The next year the album "To Love Somebody" was released with the title song by Barry and Robin Gibb. It made the British Top 10. The album had three Bob Dylan covers including "I Shall Be Released," as well as songs by Leonard Cohen and Pete Seeger, along with "Revolution," a protest song co-written by Simone and Weldon Irvine Jr. "To Love Somebody" was my introduction to Simone, and I'll never forget the way she berated her musicians during the intro to "Revolution." She harshly tells them, "Hold it! This is louder than usual. Let it groove on its own thing." Cool. I thought. This woman can kick butt ...
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.
Article comments
1 - Ocean
NINA SIMONE WAS ONE OF ONLY THE HANDFUL OF TRULY GREAT VOCAL ARTISTS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.I HOPE HER LIFE HAD BEEN COOL, AND GOOD, AND EASY.
SHE WAS A REGAL FIGURE- I SAW HER IN PERSON TWICE, THE FIRST TIME WHEN I WAS A PRE-TEEN , AND I WAS AMAZED AND IMPRESSED AT HER AFRICAN ATTIRE AND THE HEADDRESS SHE WORE AS ELEGANTLY AS A CROWN- HER LONG NECK REMINISCENT OF NEFERTITI HERSELF.
SHE NEVER PLAYED DIRECTLY TO THE AUDIENCE, BUT INSTEAD,WITH HER BODY LANGUAGE SHE INVITED THEM IN A SUBTLE,PSYCHIC WAY TO JOIN IN HER SOUL'S RITUAL,NEVER TURNING HER HEAD TO LOOK AT THE AUDIENCE. SHE ALLOWED US ALL TO FOLLOW HER INTO HER OWN HEAD TRIP, INTO HER OWN VOCAL MEANDERINGS THROUGH A HURT-TOSSED AND DARK VALLEY THE DEPTHS OF WHICH THE REST OF US COULD ONLY SURMISE. SHE, LIKE ROYALTY, ALLOWED US TO WORSHIP HER, AND TO OBSERVE HER GOING THROUGH HER OWN INNER ANGUISH, AND I FELT SHE WAS ON A PEDESTAL.
I HAVE SELDOM SEEN SO PROUD A PERSON, AND SO HEAVY A PERSONALITY.
SHE WAS GREAT.
THAT THROATY ,CONTROLLED, INSTRUMENT OF HERS IS UNIQUE AND DISQUIETING, UTTERLY UNFORGETTABLE.HER RICH CONTRALTO IS ADDICTING, LIKE HER SLOW, MOODY ARRANGEMENTS.
HER ARRANGEMENTS OF HAUNTING AND TRADITIONAL SONGS LIKE,’ BLACK IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE’S HAIR’, HAVE NO MATCH.
ONCE HEARD, NO OTHER VERSIONS WILL DO.
2 - Eric Hunter
"My Baby don't care for clothes,..." When she berates the audience like a school marm for their lukewarm "High toned places" great moment in music.
I loved: "I want a little sugar in my bowl".