Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro

Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro is the second retrospective album by Bronx-born musician Laura Nyro and the most comprehensive overview of her work to date.

It was the last album Nyro released during her lifetime, and she died from ovarian cancer less than two months after its release. The two-disc set combines highlights from all of her studio albums, as well as some rarities and previously unreleased live songs recorded in 1993 and 1994. Music journalist Paul Zollo's interview with Nyro makes up the liner notes, along with a Nyro biography and song details.

1 Overview
2 Track listing
3 Miscellanea
4 References

[edit] Overview

Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro came about in 1996 when the Legacy imprint of Columbia Records requested a single-disc overview of Nyro's work. However, that would have concentrated on her earlier material, and Nyro was adamant that a full career overview should be achieved.

Nyro oversaw the production of the album, and made the track selection her final artistic project. The first disc collects some of her finest and most well-known material from 1966 to 1970, while the second disc concentrates on her later career.

[edit] Track listing

Disc 1 - all songs by Laura Nyro

"Wedding Bell Blues"
"Blowin' Away"
"Billy's Blues"
"Stoney End"
"And When I Die"
"Lu"
"Eli's Comin'"
"Stoned Soul Picnic"
"Timer"
"Emmie"
"The Confession"
"Captain Saint Lucifer"
"Gibsom Street"
"New York Tendaberry"
"Save the Country" [mono single version]
"Blackpatch"
"Upstairs By A Chinese Lamp"
"Beads of Sweat"
"When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag"

Disc 2 - all songs by Laura Nyro except songs 1-2

"I Met Him on a Sunday"
"The Bells"
"Smile"
"Sweet Blindness" [live version]
"Money" [live version]
"Mr. Blue"
"A Wilderness"
"Mother's Spiritual"
"A Woman of the World"
"Louise's Church"
"Broken Rainbow"
"To a Child"
"Lite a Flame (The Animal Rights Song)"
"And When I Die" [live version]
"Save the Country" [live version]

[edit] Miscellanea

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

The song "Broken Rainbow" had been written and recorded for an Oscar-nominated documentary of the same name in 1985, and was issued in live form on 1989's Laura: Live at the Bottom Line.
"To a Child" was originally included in a different version on 1984's Mother's Spiritual before release on 1993's Walk the Dog and Light the Light, the version found here.
The single version of "Save the Country" was previously unreleased on CD.
The live versions of "And When I Die" and "Save the Country" were recorded at Nyro's annual Christmas Eve concerts at New York's Bottom Line club in 1993 and 1994.
It was the last album Nyro released in her lifetime, and heralded new interest in her, with an A grade review in Entertainment Weekly.