On July 30, Madfish Music will release American Dreamer – an 8xLP Laura Nyro boxset featuring remastered versions of her first seven albums plus an LP of rare demos and live recordings.
The package includes a 36-page booklet with rare photographs, interviews and extensive liner notes from Peter Doggett, plus words from Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Todd Rundgren, Rosanne Cash, Rickie Lee Jones, Graham Nash, Donald Fagen, Alice Cooper, Bette Midler and Patti Labelle.
“This is music so far ahead of its time that it still sounds so unbelievable,” says Elton John. “The soul, the passion, just the out-and-out audacity of the way her rhythmic and melodic changes came, was like nothing I’d heard before. She influenced more songwriters that came out – successful songwriters – than probably anyone who came before her.”
The albums included in American Dreamer are More Than A New Discovery (1967), Eli And The Thirteenth Confession (1968), New York Tendaberry (1969), Christmas And The Beads of Sweat (1970), Gonna Take A Miracle (1971), Smile (1976) and Nested (1978). Peruse the tracklisting for the disc of rare demos and live recordings below, and pre-order the boxset here.
Stoney End (Single Version) (Mono Version)
Lu (Demo)
Stoned Soul Picnic (Demo)
Emmie (Demo)
Eli’s Comin’ (Single Version) (Mono Version)
Save The Country (Single Version)
In The Country Way (Album Version)
Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing (Recorded Live 30 May 1971, Fillmore East, USA)
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Recorded Live 30 May 1971, Fillmore East, USA)
O-o-h Child (Recorded Live 30 May 1971, Fillmore East, USA)
Up On the Roof (Recorded Live 30 May 1971, Fillmore East, USA)
Someone Loves You (Demo)
Get Off My Cap (Demo)