‘Wild Is The Wind’: The lasting legacy of Nina Simone, civil rights, and political defiance
An album, in essence, is little more than a collection of recordings, yet it manages to encapsulate so much more than that. An attitude, a period of time, a defiant message of hope; a lot can be conveyed within the grooves of a humble LP, and that fact was never lost on an artist as powerful as Nina Simone.
Little Girl Blue was the world’s introduction to the life-changing performances of Nina Simone when it was first released back in 1959, but the North Carolina-born vocalist was never particularly pleased with that introduction. You see, Simone resented the fact that she was being reduced to just another jazz-centric pop pianist; she was always fighting to achieve something far more profound, important, and befitting of her classically trained abilities. Yet, the music industry would not heed those demands.
As the music industry would soon come to realise, however, Nina Simone is not the kind of person to back down without a fight. As the United States shifted into the 1960s, that fight came into the spotlight. Despite what rose-tinted presentations of the era of ‘peace and love’ might tell you, the decade was dominated by vicious conflict, political uprising, and a spotlight being shone on the ugliest aspects of American society.
It was the decade in which the Vietnam War waged on, the civil rights movement fought against violent oppression, and political assassinations became as common as petty theft. Inevitably, the cultural landscape of the nation soon began to reflect this incendiary atmosphere of violent division and alienation, particularly within the world of music, like a powder keg waiting to fucking explode.
Although she was still putting out jazz and pop-centric records during the early part of the 1960s, there came a point when Nina Simone could not stand idly by and ignore the reality of life as a Black woman in America, and all the goddamn shit that came along with it. So, with or without the support of the music industry, Simone became determined to reflect those realities in her work, spearheading the idea of music as a means of social activism in the age of civil rights.
Simone’s work had always had a sense of empowerment imbued within it, but it was the release of Wild Is the Wind in 1966 that truly cemented the pianist among the most vital and outspoken artists of the civil rights movement. Composed of off-cuts from the studio sessions of her previous records, like Pastel Blues, the album saw Simone become much more militant and unapologetic in her discussion of civil rights and the realities of life for Black people in America.
‘Four Women’ is the only track on the album penned by Simone herself, and it is no coincidence that the song is the inarguable standout as a result. Focusing on four different stereotypes that Black women had to deal with every goddamn day in America, the song was trailblazing in its content, linking the United States’ roots in slavery to modern-day racism and misogyny. The song marked a vital moment in the civil rights movement, and Simone’s impassioned performance just pulled the eyes wide fucking open of audiences across the nation to the horrific oppression being faced by Black women at that time.
That song marked the tone for the entire album. Although Simone recorded a number of standards for the record, each and every performance is imbued with a defiant, confrontational power which was aimed squarely at the architects of American society. Even a song as seemingly innocent as ‘Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair’ was transformed into a Black Power anthem, which spoke directly to an audience facing discrimination and persecution on every level of American society.
That attitude continued on throughout much of Simone’s subsequent discography, but Wild Is the Wind remains a defining moment within her career. It allowed audiences to pinpoint the moment in which this gifted pianist, who boasted a promising – if unfulfilling – career in jazz or pop music, transformed into a radical activist fighting for the liberation of her people, no matter the fucking cost.
Even today, 60 years on from its initial release in 1966, that unassuming LP exudes a palpable sense of power when placed on a turntable, and with it, Simone’s unending legacy of defiance and activism lives on.
