Laura Nyro was a great singer as well as songwriter, and it's too bad she died so young. I had bought one of her LPs ("Eli and the Thirteenth Confession") way back when it first came out, late 60s/early 70s, and I always expected her to make a bigger commercial splash than she ever did.

I had more-or-less forgotten about her until the last couple of weeks, when I suddenly began hearing "Stoned Soul Picnic" on our local community radio station (www.wwoz.org). I think that one of the volunteer DJs played Nyro's recording of the tune, and one or more of the other broadcasters heard it and were inspired to play the tune themselves, including several different artists' versions (including straight "pop" singing and jazz instrumental and vocal versions). One interesting jazz-vocal cut was a medley of "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" and "Stoned Soul Picnic" ("Can you surrey / Can you picnic?").

"Picnic" is a pretty unique song. Despite making absolutely no sense at all (at least to my ears), the lyrics are strangely compelling, and seem just right for the tune.