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From: AJMusicgirl
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  • i recall this great song from a album i had in the late sixties early seventies sure it was a compilation of Atlantic soul Sam and Dave were on there Otis redding among others.memory might be playing tricks but i do not think laura nyro sang it on that album be interested if anyone can put me right

  • such a crush I had on her in my teens!! she is missed

  • Thanks deejayroyall1 for your comment and to ajmusicalgirl for the song. I wasn't purposely trying to sound like an a-hole. Just trying in a small way to tell others how important Laura was to the music world and to all of her fans personally. Other artists touch us deeply but Laura could really get down to the pit of your soul.

  • She is sooo underrated and like Carole King is a major contributor to our music

  • WE CARE!

    

  • Beautiful!!! : D

  • one of my 1st '45's ~RIP Laura Nyro we may not have known about you then-we know about you now-you're in the best band now playing with the best- you-heaven must have mind blowing music jam nites ..just saying...

  • Sorry, I was being defensive but not for myself. I was saddened to discover that all those songs I liked were actually written by her and she seemed like the unsung heroe. I am glad she finally got some recognition.

  • Laura Nyro in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a joke. LOL.

  • Please tell me how an artist like this is in the ROCK AND ROLL hall of fame. It should be called the music hall of fame if anything because calling it rock and roll is a slap to the face of all rock and roll groups.

  • @bowbow13pats The women is dead, show some respect. Name your top 5 rock albums so we can see if you have credability.

  • @clubmidnightsun I am not saying anything against her, only the rock and roll hall of fame. I am not denying her musical talent, only her place in music. Whether someone is dead or not should not change your respect for them. Obviously I myself don't belong in any hall of fame, this isn't about me. Don't be so defensive.

  • @bowbow13pats Rock and roll of fame is Jann Wenner's douche fest. Merry Christmas.

  • @BrickLaneBetty: I thought so too until I became involved in inducting Laura Nyro. I had the same experience as clubmidnightsun (below). I just discovered 2 months ago that Laura Nyro actually wrote some of my favorite songs, and have been listening to her music almost non-stop. She died relatively unheralded, and couldn't even be honored in the Hall of Fame. Fortunately, she was just inducted. I guess I now appreciate the Hall of Fame!

  • @BrickLaneBetty You're more right about the R n R Hall of Fame than you know.

  • @bowbow13pats: I am a bit surprised at your comment. Rock and roll is more than Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones (you can tell my age by my examples!).You should go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and scroll the list of inductees. You will see lots of people who represent different threads of rock and roll. Miles Davis and Carol King, for example; or Joni Mitchell. Rock and roll has lots of roots and influences, practitioners and performers.

  • Avant Garde..Aloha

  • Regardless if or not she's 'inducted' Ms. Nyro will forever remain in our collective memories. The world needs another 'pop' star that captures so beautifully the angst and concerns of today's life: social, political, and personal.

    Thank you Laura!

  • HAPPY NEWS!!! LAURA WAS INDUCTED TO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME! YAAAAY

  • @ilovelinus But HEART wasn't so really nothing to celebrate

  • @ilovelinus Who is going to induct her? My vote is for Todd Rundgren who was deeply influenced by her and wrote "Baby, Let's Swing" about her and produced her album "Mother's Spiritual".

  • Beautiful voice I remember when I was in college in the 70's My roommate turned me on to her music a few other mood enhancing items LOL

  • I like your comment; Laura owns it; 5D brang it; but when you go back to the source, it makes you do all kinds of things with sassafras etc.

  • powerful beauty at work.

  • What talent. A beautiful song. I'm buying this album today.

  • Insulting? To Blacks? I think not, but your entitled to your opinion. LN didn't have a racial prejudice bone in her body.

  • she sure had soul, as evidenced by this original recording. I came to know who she was by all the hit recordings of her songs. for someone so young to have written "And When I Die" makes me think she was wise for her age.

  • Love the song!I had the album when it came out.Thanks for posting.R.I.P. Laura.

  • Love you Laura, happy birthday!

  • Happy Birthday Laura. We miss you!

  • We sold our piano to David Bianchini when he was married to Laura for her use..they were neighbors of ours

  • @MerleOberon What a wonderful opportunity to have known them, and to think, you provided the piano! What great memories to enjoy.

  • This is marvelous; what a voice! I haven't heard this song in 30 years or so, and had forgotten how beautiful it is.

  • always thought this a great melodic track and this is the first time I heard the composer Laura Nyro sing it, and its amazing stuff! Nyro is a funny name, wonder if its real!

  • @kevin41788 Laura's birth name is Laura NIGRO (pronounced NYE-gro--at least in this country). She invented her stage name and insisted that it be pronounce NEER-O (i.e. like Nero), although her management, record co. and her own family warned her that it would be mispronounced by many...if not most...ppl.

  • I love this song, and i.m.h.o. the original is the best version by far. I like T5D, and When I hear them do it, I can imagine going to the picnic, but when Laura sings it, I'm THERE! I feel like I can actually taste the red yellow honey!

    Thanks for posting this AJMusicgirl.

  • noahstfuboi, you transend any traditional concepts of the work stupid!!!

    I wish you could be in my shoes and you would see how much of an idiot I think you are (Dylan, I know, an other honky).

    As we used to say when Laura's music was huge... Peace but GFYS anyway!!!!

  • a classic song

  • @noahstfuboi No. This is a fantastic song and we don't need your political coordinate BS to ruin it.

  • This is very good. I just listened to several of her OWN renditions of songs that other artists recorded, and somehow, her versions sound much more "put together". It's like the others are "overdoing" them.

  • That's some nice mellow tune here.

  • I was selected by VH1 to write the tribute to her and to be the voice that expressed what Laura meant to music in the 1990 dedication to Laura as one of the greastest female artists in history. It was a great pleasure to be selected to do that and to know that she appreciated my comments. It was the least I could do considering what Laura meant to music and to me personally. Hell, I even named my children Emmie and Laura. She was a rare gift from God to the world and we all miss her so.

  • Saw her in Santa Monica loved her of course and she left us in Venice and SM too soon...

  • @RaveDreamer wow! What an honor. I just discovered all these songs I enjoyed in my teen years were actually covers. I am so blown away by her talent and it is bitter sweet because I didn't feel like she got the recognition in her life. I am so glad she made the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, she deserves it.

  • @clubmidnightsun Well, if anyone deserved it, Laura did. One of my daughters actually called me when she found out about the selection. She was so excited that the person she was named after received that recognition. Wish you well clubmidnight!

  • @RaveDreamer ... get off your soap box. Who cares?

  • @RaveDreamer I care. I thouroughly enjoyed reading your comment.

  • @RaveDreamer How absolutely wonderful that she is finally getting the mainstream recognition she deserves in that she is to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. I couldn't agree more with your comments.

  • @noahstfuboi They were contemporaries at the Brill Building, in Manhattan, writing songs for the Fifth Dimension....

  • @ChopShop1200 This is not a cover. Laura Nyro wrote this song. And she sings it beautifully.

  • @ChopShop1200 Do you realized a lot of people back in the days would sound "schooled voice". Also it depends on the genre, but really the genre doesn't even matter if the singer has the same flavor as other people in different genre. Because after all its how the singer sing about. Your a disgraceful troll

  • @ChopShop1200 Hey dumb shit, she is the one who wrote this song... she sure as hell can sing it also!!!!!

  • @ChopShop1200

    This is the original, dipshit.

  • @ChopShop1200 she wrote it numbskull.

  • "In ecomony, lyricism and melody, it is a masterpiece."  --Stephen Sondheim comments on Stoned Soul Picnic

  • I see the Hall O Feces past her over again.She was and is a legend. The Hall.....not so much

  • @molarguy Right on Man!

  • I dig the flute trill.

  • LOVE !!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Along with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Lennon-McCartney and Jackson Browne, Laura Nyro was one of the songwriters who wrote the soundtrack we all lived. Hope she knows that.

  • Whats sad is most people in my generation was raised on her music without even knowing who she was

  • Great musician! There are not many who can change the time signature in the middle of a pop song, returning to the 4/4 so effortlessly, it's hardly noticed (but appreciated!). Today few "artists" are on the level of a Laura Nyro.

  • @kerrinboy Especially those that come on like they are slaves to the drum machine, which is about 80% of them these days!

  • I AM GROOVIN!!! LOTS OF SEARCHING...BUT I FOUND YOU! I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH....IT INSPIRED CRAZE- OUI 3

  • WHY IS IT...THAT WHEN A PERSON WITH SUCH GREAT TALENT COMES ALONG, THEY ARE TAKEN FROM US WAY TOO SOON? RIP LAURA

  • This a pretty good version but the one the 5th Dimension sings is much better.

  • never actually heard this one until my twenties and im a bit of a historian , thankfully this was my first taste

  • Nyro is truly one of the true female musical geniuses of our time.

  • @FlonnyJynn

    Drop the female,just one of the true musical genius's of our/any time.

  • You need to hear the "Live at the Bottom Line" version of this tune...the guitar work is sublime...I love the 5th Dimension and they led me to Laura Nyro, but NO one sings

    LN songs like herself!

  • form the classic album fill your head with rock

  • Absolutely priceless talent.

  • yes, she had REAL SOUL!

  • The 5th Dimension version skips an important minor chord progression that´s essencial for the unity of the song. Both versions have their own qualities: 5th´s is fun Laura´s is surreal.

  • @joseluisfernandez58 You've got Bones Howe to thank for the arrangement of the 5th's album version. When in concert they seemed to do it more like Laura's version. I love both version...and I do mean LURVE.

  • John McCall Dig the soulful original by Laura Nyro:

    Roger Rudder I have heard this before. You solved some old confusion. Thank you very much.

  • Oh no...the 5th Dimension's version is a 100% better. Who ever said Laura's version has more soul doesn't know soul. The 5th Dimensions own this song. The beginning of their song is soul cool, and Marilyn's voice is so smoothe.

  • @Tiny1bme hmmm - I don't think it's about soul music - I think it's about music with soul - there's a monumental difference. Music with soul transcends genres. cheers

  • @Tiny1bme

    i agree . the 5th dimension just own this baby. but lets give credit to laura for writing it and making the 5th dimension rich beyond belief. 1 of my 25 all time faves. tremendous, liveliness to it even tho i dont exactly know what is all meant by lets surrey down & get with the lord & the lightning and the sasafras and wine and cheese with trains and blossoms. ok i get the wine and the cheese. but who ever said a song has to make sense to be great?? remember ob-la-di, ob-la-da????

  • @Tiny1bme Laura wrote this song and I heard her version 1st - I love the 5th Dimension but they skip the middle part. I think Laura's version is more soulful, the 5th Dimension's is much more commercial sounding. There is no real definition of "soul" - it is a feeling you get from the music, not the style of performance. The 5th Dimension always chose their songs wisely and helped out deserving songwriters like Laura and Jimmy Webb. She wrote the 3 Dog Night song Eli's Comin' from this LP.

  • @Tiny1bme Before you pee all over yourself, know that Nyro wrote the song. She wrote a variey of great songs.

  • what a beautiful voice and arrangement.

  • just beautiful! :)

  • Very cool story j0eX.

    I like her raw version.

    

  • We should be hearing this great music on the radio. Laura was fabulous

  • @mymangodfrey1

    This was played on 'Radcliffe and Maconie', BBC Radio 2 (UK) last night! That's why I'm checking it out here. It's the work of a genius, at least from the point of view of composition.

  • wow. Great singer. Great song.

  • SO good.

  • @USAisAntiWhite - No, who cares what YOU think, inch dick.

  • @02R96...don't confuse me with your brother/boyfriend.

  • @USAisAntiWhite - Oh, aren't you the funny one...

  • @USAisAntiWhite I care you stupid POS.

  • @marcusliciniusad ....why? Are you one of those people who lives their life through other successes and not your own?

  • @USAisAntiWhite Not hardly...

  • Never got into her back then, but I always liked the song, and now I have another version to choose from.

  • Thanks for putting in the skip ad part, nice song.

  • Who are the 9 morons who voted "dislike?"

    No....really?

  • Love this soulful melody and the brown rice memories of the60's... Hippies and free Love! Yeah~!

  • Why wasn't a born 7 years earlier so I could have at least enjoyed music like this. It sucks being a mid 80s baby. I feel like I got cheated musically with everything that came out in the 90s. Can we go back to the 70s please? I wanna lay in the grass on a blanket with my friends and toke out to this. Just sayin....

  • Her voice is amazing

  • owch! my heart!

  • Great song,Great voice,gorgeous person. damn same i was born in 1988.

  • Cool song

  • @ times the songwriter may not have a great voice but in this case she's endowed with both.give me Laure over 5th D.

  • I miss the days of musical sincerity, and fabulous "from the heart" musicians like Laura Nero. She is special. Excellent post, thanks!

  • Laura Nyro freakin ROCKS....I LOVE LOVE LOVE her!

  • This is in my all time top ten favorite albums. I think i bought it 3 times because I wore one out and someone stole one. Every song is unique and very different from the others.

  • I met her in 1968. I was with my friends from Quintano's School, taking a nice, mellow, what passed for a "lunch break" in the 60s. We were all giggly, when a very goth-looking girl in a long black shawl or cape and white frilly shirt came walking by. "Oh my God! It's Laura Nyro!" I said, totally gobsmacked. I went up to her and said "Laura Nyro, I love your music soooo much!" She smiled and shook my hand and said, "thank you, thank you! That really means a lot to me." That's all! A Bronx boy.

  • @j0eX I would have loved to meet her. I was lucky. My radio station played her more than the 'cover' groups. I loved her Eli much better than 3 Dog Nights, but I wasn't in the mainstream I guess. I miss her music. As I said, I would have loved to have met her. She was beyond 5*!

  • @j0eX she was tops!

    

  • Red yellow honey sassafras and moonshine.....stoned soul picnic...in her own way...Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. and the 5th Dimension couldn't touch this version! She will not pass this way on earth again...enjoy her best work...

  • @j0eX My older brother just loved her, I remember hearing her over and over again in the late 60's.

  • @j0eX  Gobsmacked? I take you left the Bronx, then.

  • @j0eX Goth-looking in 1968. So avant-garde! I guess Evie Sands and Laura were gifts to the 1960s.

  • I had this album, graduated high school in 1968

  • The most talented person almost nobody ever heard of. God Bless you Laura

  • @mjarnold1983 Some of us heard of her. There are holes in my vinyl version of this album :)

  • she was one helluva writer and singer

  • Let's get this amazing artist in the R&R Hall of Fame.

  • Stoned Soul Christmas (Blinky Griptite of the DapKings) does my fave Nyro cover.

  • Dave Marx, wherever you may be upstate NY, remember the hours we spent listening to Laura back at the James dorm

  • @JustJake57 Thumbs-up-ed for Mr. Marx to see!

  • I love Laura Nyro....very talented songwriter.

  • Never liked this music when I was young. King Crimson & Procol Harum was filling my brain. Now after all these years, Ms. Nyro has become a wonderful re-discovery. I've got a lot of catching up to do. There's a color picture of her on one of the sites seated high on a fire escape -- what an incredible shot for an album cover. Laura always looked sad (though I felt she was an attractive young woman) -- but she certainly was talented. Seems black musicians realized this before we did.

  • Such an incredibly beautiful song, especially when you get to hear the writer's version.

  • Listened to this album - endlessly!!

  • Loves it, i feel like going to the lake and having a picnic!! ;)

  • God, that range! I'm so jealous of those vocal cords.

  • The influence she had on Todd Rundgren is really obvious here. This track could be right off Something/Anything?

  • @joenbloe Very much so, Todd spoke very highly of her today while delivering a lecture here at Indiana University.

  • holy bejeezuz!! know the songs - neer knew the woman.. until referred by Rumer as a fave!

    speaking of 'hall of fame', blimey, why is she not up there with Carole King...

  • I'm afraid I had not heard of Laura until someone referenced her on the Fifth Dimension's rendition of Wedding Bell Blues. I like the fact that I can understand all the words on her version of this song. Unfortunately, that is not true of other versions. Wonderful singer/songwriter.

  • she sounds a bit like carol king in this song

  • @inkey2 I doubt Carole King could hit those high notes in the bridge.

  • A Very Happy Birthday to a Truly Beautiful, Amazing &Unique Talent...

  • Beautiful gifted soul... happy 63rd birthday Laura!

  • Happy birthday, Laura.

  • nyro's stone soul picnic is fantastic...soulfull ....just like the rest of her enormous collection of work... my respect and love to her for all time

  • Congrats to Laura on her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognition!

  • She says 'down' differently than I do.

  • Wow.. I had no idea about this awesome writer, and I have had a real personal affinity for this song, Stoney End as well as When I Die.. what an eye openner to see these three songs were written by this amazing lady.. thnx so much for the info!!

  • Such a great song! Her version here is really the best. The 5th Dimension's cover is

    good, but Laura's has much more soul!

  • @jdh1954 Agreed.

  • probably one of the best records ever made.

  • a song that has stood up well to the vicissitudes of time!

  • a musical genious

  • I was a big fan of hers back in the 60's. Her first two albums were brilliant, her debut especially was genius. Sadly, her subsequent records never lived up to the early recordings. But she wrote enough to be remembered as a remarkable artist.

    What a shame she was treated so shabbily by her ex-husband and how tragic that she died so young.

  • She captures the whole essence of summer....at least as it used to be....

  • American as apple pie

  • This is the first song that I ever of Lauro's, it started me off on a great musical adventure and for that I will always love this song

  • What a great rendition. I like this better than the 5th Dimension version. It sounds authentic.

  • What can I say that hasn't already been said about such a great talent, that left us waaay too soon. RIP Laura...Your great songs and music live on thanks to YouTube.

  • U can't not love her.

  • Laura does most of her songs better than those who cover. She's got real soul & heart in her voice and doesn't schmaltz it up with candy floss like the 5th Dementia I mean Dimension.

  • Yes seriously underrated.

  • I can serry.

  • @phillydog17 surrey

  • Oh God, What a musical loss. Only the good die young. Time to expose my 20 something daughters to her. Agreed she made the 5th dimensions career w/ her songs. The version of Stoney end gives me chills

  • None better!

  • What a voice. Todd Rundgren is heavily influenced by Nyro.

  • stephen sondhiem's favorite LN song - makes you wonder what their conversations were like

  • I adore this song!

  • Thanks so much for posting this. I knew that she was the composer, but never knew she'd actually recorded it. This is fantastic. What genius! How does a mind work like that? Incredible.

  • Thanks AJMusicgirl for this song and your whole mix. LN was so talented so young, and in a great soul way, not a rock and roll way, more Stevie and Sly than Stones. Funny, see some physical and vocal resemblance to Amy Winehouse, though of course totally different energy and talent level.

  • No one wrote songs like Laura Nero, and everybody who every recorded them sold more records than she did. Perhaps one of the more seriously underrated artists of the 60's. The 5th Dimension owe their entire success to her music.

  • Thanks AJMG. I am ashamed to admit that this is the first I have ever heard of Laura Nyro. The 5th Dimension really made her songs their own and so it never occurred they had been written by someone else. I agree with you Reach1 about the celebratory mood of the 70s. Songs like Stoned Soul Picnic just reek of originality.. as if we were moving into a new dispensation. Two of the most special people in my heart hold this position because I associate them with American music and the seventies.

  • Yep - her dual disc CD was phenomenal!

  • Its great that she can use these Burt Bacharach type progressions and still sound so street. Nothing brings back "the day" like this one. I cant hear it without crying.

  • bellissima! brava... Laura

  • Surry is a word in Urban Dictionary. Surry means to move with the expectation of having a good time.

  • she is the one one wants to be next to for the rest of their lives

  • I've heard these great songs throughout my childhood, I'm now 50 years old and only now have discovered this wonderful soul named Laura Nyro brought these songs into the world. I tearfully morn her passing.

  • What a great song! RIP, Laura...

  • how do you surry? i always wondered. and can you surry up, or just down?

  • @bobbyb826 a surrey was a two seat horse drawn carriage ... have you heard of the "surrey with the fringe on top? "