Laura Nyro, I Miss Her!

She was brilliant and we miss her so. What a writer, musician and artist she was.

Her message is still pertinent today. Maybe even more so!

She left us much too soon. Luckily for us survivors her words and songs live on.

Laura Nyro (born Laura Nigro) (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was born in the The Bronx, New York, of Italian-American and Jewish-American parents.

She was an American composer, lyricist, singer, and pianist, one of the most influential musicians to emerge in the 1960s. Her style was a distinctive hybrid of Brill Building-style New York pop, mixed with elements of jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, and rock. She blazed the trail for – and directly influenced – future composers including Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Donald Fagen, Todd Rundgren, and Rickie Lee Jones, among many others.

She was best known and had the most commercial success as a composer and lyricist, rather than as a performer. Her best-known songs include "And When I Die" (a hit for Blood, Sweat & Tears), "Stoney End" (covered by Barbra Streisand), "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness" and "Save The Country" (all covered by the Fifth Dimension), and "Eli's Coming" (a hit for Three Dog Night). Ironically, Nyro's own best-selling single was a cover of Carole King and Gerry Goffin's "Up On The Roof."

I often wonder what she would have thought about our current predicament. I imagine it would have been scathing!

We need to save the Country NOW!

Laura Nyro

R.I.P.

1947 - 1997