There’s a danger with some artists that, depending on a whole mess of criteria both integral and trivial – their era, their aura, their genre(s), their chart crossovers – that their reputation recedes them; and they become more memed than listened to. Conversely, when you reach a certain tier of cultural status, posterity tends to skip your full story and print the legend, which can at least iron out any creases in the back catalogue. With the passing of years Nina Simone as icon has experienced both, which is why compilations like the new ‘Let It All Out’ from Ace Records are so vital, as a way in, and in the present case via a curated playlist rather than a nebulous ‘best of’ or exhaustive/exhausting complete collection.
Browsing her discography online I came across one awkward, early sleevenote describing her as “angular, attractive and saturated with husky-voiced melancholy”, just one hint that critics and the industry in general didn’t quite know what to do with Nina Simone, an artist whose repertoire ranged so widely across genres, formats and moods, often bringing an unusual intensity to songs that in other hands were merely pop standards. As the sleevenotes here make clear, chart success was rare; one of her most famous tracks, ‘Feeling Good’, wasn’t even a single originally, while ‘Ain’t Got No/I Got Life’ was a big hit in Europe but not at home. As the 1960s drew on – and with the exception of the folk scene, a while before white artists discovered politics – her own material was increasingly outspoken about civil rights while she invested her delivery of covers, like the aforementioned caucasian-penned showtunes, with pointed Black subtext; neither typically favoured by record labels.
This particular playlist focuses broadly on Nina’s soul material, and a few of her better known jazz and broadway-style tunes aren’t here, but what a selection you get in their place. Somewhere near pole position goes to ‘Come On Back, Jack’, the best of the answer records to Ray Charles’ #1 and an early alternative Nina for people who would’ve initially known her as a jazz chanteuse. ‘Revolution’ is another fantastic interpretation, without a Beatles credit in sight but which Lennon correctly took as a compliment. “The only way that we can stand in fact, is when you get your foot off our back!” is similar to, but goes further, than James Brown lyrics of the time.
‘It Be’s That Way Sometimes’ is the track to drop into a mix, leaving people incredulous that they weren’t aware of it before (it wasn’t a hit and it doesn’t make most official comps). Written by Nina’s brother, he later recorded his own version which doesn’t come close. Likewise, included here are a brace of tunes she performed so effectively that the song became equally or more associated with her than the previous performer or writer, whether Jay Hawkins’ ‘I Put A Spell On You’, the Bee Gees’ ‘To Love Somebody’ or the evergreen ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’.
Other remakes sketch a history of American RnB, from Bessie Smith’s 1928 ‘Me and My Gin’ (retitled ‘Gin House Blues’), via Oscar Brown’s ‘Work Song’ and Willie Dixon’s ‘Whatever I Am’, to Aretha Franklin’s ‘Save Me’, nearly four decades later.
Nina was of course a composer and lyricist herself and her ‘Real Real’ and ‘Do I Move You’ are here, along with the better known ‘Young, Gifted and Black’; the latter might initially seem corny to modern ears, shorn of social and personal context (it’s a tribute to her late friend Lorraine Hansberry) but the song builds, Nina’s voice soars, and if you’re not moved by the end check your pulse.
Nina also had songs written for her, including two on this playlist: ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ by Benjamin/Marcus, and ‘Why (The King Of Love Is Dead’ by her bass player Gene Taylor, its arrangement improvised and recorded live on stage just three days after MLK’s assassination.
‘Baltimore’ is the last song in this collection, chronologically; few studio albums and fewer accompanying singles followed and its eponymous LP, recorded in Brussels, is often cited as Nina’s last fully accomplished work, after which her output and vocals, not to mention health, declined. Reportedly Nina hated the reggae arrangement of this Randy Newman track, but she can take full credit for another moving, powerful vocal – another also taken for an original.
It hindsight it would be easy while highlighting her incredibly prolific decade up to the early 70s, when Nina departed the U.S., to frame the years that followed as a loss of apparent security and continuity. But that would do a disservice to the message in many of her songs and the reasons why, like her friends Langston Hughes and James Baldwin, she felt she had to leave.
‘Let It All Out’ is out now on Ace Records.