Laura Nyro, Eli And The Thirteenth Confession
Featured Album
Catchy, embraceable music, plus Nyro's signature strangeness
What kind of music did Laura Nyro make?
Listening to the strange keys and sudden tempo shifts on her seminal albums like Eli and the Thirteen Confession argues for jazz, but the theatrical melodies scream Broadway; the gravity and introspection of her delivery suggest a singer-songwriter's art, but the tunes 'blissful soul play straight to the heart of Berry Gordy.
Small wonder a daunting range of artists clamored to cover Nyro's compositions in her '60s and '70s prime. They included Barbra Streisand, The Fifth Dimension, Three Dog Night and Blood Sweat and Tears. If that list sounds too loungey or corny for your taste, don't fret. While those artists recognized the terrific craft of Nyro's work, they planed down the glorious strangeness she reveals in on her own recordings.
When you listen to Eli (Nyro's breakthrough album on Columbia Records, following a more obscure debut on Verve) you'll hear a full menagerie of eccentricities. As Nyro runs through her undulating piano changes, and howls out wild lines in a key you can't name, you'll recognize sounds that later inspired artists as out-there as Tori Amos and Sufjan Stevens.
Eli includes several songs that became giant hits for others ("Eli's Comin'" for Three Dog Night, "Stoned Soul Picnic" for The Fifth Dimension), as well as the well-known "Sweet Blindness." Yet only Nyro's versions bring out their wilder side, as well as a sense of drama worthy of Broadway (if only that world were hip enough to admit her). It's catchy and embraceable music, but of a breed impulsive and furious enough to make Eli entirely Nyro's own.
