I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — gallery-sized installations by Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha are showcased in an exhibition entitled Between Light and Shadow— recalling an old Twilight Zone theme — which will be at the Toledo, Ohio Museum of Art through February 9th.
WHILE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE is still illegal in China, there are indications it may have a future: citizens have responded to government surveys seeking family law changes, a 2017 law allowed adults to designate a legal guardian (and officials turned a blind eye to same-sex couples naming each other) and the 2019 legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan have all contributed to the cause.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Smurfette the Cat— an Ohio kitteh that a woman found under a vehicle in a parking lot painted blue … and brought to a shelter when she felt the cat might have been colored for a violent game — who will someday be up for adoption.
THE HAND OF FASCISM is taking its toll on the judiciary in Poland— and its attempt to subvert the rule of law in favor of its right-wing government may (if continued) lead to its ouster from the European Union, if it does not adhere to EU laws and which leads to other fellow nations ignoring its rulings.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named King the Cat— a Nebraska kitteh who was burned in a house fire, but who has now returned to his family after being treated ... with tilapia fish skin bandages successfully.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
MOTHER-DAUGHTER? — TV star Rachel Bilson (Hart of Dixie, The O.C.) and model Kaia Gerber (whose actual mother is Cindy Crawford).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… she never attained a Top 40 single, gold album or Grammy Award - being idiosyncratic can do that to you - but the music of Laura Nyro lives on in the many musicians who had success covering her songs ... because in back-to-back weeks in 1969, three of the Top 10 songs on Billboard’s singles chart were written by her. And her work is still being re-discovered, more than twenty years after her death.
The Bronx native (born Laura Nigro) was the daughter of a Jewish-American mother (who introduced her to opera and classical music) and an Italian-American father (a piano tuner and jazz trumpeter). Laura attended the High School of Music & Art where Janis Ian was one of her classmates. Her performing actually began (informally) singing on street corners and subway tunnels (as Doo-wop singers often began). After graduation, her father's business contacts included record exec Artie Mogull, who signed her following a 1966 audition.
She sold her first song And When I Die to Peter, Paul, and Mary for $5,000 and released her debut album for Verve Folkways in 1967. The album (like her others) did not sell well, but was critically acclaimed and resulted in hits for other artists - Blood, Sweat & Tears (And When I Die - #2), The 5th Dimension (Wedding Bell Blues - #1) and Barbra Streisand (Stoney End - #6).
Later that summer, she appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival - and she became convinced the audience was booing her, which took years to ascertain was not (in fact) the case. The festival did bring her to the attention of David Geffen, who bought out her former manager's contract and introduced her to Clive Davis at Columbia Records (who signed her to a recording contract). Interestingly, another group recording for Columbia (the aforementioned Blood, Sweat & Tears) asked her to audition as the band's lead singer ... which she declined on the advice of Geffen (leading to the hiring of David Clayton-Thomas, instead).
In 1968, Columbia released perhaps her best-loved album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession - which again spawned hits for the 5th Dimension (Sweet Blindness and Stoned Soul Picnic as well), and also Eli's Coming for Three Dog Night. She had some excellent veteran session player back-up musicians: guitarist Hugh McCracken and bassist Chuck Rainey, as well as some jazz stalwarts (saxophonists Zoot Sims and Joe Farrell). At this time, she offered the job as musical director of her back-up band to Todd Rundgren - who turned down her offer due to his work with The Nazz at the time.
I mentioned her idiosyncratic ways: Janis Ian spoke of her dressed all in black, with a somewhat distant presence onstage (Clive Davis wrote that she auditioned for him via candlelight). Her music was a blend of folk, singer-songwriter, R&B and jazz, which made her difficult for radio stations to characterize. She turned down lucrative film-composing offers, although she contributed a rare protest song to the Academy Award-winning documentary Broken Rainbow - about the unjust relocation of the Navajo people. More pertinently: she seldom gave interviews and rarely toured ..... at a time when this could have helped boost her career.
And this became more of a factor when her 1969 album New York Tendaberry was released, which did not spawn any hit singles ... still, it garnered some excellent reviews and this compliment from the jazz trumpet legend Miles Davis - who was asked to contribute to an instrumental section, but once he heard what had already been recorded he is reported to have replied, "I can't play on this. You already did it."
Her next album Christmas and the Beads of Sweat featured half of its tracks backed by the legendary Muscle Shoals studio musicians (such as David Hood and Roger Hawkins) and the rest by musicians such as Duane Allman, the Rascals' Felix Cavaliere, and John Coltrane's widow Alice (an accomplished pianist, but who played the harp on these recordings). Interestingly, for someone who had written all of her own songs on recordings: a cover of Gerry Goffin and Carole King's Up on the Roof became her only single to reach the lower ranks of the Hot 100 (peaking at #92).
And that perhaps is why her album Gonna Take a Miracle - from 1971 and completing her contract with Columbia - consisted of solely R&B covers .... backed up by the trio LaBelle who made this a memorable album (albeit one without substantial radio airplay). And then in 1971 at age 24, Laura Nyro got married and ..... retired. Cold.
She returned later that decade after her marriage broke up (and she lost her mother to ovarian cancer) ..... but her music was never the same. Smile from 1976 was more subdued and while she still garnered decent reviews (and had excellent musicians such as the Brecker Brothers backing her) — both Maria Muldaur and Joni Mitchell had moved into her territory (with much higher record sales). After her next album which had similarly disappointing sales, she left the music business again for several years.
It was not until the mid-80's that she returned to music. She was again more subdued, but wrote more personal songs than during her first comeback and began performing live, with a well-received Live at the Bottom Line album. In 1988 she had her first major tour in nearly ten years.
Her last studio album she would see released was Walk the Dog & Light the Light from 1993, ten years since she had released an album of new material. Four years later in April 1997, the ovarian cancer than had taken her mother's life .. claimed hers, as well. Her final recordings were released four years later. A few months after her death, fourteen female artists recorded a tribute album of her songs.
Her legacy is quite solid as she has influenced many, including Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Suzanne Vega, Jane Siberry and Rickie Lee Jones. There is a 2002 biography of her, an excellent compilation album of her works, there was a theatrical revue of her songs that went onstage in 2001 .... and there are plans for a film of her life, although these projects are notoriously difficult to get off the ground (see "Joplin movie, Janis" for an example).
Her original (non-major label) album has just been re-issued, on violet-colored vinyl and without later added-effects that critics felt did nothing for the songs.
Laura Nyro was posthumously inducted (fifteen years after her death) into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 and one of the other inductees that year was Donovan - who said on several occasions how glad he was to go in at the same time as Laura Nyro.
Of all of her songs, it is Save the Country - her reaction to Robert Kennedy's assassination in June, 1968 - that is my favorite. Besides the 5th Dimension, it has been recorded by Brian Auger/Julie Driscoll as well as Roseanne Cash ... and below you can hear it (plus at this link the more polished 5th Dimension version).
x xYouTube VideoCome on, people Come on, children Come on down to the Glory River Gonna wash you up And wash you down Gonna lay the devil down
Come on, people Come on, children There's a king at the Glory River And the precious king He loved the people to sing Babes in the blinkin' sun Sang "We Shall Overcome"
I got fury in my soul Fury's gonna take me to the glory goal In my mind I can't study war no more Save the people Save the children Save the country