Never enough
Nineteen discs of the New York singer-songwriter showcase her embarrassment of riches.
By Victoria Segal.
Getty, David Gahr/Getty Images
Laura Nyro
★★★★
Hear My Song: The Collection 1966-1995
MADFISH. CD/LP
IN 1966, Bronx piano tuner Lou Nigro was hired to sort out a second-hand keyboard in the office of Artie Mogull, the music executive involved in setting up Bob Dylan’s publishing company Dwarf Music. Opportunistically, Nigro gave Mogull the hard sell about his singer-songwriter daughter. To keep the peace, Mogull agreed that 18-year-old Laura could audition for him – a decision he ceased to regret when he heard Stoney End, And When I Die and Wedding Bell Blues, songs that would be hits for Barbra Streisand, Peter, Paul And Mary and The 5th Dimension.
With a management deal signed, he took his new artist to record a demo with producer Milt Okun. That tape, titled Go Find The Moon, is included in this voluminous box set, the germ for all that follows, including nine studio albums, six live sets and one disc of rarities. Versions of And When I Die and Lazy Susan, both from Nyro’s 1967 debut More Than A New Discovery, are captured with in-the-room clarity, but just as revealing is the exchange between Mogull and Nyro. “Laura,” the manager gruffly demands, “do you do any songs other than those that you’ve written? You don’t know any pop songs? Stardust? Moon River?”