Only the Good Die Young-Part II

Laura Nyro

Wedding Bell Blues, Stoned Soul Picnic, Save the Country, And When I Die, Eli's Coming, Stoney End...these are the songs of composer Laura Nyro. Most people have never heard of her, but they certainly know these hit songs. One of them will be performed at Orchestra Kentucky's Rock 'n Roll Heaven concerts on Friday and Saturday evening, November 5th and 6th. The concert features "record copies" of songs by pop artists who died in the prime of life.

Laura Nyro was one songwriter who died too young. The 5th Dimension, Barbra Streisand and Blood, Sweat & Tears all benefited from her gifts. I wonder what other songs might have been recorded, had Nyro lived to a reasonable age?

Nyro was born Laura Nigro in the Bronx. Here dad was a piano tuner and jazz trumpet player. Her mom was a bookkeeper. Laura taught herself piano as a child. She loved poetry and her mother's recordings of opera singer Leontyne Price, blues singer Billie Holiday, and the works of classical composers like Ravel and Debussy. Laura wrote her first songs at eight years old. She attended Manhattan's High School of Music and Art.

While in high school, Laura and friends sang in subway stations and on street corners. Her favorite musicians were jazz great John Coltrane, Pete Seeger, Curtis Mayfield, Van Morrison, The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and the Shirelles.

Laura's dad's work brought him into contact with a record executive who became Laura's first manager. She sold her first song to Peter, Paul and Mary for $5,000. She recorded her first album at eighteen, with songs on the disc providing material for other artists like The 5th Dimension. It was at this time that she adopted the name, Nyro, which she pronounced Nee-ro.

When Blood, Sweat & Tears lost their lead singer, Nero considered singing with the band. Her new manager, David Geffen, discouraged her. Nevertheless, the band recorded her song, And When I Die.

After recording her fourth album, she married a carpenter, announcing her retirement from the music business at age 24. By 1976, her marriage had ended and she embarked on a four-month tour. This resulted in a live album. In the early '80s, Nyro began living with a painter, who became her companion to the end of her life.

The late '70s and '80s brought a new child, more touring, and more recordings. Her last recording was in 1993. The album brought offers to compose for film and to appear on TV talk shows. She turned them all down.

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1996, dying of the disease in Danbury, Connecticut on April 8, 1997 at the age of 49. Her mother died of the same disease at the same age.

Watch a "bootleg" recording of Nyro singing And When I Die live.

Compare Blood, Sweat & Tears' cover of the same song in this 1972 live performance.