Laura Nyro, circa 1968.
October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997
As the holiday season is upon us, and as we continue to contrast seasonal joy with the ongoing battles for justice taking place across the nation, I have a song ringing in my mind, as it often does this time of year. The song is "
Christmas in My Soul," by Laura Nyro. I've featured her before in a
holiday song diary, but this season, as we mourn losses, and also fight to make changes,
the lyrics seem particularly apropos.
Join me below the fold for the song and more on the artist.
Come young braves
Come young children
Come to the book of love with me
Respect your brothers and your sisters
Come to the book of love
I know it ain't easy
But we're gonna look for a better day
Come young braves
Come young children
I love my country as it dies
In war and pain before my eyes
I walk the streets where disrespect has been
The sins of politics, the politics of sin
The heartlessness that darkens my soul
On Christmas
She closes with:
Now the time has come to fight
Laws in the book of love burn bright
People, you must win for thee
America, her dignity
For all the high court world to see
On Christmas
"Christmas in My Soul" is the last song on Nyro's album,
Christmas and the Beads of Sweat.
She also
reads the poem in concert.
I was always struck by the fact that she spoke out for so many, including anti-war activists like the Chicago Seven, the Black Panthers and Native Americans.
Black panther brothers bound in jail
Chicago seven and the justice scale
Homeless Indian of Manhattan Isle
All God's sons have gone to trial
And all God's love is out of style
On Christmas
How much has changed since she penned the lyrics in 1970? Black Panther Albert Woodfox, has remained incarcerated in solitary confinement for 42 years—
you can take action, and send him some support. Over two million Americans are incarcerated, mostly because of the war on drugs. The "justice scale" she references is
way out of balance, from the "high court" to grand juries refusing to indict police who commit murder.
In spite of the trying times, Nyro always had hope for a better day, and didn't give up, even as she was facing her own battle with ovarian cancer.
Currently in the works is a documentary film project December's Boudoir, from Earthworks Films, co-produced by Maria Florio.
A brief biography:
Born in New York on October 18, 1947, Laura was brought up on city life and summers spent in the lush greenery of the Northeast. She began playing music very early, and enjoyed a wide range of influences through her high school years at Manhattan’s Music and Art. Laura listened to the late ‘50’s and ‘60’s girl groups, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, Mary Wells, Dusty Springfield, and the early Burt Bacharach-Hal David songs of Dionne Warwick, among many others. Laura read poetry and at home her mother played records by Leontyne Price and impressionist classical composers such as Ravel, Debussy and Persicetti.
Throughout high school Laura also listened to the protest music of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, early Bob Dylan the Beatles and others. Laura always "adored" the music of Van Morrison. “I was always interested in the social consciousness of certain songs. My mother and grandfather were progressive thinkers, so I felt at home in the peace movement and the women's movement, and that has influenced my music.”
I went to high achool with her in New York City. We were all not only immersed in music and art, but were actively engaged in political movements. It lifts my heart and soul to see young people across America mobilizing, protesting and using social media we didn't have back in the late '60s and early '70s.
We did have music. Her songs and music encompassed multiple issues, from poverty to drugs, to relationships between women, and unlike many other song writers of her time she did not forget about Native Americans.
She wrote and performed the title song for the film Broken Rainbow, the 1985 Academy Award-winning documentary film about the government-enforced relocation of thousands of Navajo Native Americans from their ancestral homes in Arizona.
Broken Rainbow
The old people of the earth
Tell stories
An old woman
Of the old ways
She said -
"I recall my joy
In better days"
The young warriors
Of the open rainbow
Said "Tell me is it true?
Tell me, do some live
out of bags and rags
In the cities too?
Is it true?"
At the edge where I live
Home sweet home
America
Native American Nation
Caught in the devastation
An endless situation
What can I do?
The ghost of prejudice
Cuts thru the moonglow
Poet on a crying page -
Broken Rainbow
Broken Rainbow
Home sweet home
America
A very private woman, Nyro did not do a lot of interviews, and resisted doing record company promotional events for her albums. Recently, I found this rare audio track of an interview with her, conducted by William Kloman on Critique, a public television series.
Rest in peace. Your music lives on in the souls of those who have been touched by it.
