It is more than a distinct possibility, and more than personal admiration that provokes the opinion that Laura Nyro will eventually be recognized as one of the very few essential talents to emerge from within the context of rock.

The reason is simple: she is unique. There's no precedent, in rock at least, for her vision, and the way she was able to manipulate her exploration of, and insights into, that vision, and create out of the chaos of her emotions a catalogue of work that has few equals in contemporary songwriting.

She's been described as everything from a Bronx Ophelia to the Lady Rimbaud of Rock. It's tempting to see her, like Ophelia, as being at the mercy of her own confusion and personal demons, but Laura's greatest strength was her ability to control, or at least restrain the devils of her consciousness.

Like Sylvia Plath, with...