#463: Eli and the Thirteenth Confession [Laura Nyro, 1968]

Nyro was more popular as a songwriter than an artist. Musicians like Blood, Sweat and Tears, Three Dog Night and Barbra Streisand all had hits with Nyro-penned songs, and the 5th Dimension practically built their career on the work of Nyro, even naming their third album Stoned Soul Picnic, a song on this very album. It’s very possible to have a successful career as a songwriter and a musician - Carole King worked for years as a songwriter before creating her solo masterpiece (#25) - but all of the hits Nyro wrote were covers by other bands. None of the songs Nyro sang charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and Eli and the 13th Confession only made it 181 on the album chart. A lot of influential people liked Nyro, so why didn’t the general public? It’s probably just because she is a Weird Woman: she combined jazz with pop, she had a very emotive singing voice and she sang about women and sex in an ambiguous way. None of this was acceptable in the ‘60s, but it inspired generations of Weird Women - Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Cyndi Lauper - so we are all in her debt. 2.7/5.