Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on 21st February 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, USA, one of eight children. Like a number of other black singers in the U.S., she was inspired as a child by Marian Anderson, and began singing at her local church, also showing great talent as a pianist. Her public debut, a piano recital, was made at the age of ten. Her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white audience members. This incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.
Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon (who lived into her late nineties) was a strict Methodist minister; her father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman and sometime barber who suffered bouts of ill-health. Mrs Waymon worked as a maid, and her employer, hearing of Nina's talent, provided funds for piano lessons for the little girl. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Eunice's continued education.
At seventeen, Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she taught piano and accompanied singers. She was able to begin studying piano at New York City's prestigious Juilliard School of Music but lack of funds meant that she was unable to fulfill her dream of becoming America's first Black classical pianist. She later had an interview to study piano at the Curtis Institute, but was rejected. Simone believed this rejection, which fueled her hatred of racism, was because she was black.
Simone turned to blues and jazz after getting her start at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, taking the name Nina Simone in 1954; "Nina" was her boyfriend's nickname for her, and "Simone" was after the French actress Simone Signoret. She first came to public notice in 1959 with her wrenching rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), her only Top-Forty hit in the United States. This was soon followed by the single "My Baby Just Cares for Me" (this was also a hit in the 1980s in the United Kingdom when used for television advertisements for Chanel No 5 perfume).
Throughout the 1960s, Simone was involved in the civil rights movement and recorded a number of political songs, including "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" (later covered by Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway), "Backlash Blues", "Mississippi Goddam" (a response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama killing four black children), "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", and Kurt Weill's "Pirate Jenny", from The Threepenny Opera, re-cast in a southern town.
In 1961, Simone recorded a version of the traditional song "House of the Rising Sun", which was then covered by folk-blues artist, Dave Van Ronk, and later recorded by Bob Dylan, where it was picked up by The Animals and became their signature hit. Other songs she is famous for include "I Put a Spell on You" (originally by Screamin' Jay Hawkins), The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun", "Four Women", Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released", the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody", and "Ain't Got No (I Got Life)". The latter, from the musical Hair, was her debut in the UK charts, reaching number two in 1968, and a remixed version of the recording by Groovefinder was a UK Top Thirty hit in 2006.
Broadway musicals also supplied several hits for Simone: "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "Love Me or Leave Me", "Feeling Good", and "Ne Me Quitte Pas". Also "You Can Have Him" on the LP Live at Town Hall recorded when she was twenty-six years old; at the end of this operatic performance, which displays her great skill as an actress as well as a musician, she whoops with joy. This single recording encapsulates her extraordinary power, wit, flexibility, sensuality and occasional menace.
In 1987 Nina experienced a resurgence in popularity when "My Baby Just Cares for Me", a track from her first Bethlehem Records album (1958) became a huge hit in the UK and elsewhere. Nina's versatility as an artist was evident in all her music, which often had a folk-music simplicity.
In a single concert, she moved easily from gospel-inspired tunes to blues and jazz and, in numbers like "For All We Know", to numbers infused with European classical stylings, and counterpoint fugues.
Throughout most of her career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Flemming and guitarist and musical director Al Shackman.
In 1971, Simone left the United States following disagreements with her agents, record labels, and the tax authorities, citing racism as the reason. She returned in 1978 and was arrested for tax evasion (she had withheld several years of income tax as a protest against the Vietnam War). She lived in various countries in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, continuing to perform into her 60s. In the 1980s, she performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London. In 1995, Simone reportedly shot and wounded her neighbour's son with an air pistol after his laughing disturbed her concentration.
She had a reputation in the music industry for being volatile and sometimes difficult to deal with, a characterization with which Simone strenuously took issue.
Though her onstage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her adoring audiences by recounting sometimes humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and soliciting requests. Simone's regal bearing and commanding stage presence earned her the title the "High Priestess of Soul."
In 1993, she settled near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. She had been ill with cancer for several years before she died on 21st April 2003 in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet.
Simone was the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 for her song "I Loves You Porgy." She has also received fifteen Grammy Award nominations. On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone. Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Malcolm X College. She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her. Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute, the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career.
In 2002, the city of Nijmegen (The Netherlands) named a street after her, the Nina Simonestraat. Simone lived in Nijmegen between 1988 and 1990.
Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 2010 a statue in her honor was erected in Trade Street, Tryon, North Carolina, her place of birth.
*Official site
Blue Prelude
Nina Simone Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Let me go away from this lonely town,
Won't be long till my sun will be blue,
Cause I know I'm on my last go round.
All the love I could steal, beg or borrow,
Wouldn't heal all the pain in my soul.
What is love? Only a prelude to sorrow,
Here I go, now you know why I'm leaving.
Got the blues. What can I lose? Goodbye!
What is love? Only a prelude to sorrow,
With a heartbreak ahead for your goal,
Here I go, now you know why I'm leaving.
I got the blues. What can I lose? Goodbye
In Nina Simone's song Blue Prelude, the lyrics convey a sense of deep sadness and longing to escape a lonely town. The first verse sets the tone of the song, with the singer expressing their need to sigh, cry, and leave their current situation behind. The singer knows that they are "on [their] last go round," hinting at a sense of desperation and urgency to escape their current unhappiness.
The singer's pain is further illustrated by the second verse, which questions the value of love. Despite all the love they have received or sought out, it hasn't been enough to heal the pain in their soul. Instead, love is seen as a "prelude to sorrow," hinting at a past or current heartbreak. The repetition of the line "What is love?" emphasizes the singer's confusion and disillusionment with love altogether.
The repeated line "I got the blues. What can I lose? Goodbye!" is a powerful statement of resignation, suggesting that the singer has given up hope and is ready to move on. The song paints a portrait of a person trapped in a cycle of pain and longing, unable to see a way out except to leave everything behind.
Line by Line Meaning
Let me sigh, let me cry when I'm blue,
Allow me to express my sadness and shed tears when I feel sad,
Let me go away from this lonely town,
My loneliness forces me to leave this place and go somewhere else,
Won't be long till my sun will be blue,
Very soon the happiness in my life will fade away and I'll only have sadness for company,
Cause I know I'm on my last go round.
I have come to the realization that this is my last chance to make a difference,
All the love I could steal, beg or borrow,
Regardless of how hard I try, any love that I may receive will not completely heal my soul,
Wouldn't heal all the pain in my soul.
It's impossible to erase the emotional pain that I am experiencing completely,
What is love? Only a prelude to sorrow,
Love is just the introduction to a series of unfortunate events which will eventually lead to heartbreak,
With a heartbreak ahead for your goal,
Inevitably, heartbreak is what will follow if one pursues the goal of finding love,
Here I go, now you know why I'm leaving.
My departure is motivated by the hope that I will find something more in life; something that will cure my blues,
Got the blues. What can I lose? Goodbye!
The blues already have me in their grip so I have nothing else to lose as I say farewell
Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Joe Bishop, Gordon Jenkins
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Realest Babee
Wow I’m too young to be saying this but the older songs are beautiful too
Howard Strauss
Has there been any music in the last 40 years? Please tell me.
G Yui
Realest Babee you’re really not though
Diana Daher
Diva master!!!
Howard Strauss
Mastress. Yes.
Erik Nitsch
this reminds me of l.a noire
Julián
that shit reminds me to helen merrill - blue guitar
artur nhantumbo
Diggy Das