Her wikipedia article is pretty good: [link]

My favorite bit:

Bob Dylan reportedly startled a young Laura Nyro when he approached her at a party and declared "I love your chords!"

Ooh baby!

Not sure whether to post this here, in Technology, or in Premium cable. From PopBitch:

How music promotion works - part 2

Wire have received a nice paycheck thanks to "I Don't Understand" being used on a recent Victoria's Secret advert. And how did that come about? Someone at the lingerie company's advertising agency was trying to download an episode of The Wire TV series from a file-sharing site, but accidentally ended up with Wire's "Read & Burn 01" album.

Bwahahahaha.

Who wants to tell me about Laura Nyro?

Ooh, Dana, I think you'd really like her. She had this rich, soulful voice and was one of those singer/songwriters who approached lyrics like poetry. One of my favorite songs of hers is "And When I Die" -- I've just put it up at buffistarawk2 (m4a format). If you like it, check out her albums The First Songs and Eli and the Thirteenth Confession first.

Thanks, Kate! (Can someone send me the login info for buffistarawk2?)

You're welcome! Insent with the login info.

Dana, I agree with Kate that you'd love her stuff.

Particularly New York Tendaberry and Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.

She melded pop, Broadway, Brill Building, R&B and folk into a unique mix. Great voice, very tuneful, very distinctive.

Nyro peaked early, and Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, just her second album, remains her best. It's not only because it contains the original versions of no less than three songs that were big hits for other artists: "Sweet Blindness" (covered by the 5th Dimension), "Stoned Soul Picnic" (also covered by the 5th Dimension), and "Eli's Comin'" (done by Three Dog Night). It's not even just because those three songs are so outstanding. It's because the album as a whole is so outstanding, with its invigorating blend of blue-eyed soul, New York pop, and early confessional singer/songwriting. Nyro sang of love, inscrutably enigmatic romantic daredevils, getting drunk, lonely women, and sensual desire with an infectious joie de vivre. The arrangements superbly complemented the material with lively brass, wailing counterpoint backup vocals, and Nyro's own ebullient piano. The 2002 CD reissue adds three previously unreleased demos, with no instrumental accompaniment save piano, of "Lu," "Stoned Soul Picnic," and "Emmie." - Richie Unterberger, All-Music

An article from a 1934 Modern Mechanix magazine on what I assume is a Theremin: Recordings Made of Electric Music (Apr, 1934)

AN ELECTRONIC device which uses oscillating radio tubes and transforms the resultant howls into music, has created a great deal of interest in London, where the first phonographic recording of such music was recently made.

A steel rod, about one and one half feet high, is connected to a special electronic device. The operator stands before this rod and by waving his hand at different distances varies the electrical capacity between his body and the radio tube grids.

The resultant music is something like that produced on a musical saw. It is attracting considerable attention abroad.

Included a picture of the "operator." Is that the guy who invented the Theremin? They don't give his name....

Yeah, that's a theremin. The guy in the photo doesn't NOT looks like Theremin, but it's hard to tell given the angle.