Joni Mitchell and Mary Travers appear on The Mama Cass Television Show recorded on Jan. 18, 1969. This was a pilot for a weekly series. It was produced by Chuck Barris of Gong Show fame.
Joni and Mama Cass radiate the last glow of the flower child era. Both will move on in different ways. Travers does Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die,” which Nyro sold to Traver’s group Peter, Paul and Mary for $5000. As much as I appreciate Travers as a vocalist, her folky take on the song just can’t touch the gospel feel of Nyro’s version.
Joni Mitchell: ‘Both Sides Now”
Mary Travers: “And When I Die”
Cass, Joni and Mary: “I Shall Be Released”
Laura Nyro 1966 demo of “And When I Die” and short interview after the jump…
Although, let’s face it, who honestly cares about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a huge Laura Nyro fan, I must admit that I was rather pleased to hear that the late singer-songwriter is going to be inducted. On April 14, Nyro will be joining other inductees the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses, Beastie Boys, Donovan and The Faces/Small Faces as the class of 2012. According to the Joe.My.God blog, Nyro would be only the fourth gay honoree for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, after Elton John, Dusty Springfield and Queen’s Freddie Mercury.
Laura Nyro is considered one of America’s greatest 20th century songwriters, even if most people who know her music don’t actually know her name. Some of Nyro’s biggest hits were recorded by the likes of Barbara Streisand, The 5th Dimension and Three Dog Night. Performers such as Elton John, Elvis Costello, Bette Midler, Rickie Lee Jones and Todd Rundgren have all spoken of how Nyro influenced their music and paid tribute to her during their careers. Although she’s little more than the subject of cult adulation today, when Laura Nyro’s second album, Eli and the 13th Confession was released in 1968, it was one of the stand-out albums in a year that also saw the White Album, Music from the Big Pink, Astral Weeks and Beggars Banquet.
In the context of today’s mostly bland mainstream pop, Eli and the 13th Confession, a now 44-year-old album, sounds even more astonishing than it did when it came out. A showcase for Nyro’s swooping, soaring vocals and accomplished piano playing, Eli is one of the most powerfully emotional and confessional albums ever recorded. It’s easily one of my top 50 albums of all time, although it’s a difficult record to listen to all the way through without tearing up giving way to full on crying. I envy any of you reading this who have yet to hear it or the two other albums in the trio of “classic” Laura Nyro albums, New York Tendaberry and Christmas and the Beads of Sweat. You’re not merely “in for a treat,” expect something closer to being overcome—even temporarily paralyzed—by an astonishingly pure musical genius.
It’s widely known that The Who and The Jimi Hendrix Experience made their first major US appearances at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and that Janis Joplin, too, made her big debut on that stage, but when 20-year-old Laura Nyro took the stage to perform three songs that night, it was only the second time that she had been on a stage, ever. Nyro performed an 18-minute-long set after The Byrds and before the Jefferson Airplane. The story is told over and over again of how she walked off the stage and collapsed in tears, sure that the audience hated her and was booing as she sang. When documentary film director D.A. Pennebaker found the footage of this performance many years later, this “legend” (which was perpetuated by Nyro herself and was contained in her New York Times obituary in 1997) was debunked. The only audible thing being shouted after Nyro performs this astonishing rendition of her “Poverty Train” is “beautiful!” and there is no booing heard at all.
“Stoned Soul Picnic”
“You Don’t Love Me When I Cry”
After the jump, in one of her rare-to-the-point-of-being-almost-non-existent TV appearances, Laura Nyro sings “Save the Country” on the Kraft Musical Hall variety program.
