Freedom

If you have read my blog stories from the beginning, you know I have been in survival mode since I was a kid. There is little freedom in never feeling seen, heard, guided, or encouraged. So, what’s a Tough Cookie to do?

Writing to heal and listening to music always help me. It was my good fortune one day to hear Wedding Bell Blues sung by the 5th Dimension on the radio. Then they had other hit songs like Blowing Away, Stoned Soul Picnic, Sweet Blindness, and Save The Country.

Perhaps you know the song Eli’s Coming, sung by Three Dog Night, or And When I Die, sung by Peter, Paul & Mary and Blood, Sweat & Tears, or Stoney End. sung by Barbra Streisand.

But do you know who the singer-songwriter of all those songs is? The answer is Laura Nyro, who described herself as a “rebel in society” and “a poet walking through life.” In my teens and beyond, she became my mentor from afar and taught me about freedom, independence, spirituality, and creativity through her music.

I knew one day I would write about her influence and importance in my life, but I didn’t realize how much we had in common until I started the research for this blog post.

The best definition of freedom I ever heard was from her song, And When I Die, which she wrote when she was 16.

Laura Nyro On Writing

“As a writer, I use everything: feminism, my spirituality, motherhood. I don’t accept any limitations as a writer. I was a very sad little girl. Sometimes I had good times. I could close myself into my room and tune into my own private world where my most painful feelings could be transformed into verse.”

“When I write my music, I see all the rivers flowing…sensual, spiritual, religious, animal, intellectual. Most of the songs I wrote at night. I would just wake in the middle of the night. That’s when I found the space to write.”

“For instance, I may bring a certain feminist perspective to my songwriting because that’s how I see life. I’m interested in art, poetry, and music. As that kind of artist, I can do anything. I can say anything. It’s about self-expression. It knows no package-there’s no such thing. That’s what being as artist is.”

“The writing I was doing at a very young age was influenced by poetry that I was reading.”

“The writer’s life to me means I can write about whatever I want to. And that’s a great freedom. I cherish that freedom.”

“I think songwriting is a really happy profession. I love songwriting, and I just want to continue to do it every day. It is musical architecture, exciting and peaceful. It can be frustrating, but you just can’t let yourself get in that energy. You just have to work every single day.”

Being a woman of her word, in the song Right To Vote, one of the verses is:

“Thank you, sirs, for the right to vote.

They say a woman’s place is to wait and serve

Under the veil, submissive and dear,

But I think my place is in a ship from space

To carry me the hell out of here!”

Laura often wrote about the struggle between poverty and harmony, desire, ordinary people, and the enchantment of life in the great beyond. But love and singing her truth were the main themes. Her songs have always been unique, captivating, and healing. I still feel grateful, connected, and like minded to a writer I never met because her confident creativity inspired me to keep pursuing my writing goals.

Her feminist beliefs also included a vision of utopian communities with central kitchens to feed the needy and places for older people to connect with youth and animals rather than live in separate, lonely places.

Social consciousness was an intense part of her writing and daily life. She supported the peace movement, women’s movement, and was an animal rights activist.

According to the Power Thesaurus, synonyms for feminism are equal rights, female empowerment, rights of women, sisterhood, and movement towards gender equality. Notice that women that hate men is not included. Too often, feminism is misunderstood. Equality for all has always been the goal, not hatred.

One of her friends said Laura didn’t make distinctions like white, black, yellow, man, or woman. She saw a circular kind of energy between nature, animals, and human beings. It was all one big circle to her. She also told her friend, “Love is where you find it. You better just not turn your face away from it when you see it.”

Laura Nyro Concert In Ravinia

One of the best memories of my life was the evening I saw Laura Nyro perform at Ravinia Park in the Chicagoland area. Ravinia is a 36-acre outdoor venue in a gently wooded area that makes it a fantastic place to experience live performances outdoors.

She walked onto the elevated stage covered by the vast protective roof cover and sat at the piano surrounded by LaBelle, her band, and roses. Together, they sang the smoothest harmonies I ever heard to Gonna Take A Miracle, the songs listed above, and many others.

Her music is a unique combination of soulful jazz, blues, folk, gospel, pop, and introspective word choices. She balanced a street side and a spiritual side, evident in her lyrics.

Laura’s vocal range was a 3-octave mezzo-soprano. This is a classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and contralto. A contralto is a type of classical singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. Something magical about her voice, talent, and sensitivity pulls you in.

About halfway through the concert, it started to thunder, lightning, and rain. She encouraged everyone to come closer and shelter right by her under the cover. Everyone would have stayed, even if a twister descended. She instinctively knew how to care about, connect to, and captivate an audience. We all felt her compassion.

In one of my favorite songs she wrote, Money, part of the lyrics are:

“She said, “I’m young enough. I’m old enough to paint a smile.

I tasted heaven and hell,

Heaven stay awhile.

A good friend is a rare find.

Their straight talk can ease your mind.

A good pimp’s gonna’ rob you blind.

Money, money, money,

I feel like a pawn in my own world.

I found the system and I lost the pearl.”

Those words imply that Laura did not like the business side of being a singer-songwriter. She set her own standards and retained creative control of her music and performances at a cost, however. One of her friends said, “Many times she was asked to do things she did not want to do because she did not think it was right for her image. Laura said no to those requests.”

In other words, money and fame were not her most important goals, which seems to be a writer thing. She valued life’s memories when she sang harmony with other singers on the street corners and the subway in the Bronx. Laura retired from the limelight at the age of 24. She continued writing music, recording albums, and some live performances, but I think she longed for a simpler and more private life than touring all the time and being rushed creatively to meet recording deadlines.

In 1968 she released Save The Country after the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Part of the lyrics are:

“And I got fury in my soul

Fury’s gonna take me to the glory goal.

In my mind I can’t study war no more.

Save the people! Save the children! Save the country! Save the country now!

Come on people! Sons and mothers!

Keep the dream of two young brothers

Gonna take that dream and ride that dove.

We can build the dream with love, I know,

We could build the dream with love.”

As a recording artist, Laura Nyro never had a gold album or a hit single. She recorded nine studio albums. Many of her songs were hits for others, and millions were sold. Her album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, captured the attention of many popular artists and performers as being unlike anything that they had ever heard before.

Writers are always the last to be recognized whether they are ghostwriters, screenplay writers, songwriters, or speech writers. It is always the celebrity that receives the attention and recognition. Without writers, there would be no books, movies, plays, songs, documentaries, political speeches, investigative journalists, or celebrities. But have you noticed? Writers keep on writing because that is when we feel most alive.

At the age of 49, Laura lost her battle with ovarian cancer. While dying, she made her last CD, Angel In The Dark.

Awards

In 1985 she wrote the song Broken Rainbow for the Broken Rainbow Documentary that won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It is a film by Victoria Mudd and Maria Florio about the Navajo Native Americans focusing on the government-enforced relocation of thousands from Black Mesa in Arizona after the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act.

Years after she died in 1997, in 2010, she was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 2012, Bette Midler spoke about her friendship with Laura during the posthumous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. She could not hold back the tears at the end when she shared that “Laura was an ornament on earth.” And those of us who know her music absolutely understand how true that statement is.

The Nyro Fuller Connection

Earlier I mentioned I did not know how much Laura and I had in common until I started writing this post. Here is what I realized:

• We share the same birth month, October, and are Libras. Scales that are weighted to produce balance and harmony are the symbol for Libra.
• She described herself as a sad little girl and wrote her first song when she was eight. I also had a sad childhood and wrote my first story when I was eight.
• We both grew up in big cities in the United States.
• There is a street and spiritual side to our writing.
• I loved music and put together a band. She loved songwriting and had great success with the band she assembled.
• We both thought of ourselves as poets and rebels.
• When people failed us, writing was always there to guide us back to peace.
• We both loved to write, value the freedom it brought to our daily lives, and used our writing to help others.
• I never believed in labels, and neither did she.
• She only married once and had one child, a son, and so did I.
• I loved being a mom, and so did Laura.
• We both went through divorces.
• I have advocated for children, families, and animals my entire adult life. She was an advocate for children, women, and an animal activist.
• I never wrote anything with the goal being money and being famous, and neither did she.
• Laura wrote about ordinary people, and so do I.
• 3 AM is usually when a nagging feeling wakes me up, and I begin writing down the messages. Laura mentioned she did most of her writing in the middle of the night.
• I am interested in what happens when we die and write about it, as did she.
• We both believed in equality for all people and staying true to our values.
• All I asked of living is to have no chains on me, the same desire she had.
• She lived an authentic life, and so have I.

You might find the following posts interesting because they were written way before I decided to write this post; just click on any of these links: Midwestern Backstory, There Is A Mountain, The Baptists, A Tear And A Smile, Paul’s Rules, Rescue From Less Than, Supper To Self-Protection, Chained Elephants, Label Jars, Not People, Generational Trauma Entrepreneur, High Functioning Alcoholism, Mental Illness Mom’s Secret, How I Earned The Nickname Tough Cookie, What Happens When We Die?, My First Love Stalked Me, Entrances And Exits, and The Letter That Saved My Life.

To me, she was a heroine and role model. When I listen to her music, I realize how fortunate I was to recognize an angel on earth, for there will never be another like her. I am forever reminded that freedom is having the determination and will to live an authentic life. Identify and stay true to your values, passions, and strengths. Continue to live without chains that others might try to put on you.

Remember, no one, not a Supreme Court, politician, religion, or words on pieces of paper written hundreds of years ago, can tell you who you can or cannot be or who you can love.

Happy Independence Day!

Here’s to Freedom! Thank you for the direction and inspiration you brought to my life. I am one of the many who still play your music, remember your independent spirit and courage, and use the lessons your divine music taught me. As I always write when honoring the people who meant the most to me, you are never really gone if a writer loves you. MKF

Copyright © 2022-2025 Marilyn K Fuller. All Rights Reserved.

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