success, barely squeezing into the top 200 billboard list at number 182 which shows that as times change things stay the same as this is one of the thousands of examples of an artist that was criminally ignored by the charts.
Audiences had a hard time slotting this eclectic singer as well as she was roundly booed and otherwise ignored after her appearance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Her idiosyncratic style was not lost on David Geffen however, as a fledgling music manager at the time he quit his job to manage Laura and land her a contract at Columbia records.
(EDITORS NOTE: See the comment below, a video has surface that according to the writer says that she was not booed at Monterey. )
Nowhere is her stop-start tempo changing style more in evident than on the first song “Luckie” that starts off with vocals and some bombastic horns as it just as fast comes to a complete halt and veers off into some scat type singing and more horns that build up to a Blood Seat and Tears crescendo. At first listen this song and entire album must have been a huge influence on Carole King’s monster album Tapestry as the song structures seem to share the same DNA, perhaps they were both influenced by the magic of “The Brill Building”.
The second cut is L.U. and sounds similar in style with a few less tempo roller coaster changes, only three or four instead of 7 or 8.
The version of “Eli’s Coming” on this album is something special. Laura’s singing seems more passionate on this song than some of the others on this set and her vocal delivery more than holds its own when compared to the Danny Hutton vocal on the Three Dog Night version. I would sell my soul to Robert Johnson to hear the two of them collabo on this song. The start stop here when Laura stops on a dime and then starts to slowly and seductively ramp up her moan singing “Eli’s comin’ better hide your heart” several times in succession until you are ready to give up and turn your heart over to the beautiful songstress, is fantastic.
“Woman’s Blues” is another strong sultry ballad style number that starts in a sort of lull then jumps into “Brill Building” excellence. This is a jazzy masterpiece of a tune with some good soul sister yowls thrown in for good measure.
“Stone Soul Picnic” is nothing short of a classic and is THE ONLY version your ears should ever need to have the pleasure of experiencing. This one song encapsulates this wonderful eclectic performer more than any other. If someone wants to know what Laura Nyro is all about just listen to this song. It is all here, the tempo changes, her vocals keeping beautiful pace all the way, the pastoral lyrics, the charm, the sexiness, all together in 3:46 of sublime ecstasy.
Under-heard and under-appreciated, it almost seemed as if she wanted it that way. In her minds-eye the legacy she was leaving was better told in the hands and voices of some of the greatest artists of her or any other time.
Three years after releasing this album, in 1971, Laura Nero “retired” from the music business at age 24 only to return for a brief time in 1984 and again in 1993 with “Walk the Dog & Light the Light” which turned out to be her last release as she passed away from ovarian cancer in 1997 at age 50.
Do you yourself a favor, buy, burn, or steal this album.
You, just like Sir Elton will also become one of her biggest fans.
Review by Walt Falconer
Track List:
“Luckie” – 3:00
“Lu” – 2:44
“Sweet Blindness” – 2:37
“Poverty Train” – 4:16
“Lonely Women” – 3:32
“Eli’s Comin’” – 3:58
“Timer” – 3:22
“Stoned Soul Picnic” – 3:47
“Emmie” – 4:20
“Woman’s Blues” – 3:46
“Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe)” – 2:58
“December’s Boudoir” – 5:05
“The Confession” – 2:50
Summary:
Country: USA
Genre: Pop
Styles: jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, show tunes, rock, and soul.
Media Report:
Source : CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Duration : 57mn 36s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 805 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
