Love Me or Poll Me: Billie Holiday vs. Nina Simone

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We had a Taking Sides on this years ago, but I'm listening to Lady in Satin right now and it's time to get scientific: Who made better records? If you want to talk about why, that would be nice too.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Billie Holiday 29
Nina Simone 19


Mark, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 04:30 (fifteen years ago)

I can't talk about why. I only have a few songs by each of them on mix cds and whatever else I've accumulated over the years (usually made by girls). I respect Billie. I love Nina.

Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 04:32 (fifteen years ago)

The earlier thread:

Taking Sides: Nina Simone VS. Billie Holliday

Mark, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 04:36 (fifteen years ago)

Lady Day

iago g., Wednesday, 21 July 2010 05:43 (fifteen years ago)

so tough but nina

لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Wednesday, 21 July 2010 08:04 (fifteen years ago)

It's Billie. I think people voting Nina don't know Billie well enough. No offense and all.

One of the few things I've ever posted on YouTube, because it's one of my favorite songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-rlGmhL7gY

kenan, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 08:08 (fifteen years ago)

Nina made me cry when I saw her in 2000, at the Bass Concert Hall in Austin. It was "Here Comes the Sun" that really brought out the tissues for me. I LOVE Nina Simone, please don't read me wrong.

But Billie understood something that Nina doesn't deal with: decay, destruction, endings. Even the most gut-wrenching reading of a song by Nina Simone is finally about hope. Billie gets her delicate hands right down into the final soil. And because she does, her emotional range is so much wider.

kenan, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 08:29 (fifteen years ago)

I respect Billie. I love Nina.

^^^This, except the exact and total opposite.

All 10 songs permeate the organs (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 21 July 2010 13:34 (fifteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Wednesday, 28 July 2010 23:01 (fifteen years ago)

Whenever this question is posed I always vote for Billie Holiday because I somehow feel she has the most affecting voice but today is a hot summer day in my city and unfortunately for Holiday shedoesn't have any 'sinnerman' or 'funkier than a mosquito's tweeter' or 'see-line woman' or anything decidedly contagious and manically upbeat in her catalogue.

Moka, Wednesday, 28 July 2010 23:11 (fifteen years ago)

Nina is one of my favourite all time artists.

jed_, Wednesday, 28 July 2010 23:20 (fifteen years ago)

Nina

Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 23:40 (fifteen years ago)

I made the mistake of listening to Billie after a breakup once! Oh man, that was brutal. I listened to Billie a lot in high school but I have really been all about Nina since, I think because the emotional impact of Billie is still too raw for me.

Warum habt Ihr mich totgefüttert? (Abbott), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 23:42 (fifteen years ago)

Billie Holiday's records defined a big part of my life for several years. I am assuming the low action on this poll is that everybody's responses are pretty automatic; mine was immediate. I dig Nina Simone but Billie Holiday's music is a part of me.

gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 23:42 (fifteen years ago)

Billy & Prez' - A musical romance is drop-dead gorgeous, deseret island stuff. not a big fan of Nina's style, but "Baltimore" is really lovely

fried ice cream is a reality (outdoor_miner), Wednesday, 28 July 2010 23:57 (fifteen years ago)

Is it challops if I think jazz purists would do better chosing Nina over Billie? Nina Simone is in my mind a better example of the true jazz spirit than Billie who seems more calculated, technical...academic.

Moka, Thursday, 29 July 2010 02:45 (fifteen years ago)

The sun is gone now so I'm switching back to Billie Holiday btw.

Moka, Thursday, 29 July 2010 02:46 (fifteen years ago)

Nina Simone is in my mind a better example of the true jazz spirit than Billie who seems more calculated, technical...academic.

See, I would say the same thing, except I would switch names. My problem with Simone is that she seems overly mannered and almost genteel at times, where Holiday is all feeling. Anyway, Holiday all the way, since aside from a few songs I've never really gotten Simone.

MumblestheRevelator, Thursday, 29 July 2010 08:57 (fifteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Thursday, 29 July 2010 23:01 (fifteen years ago)

satisfactory

iago g., Friday, 30 July 2010 00:51 (fifteen years ago)


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