‘Four Women’: The song that defined Nina Simone’s legacy
An artist like Nina Simone comes around once in a lifetime, and their legacies tend to live on for even longer still. From her roots in classical piano and jazz, Simone came to typify the sound of the civil rights movement, penning multiple searing attacks on the status quo of the United States and making bold strides forward for activism and culture. Her extensive discography remains beloved by audiences everywhere, both for her stunning attitude of defiance and for the timeless appeal of Simone’s voice and performance.
Simone was always a fearless performer, determined to exist and perform to her own wants and desires rather than bowing down to the expectations of industry executives. Her 1959 debut album, Little Girl Blue, perfectly captured the inherent appeal of Simone’s output. It was an album that evoked a tender sense of romanticism on tracks like ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’, in addition to hinting at something darker and more complex within the pianist’s work, as in ‘Don’t Smoke In Bed’ or even her stunning rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
The performer herself wasn’t too keen on the debut album, largely resulting from the fact that she did not benefit financially from its release due to selling the rights to her work for $3,000. Nevertheless, Little Girl Blue gave audiences an insight into this blossoming new character that would quickly eclipse the jazz scene of the time. During the early 1960s, as Simone became increasingly popular with mainstream audiences, her political consciousness also became unavoidable.
After all, the 1960s was a prolific period for the civil rights movement in the United States, as the nation’s Black community fiercely stood against the levels of racist discrimination which faced them on virtually every level of American society. Figures like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Angela Davis were key in getting across the message of resistance to this abhorrent discrimination, but the movement’s cultural output was just as important.
Artists like Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, and Marvin Gaye reflected the struggle for civil rights within their music, but Nina Simone was among the most profound and influential when it came to the music of the civil rights movement.
‘Mississippi Goddam’, released in 1964, was particularly noted for its furious response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Alabama. Tracks like ‘Mississippi Goddam’ floored the music scene of America, refusing to dance around the topic at hand and creating a rallying cry for Black liberation.
Simone continued to write about the realities of life for Black people in America, exposing global audiences to the plight of her community. In 1966, the songwriter released ‘Four Women’, which came to define her legacy as an artist better than any other track. Focused on four characters who each reflect a specific stereotype of Black women in America, the song challenges conventions of both race and gender, culminating in a defiant anthem for the civil rights movement and for the feminist movement.
‘Four Women’ beautifully encapsulates the genius of Nina Simone as a songwriter and performer. Not only does the song provide ample opportunity for Simone to espouse her power as a vocalist and musician, but its stunning lyrical content also reflects the political prowess with which she always operated.
Even within the performer’s extensive and lauded discography, the song still stands out head and shoulders above the rest in terms of its legacy and enduring relevance. Nina Simone’s repertoire was always incredibly diverse, ranging from the influences of classical music to jazz to soul, but her music was always at its best when driven by a sense of anger and defiance, as reflected by the inspirational anger at the heart of ‘Four Women’.
