Can't say enough ...

about Laura Nyro.

What she did for modern pop music shouldn't be underestimated.

Before Laura Nyro, who came to prominence in 1967 both as an artist and as a songwriter, there was a certain oppressive formulaic quality to pop music. While many bands, notably the Who and the nascent prog and heavy blues bands were expanding the form of pop music in terms of length, they didn't much challenge the conventions. Nyro did that by infusing standard pop music with jazz, blues, tin pan alley [the pre-1960 kind of tin pan alley, not the Neil Diamond or Jeff Barry-Ellie Greenwich kind] and just a kind of raucous, smart-girl joy that made her writing so ingenious.

Her songs didn't follow the standard format [verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus]. They followed whatever felt right. Whatever fit the mood, the story, the "feel" of the song. The songs slowed down. The songs sped up. They danced, and jumped around. They went on way too long. They ended too soon. But after you heard them, you knew who you were dealing with. Someone who would challenge you. And you were being challenged by an incredibly talented 20-year old girl.

I'm a saloon and a moonshine lover, indeed.