MAY 11, 2001
FEATURES, ARTS & LEISURE
COMMENTARY
Joplin and Nyro, rock icons
<http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/05/11/p17s1.htm>
By Tony Vellela
Special to The Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK
In 1966, their startling talents began to generate electrifying
performances, like fireworks shot skyward one after another, during an
all-too-brief four-year period.
They were both women, both young, both with a few mesmerizing albums in
release.
And by 1970, both had all but disappeared from the scene.
For Laura Nyro, it was voluntary withdrawal. For Janis Joplin, it was a
fatal heroin overdose.
When I began writing pieces for the Monitor 32 years ago, the music world,
like all of American society, was being jolted by change. On Broadway,
"Follies" chronicled the death of the American musical, just as "Hair"
heralded the arrival of its assumed successor, the rock opera.
Singer-songwriters had claimed their place, with Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and
Leonard Cohen blazing the trail. And the endless search for self-discovery,
societal revolution, and personal fulfillment reached into every aspect of
life, creating gender, sexual, and political upheavals.
During that white-hot era, Joplin and Nyro blasted their way into the culture.
This month, two new off-Broadway shows, both packed with music, attempt to
acknowledge that influence. Randal Myler's Love, Janis is based largely on
letters Joplin wrote to her sister, Laura. Eli's Comin', created by Bruce
Buschel and Diane Paulus, takes its title from one of Nyro's best-known songs.
Both musicals provide a window into the music of Joplin and Nyro, and with
it some idea of why their work has proved so compelling for three decades.
Anyone interested in riveting music, '60s culture, sexual politics, women's
issues, or just having a good time should see these shows.
Joplin, born in 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, careened from one life crisis
to another until her early 20s, barely surviving. Then San Francisco's
Haight-Ashbury subculture gave her raw, blues-based hedonistic vocal style
a platform. Once discovered by profit-hungry record executives seeking to
cash in on the hippie culture, her fame was assured - and with it, her
breakneck-speed lifestyle.
Born in the Bronx, N.Y., in 1947, Nyro penned "And When I Die" and sold it
to Peter, Paul, and Mary when she was 17.
I recall interviewing Mary Travers, hearing her express unbridled
admiration for Nyro. "This is a remarkably talented young woman," said
Travers, who was never known for loose praise.
From 1968 to 1970, Nyro's annual Christmas concert at New York's Fillmore
East rock palace - Nyro attired in crushed velvet, and her grand piano
sheathed in similar fabric and topped with a silver candelabra - was cause
for great anticipation. Her early albums chronicled sensual journeys never
before expressed so poetically. But the glare of the spotlight made her
turn inward, and she grew reclusive. She died quietly in 1997.
Nyro was an acquired taste, appealing to those who valued her sensitive,
lyrical imagery ("...rugs, and drapes, and drugs, and capes"), stunningly
complex melodic structures, and open-hearted sincerity, which was the
hallmark of her performances.
Joplin, on the other hand, grabbed audiences by the throat with the most
basic of messages, like "Get It While You Can."
The one instance when I saw Nyro and Joplin on the same bill, at the
Philadelphia Music Festival in 1969, Nyro took the stage in midafternoon,
battling fierce summer heat, singing to a flagging audience in her style,
which demanded full attention. She was booed off the stage. That evening,
Joplin's electric kineticism ignited the crowd, her growling,
lightning-infused voice bringing people to their feet and keeping them
there for hours.
I had the pleasure of seeing both women perform several times, but met each
only once. Backstage at the Fillmore East, Nyro seemed as introspective,
reticent, and reflective as her songs. Backstage at a Randall's Island,
N.Y., rock concert, Joplin was expansive, bawdy, and outrageous, the
personification of the messages in the songs she flung out so recklessly.
Both were white but assimilated the musical styles of black culture:
Joplin from the blues, and Nyro from jazz. Both cleared a path for future
women in rock, from Joni Mitchell and Suzanne Vega to Rickie Lee Jones,
Lisa Loeb, and Ani DiFranco. And both, overwhelmed by insecurities, were
convinced that their talents were not fully realized.
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