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Track Listings
| 1. You Don't Love Me When I Cry |
| 2. Captain For Dark Mornings |
| 3. Tom Cat Goodby |
| 4. Mercy On Broadway |
| 5. Save The Country |
| 6. Gibsom Street |
| 7. Time And Love |
| 8. The Man Who Sends Me Home |
| 9. Sweet Lovin' Baby |
| 10. Captain Saint Lucifer |
| 11. New York Tendaberry |
| 12. Save The Country |
| 13. In The Country Way |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
Consider the curious fate of singer-songwriter Though Laura Nyro was one of the most successful American songwriters of the late '60s, penning hits like Streisand's "Stoney End," Blood, Sweat & Tears' "And When I Die," Three Dog Night's "Eli's Coming," and the Fifth Dimension's "Wedding Bell Blues," her buoyant, genre-blending major-label debut clicked with only a small, if influential, cult audience. But even Nyro's faithful must have been taken by surprise by its 1969 follow-up. A mature, deeply impressionistic ode to her hometown, New York City, Nyro's creation captures the city's multicultural soul and emotionally jagged edges so well it's hard to believe this 22-year-old daughter of a jazz musician who couldn't read a note of music concocted it. Stripping her music down to the bare essentials of her expressive, occasionally explosive soprano and fervent piano work somehow expanded its dramatic potential exponentially. Indeed, there are few pop albums whose protominimalist use of studio flourishes and production sheen have been as brief or effective; Nyro called them "colors," and that's exactly the function they serve here, adding crucial glimmer to the stark, jazzy drama of the singer's evocative songs. The bonus, "Save the Country," cut as a full studio production prior to Nyro rethinking the approach, fairly blares by comparison. Rooted in the singer's beloved '50s R&B and pop, yet infused with her brave, singular vision and the chutzpah to stick to it, this album remains Nyro's masterpiece. --Jerry McCulley
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Laura Nyro orginally made her reputation by writing songs that mixed urban doo-wop with folk flavors--songs like "Stoney End," "And When I Die," "Wedding Bell Blues," and "Stone Soul Picnic," songs that hit big when recorded by other artists. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Nyro recorded three ground-breaking albums (ELI & THE 13TH CONFESSION, NEW YORK TENDABERRY, and CHRISTMAS & THE BEADS OF SWEAT), and although many consider that her creativity peaked with those releases she continued to record and remained powerfully influential until her death in 1997. But for all of this, and unlike such Brill Building contemporaries as Carole King, Laura Nyro herself never made the leap from star writer to star performer. There are several reasons for this. Nyro had a passionate voice of considerable range, but it was not a "star" voice--that is to say, her voice lacked that idiosycratic sparkle that one expects to find in a great singer. But more to the point, after her first wave of song-writing hits, Nyro unexpectedly evolved into an incredibly uncompromising artist who seldom bothered to consider audience response to her material. Only one recording in her long career would achieve anything like a commercial success, and that recording is the 1969 NEW YORK TENDABERRY, which peaked at number 32.
It is odd that NEW YORK TENDABERRY ever made it into the pop charts to begin with--even by today's standards it is alternative with a capitol "A," a strange mix of jazz, blues, rock, pop, urban edges, and folk flourishes created largely by Laura and her piano with little in the way of musical back-up and still less in the way of vocal back-up.
... Read more ›14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
My first experience of Laura Nyro's Voice came in 1970
with the inclusion of the song 'Gibsom Street' on the
Atlantic double-album sampler 'Fill You Head With Rock'.
She was in illustrious company : Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen,
Santana, Blood Sweat and Tears ( Oh but they were heady days ! ).
That one small taste and I was captivated. I remain so.
In 'New York Tendaberry' you will find a rare jewel. A collection
of 13 extraordinary compositions. Tinged with gospel; flavoured with soul;
burning with seismic, visionary passion.
Ms Nyro's voice is a sublimely acrobatic instrument performing pirouettes
and cartwheels with unbelievable technical virtuosity. An artist not
afraid of taking risks ( listen to 'Tom Cat Goodbye' and try to sing along ! ).
Golly, as I'm writing 'Gibsom Street' has just started playing and I am
transported back almost 40 years to that first magical moment.
(Gulp!)
A rare and wonderful performer. A ravishingly beautiful album.
Trust me .... It's a taste worth aquiring.
with the inclusion of the song 'Gibsom Street' on the
Atlantic double-album sampler 'Fill You Head With Rock'.
She was in illustrious company : Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen,
Santana, Blood Sweat and Tears ( Oh but they were heady days ! ).
That one small taste and I was captivated. I remain so.
In 'New York Tendaberry' you will find a rare jewel. A collection
of 13 extraordinary compositions. Tinged with gospel; flavoured with soul;
burning with seismic, visionary passion.
Ms Nyro's voice is a sublimely acrobatic instrument performing pirouettes
and cartwheels with unbelievable technical virtuosity. An artist not
afraid of taking risks ( listen to 'Tom Cat Goodbye' and try to sing along ! ).
Golly, as I'm writing 'Gibsom Street' has just started playing and I am
transported back almost 40 years to that first magical moment.
(Gulp!)
A rare and wonderful performer. A ravishingly beautiful album.
Trust me .... It's a taste worth aquiring.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Salty Bear
Format:Audio CD
Please note that this review concerns the product purchased and NOT the album's content - if you are thinking of ordering this album you really shouldn't let an Amazon review make your mind up - it good, very good (5 stars for the album).
What I would say is that the mastering on the album I purchased is truly abysmal - it sounds like a really poorly encoded mp3 (I have heard better 96kb files)! - hiss all over the place which spoils quite a lot of the atmosphere on the quieter songs.
What I would say is that the mastering on the album I purchased is truly abysmal - it sounds like a really poorly encoded mp3 (I have heard better 96kb files)! - hiss all over the place which spoils quite a lot of the atmosphere on the quieter songs.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By M.B.
Format:Audio CD
Laura Nyro left a legacy of superbly unique and inventive albums, and her most productive period was between 1966-71, when she was in her late teens and early twenties. At 20, Nyro fought her way into a more senior role for 'ELI AND THE THIRTEENTH CONFESSION' (1968), running closer to her own unique vision for her songs, but it was 'NEW YORK TENDABERRY' (1969) that sealed her position as the fore-running female singer-songwriter of her generation.
Nyro's level of innovation, abandonment, and experimentation was comparable to no other singer-songwriter at this point; she was largely the first to play out her emotive, complex songs solo at the piano without the stifling accompaniment of big bands and excessive '60s production; her third record, 'NEW YORK TENDABERRY' represents her vision at its most naked, vulnerable, emotional, and unusual. Where 'ELI' swung and swayed with its rapturous joyousness and hints at dark drug-addled beauty, 'TENDABERRY' is much more serious, downbeat, and intimate. There aren't any joyous, tight, two-minute pop confections here. For the most part, they are four-minute-plus songs of damned love and enigmatic poetry.
The album veers between being quiet and intimate and loud and brash, sometimes within the same song ("You Don't Love Me When I Cry.") Nyro and her close co-producer/engineer Roy Halee achieved these ebbs and flows with subtle instrumentation, flourishes of brass, Nyro pounding out her chords, and varying her vocal tone. Her multi-octave voice is in full use here; at times she sounds much older than 21, and at others she wails and screeches with sheer emotion and pain ("Tom Cat Goodby.... Read more ›
Nyro's level of innovation, abandonment, and experimentation was comparable to no other singer-songwriter at this point; she was largely the first to play out her emotive, complex songs solo at the piano without the stifling accompaniment of big bands and excessive '60s production; her third record, 'NEW YORK TENDABERRY' represents her vision at its most naked, vulnerable, emotional, and unusual. Where 'ELI' swung and swayed with its rapturous joyousness and hints at dark drug-addled beauty, 'TENDABERRY' is much more serious, downbeat, and intimate. There aren't any joyous, tight, two-minute pop confections here. For the most part, they are four-minute-plus songs of damned love and enigmatic poetry.
The album veers between being quiet and intimate and loud and brash, sometimes within the same song ("You Don't Love Me When I Cry.") Nyro and her close co-producer/engineer Roy Halee achieved these ebbs and flows with subtle instrumentation, flourishes of brass, Nyro pounding out her chords, and varying her vocal tone. Her multi-octave voice is in full use here; at times she sounds much older than 21, and at others she wails and screeches with sheer emotion and pain ("Tom Cat Goodby.... Read more ›
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possibly the most beautiful album on Earth?
Many reviewers have already said so much, so succinctly about this wonderful Laura Nyro album and I couldn't match their reviews. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Benge
5.0 out of 5 stars
Too much for most?
Laura Nyro heard things differently, like Holger Czukay and Lee Perry continue to. That's why all her songs sound like no-one else's. Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2010 by N. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yes, it is possible
This is the best album I have ever heard. Better than Kind of Blue. Better than Bruno Walter conducting Mahler's 2nd symphony. Better than Wayne Krantz live. Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2009 by Mr. Lester F. Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quality issue
other reviewers have said most that can be said about this great, unusual album, it's just a shame that a remastered CD should have tape hiss present as background noise on an... Read more
Published on 10 Nov 2007 by easy listener
4.0 out of 5 stars
A work of great art
Laura Nyro wrote, with great skill, highly personal and complex poetic works interwoven with soul, doo-wop, Brill Building girl group and gospel overtones. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2005 by Lozarithm
5.0 out of 5 stars
an awesome event
If you dont have this album in your collection and you survived the 6o's and you have ever visited New York then shame on you. Read more
Published on 7 July 2003 by David Spanswick
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truely fantastic album
This album is superb. Way ahead of it's time. It is one of those albums that when you first hear it you think "not too sure". Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2002 by James haslam
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost her best album.
Laura Nyro's third album is mightily ambitious in trying to achieve her vision of soul/jazz/folk music, but for me fell short of the melodic and joyful/heartbroken "Eli &... Read more
Published on 14 Oct 2000 by The Bookworm
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