Nina Simone

I was sitting at work today, and it was just one of those “Feeling Good” type days. Even though my allergies are making me ill and I’m completely broke and my email has been all sorts of fucked up and about a billion other personal things I’m not about to get into, it was a “Feeling Good” type day. Not a single cloud in the sky… and everything is starting to just look better.

Then, after work, I was at a local bookstore, and saw that Nina Simone is on the cover of the current issue of Fader. Of course… it’s just a Nina Simone day.

I can not believe that I have never posted Nina Simone on bigstereo. If I were to pick one artist, one person, one musician who has shaped who I am, how I feel and think, how I process, how I love and get angry and sad and happy and… live… it would be Nina Simone.

There is this part at the end in “Four Women” when Simone almost growls “My name is Peaches.” That line is like the essence of Nina Simone. She’s ferocious and raw and honest and, more than anything, alive. And in those four words I want to cry and laugh at the same time. I have never heard something so powerful that can affect me in so many totally different ways. Truly, the voice for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Nina Simone – “Four Women”

This is a total 100% sidenote: But I have often wondered if Peaches took her name from that line… in my mind I feel like Peaches heard that line and decided to try and personify it. Like, her act is always trying to reach that level of roughness and complete existence. I’m probably totally wrong, but that is how my mind works and I somehow believe it. It makes sense, you know?

The issue of Fader is interesting because they have articles written by people who intimately knew her (such as her daughter and close friends) as well as artists who have been influence by her (such as Antony (and the Johnsons), Alicia Keys and M.I.A.). I always feel a little alone when I listen to Nina Simone, like she is tapped into my brain thinking and feeling the same things I am. So, in a way, it is a little weird reading what others say about Nina Simone… and how what they react is so similar to my thoughts.