Beechwoods
19-12-2011, 20:22
This week's Album Club feature is one of my top 3 albums ever. It happens to feature the word 'Christmas' in it's title, but it's not a Christmas album. It's an album of beauty and anger, and a multiplicity of musical dimensions.
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss49/aos_images/beechwoods/Laura_Nyro-Beads_of_Sweat_Cover.jpg
'Christmas and the Beads of Sweat' was Laura Nyro's fourth album, and the last of her 'Columbia Trinity' - the three albums she recorded for Columbia Records between 1968 and 1970, which are widely acknowledged as her masterpieces.
Of this trinity, 'Christmas' is often overlooked by the critics. Laura started as a songwriter, at a particularly young age (her first songs were published when she was just 16) and a number of her songs had been widely covered by other artists even before she'd achieved fame as a performer in her own right. But this is Nyro at her most accomplished; moving from her signer-songwriter beginnings and exploring new territory. She never reached further in subsequent albums, indeed I wonder if she actually scared herself with this. Her next album was a record made entirely of covers, and the one after that was a reissue of her first. It's almost like she knew she'd hit her zenith.
Possibly her most famous song was 'And When I Die', from her first album on Verve in 1967, and covered by Blood Sweat and Tears. For a songwriter by trade, it's ironic that her own biggest hit was a cover of 'Up On The Roof', the classic Goffin / King track originally performed by The Drifters, which appears on 'Christmas' as the closing track of the first side.
This album is a journey that deserves 45 minutes to savour. It's a difficult journey to describe, taking in the lush Brill Building arrangements in the opening two tracks, and the beauty of 'Up On The Roof' which will for me forever be the definitive version of an incredible song, with an intensity that really shows Carole King and Gerry Goffin's skill at distilling a feeling into a few words and a simple melody. The counterpoint to the previous track, 'Been On A Train' couldn't have been starker. The former about life, death and heroin.
The 'second side' or last 4 tracks are where Nyro moves it up a gear. The arrangements are extraordinary, with 'Map To The Treasure' moving into minimalist territory, highly reminiscent of Steve Reich's Piono-phase experiments.
The highlight for many will be the penultimate track, 'Beads Of Sweat'. Duane Allman's guitar drives a rock & soul track that shows how Laura Nyro could easily rock like Joplin when she chose to. Nyro was no goodie-two-shoes, she'd experimented with drugs, but she was a genuine believer, and the last track speaks of this. I have a privately released US Army album of Laura Nyro covers by a band that saw action in Vietnam; that always struck me as incongruous given Nyro's lyrics in this song: I love my country as it dies
In war and pain before my eyes...
Give this album a bit of your time, and you may find that it touches you like it has me.
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/user/beechwoods/playlist/5A0GTCZ7fSGmbQ9bg2VV3s
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F22DA0DFF70BF66
The venerable Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Nyro
wzYzCq4-R2A RVYqR0bnoqQ TkYVsd7DZlI
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss49/aos_images/beechwoods/LauraThousandMikes.jpg
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss49/aos_images/beechwoods/Laura_Nyro-Beads_of_Sweat_Cover.jpg
'Christmas and the Beads of Sweat' was Laura Nyro's fourth album, and the last of her 'Columbia Trinity' - the three albums she recorded for Columbia Records between 1968 and 1970, which are widely acknowledged as her masterpieces.
Of this trinity, 'Christmas' is often overlooked by the critics. Laura started as a songwriter, at a particularly young age (her first songs were published when she was just 16) and a number of her songs had been widely covered by other artists even before she'd achieved fame as a performer in her own right. But this is Nyro at her most accomplished; moving from her signer-songwriter beginnings and exploring new territory. She never reached further in subsequent albums, indeed I wonder if she actually scared herself with this. Her next album was a record made entirely of covers, and the one after that was a reissue of her first. It's almost like she knew she'd hit her zenith.
Possibly her most famous song was 'And When I Die', from her first album on Verve in 1967, and covered by Blood Sweat and Tears. For a songwriter by trade, it's ironic that her own biggest hit was a cover of 'Up On The Roof', the classic Goffin / King track originally performed by The Drifters, which appears on 'Christmas' as the closing track of the first side.
This album is a journey that deserves 45 minutes to savour. It's a difficult journey to describe, taking in the lush Brill Building arrangements in the opening two tracks, and the beauty of 'Up On The Roof' which will for me forever be the definitive version of an incredible song, with an intensity that really shows Carole King and Gerry Goffin's skill at distilling a feeling into a few words and a simple melody. The counterpoint to the previous track, 'Been On A Train' couldn't have been starker. The former about life, death and heroin.
The 'second side' or last 4 tracks are where Nyro moves it up a gear. The arrangements are extraordinary, with 'Map To The Treasure' moving into minimalist territory, highly reminiscent of Steve Reich's Piono-phase experiments.
The highlight for many will be the penultimate track, 'Beads Of Sweat'. Duane Allman's guitar drives a rock & soul track that shows how Laura Nyro could easily rock like Joplin when she chose to. Nyro was no goodie-two-shoes, she'd experimented with drugs, but she was a genuine believer, and the last track speaks of this. I have a privately released US Army album of Laura Nyro covers by a band that saw action in Vietnam; that always struck me as incongruous given Nyro's lyrics in this song: I love my country as it dies
In war and pain before my eyes...
Give this album a bit of your time, and you may find that it touches you like it has me.
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/user/beechwoods/playlist/5A0GTCZ7fSGmbQ9bg2VV3s
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F22DA0DFF70BF66
The venerable Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Nyro
wzYzCq4-R2A RVYqR0bnoqQ TkYVsd7DZlI
http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss49/aos_images/beechwoods/LauraThousandMikes.jpg