Live: The Loom's Desire [Live]

Laura Nyro | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 7, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Label: Rounder / Umgd
• ASIN: B0000640LI
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,678 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Most listeners were introduced to the songs of the late Laura Nyro through 1960s hits by the likes of the Fifth Dimension ("Wedding Bell Blues") and Blood, Sweat & Tears ("And When I Die"). Such mainstream exposure didn't hint at how strikingly (sometimes stridently) original and passionately obsessive her own performances could be. These 1993-94 recordings from Nyro's annual Christmas Eve concerts at New York's Bottom Line show her music in its most suitably intimate setting, backed only by a female harmony chorus and her spare piano accompaniment. Her incantatory rendition of "Save the Country" and her rapturous signature tune, "Emmie," find her early material maturing with her, while she transforms classic ballads such as the Everly Brothers' "Let It Be Me" and Smokey Robinson's "Ooh Baby, Baby" into personal testament. Though some of her later songs are more didactic and narrowly focused--she plainly wasn't concerned about commercial potential with "Lite a Flame (The Animal Rights Song)" or "The Descent of Luna Rose" (her ode to the menstrual cycle)--her material retains its melodic warmth. In Nyro's musical progression, the soul sister and the earth mother became one. --Don McLeese

Product Description

2 discs of live recordings taken from Christmas concerts during 1993 & 1994. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An open love letter to Luna Rose..., May 12, 2002

By 

M. MOTEN (pittsburgh, pa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live: The Loom's Desire (Audio CD)

Collectively speaking, the world has never done enough good works to deserve having Laura Nyro in it. It's almost as if she knew it too; Vanishing at the height of commercial success, after writhng pop hits for the 5th Dimension ("Wedding Bell Blues"), Streisand ("Stoney End") and Blood, Sweat and Tears ("And When I Die"), she left for her own version of domestic bliss in the suburbs. Still writing songs and recording, wealthy enough to do both on her own terms, she never toured. As if she knew how special and rare she was, she would make a Holiday Gift of herself...and only to a few. Always playing on Dec. 24th, coming to the city like that perfect snow...you remember that night it snowed? Of course you do.

Of course she'd send us a new gift now. Now that times are scary and people are angry. Christmas in Springtime. The Loom's Desire pairs her 1993 and '94 holiday shows at New York's Bottom Line. Occasionally she's joined by a trio of
harmony/backup singers, but mostly it's just Laura and the Piano, weaving her own peculiar magic. "Doing her thing," as she called it. She sings songs she wrote, songs she's "working on" and songs she just loves. She tells us about her cold, and the cracks and skips in her voice become even more endearing. She wishes us a happy holiday, chiding herself for not wishing it sooner. She tells us she loves us. She DOES love us...for some reason.

The world hasn't been good enough, not beautiful enough to deserve Laura Nyro. It probably never will be. Just lucky, I guess

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That Procreative Void, July 11, 2002

By 

Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live: The Loom's Desire (Audio CD)

Those of us who've been touched by Laura Nyro's magic will forever miss her. When I'm 80, if my ears still work, I can picture myself sitting in my rocker cranking up "New York Tendaberry." I only got to see her twice: in Normal, Illinois in the 70s; and in Santa Monica, California in the 80s. These two Christmas Eve concerts are magical. The songs are not new, particularly if you've gotten the REQUIRED "Angel in the Dark" CD, but they do give the feel of the inspiration she created through her live concerts. As much as anything, Laura was a working woman, a musician, who shared her craft. On one of the intros she tells of having a cold, "When I stop singing, I start sneezing."

The 1993 concert offers the Phil Spector tune "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby" that Laura nails soulfully. On "Dedicated to the One I Love," she changes the lyric slightly, "I can be satisfied knowing love's alive." "Wind" was always one of my favorites from "Gonna Take A Miracle," and the lovely background vocals help lift this take to the sky. Laura's singing is full and empassioned on "Light A Flame" & her piano is bright and fluid on "Walk the Dog & Light the Light." "Kiss the sun hello, God & Goddess, make your life a loving thing," is soothingly sung on "To A Child." I find great irony in listening to "And When I Die" on this posthumous release. Laura's "uppity feminist bent" is hilarious on "Japanese Restaurant Song"; and "My Innoncence/Sophia" combine wonderfully. Her marvelous background vocalists send the familiar "Wedding Bell Blues" over the top. I think "Art of Love" is one of her most marvelous, underrated tunes, "S.O.S., Give a message all around the world, let peace shine for the Earth." Laura's lyrical complexity shines on "Emmie," "Emily, you are the natural snow, the unstudied seed."

The 1994 concert (disc 2) offers an early version of "Angel in the Dark," "Come back to me, come back into my prayer." I am "Struck by the poetry" with Laura's beautiful piano on "Gardenia Talk." A very nice take of "Save the Country" includes her intro, "I wrote this song many moons ago." Singing with passionate confidence on "Woman of the World," "Friends & lovers give the sun to each other." Laura introduces "The Descent of the Luna Rose" as "Dedicated to women's monthly cycles of renewal & don't mess with me." It offers some of her witty lyrics, "Baby, don't look at me like Freud, that procreative void will get you thrown out my love." The stark innocence of the Native American tribute "Broken Rainbow" thunders home for the urban homeless as the singer asks, "Do some live out of bags & rags; is it true?" The CD concludes with Nyro's soulful ache on Smokey Robinson's "Ooh Baby Baby," "Mistakes, I know I've made a few, but you've made mistakes too." Laura's passing leaves a procreative void that will not be filled. This live set is a wonderful communion with her joyful spirt. Don't miss it!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intimate... beyond intimate...., February 22, 2003

By 

David D. Macks "99th Worf101" (Troy, New York United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live: The Loom's Desire (Audio CD)

Knowing as I do how hard it is to perform live, I find this collection amazing. Singing practically "naked" with nothing but your piano and some voices is a daunting task, Laura accomplishes this with verve, passion and great arrangements that belie the lack of other instrumentation. She could sing... her voice will live with me forever... never stilled.