This song opens so simply – just a voice and a piano – and then explodes into a joyous celebration of sound mixing jazz, soul and enough energy to light up your town.
One of my favorite aspects of this song is the way Nyro creates a new word, “surry”:
C’mon, c’mon and
Surry down to a stoned soul picnic
Surry down to a stoned soul picnic
There’ll be lots of time and wine
Red yellow honey
Sassafras and moonshine
Red yellow honey
Sassafras and moonshine
Stoned Soul
Stoned Soul
Surry seems to be one part swagger, one part sweep, one part bravado, one part joy. Mix it up and you know what she means. We need more new words.
The Fifth Dimension had a hit with this song as they would go on to do with other Laura Nyro songs like “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Sweet Blindness.”
Laura Nyro emerged from the Bronx like Venus on a clamshell, selling her first hit on, “And When I die,” by age of 190, and forging a style built on her remarkable voice and a gumbo of the music she grew up hearing: jazz, soul, gospel, and pop.
She earned an invite to Woodstock, only to turn it town because of her stage fright. She released more great music in the 1970’s, but retired twice and kept walking away from the stage and spotlight. Others – Blood, Sweat and Tears, the Fifth Dimension, Barbara Streisand – brought her songs onto the charts. Laura Nyro passed away at age 49 in 1997.
#Songoftheday #spreadinghappiness #lauranyro
YouTube: https://youtu.be/N1CfSgsvqJE?si=jZqaXdok0i5AzGDd
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7FBlUGgH5CxPlsWplvMpLk?si=287824d2573748b0