FOREVER YOUNG, GIFTED & BLACK
NINA SIMONE FOR LOVERS
LOVE SONGS

 

<<Previous Page | <<Beginning of Article

Forever Young Gifted and Black presents a collection of Nina Simone’s most political and socially aware statements. “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” also recorded and released as a single in 1969, is presented twice. The first track on the collection is the studio version, the final track is the live version included on Black Gold. Three tracks from ‘Nuff Said are included: live renditions of “Backlash Blues” and “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)” recorded at the Westbury Music Fair in Westbury, NY only three days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. “Mississipi Godam” was also included in that performance, but did not appear on the album. Here the full, unedited version is presented for the first time, and when Simone says “The King of love is dead…I ain’t ABOUT to be non-violent, honey”, you know she really means it. Also from ‘Nuff Said is a version of “Ain’t Got No/I Got Life” from the musical Hair. The track was recorded in the studio and had audience applause tacked onto the end to fit it into the live recording.

From To Love Somebody comes the fantastic original “Revolution (Parts 1 and 2)” which does make use of thematic material from the Beatles song of the same name, but which is in no way a merely derivative work. There’s also a typically idiosyncratic version of “Turn Turn Turn (To Everything There is a Season)” that asserts its own logic as it moves forward, until it sounds like the most gloriously constructed version of the song ever conceived. Also from that album is Simone’s take on Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” that recasts the song as a kind of hymn. It doesn’t work for me, really, but I’ll be someone, somewhere has been inspired by this very track. Also represented are Black Gold (“Westwind,” an African song brought to Simone’s attention by her friend, Miriam Makeba), and Silk and Soul (“I Wish I Knew How It Would Fee to Be Free”).

Young, Gifted, and Black Forever also features a brief essay by Alicia Keys and a poem to Nina by Nikki Giovanni. It’s a classy package that gives current and future generations the chance to hear some of this gifted performer’s best work.

Of course, it’s not hard to imagine record labels who own Nina Simone masters thinking to themselves that there are plenty of audiences out there to whom they could sell Simone’s singing and her interpretations of popular songs, but who don’t want to deal with the political aspects of her work. Both Verve and RCA/Legacy have a series of recordings featuring romantic music by artists who have been on their rosters. Verve’s entry, Nina Simone for Lovers offers a selection of songs from her Phillips years, 1964-1967. Leading off with a vulnerable live performance of “I Loves You Porgy” from Nina Simone In Concert, the disc is a welcome reminder of the softer aspects of Simone’s work. Don’t expect to be unchallenged as a listener, though: these may be standards, but her performances are anything but pedestrian. There are a number of tracks from 1966’s Wild Is the Wind, generally regarded as essential Simone: “Wild Is the Wind,” “If I Should Lose You,” “What More Can I Say,” and “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” This is Nina Simone at her most unabashedly romantic, and the performances are powerful, even if they lack some of the immediacy of her protest material. Simone’s career was on a very different trajectory when most of this material was recorded, and to some it will sound more stilted and formal than her later work. However, this material demonstrates that she had few rivals as an interpretive singer.

RCA/Legacy’s own Love Songs series has its Nina Simone entry too, only these songs are culled from Simone’s RCA catalog again—but the choices are very different, and mostly pretty entertaining. It too leads off with a live rendition of “I Loves You Porgy,” this one from ‘Nuff Said. It’s interesting to hear the way that Simone’s voice matures over time and how she infuses this song with more longing and less outright pain the second time around. A welcome feature here are several tracks from Nina Simone And Piano, including “Seems I’m Never Tired Lovin’ You,” “I Get Along Without You Very Well,” and “In Love In Vain.” Simone’s pianistic style is as idiosyncratic as her vocal work (Monk comes to mind, and there are plenty of blues/folk influences as well), and these are very solid renditions of the songs, stripped of any pretensions.

On the pop side, there’s Silk and Soul’s “Cherish” and “The Look of Love,” but the best material here are the pop covers from To Love Somebody. Simone’s rendition of the Barry and Robin Gibb-penned title track is magnificent, and draws attention to the song’s strengths—it’s lyrics and soulful feel. Then there’s her take on Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” built on her ostinato piano figure and a samba/calypso rhythm guitar. Not only does it add to the song’s sense of spiritual mystery, but it allows the thing to build like a Baptist prayer meeting, until you fervently believe the lyrics as though they were a prayer. Easily the best rendition of this song you’ll ever hear, and miles away from Cohen’s own somnambulism. The rest of the collection is rounded out with standout tracks from Here Comes the Sun, Black Gold, Sings the Blues, and It Is Finished. Really amazing is the transcendent version of “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” from Black Gold. Forget about the folkie connections—it’s an otherworldly performance that seems to travel across time and space to arrive in front of us.

Love Songs and For Lovers are not adequate presentations of the totality of Nina Simone’s career, but they are nice additions to the remastered RCA albums and the Forever Young, Gifted and Black collection, rounding out the listener’s understanding of Simone’s artistry until RCA can, perhaps, reissue a few of the other Nina Simone albums in its vaults.