Dreams of a Kitten by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Dreams of a Kitten

Page 215

Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, Sarah

Cracknell, Melissa Manchester, Lisa Germano, and Rosanne Cash.

Todd Rundgren stated that once he heard her, he "stopped writing

songs like the Who and started writing songs like Laura."

Cyndi Lauper said that her rendition of the song "Walk On By,"

on her Grammy Award nominated 2003 cover album “At Last,” was

inspired by Nyro.

Elton John and Elvis Costello discussed Nyro's influence on both

of them during the premiere episode of Costello's interview show

“Spectacle.” When asked by the host if he could name three great

performers/songwriters who have largely been ignored, John cited

Nyro as one of his choices. He also addressed Nyro's influence

on his 1970 song "Burn Down the Mission," from “Tumbleweed

Connection,” in particular. "I idolized her," he concluded. "The

soul, the passion, just the out and out audacity of the way her

rhythmic and melody changes came was like nothing I've heard

before."

Bruce Arnold, leader of the pioneering soft rock group

“Orpheus,” was a fan of Nyro's music. They both worked with

legendary studio drummer Bernard Purdie. While recording with

Purdie, Arnold mentioned his love of Nyro's music, and the

drummer responded with a story about Nyro: “At Nyro's home one