Beauty
I'm sitting here working on a paper (one of three "incompletes" on my roster of activities) and listening to the solidly, soberly inebriating melodies pouring out of Nina Simone's lungs. She's as sexy and as powerful as I wish I could be. In case any of you don't know her as well as you should, in tribute to a woman of unparalleled beauty and strength - and characteristic of my thoroughly arrogant manner :p - I have compiled my own "Essential Nina Simone." Most of my musical heroes are men - but with her, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, and Bonnie Raitt (hell yeah) I realize there is still something very feminine in me.
My Baby Just Cares for Me - The jiving, bouncy piano from beginning to end is proof of what a masterful instrumentalist she was. (What else to expect from a Julliard graduate?) If this song doesn't take over your body and make you swivel around the floor, you've got no soul, no heart, no spleen, and no reason to live. Either that, or you're a quadriplegic -- in which case, sorry bout that. As for me, it makes me go hoppity hoppity hoppity. Hoppity.
Sugar in My Bowl - Oh man. Maybe the most plaintive, seductive, yet assertive plea for some lovin' ever recorded. This song just screams, "DO ME!" But, well, in that scintillating, sophisticated way she does. "Whatsa matter daddy / Come on save my soul / Drop a little sugar in my bowl." Awwwwwww, yeahhhhh. Give her what she demands, if you think you're able.
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - I didn't think anyone but Eric Burdon could sing this Animals song. But she does it, and she OWNS this shit. Eric must be proud.
Since I Fell For You - Nina could sing tunes from any genre. She was too good for categories, and we're too bowled over to notice. I have always felt that with a form as disarmingly simple as the blues, the deception is that is should be easy, while it is anything BUT. However you define the truth, this is it. The blues reduce life to its many essences, and anyone peddling bullshit is immediately exposed. There is nowhere to hide. For this reason alone, most people can't do the blues for shit. But Nina always could - and this is proof. She is what she is and just....is.
Do I Move You? - Uh, YEAH!!!! Muddy Waters is all over this, but Nina wrote it! Have mercy, it pleases me so.
Do I move you,
are you willin'
Do I groove you,
is it thrillin'
Do I soothe you,
tell the truth now
Do I move you,
are you loose now
The Answer better be YEAH (YEAH)....
It pleases me....
When I touch you,
do you quiver
From your head,
down to your liver
It you like it,
let me know it
Don’t be psychic,
or you’ll blow it
The answer better be YEAH (YEAH)....
Great God Almighty, THAT PLEASES ME!
I Put A Spell On You - Another great cover, this time of the classic Screamin Jay Hawkins song. She makes it all jazzy and shit, singing do-dup-do-do-do-do. "Be-cause you're mi-INE!"
I love ya
I love you
I love you
I love you anyhow
And I don't care
if you don't want me
I'm yours right now
Don't Explain - So sad, so sad. Oh man. This Billie Holliday song does me in every time, my eyes well up. I mean it. This is a tribute of sorts to Billie, and yet the interpretation is all Nina's. At the very end, when she pleads "don't explain" in that ethereal whimper, I feel my whole body go limp.
Don't wanna hear nobody chatter
Cause I know you cheat
Right and wrong don't matter
When you're with me, my sweet
Hush now, don't explain
You're my joy, you're my pain
My life is yours love
Don't explain....
Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair - This man is luckier than he knows.
Oh I love my lover
and where he goes
yes, I love the ground on where he goes
And still I hope
that the time will come
when he and I will be as one
when he and I will be as one
Mississippi Goddamn (live) - Nina was a vocal civil rights activist at every level, and her own songwriting never lets us forget that - or what a magnificent musician and composer she was. It weaves in and out of forms, you can hardly keep up. There's this one point where she sings "where am I goin, what am I doin? I don't know, I don't know." The melody just knocks you out! And I LOVE when she talks to the audience! ("This is a show tune, but the show hasn't been written for it....yet.")
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about mississippi GOD-DAMN!!!
Ne Me Quitte Pas (don't leave me) - Ahhh, the crème de la crème (forgive me for the platitude). Her version of this Jacques Brel composition is the consummate embodiment of everything she had to offer. The song, anyway, is one of the most beautiful songs ever written in the French language. It might be amazing in anyone's hands....but in hers, it is sublime. It makes me fall in love her so deeply.
Below are the lyrics and my translation (good practice for my feeble linguistic chops). Go ahead, tell me these words don't make you cry....
Ne me quitte pas [do not leave me]
Il faut oublier [we must forget]
Tout peut s'oublier [everything can be forgotten]
Qui s'enfuit déjà [that has already left us]
Oublier le temps [to forget the times]
Des malentendus [of misunderstandings]
Et le temps perdu [and of times lost]
A savoir comment [to know how]
Oublier ces heures [to forget the hours]
Qui tuaient parfois [that sometimes kill]
A coups de pourquoi [with blows of "why"]
Le coeur du bonheur [the heart of happiness]
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Moi je t'offrirai [me, I will offer you]
Des perles de pluie [drops of rain]
Venues de pays [that come from a land]
Où il ne pleut pas [where it does not rain]
Je creuserai la terre [I will cross the earth]
Jusqu'après ma mort [until I die]
Pour couvrir ton corps [to cover your body]
D'or et de lumière [in gold and in light]
Je ferai un domaine [I will make a place]
Où l'amour sera roi [where love will be king]
Où l'amour sera loi [where love will be law]
Où tu seras reine [where you will be queen]
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Je t'inventerai [I will invent for you]
Des mots insensés [senseless words]
Que tu comprendras [that you will understand]
Je te parlerai [I will speak to you]
De ces amants-là [of these lovers]
Qui ont vu deux fois [who have twice seen]
Leurs coeurs s'embraser [their hearts set on fire]
Je te raconterai [I will tell you]
L'histoire de ce roi [the story of this king]
Mort de n'avoir pas [dead of never having been able]
Pu te rencontrer [to meet you]
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
On a vu souvent [one has often seen]
Rejaillir le feu [the fire spray]
De l'ancien volcan [from a former volcano]
Qu'on croyait trop vieux [that had seemed too old]
Il est paraît-il [there has been]
Des terres brulées [scorched earth]
Donnant plus de blé [that yielded more wheat]
Qu'un meilleur avril [than the best of aprils]
Et quand vient le soir [and when the evening comes]
Pour qu'un ciel flamboie [setting the sky ablaze]
Le rouge et le noir [the red and the black]
Ne s'épousent-ils pas [they remain separate]
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Je ne vais plus pleurer [I will not cry anymore]
Je ne vais plus parler [I will no longer speak]
Je me cacherai là [there I will hide myself]
A te regarder [to watch you]
Danser et sourire [dancing and smiling]
Et à t'écouter [to listen to you]
Chanter et puis rire [singing and then laughing]
Laisse-moi devenir [let me become]
L'ombre de ton ombre [the shadow of your shadow]
L'ombre de ta main [the shadow of your hand]
L'ombre de ton chien [the shadow of your dog]
Ne me quitte pas [do not leave me]
Ne me quitte pas [do not leave me]
Ne me quitte pas [do not leave me]
Ne me quitte pas [don't leave me]
p.s. That is the lovely Ritchie Havens next to Nina.....