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What rock music are you listening to? Non-Jazz, Non-Classical.


EKE BBB

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7 hours ago, sgcim said:

I don't know if you read her biography, but the producer of her first album (HB) describes the train wreck that resulted when they let LN play the piano with the studio musicians on the first try at recording it. She would rush the tempos, then all of a sudden slow down, then stop, etc... It was literally impossible for the best studio musicians in NY to follow her.

It was a complete disaster, and she wound up breaking into tears trying to get through any of the songs. HB decided the only way they were going to be able to record the album was if she didn't play piano and just sang, so they hired a studio pianist to come in and play for her, and she just sang her songs, She was extremely upset during the whole experience.

She was still in HS when she recorded it, so she didn't have much experience playing with other musicians.She didn't get a good reaction when she performed at the Monterey Pop Festival on her own, so she probably needed the help of a more experienced musician until she got a little older.

As far as the subject of comparing her versions of her songs to other performers' versions, I've learned to never bring that up with Laura Nyro fanatics. One time my brother-in-law's sister had an argument over that with her husband, and I didn't think their marriage was going to survive their differences on the subject. I will say that Streisand's version of "Stony End" nauseates me, and that David Clayton Thomas' (BS&T) versions of "AWID" and "He's a Runner" are great, as are The Fifth Dimension's versions of "SSP and "WBB, but I can't listen to anything by Three Dog Night.

Have the biography picked up as a remainder, but have never gotten around to reading it yet.   I know there is some debate about her Monterey performance, on how negative the crowd was, though general take is that she was poorly received.  The clip in the Monterey video box set sounds good to me.  

 

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8 hours ago, felser said:

Have the biography picked up as a remainder, but have never gotten around to reading it yet.   I know there is some debate about her Monterey performance, on how negative the crowd was, though general take is that she was poorly received.  The clip in the Monterey video box set sounds good to me.  

 

Definitely read the biography! There's one hilarious exchange between her and her producer (HB) where he asks her if she's been cutting school to come to the studio sessions!!

She sounded great on "Poverty Train", but the band (supposedly the Wrecking Crew!) had trouble following her, just like the NY studio musicians did on her first album. You can really hear it at the end, when they just keep holding that chord under her; they sound like they don't know what the hell to play (I've been there!). She needed her own band with a lot of rehearsal, because she had this habit of doing tons of tempo changes, and unless it's conducted or rehearsed a lot, 

I'd love to hear the full version of "Wedding Bell Blues", although it sounds like the band was playing it too slow.

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2 hours ago, sgcim said:

Definitely read the biography! There's one hilarious exchange between her and her producer (HB) where he asks her if she's been cutting school to come to the studio sessions!!

She sounded great on "Poverty Train", but the band (supposedly the Wrecking Crew!) had trouble following her, just like the NY studio musicians did on her first album. You can really hear it at the end, when they just keep holding that chord under her; they sound like they don't know what the hell to play (I've been there!). She needed her own band with a lot of rehearsal, because she had this habit of doing tons of tempo changes, and unless it's conducted or rehearsed a lot, 

I'd love to hear the full version of "Wedding Bell Blues", although it sounds like the band was playing it too slow.

Thanks for the heads up, will move the book up on my priority list.  Maybe should would have been best served to just play solo at Monterey?  I'm not a musician, so I miss a lot that guys like you notice.  Her mid-70's material sounds (to me) well integrated with the band she used ('Smile', 'Seasons of Light', etc.).  What are your thoughts on all that?

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2 hours ago, felser said:

Thanks for the heads up, will move the book up on my priority list.  Maybe should would have been best served to just play solo at Monterey?  I'm not a musician, so I miss a lot that guys like you notice.  Her mid-70's material sounds (to me) well integrated with the band she used ('Smile', 'Seasons of Light', etc.).  What are your thoughts on all that?

To tell you the truth, I didn't listen much to her later stuff. I just remembered that it didn't sound like her early stuff, which I loved, so I didn't pursue it.

I remember when I did the gigs with her first producer, he didn't think too highly of her later stuff, and claimed, "I got all her good stuff!".

I'll have to listen to her later stuff sometime.

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12 hours ago, sgcim said:

To tell you the truth, I didn't listen much to her later stuff. I just remembered that it didn't sound like her early stuff, which I loved, so I didn't pursue it.

I remember when I did the gigs with her first producer, he didn't think too highly of her later stuff, and claimed, "I got all her good stuff!".

I'll have to listen to her later stuff sometime.

I doubt the first producer is going to be the most objective evaluator of her later material :P.   Part of the equation is that Laura Nyro could have sung the phone book and made it sound wonderful.  Here is a good example of the mid-70's material to which I referred.  The band sounds in sync to me, even with the tempo changes.

 

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4 hours ago, felser said:

I doubt the first producer is going to be the most objective evaluator of her later material :P.   Part of the equation is that Laura Nyro could have sung the phone book and made it sound wonderful.  Here is a good example of the mid-70's material to which I referred.  The band sounds in sync to me, even with the tempo changes.

 

Wow, she really got jazzy and funky on that one! Nice guitar by John Tropea and great bass playing by Richard Davis. 

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