During her career, Laura Nyro released ten studio albums. These recordings have gone on to become greatly admired and widely inspirational to listeners and other musicians yet the singer/songwriter was unable to achieve wider recognition as a performer. But it was her songs, atmospheric works filled with alluring, poetic imagery, that have endured to bring her worldwide fame. Nyro used her life experiences, imagination and deep love for all genres of music to share her specific view of the world that many could find a connection.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Laura Nigro immersed herself into her own special world created through music when she was very young, using this largely as a way of coping through a challenging childhood. Finding inspiration through her father, Louis Nigro, a jazz musician and the classical records that her mother loved, she taught herself how to play the piano, wrote songs and poetry. As a teen, Nigro attended the High School of Music & Art and sang wherever she could; parties, street corners and subways.
After deciding to pursue a career in music, Nigro considered several stage names before settling on "Laura Nyro". Through her father's contacts, Nyro met Artie Mogull and Paul Barry who would become her first managers. They helped the twenty year old get signed to the Verve Forecast label and released her debut album, "More Than a New Discovery" in 1967. Nyro wrote all of the songs and while the album received some critical acclaim, it failed to generate much attention. But some of the songs, "And When I Die", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Blowin' Away" and "Stoney End" would go on to greater success for other artists a few years later.
After an appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, Nyro caught the attention of David Geffen. In short order, he became her new manager, helped get her out of her recording contract, got her signed to a major label, Columbia Records, purchased the publishing rights to her early music and started a publishing company with Nyro, receiving half of the royalties from future compositions. Now with more artistic control as a co-producer, Nyro released her follow-up album, "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession" in 1968 with her insisting that the lyric sheet in the album be perfumed (not a cheap endeavor, I'm sure). The album, with it's lush production, featured r&b inspired, pop songs that touched on her singular thoughts on love, death and drugs. And while it did help bring more attention to the young singer, the record still failed commercially although once again, some songs ("Sweet Blindness", "Eli's Comin'", "Stoned Soul Picnic") would gain popularity later through other artists.
While her follow-up, "New York Tendaberry" would be her highest charting release, reaching number thirty-two on the Billboard 200, and considered one of the greatest of Nyro's recordings, the album still wasn't able to deliver the performer to much of a wider audience. More songs from the record ("Save The Country", "Time and Love") would go on to be find success with versions by other performers. Nyro would continue to record (including an album featuring soul covers produced by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, a live album and a jazz-pop collection) without much commercial success but her ethereal songs made her very popular amongst other artists and hardcore fans. As time went on, she became more political with her music, writing songs involving feminism, animal rights and Native American rights.
Late in 1996, Nyro was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and sadly succumbed on April 8, 1997 at the age of forty-nine. The legacy of Laura Nyro has grown tremendously since her passing with a greater appreciation for not only her songs but her gift as a performer. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Here are two songs made famous by other artists (the 5th Dimension and Barbra Streisand, respectively) but listen to what Nyro brings to these songs, expressing the joy and pain in her own remarkably, heartfelt style.
Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith made up the English pop-rock band, Tears For Fears who found fame in the mid-1980's most notably with the songs, "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". After working together for ten years, the duo ended their musical relationship with a nasty split in 1991. While Orzabal kept Tears for Fears going as a one-man project (releasing a couple of albums) and Smith made his own solo album, the men would make amends in 2000. The reunited Tears For Fears released another album together, "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending" in 2004. And while Orzabal and Smith would tour occasionally over the ensuing years, there was no new music. That has changed as Tears For Fears have released a song, "The Tipping Point" which is the working title of their upcoming seventh studio album due out in February. The sixty year old musicians have been working on this project over the last ten years and the haunting, mid-tempo ballad deals with Orzabal's struggles with grief over the tragic loss of his wife, Caroline who died in 2017 after thirty-five years of marriage.
Please enjoy this collection of videos of new music by a few LGBTQ artists (and one long-time ally):
Kelis is back with a new single, "Midnight Snacks", the latest song by the artist that follows a theme on the art of eating. Following her 2014 album, "Food", a cookbook and a Netflix series on cooking with Cannabis, the forty-two year old performer is going in on what do when you have cravings late at night. And I'm pretty sure she's referring to food. . .
And for his thirty-second studio album, Elton John has released "The Lockdown Sessions", a duets collection that was recorded largely during the pandemic lockdown after the seventy-four year old performer was forced to put the brakes on his final tour, Farewell Yellow Brick Road. This is an impressive line-up of musicians who have participated on this album; we have John's musical peers like Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks and the late Glen Campbell. There are contemporary performers Miley Cyrus, Rina Sawayama, Charlie Puth and Olly Alexander of Years & Years on board. And we have Young Thug, Nicki Minaj and Lil Nas X to bring some hip-hop to the record. "The Lockdown Sessions" features covers and new material with the first single, "Cold Heart", a duet with Dua Lipa and remixed by by the Australian dance music trio, Pnau who combines elements of John's singles "Rocket Man", "Sacrifice" and "Kiss the Bride" on the track.
The musical artists inducted in to this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will be Foo Fighters, the Go-Go's, Jay-Z, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and Tina Turner. In order for a performer to be considered, at least twenty-five years must have passed since the musician’s first recordings were released, ensuring that their contribution to music has stood the test of time.
The induction ceremony will be held this year in-person on October 30th at Rocket Mortgage Field-House in Cleveland. The event will air on SiriusXM satelite radio and will be broadcast on HBO and HBO Max at a later date.
FOO FIGHTERS
After the tragic death of front man Kurt Cobain brought an end to the band, Nirvana in 1994, drummer Dave Grohl began a one-man project with him playing every instrument and performing all vocals during the recording of the tracks. He came up with the name "Foo Fighters" from a World War II term for "unidentified flying objects". Signing with Capitol Records, Grohl formed a band in order to go on tour to support the album with him now playing lead guitar and recruiting bassist, Nate Mendel, drummer William Goldsmith and Nirvana touring guitarist, Pat Smear joining as second guitarist. Now an official band, Foo Fighters began work together on a second album, "The Colour and the Shape" but during the recording, Grohl was unhappy with Goldsmith's work, replacing most of his drumming with Grohl's own. Not surprisingly, Goldsmith decided to leave the band with longtime touring drummer, Taylor Hawkins joining to replace him.
While tastes in genres have changed in popular music over the years, Foo Fighters have successfully kept the spirit of grunge-rock alive, recording ten albums with their latest, "Medicine at Midnight" released last February. And even though they also just released a side-project as Dee Gees with "Hail Satin", a five-song collection of their version of disco songs by Bee Gees and Andy Gibb, Foo Fighters are still all about rock & roll.
THE GO-GO'S
Whilethe Go-Go's may be hailed as being the first all-female band who wrote their own material and played their own instruments to top the U.S. Billboard album chart (and it is quite noteworthy), they really should be remembered for being just a great rock band. And while I think it's shameful that it took this long for them to be inducted, I am glad this deserving group is finally part of the Hall. Rising from the L.A. punk scene in the late 1970's, the Go-Go's first came together with vocalist, Belinda Carlisle, guitarist, Jane Wiedlin, bassist, Margot Olavarria and Elissa Bello on drums. Charlotte Caffey joined later playing lead guitar and keyboards and Gina Schock replaced Bello on drums in 1978. After Olavarria had to drop out of the band due to illness (or forced out, depending on who you ask), Kathy Valentine would fill in as bass guitar. It was during this time that the Go-Go's began to move away from punk and shifted to a power pop-rock sound.
A British tour as an opening act for SKA bands, The Specials and Madness helped the Go-Go's gain a cult following and a demo of "We Got The Beat" first started circulating. The Go-Go's signed to I.R.S. Records in 1981 and their debut album, "Beauty and the Beat" topped the U.S. charts for six weeks, selling over two million copies. Their follow-up albums, "Vacation" in 1982 and "Talk Show" in 1984 were well received but certainly did not reach the same heights as their debut. But the pressures of fame, creative differences and an overindulgence in drugs by some members would cause the Go-Go's to disband in 1985. However, time tends to heal all wounds and The Go-Go's first reunited in 1990 for a benefit concert before recording new tracks for a retrospective album in 1994. The band has continued to tour over the years and recorded one more studio album in 2001, "God Bless the Go-Go's". And a documentary film, "The Go-Go's" about the history of the band was released last year, directed by Allison Ellwood.
JAY-Z
Born Shawn Carter in New York City, he became known known professionally as Jay-Z, bringing exciting and influential sounds to rap beginning in the 1990's. Carter had an interest in music at an early age, freestyling and writing lyrics. Known as "Jazzy" in his neighborhood, he would later take on the name, "Jay-Z" in honor of his mentor, Jaz-O, a local rapper in Brooklyn. Jay-Z worked hard trying to make his career in music happen but couldn't get a record deal, even selling homemade CDs out of his car until he formed his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records with Damon Dash and Kareem Burke in 1995.
He released his debut album, "Reasonable Doubt" the following year with the popular record bringing him plenty of attention and critical acclaim. With a new distribution deal in place with Def Jam Records, Jay-Z would release a follow-up in 1997 with "In My Lifetime, Vol. 1." that was produced by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and became another million seller. His next album, "Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life" would become his biggest success with the hit singles, "Can I Get A...", "Nigga What, Nigga Who" and "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" (which features the unexpected sample of "Hard Knock Life" from the Broadway musical, "Annie") helping the album sell over five million copies. He has become one of the world's best-selling music artists, selling over 125 million records and has won twenty-three career Grammy Awards. In addition to his remarkable achievement in music, Jay-Z realized that in order to gain even greater success, he should invest his wealth in other ventures. This lead him to creating a business empire that ranges from clothing lines, adult beverages, real estate, sport teams and media tech companies that has impressively made Jay-Z a billionaire.
CAROLE KING
Carole King began her career in music as a songwriter with then husband, Gerry Goffin as they wrote songs together at home following their day jobs. Their first hit was "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (performed by the Shirelles) which reached number one on the U.S pop chart in 1960, allowing the couple to quit those day jobs. The New York-based team (with King composing the music and Goffin writing the lyrics) went on to write dozens of pop hits as one of the staff songwriters at the Brill Building which included "The Loco-Motion", "Up on the Roof", "I'm into Something Good", "One Fine Day", "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". The ending of her marriage to Goffin in 1968 and a move to Los Angeles lead King to begin writing and recording her own songs as an artist.
After being a part of a short-lived rock group and the commercial disappointment of her debut album, "Writer" in 1970, King broke through in a major way with her follow-up, "Tapestry". The album became an instant classic with new songs, "It's Too Late" and "I Feel the Earth Move" and her versions of previous hits she had co-written, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". King would enjoy more success as a recording artist, live performer, film composer and a bit of acting. A musical based on King's life and career, "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" opened on Broadway in 2013 and became a popular hit. Having already been inducted in to the Hall (along with Goffin) as a writer back in 1990, this amazing talent is finally being recognized for her outstanding work as a solo performer.
TODD RUNDGREN
The prolific musician, songwriter and producer, Todd Rundgren developed a great love of music, having been exposed to a wide range from a very early age. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he taught himself how to play the guitar and after he graduated from high school, joined a local blues rock band. But Rundgren left after several months to form his first rock band, Nazz in 1967. The band was signed to Atlantic Records and recorded three albums ("Nazz", "Nazz Nazz" and "Nazz III") with their most notable songs being the Rundgren composed, "Open My Eyes" and "Hello, It's Me" from their debut. But by 1969, Rundgren had outgrown this band, moving towards piano-driven material after being inspired by singer/songwriter, Laura Nyro, and Nazz came to an end.
Rundgren moved to New York, getting involved in the club scene in the village, and met producer, Albert Grossman who offered him a job as a recording engineer. The then-twenty-one year old impressed with his skills and worked his way in to some record production. Rundgren soon wanted to return to performing and recorded his debut solo album, "Runt" in 1970. His first charting song was "I Saw The Light" from his 1972 album, "Something/Anything?", reaching the top-twenty on the U.S. pop chart. But the biggest hit song in his solo career was the follow-up single; a new version of the Nazz tune, "Hello, It's Me" that made it to number five. Rundgren went on to start another band, Utopia in 1973 with the progressive rock group recording nine studio albums with their most high-profile songs included "Love is the Answer" (made popular as a cover by England Dan & John Ford Coley in 1979), "Set Me Free" and "The Very Last Time". In addition to his distinguished career as a musician, Rundgren had become a sought-after producer having worked on albums for Hall & Oates, New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, XTC, The Tubes and Grand Funk Railroad.
TINA TURNER
Previously inducted in 1991 with her former musical partner and husband, Ike Turner, Tina Turner is being honored for her work as a solo artist. Following the end of her well-documented, tumultuous marriage to Ike in 1976, Turner was left heavily in debt and essentially had to start over. She appeared on television shows, played conventions and Vegas to settle what was owed but Turner still had a dream; she wanted to be a rock & roll artist. She struggled with her recording career, releasing a couple of albums on United Artists Records which included a brief foray in to disco that failed to chart, but kept her name out there by touring extensively. In 1979, Roger Davies agreed to manage Turner's career after catching a performance and worked towards making her become seen as a viable musical artist instead of a nostalgia act.
First, she recorded covers of the Temptations' "Ball Of Confusion" and Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" that found great success in Europe. Based on this, Capitol Records decided to sign her, giving her only two weeks to record the album that would become "Private Dancer". The first single, "What's Love Got To Do With It" (a song Turner disliked but was talked in to recording) became her major breakthrough song, reaching number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1984. "Private Dancer" would go on to sell over ten million copies across the globe and win Turner three Grammy Awards including Record of the Year. Turner continued to have great success as a recording artist and performer with many popular tours including her final one in 2009, "Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour". The singer retired from performing at the end of that tour, which was one of the highest-grossing of all time, bringing an extraordinary end to an incredible career.
After an agonizingly long delay, Adele has finally reemerged with new music. It's understandable that the singer would want to take a break following the massive, global success of her Grammy-Award winning album, "25" but I didn't imagine it would take five years. The British singer first created some buzz last year when she made an appearance on an October episode of "Saturday Night Live" as the host. Yet surprisingly, she was not the musical guest and ultimately had nothing new to promote.
Then last week, Adele dropped a new single, "Easy On Me". This low-key, soulful ballad reteams the singer with Greg Kurstin, the co-writer and producer of "Hello", the low-key, soulful first single from "25". On the surface, this may not feel like much of a stretch and a relatively safe re-entry back in to the pop-music scene yet it's still a powerfully effective, welcome return. The emotionally moving song deals with a plea to her child to be easy on her as she tries to get a handle on their lives together post-divorce.
The music video for "Easy On Me" also has a feeling of continuation with Canadian filmmaker, Xavier Dolan, who was behind the clip for "Hello", returning to direct this new song. Utilizing the same location and black & white cinematography, Adele now is moving out of the house and drives off in a truck, with sheet music papers flying out of its windows.
And with "Easy On Me", Adele has broken the Spotify and Amazon Music single day streaming records. This is the first taste of Adele's fourth studio album which will be titled, "30", a continuation of naming her albums after the age when she begins the recording. The album, due out on November 19th, will examine the changes in the thirty-three year old singer's life; the divorce from her husband, Simon Konecki, motherhood, the challenges of fame, moving in to adulthood and perhaps the dramatic change in her physical appearance. In addition to Kurstin, previous collaborators from "25", Max Martin and Shellback will provide production assistance on the forthcoming album along with some new partners, award-winning, Swedish composer, Ludwig Göransson, Inflo of the British music collective, Sault and Tobias Jesso Jr. There will also be a concert special airing on CBS on November 14th called, "Adele: One Night Only" which will feature an interview of the singer by Oprah Winfrey.
The British artist, Laura Mvula first came to our attention with her 2013 debut release, "Sing to the Moon", a well received collection of neo-soul that merged smooth jazz, gospel and orchestral pop to create her singular sound. Three years later with her follow-up, "The Dreaming Room" Mvula shifted her musical direction, featuring soulful songs that were more lyrically abstract and political while utilizing rhythms that touched on her Caribbean background.
Now with her third album, "Pink Noise", Mvula has once again traveled down a new musical path. Inspired by the pop songs of her youth, the thirty-five year old artist has made an enjoyable album that features the influences of late '80's synth-pop and r&b of the early '90's. It's a great collection that has a retro vibe yet feels fresh and modern.
Sarah Dash, one third of the soul-funk group, Labelle before venturing out as a solo artist, has sadly passed away on September 20th at the age of seventy-six. No cause of death has been revealed to date.
Born in Trenton, NJ (and one of thirteen children), Dash began singing in church where her father was a pastor. After moving to Philadelphia as a teen, she started to sing soul and doo-wop when she joined a local girl-group, The Ordettes with Sundray Tucker, Nona Hendryx and Patricia Holte. Tucker left the group and Cindy Birdsong replaced her with the act changing their name to The Blue Belles in 1962. The group went through another change after their management decided for lead singer, Holte to be renamed "Patti LaBelle", with the quartet becoming Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles. The group had a few minor pop and r&b hits with "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman", "Down the Aisle" and covers of "You'll Never Walk Alone", "Danny Boy" and "Over the Rainbow".
After Birdsong went off to join the Supremes in 1967, the remaining members struggled before changing management (to English talent manager, Vicki Wickham), musical direction and their name to "LaBelle" in 1971. The group would become best known for their socially conscious songs and soulful renditions of rock songs by Cat Stevens, The Who and working with singer/songwriter, Laura Nyro on an album. While LaBelle enjoyed critical acclaim, they still failed to achieve commercial success until their 1974 album, "Nightbirds". The record featured the single, "Lady Marmalade" (produced by Allen Toussaint and Wickham) about a New Orleans sex worker that would become the group's biggest hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Soul charts. LaBelle's subsequent albums did not receive much attention and after creative disagreements on material, the trio decided to go their separate ways in 1977.
During her time with Labelle, Dash had begun to sing more lead vocals and co-write songs. She released her self-titled debut album in 1978 and had a top-ten disco hit with "Sinner Man" with Dash later finding popularity in dance music. After developing a friendship with Keith Richards while Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles opened for his band, The Rolling Stones in the early 1960s, he asked her to tour with him and his side band, X-pensive Winos in 1988 and provide backing vocals on the Stones' 1989, "Steel Wheels" album. And after the occasional musical reunion over the years, LaBelle finally released another album, "Back To Now" in 2008, thirty-two years after their last recording.
It was forty years ago this year that MTV was launched and delivered to the world the music video, a perfect blend of energized visuals with hard-driving music that completely changed how we were exposed to new songs. I was drawn to the channel immediately as it combined my great love of cinema and music and I would spend as much time as I possibly could watching my MTV. There is no denying MTV helped create pop stars, aiding these musicians by promoting their songs through the rotation of their videos which also defined these performers with a distinctive image. Sure, some of these artists probably would have been fine without the music channel but there is no doubt that many were able to achieve incredible global success with the far-reaching assistance of MTV.
The 2021 Video Music Awards celebrates the legacy of MTV and while the channel doesn't really show these clips anymore, they still enthusiastically honor the artistry behind the music video. Held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Doja Cat was this year's host and while she might be one of the hottest pop acts at the moment, the singer didn't leave much of an impact. As a host, she was barely on stage, didn't say anything meaningful and never made much of an impression beyond her progressively weird outfits (which included some sort of worm-like contraption and a literal chair on her head). Even Madonna, who showed up just to kick off the show, was able to make more of a significant impression in her brief appearance where the still rebellious sixty-three year old highlighted her completely covered yet fully exposed, oddly enhanced backside.
And the Queen of Pop was just one of several musical artists from MTV's glory days that appeared throughout the evening to present awards. There was Madonna's "rival", Cyndi Lauper; Tommy Lee of the metal band, Motley Crew; AJ McLean of Backstreet Boys, Lance Bass of N'Sync and Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees who represented the "Boy Band" era and the still very witty, David Lee Roth of Van Halen. Busta Rhymes appeared on the show (along with his hype-man, Spliff Star) to do a melody of many of his hits from the '90's and '00's but the hip-hop legend was largely out-of-breath and low-energy.
Even though Nicki Minaj and Lorde (due to a "change in production elements") decided to drop out at the last moment, there were still plenty of big names that turned up live on stage. Some highlights included Justin Bieber appearing with The Kid Laroi to do their hit, "Stay" and then Biebs did his newest single, "Ghosts"; Ed Sheeran took to a stage at the Brooklyn Bridge Park to deliver his latest single, "Shivers"; lovebirds, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes appeared separately to perform their songs, "Don't Go Yet" and "Summer of Love" respectively; and our host, Doja Cat had to get on stage, doing a mash-up of "Been Like This" and "You Right" while soaring high above the audience in the air. A few of my favorite appearances included a fierce Chlöe performing (without her sister, Halle) her first solo song, "Have Mercy"; Normani bringing her hit, "Wild Life" to life with a sizzling performance; Kacey Musgraves brought a touch of country-pop while encircled by a ring of fire with the title track of her new album, "Star-Crossed" and the always welcome, Alicia Keys delivering a new song and a tribute to New York City with "Empire State of Mind". And Global Icon Award winners, Foo Fighters did a roaring set of their songs that reminded us that rock & roll is far from dead.
As for the awards, Lil Nas X and Olivia Rodrigo were the big winners of the night, each receiving three awards with Rodrigo winning Song of the Year for "Drivers License" and Best New Artist while Nas took the big Video of the Year award for his controversial clip, "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)". These young entertainers each had a moment on the show to make their presence felt with big, splashy production numbers surrounded by a small army of dancers. But this was were their inexperience as live performers came in to sharp focus. Nas and Rodrigo both looked slightly uncomfortable on stage while struggling to stand out from their massive productions.
This points out a glaring problem with some of today's musicians who manage to get a hit record yet never paid any dues by learning to perform their music in front of an audience. Lil Nas X and Ms Rodrigo are appealing pop stars and have made some great records but are they artists that will still be around in ten years? Five years? No one really knows as talent alone is not necessarily enough to keep people interested. Yet I think the era of "American Idol" insta-pop-stars has done a great disservice to young singers who think skipping much of the long, hard work involved and jumping straight to fame is enough to maintain a career.
