Post a controversial music opinion

Def plenty of controversial opinions on Nina Simone … who I put on the same pedestal of brilliance in terms of vocal performance and activism with Diamanda Galas.

when my daughter was born the myriad team of healthcare professionals attending in the delivery room were super cool with us playing whatever we liked thru some speakers we brought

started with sam cooke in the lead up, and moved to nina as things moved along and got real intense for an hour or so

no regrets, though upon delivery we switched to the village stompers

The last scene of Before Sunset is very Nina Simone centric

Diamanda Galas.

Hell yeah, speaking of incredible live performance documents

It always sounds strange when people try to distinguish and then reconcile the music with the figure of the artist. Various versions of "She was good and I admire her but also don't enjoy her and never listen to her" sound a bit confused, like you're pondering about her great legacy of doing nothing for you.

The last scene of Before Sunset is very Nina Simone centric

― bbq, Monday, October 23, 2023 12:15 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Best scene.

i feel bad for the mean stuff i used to say about nina simone on ilm. years ago. i've come around since then.

I don't like her much but calling her "overrated" seems kind of useless.

I remember being amazed by this music and promptly found a greatest hits cd and played it for my mom who didn’t like it. “She sounds like a man.” Which… whatever, but it’s notable that she doesn’t seem to care about sounding Pretty. She sounds strong, like someone you don’t want to deal with if you work in customer service.

― Cow_Art

women who sound like men: _classic_

not liking nina simone never really occurred to me. like it felt like either you liked nina simone or you didn't know who she was, when i was younger. she was all over tv and movies in the '90s, it seems like. i remember "sinnerman" from an episode of "homicide: life on the street". the other one i knew fairly early on was "Mississippi Goddamn". i also like her version of "Revolution" where she changes the lyrics to argue in favor of revolution. (i think it's kind of unfair that people say John was conservative because he did that song. He changed his mind, y'all! But nobody pays attention to that because he was solo then.)

i got into her a lot through her beatles covers. that record of hers that's basically two really long versions of songs from "all things must pass", that's my favorite record of hers. i like her version of "everyone's gone to the moon" too. i've never heard the original but i'm told it's terrible.

i don't know her stuff too well overall though. i'd say i'm more of a casual fan.

I think it’s totally cool and reasonable to not be a fan of someone’s work but enjoy reading their thoughts and to worship their hairdos

I think a lot of casual listeners (I'm including myself here) want her catalog to sound like "my baby just cares for me", but it's mostly stuff like "they call me Peaches".

― enochroot

I want her catalogue to sound more like “funkier than a mosquito’s tweeter”. A full on afro-funk album from Nina would have been amazing as evidenced by that track.

Shylock is the best French prog band, not Magma.

John Zorn is the least interesting artist on Tzadik

i like Tom Waits first four records better than anything else in his catalog

Steve Albini was 100% correct about Steely Dan.

I knew of nina simone in the 90s and that she was influential and all but she really wasn't on my radar until the Lauryn Hill line "So while you're imitating Al Capone I'll be Nina Simone and defecating on your microphone" in the Fugee's "ready or not".

In this pre-wikipedia era I honestly wondered for years if this was referencing something that actually happened, as I also had a sense that she was known for having an erratic personality.

Nina Simone GG Allin collab

To be Drunk, Gifted, and Black

i always assumed the resurgence of nina simone's popularity was due to the increasing number of female & male singers putting on the old man hat voice

I mean, that’s why I like her. Because of Jack Johnson and M Ward

that record of hers that's basically two really long versions of songs from "all things must pass"

Emergency Ward. "Isn't it a Pity" was the first Nina I ever heard, late at night on freeform progressive rock radio in the 70s, and I was gobsmacked.

Based on my frequency of listening I'd probably still go Billie>Ella>Nina, but I think all three were going for different artistic aims and I see no reason to rank them.

Anthrax shouldn't be anywhere near the 'Top 4'.

this is so terrible but years and years ago i was convinced that white people listened to nina simone because they liked hearing black people who were really really sad. i know, its terrible! then again who else sits in their easy chair with a glass of scotch casually listening to black people sing on prison chain gangs. i'll tell you who. white people. i'm sure there is a scholarly book on the subject.

i don't think that anymore. she was a true artist and she appeals to lots of people for lots of different reasons.

also, as i got older, i realized that a lot of people just relate to pain and sadness because everyone feels pain and sadness. though there definitely still is the white fetishization and love for the "primitive" and the "raw". that its more authentic then the polyester suburbs of mr. smithers jones prufrock or whatever.

I like listening to people of all genders and colors being really really sad. Sometimes I even wipe away a tear. Good times.

Somehow the saddest songs are the ones where the singer is trying not to be sad. Like "Tomorrow" from Annie. That song always gets to me.

Diamonds and Pearls is Prince's best album, the fullest realization of his talents.

Also a cornerstone of my highest of highest estimations of her: her piano playing, it’s just bonkers she can do all that while maintaining such focus on her vocal delivery

― Preach The Crapen (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, October 22, 2023 8:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I KNOW, right? Nina is also one of those singers that can just level you with one note, it's uncanny. I think this has only become enhanced through all the sampling that's been done, just more references and associations with her sound.

Also a cornerstone of my highest of highest estimations of her: her piano playing, it’s just bonkers she can do all that while maintaining such focus on her vocal delivery

― Preach The Crapen (flamboyant goon tie included),

Yep. Aretha too!

roberta flack!

i actually love roberta flack in a way that i have never loved nina or aretha. she speaks to me. and my pain! no, she just speaks to me. though she can make me feel melancholy.

_Diamonds and Pearls_ is Prince's best album, the fullest realization of his talents.

I was kidding.

whew!

Xp Scott Seward , this is the only literature I found on the subject
https://www.theonion.com/affluent-white-man-enjoys-causes-the-blues-1819565488

haha, that's a classic.

roberta flack!

― scott seward, Monday, October 23, 2023 3:30 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

recently picked up the first roberta flack record, great stuff, was not too familiar with her outside of a few singles

It might be a completely uncontroversial opinion, but Nina Simone's cover of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" is one of the greatest recordings ever.

Then again, maybe that is controversial.

this is one of my favorite Roberta Flack jams, sooo chill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcDBwb296ik

UMS, the first 3 Roberta Flack albums are amazing. Chapter Two and Quiet Fire are even better than her debut imo.

she didn't make a bad record in the 70s. and her hathaway collab is likewise essential.

Xp Scott Seward , this is the only literature I found on the subject
https://www.theonion.com/affluent-white-man-enjoys-causes-the-blues-1819565488

Wow, I haven't clicked on an Onion link in many years, and it's striking how different the site feels when you have to scroll through 70% ads / cross-promotion / video embeds to read your 5-paragraph article. Truly, we have ruined the internet (of course, I'm not sure how long we assumed everything could stay free).

I guess ilx is an oasis because it's missing all that clutter. Who's paying for all this?

George Soros.

Speaking of which, this month's check is late. I need to give his office a ring.

@ scott, I’m not a Nina-fanatic because I fetishize Black pain— if anything, the opposite might be true? a fetishization of songs of Black strength? I cannot watch her performance of “I Wish I Knew…” from Montreux without feeling complicated feelings of elation.

I have, however, done internal audits on my Nina-fanaticism insofar as her pianistic style relates to heavily to “Western” training. Re: that same performance from Montreux, she deliberately starts the song in a lite-ragtime mode, almost apeing the style (and doing so effortlessly), almost to satirize her existence onstage in front of a predominantly white Swiss audience, like she’s doing a “pretend-Minstrel” bit. “Here’s a bit of ragtime for you squares, lol!” The fact that her piano-training is so deep that she can engage in these pomo experiments— not to mention her “yeah I can do that too” Bach quotation moments she so often works in— might cause me some favourable bias, here. Like, “she’s a virtuoso in the traditional Western sense of the word”, even when she uses that virtuosity to subvert the listener’s expectations

The Netflix doc "What Happened, Miss Simone?" is, I think, helpful.

https://www.netflix.com/us/title/70308063?s=a&trkid=13747225&trg=cp&vlang=en&clip=80049674

I haven’t seen a single Nina feature, doc or otherwise, I always just put on the recordings instead, but I’m gonna watch that one tonight, thanks YMP

"@ scott, I’m not a Nina-fanatic because I fetishize Black pain"

oh god i know. i'm talking decades ago i felt this way. i was just really paranoid of people's intentions. and perhaps my own intentions. i didn't trust people back then. and i have learned that intentions are...the best laid plans of mice and men. no, i feel like why people do anything can be such a complicated thing. and sometimes its very simple. but i have realized over time how very wrong i can be about a lot of things. if you live long enough and keep thinking you can get past your suspicions.

and sometimes, most of the time, people just appreciate great artistry and a unique voice.

i was not a fan early on because i didn't HEAR everything when i was younger. i could be quick to judge. i'm a much deeper listener now. back then she just sounded slow to me. and also her voice...it sounded...wrong? to me. harsh maybe. i really don't want to search old ilm for stupid stuff i said. people change!

i will listen to someone i'm not that big on for decades and sometimes i will really end up on the other side. i never give up. well, sometimes i do. you can't like everything.

Haha her vocal delivery is so, so slow. Her phrasing on the verses of “Do What You Gotta Do” is the laziest slowest thing, it sounds like somebody taking three minutes to sit down