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1[[quoteright:318:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/laura_nyro.jpeg]]
2
3-> ''"I don't think you should categorize yourself as an artist. You should allow yourself to grow. Growth is the nature of the creative process. You have to accept it, respect it, and move on."''
4-->-- from an interview with Bruce Pollock.
5
6Laura Nyro (née Nigro; October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American pop SingerSongwriter from New York City. In the 1960s and '70s she recorded albums that were acclaimed by the critics and wrote songs that were later covered by artists like Music/BarbraStreisand and Music/The5thDimension (the latter having a career almost propelled by her songs, enjoying more commercial success than Nyro ever did herself).
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8One of her first songs, "And When I Die", was sold to Music/PeterPaulAndMary in 1966, since both acts were under the management of Artie Mogull. (That same year she recorded her debut album, ''More Than a New Discovery'', which was larely ignored.) After she successfully sued to get her contracts with both Mogull and [[Creator/VerveForecast Verve Folkways]] voided (on the grounds that she had been a minor when she'd signed them), she was taken under the wing of David Geffen. The following year, she performed at the Monterey Pop Festival, but the performance was strangely mixed in terms of reception; Nyro herself believed she'd been massively booed, but filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, who [[Film/MontereyPop documented the festival]], found no such negative reaction in his footage of her set.
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10Geffen helped Nyro secure a contract with Creator/ColumbiaRecords, giving her greater artistic control. She then released, in 1968, what is generally considered to be her greatest album, ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession'', which centered around the themes of love, passion, romance, drugs and death. Also, an unusual thing was done with the lyric sheet (itself still quite rare in 1968): copies were perfumed, and fans have reported that it still has a pleasant aroma decades later.
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12The following year, she released the album ''New York Tendaberry'', which achieved greater success commercially (but not to the point of being lucrative) and critically. It is somewhat DarkerAndEdgier, but also more sensual, than its predecessor.
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14Her fourth album, ''Christmas and the Beads of Sweat'', was issued in 1970, concluding the "unofficial" trilogy that had started with ''Eli''. She retired from the music business a year later (after releasing her most famous album, ironically a CoverAlbum titled ''Gonna Take a Miracle''), while having a short-lived relationship with Music/JacksonBrowne and, later, marrying a Vietnam War veteran and carpenter, David Bianchini.
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16Five years later, she returned with a new album, ''Smile'', following the breakup of her marriage and her mother dying from ovarian cancer at the age of 49. She then embarked on a tour and, two years later, released another album, ''Nested''. The latter was recorded while she was pregnant with her only child. In the early 1980s, she started a relationship with Maria Desiderio, a painter, which lasted for the rest of her life.
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18She returned in 1984 with ''Mother's Spiritual'', and four years later, she embarked on a tour dedicated to the animal rights movement. Her final album of original material was ''Walk the Dog and Light the Light'', released in 1993. Throughout the '90s she received offers to perform on television shows such as ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', but refused all of them, with the exception of a single Creator/VH1 performance (on Earth Day 1990) of her title song from ''Broken Arrow'', an Academy Award-winning 1985 documentary about the unjust relocation of Navajo people.
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20She died on April 8, 1997, at 49, [[GenerationXerox at the same age and with the same disease (ovarian cancer) that had claimed her mother]].
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22Her legacy and influence is acknowledged by artists such as Music/ToddRundgren (who wrote a song about her, "Baby, Let's Swing", and assisted in the recording of ''Mother's Spiritual'', being also great friends with each other), Music/JoniMitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, Music/EltonJohn, and Music/SteelyDan, among others. Theatre vocalists Judy Kuhn and Music/AudraMcDonald and jazz pianist-arranger Billy Childs have all recorded tribute albums covering Nyro's music, and at least one music theory scholar has conducted extensive analysis propounding her as the link between the Great American Songbook compositional style and the more personal songwriting of the 1960s and '70s.
23
24----
25!!Studio Discography:
26
27* 1967 – ''More Than a New Discovery'' [[note]]re-released in 1973 as ''The First Songs''[[/note]]
28* 1968 – ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession''
29* 1969 – ''New York Tendaberry''
30* 1970 – ''Christmas and the Beads of Sweat''
31* 1971 – ''[[CoverAlbum Gonna Take a Miracle]]'' [[note]]with [=LaBelle=][[/note]]
32* 1976 – ''Smile''
33* 1978 – ''Nested''
34* 1984 – ''[[LighterAndSofter Mother's Spiritual]]''
35* 1993 – ''Walk the Dog and Light the Light''
36
37!!Live Discography:
38* 1977 – ''Season of Lights''
39* 1989 – ''Laura: Live at the Bottom Line''
40* 2000 – ''Live from Mountain Stage''[[note]]Recorded in 1990 and released posthumously.[[/note]]
41
42----
43!!Tropes in her work and life:
44
45* BigApplesauce: The songs on ''New York Tendaberry'' either take place in or are influenced by said city.
46* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: The theme of "And When I Die".
47-->And when I die
48-->and when I'm dead, dead and gone,
49-->There'll be one child born and
50-->a world to carry on, to carry on
51* BreakupSong: "You Don't Love Me When I Cry".
52* CarefulWithThatAxe: On her most "operatic" moments.
53* CoverAlbum: ''Gonna Take a Miracle''.
54* DarkerAndEdgier: ''New York Tendaberry''.
55* EpicRocking: "Map to the Treasure" and "Christmas in My Soul".
56* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp" → "Map to the Treasure".
57* GenreBusting: ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession'', which incorporates elements of Jazz, Soul, Broadway, Gospel and Rock.
58* GreenAesop: Some of the songs on ''Mother's Spiritual''.
59* LighterAndSofter: [[CoverAlbum Gonna Take a Miracle]]. ''Mother's Spiritual'' is this up to eleven.
60* {{Neologism}}: The word "surry" (spelled different from and not to be confused with "surrey"), sung in "Stoned Soul Picnic".
61* OdeToIntoxication: "Sweet Blindness".
62* OneWomanSong: "Emmie".
63* ProtestSong: Her song, "Broken Rainbow", for the documentary with the same name.
64** "Christmas in My Soul" combines this with AntiChristmasSong.
65* SelfBackingVocalist: In some of her songs.
66* SomethingBlues: "Billy's Blues", "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Woman's Blues".
67* TrainSong: "Been on a Train" and "Poverty Train".
68* UrExample: Her song "Emmie" is considered Pop's first lesbian love song.
69* WhenImGoneSong: "And When I Die".
70* WordSaladLyrics: A large percentage of Nyro's early output fits this trope. An example from "Captain Saint Lucifer":
71--> "He gives to me
72--> Buckles off shingles
73--> Off a cockleshell on norway basin
74--> Coke and tuna
75--> Boots and roses from russia
76--> Now I'll live and die and rise.

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