The increased militancy of the late '60s, along with the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and the general decentralization of the civil rights movement, drove Simone away from the United States. What she and so many had believed could be achieved she felt had failed; she fled to Barbados for the first break in performing in years. In 1971 she and her husband divorced and she returned to Barbados, becoming the "kept" woman of the married prime minister, Earl Barrow. It was the year she recorded "Here Comes the Sun," with Dylan's "Just Like a Woman," Stan Vincent's "O-o-h Child," Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" and Jacques Revaux's "My Way." It is a collection that speaks more of personal than political freedom.

In 1974, she cut her ties with RCA and in so doing with America for good. Simone would never return to the States permanently, but moved to Africa and throughout Europe, settling in France. She saw the States as a place where blacks weren't getting what they deserved. She felt that America and the recording industry had deserted her.

She told Interview magazine in January 1997, "I think it's hopeless for the majority of black people. I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die."

....in 1992, the movie "Point of No Return," starring Bridget Fonda as a female assassin obsessed with Simone, featured her music. As dull and obvious as that movie is, Simone's music represents for the heroine (whose code name is what? Nina!) longing and loss, and at the same time freedom. Simone's own "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl" plays on her headphones as Fonda, jonesing for a fix, is the only person left alive during a pharmacy shootout. A liberating moment, yes, but at the same time, a moment fraught with peril and sadness. Everyone in the film who listens to Simone's music is touched by this overall sensation, which is the double-edged quality of Nina Simone's music.