She was born Laura Nigro on 18th October 1947 in the Bronx, New York, of Italian-American and Jewish-American parents. As a child, she taught herself piano, read poetry, and listened to her mother's records by Leontyne Price, Billie Holiday and classical composers such as Ravel and Debussy. She composed her first songs at age eight. While in high school, she sang with a group of friends in subway stations and on street corners.
As a teenager she experimented with using different names, and Nyro was the one she was using at the time. She sold her song "And When I Die" to Peter, Paul and Mary for $5,000, and made her first extended professional appearance in 1966, at age 18, singing at the "hungry i" coffeehouse in San Francisco. Mogull negotiated her a recording contract, and she recorded her debut album, More Than a New Discovery, for the Verve Folkways label. The album provided material for other artists, notably the 5th Dimension.
In 1967, Nyro made only her second major live appearance, at the Monterey Pop Festival. Although some accounts described her performance as a fiasco that culminated in her being booed off the stage,[8] recordings later made public contradict this view.[
Nyro was best known by the general public – and had the most commercial success – as a songwriter rather than a performer. Her best-known songs include "And When I Die" (made a hit by Blood, Sweat & Tears), "Stoney End" (covered by Barbra Streisand), "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", "Save the Country" (all covered by The 5th Dimension), and "Eli's Coming" (a hit for Three Dog Night). Ironically, Nyro's own best-selling single was "Up on the Roof", a cover of the Carole King-Gerry Goffin hit originally recorded by The Drifters in 1962.
She died on 8th April 1997.
In 2012 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Buy And Sell
Laura Nyro Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Pass the time and dry the tears on a street called buy and sell.
Life turns like the endless sea. Death tolls like a vesper bell.
Children laugh and lover dream on a street called buy and sell.
Ladies dress calico style, beware your heart.
And the men walk shamelessly, aimlessly by.
Sell my goods to buy my roof, my bed, my bed.
Two pennies will buy a rose. Three pennies and who can tell
on a street that comes and goes by the name of buy and sell?
Buy and sell, sell my goods to buy my roof, my bed.
In Laura Nyro's song "Buy And Sell", the lyrics describe the darker side of life on the streets, where drugs and alcohol are used to pass the time and ease the pain. The opening lines - "Cocaine and quiet beers, sweet candy and caramels" - evoke a sense of comfort and escape, but also hint at the danger lurking beneath the surface. The street called "Buy and Sell" is a place where people come to trade goods and services, but it is also a place of desperation and survival. The song suggests that life is like an endless sea, with death tolling like a vesper bell, and yet people still find reasons to laugh and dream.
The second verse of the song paints a picture of the people who populate this street - ladies dressed in "calico style" (suggesting poverty), and men who walk "shamelessly, aimlessly by". They are surrounded by cinders in the daylight and junkyards in the sky, suggesting a world that is both dirty and oppressive. Yet Nyro's lyrics also suggest a resilience and determination to survive - the line "Sell my goods to buy my roof, my bed" implies a need to make do with what one has, and a willingness to work hard to attain even the most basic necessities of life.
Line by Line Meaning
Cocaine and quiet beers, sweet candy and caramels.
People indulge in addictive substances and trivial pleasures to distract themselves from the harshness of reality on the street of commerce.
Pass the time and dry the tears on a street called buy and sell.
People use the act of buying and selling to keep themselves busy and to cope with sadness.
Life turns like the endless sea. Death tolls like a vesper bell.
Life follows its own course, changing constantly with time. Death is a constant reminder ringing solemnly in the background.
Children laugh and lover dream on a street called buy and sell.
Amid the chaos of the commercial street, children find joy and lovers hope for a future together.
Ladies dress calico style, beware your heart.
Women can present themselves in a simple and alluring manner, but they should protect their emotional well-being on this street.
And the men walk shamelessly, aimlessly by.
Men strut around carelessly and without direction.
Cinders in the daylight, junkyards in the sky, buy and sell.
The street is full of ruins and destruction, a wasteland plagued by chaos.
Sell my goods to buy my roof, my bed, my bed.
People are constantly selling what they can to acquire the basic necessities of life.
Two pennies will buy a rose. Three pennies and who can tell on a street that comes and goes by the name of buy and sell?
Prices are unpredictable on this street, with the value of things being subject to change depending on the whim of the moment.
Buy and sell, sell my goods to buy my roof, my bed.
The cycle of buying and selling is necessary to simply obtain things to live and to rest comfortably.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: LAURA NYRO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
John LaStrada
Laura may have been influenced by jazz & lots of Motown & loved it too. But, a song like this is nothing like anything before or since. This is the essence of a Laura Nyro original. This is the real reason she deserves to be in the R&R Hall of Fame + hopefully in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She seems to have invented her own phrasing, arrangement & approach. I have never heard anything like this from anyone. This kind of original vocalizing is what made Billie Holiday similarily famous.
Lupco Kotevski
Laura is both Rock Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. Some of her influences include Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Leontyne Pryce, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Debussy, Bob Dylan.
Thomas Tillman
This woman was 16 when she wrote this! My God, what an enormous talent, and what a shame more people don't know her. She was brilliant and eventually everyone will know it. Talent this overwhelming has to be recognized.
John Fulton
I could easily imagine Billie Holiday singing buy and sell
Lupco Kotevski
And she was still only 18 when she started recording her first album, from which this track comes, 'More Than a New Discovery' (January 1967).
Trenia
UNIQUE talent
Rosie Vela
Laura Nyro Is The Greatest Female SongWriter/Singer/Pianist Ever. My Queen. I Was Always In AWE around her.
Jack DeCarolis
I love you too Rosie
Brad Shrinkelstein
One of the best songs ever written and poetry thrown in as well. Susanne Vega does a great cover as well. Laura influenced lots of other artists.
joanny444
This Lady had it all.... a natural beauty born with the "gift"