Five classic Nina Simone songs that the world needs to hear right now
Forget about separating artists from each other by genre and attempting to pit them against their closest contemporaries in terms of ability, because frankly, no vocalist in the history of music has ever been greater than Nina Simone.
Not only is everything delivered with the utmost precision and right amount of power to be able to deliver this resplendency, but her voice has a singular quality that isn’t just hard to mimic, but is truly unique to her. Instead of simply trying to emulate her own idols, she developed something that would separate her from them and make her distinct, and this is a talent in itself that others ought to consider before forcing themselves to try and be more like Simone.
Born Eunice Waymon in North Carolina in 1933, Simone’s lifelong aspiration was to become a concert pianist, but after enrolling at the Juillard School of Music, she soon acquired a taste for performing jazz, much to the chagrin of her parents. While she was told that she’d have to provide her own accompaniment at shows, this turned out to be a blessing, with Simone finding her voice and transforming into the artist she’s known as today.
While her vast catalogue is filled with impassioned interpretations of standards, she wasn’t simply adept at playing the music of others, and over the course of a career that spanned six decades, she wrote plenty of her own spellbinding material, often carrying a strong political message behind it and acting as a mouthpiece for the civil rights movement.
With her mixture of tender love songs and contributions to protest music, the world needs Simone more than ever, but seeing as hoping for a reincarnation of her seems unlikely given her peerless talents, here are five songs by the esteemed jazz singer and pianist that will leave you reeling even in the modern age.
Five Nina Simone songs the world needs more than ever:
‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out’
Are we due a blues revival? Perhaps the fact that the genre has seemingly said and done virtually everything that felt necessary and was capable of is why we’ve not outright returned to this style as we have with so many others from decades passed, but there’s no reason why we can’t return to songs that captured the emotion so perfectly the first time around. ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out’ might just be the epitome of a timeless blues song, and Simone’s rendition of it on her Pastel Blues record is frankly flawless.
The message of the song is clear: when the chips are high, don’t rest your laurels on those around you in the hope that they’ll be there for you when things get tough. However, rather than accepting this notion as how things will play out for you, the best way to get rid of the negativity is surely to belt out all of the hopelessness in the form of a jazzy exorcism, which is exactly how Simone manages to convey the message of the song on this version.
‘Lilac Wine’
While the song might start out a little downcast in terms of its chord progression, it slowly grows into something more positive and hopeful as Simone grows more and more sure of her love for the person she is pining for. Many of us will be able to relate to how your confidence grows the more time you spend with someone special to you, and the outright amorousness she’s poured out by the end of the song is worth shedding a tear to.
Of course, there’s the subtext of the song, which isn’t so much about loving someone as it is about having a tipple of the eponymous ‘Lilac Wine’, and experiencing what feels like love as a result of imbibing a little too much of the beverage. That drunken, doe-eyed gaze you’re offering to someone might just be a side-effect of the booze, and while it feels as though you’re falling into something delightful that will last a lifetime, in reality, you’re in love with the moment itself. We’ve all been there too.
‘I Put A Spell On You’
While most would consider ‘Feeling Good’ to be the standout track from 1965’s I Put A Spell On You, there’s a case to be made that its title track, the album’s opening statement, is perhaps the more deserving highlight of what was a frankly unprecedented year in Simone’s career. There aren’t too many better ways in which one can draw in the listener with such an emotive performance, and in just two and a half minutes, you’re instantly transfixed by an artist operating at the peak of her powers.
For all of the artists who feel they need to overperform in order to be noticed, just take this as a reminder that all of that gumption you’re putting into a record won’t translate to the listener unless you mean every single word and note you’re delivering. Simone makes this seem easy on this cut, and that’s exactly why she’s never been matched by another artist since.
‘Mississippi Goddam’
“The name of this tune is ‘Mississippi Goddam’, and I mean every word of it,” Simone proclaims at the start of the version released on the 1964 live album, Nina Simone in Concert. For those unaware of the context, its lyrics refer to the outrage over the murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers, two black Mississippi natives who were killed in racially motivated attacks at the height of the civil rights movement. Simone sounds as though she’s about to start something lighthearted during this introduction, but the reality is far from being easy listening.
Going from something that starts so jovially into a powerful protest song that demands equality for black people in America and to put an end to racially-charged violence makes for a startling listen, but no artist other than Simone could do this in such a captivating way that makes the listener feel every morsel of anger coursing through her. A quick watch of the news ought to tell you why this song is needed more than ever, and while it’s a tragedy that its lyrics were ever relevant, it’s perhaps an even greater cause for concern that we’ve returned to these dark times.
‘Sinnerman’
Arguably the definitive Simone song, ‘Sinnerman’ is a song of epic proportions that showcases her fearlessness and unwavering passion in her delivery, both from a musical and vocal standpoint. There’s a relentless energy that propels the song through the entirety of its ten-minute runtime, and you frequently feel as though the sheer vivacious manner in which Simone steers the song with the repeating piano motif that underpins it is going to drive her band into unfettered chaos.
However, it’s the mark of both her genius and control that she exerts over the ensemble that allows her arrangement of the traditional song to evolve through its many moods and movements, and while there are moments where things are brought down to a minimal level, it’s the points at which the song explodes into life where you really understand just how much soul has gone into the performance. Music rarely sounds as emotive as this, and as powerful as it was then, it remarkably hasn’t lost a fraction of its potency over time.
