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
End Of The Line
Nina Simone Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I've clearly read every sign
The way you glance at me
Indifferently
And take your hand from mine
This is the end of the line
How can I ever be fine
How helpless I've become
Remember in the biginniunfg
Your winning ways excited me
And all the while I was certain
That we two found a love that comes just to a few
We've reached the end of the line
I hope your dreams turn out fine
I'm awfully tired
And so I guess I'll go
Although it's only nine
But this is the end of the line
The end of the line
The song "End of the Line" by Nina Simone is a melancholic ballad about a love that seems to have reached its end. Simone's sorrowful voice occupies the foreground, while the gentle accompaniment on the piano adds to the feeling of loss conveyed in the lyrics. The song is about the end of a relationship and the acceptance that the love it once was, is now over.
In the first stanza, Simone describes the signs that she has observed that lead her to believe that the relationship is over. She acknowledges the way her lover looks at her now, with indifference, and how he has withdrawn his hand from hers. She feels abandoned and powerless to fix anything anymore. In the second stanza, the singer reminisces on their happier times at the beginning of the relationship. She had felt excited and certain that they had found a love that was special and unique. Now, at the end of the line, there is nothing left for her to do but say goodbye.
The song speaks to anyone who has experienced the heartache and disappointment of a relationship that dies. It is a mournful tribute to a love that was, and now is gone forever.
Line by Line Meaning
This is the end of the line
The relationship has reached its conclusion, there is no way forward.
I've clearly read every sign
All the indications point to the fact that the relationship is over.
The way you glance at me
The disinterested look you give me.
Indifferently
You show me no emotion, you do not care.
And take your hand from mine
You withdraw your touch, indicating the end of the physical connection.
How can I ever be fine
I cannot imagine how I will ever feel good again.
How helpless I've become
I have become powerless and unable to change the situation.
I feel like some discarded valentine
I feel like a once-loved object that has been discarded and forgotten.
Remember in the beginning
Recall how things started when we were first together.
Your winning ways excited me
Your charming personality and behavior delighted me.
And all the while I was certain
Throughout the entire relationship, I was sure.
That we two found a love that comes just to a few
That we had discovered a rare and special love.
We've reached the end of the line
The relationship has ended, there is no more to say.
I hope your dreams turn out fine
I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
I'm awfully tired
I am very weary, both physically and emotionally.
And so I guess I'll go
It is time for me to leave.
Although it's only nine
Despite the early hour.
But this is the end of the line
This is truly the end of the relationship.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JOHN EDMONDSON, CYNTHIA MEDLEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
chuck norris
This is the end of the line
I've clearly read every sign
The way you glance at me
Indifferently
And take your hand from mine
This is the end of the line
How can I ever be fine
How helpless I've become
I feel like some discarded valentine
Remember in the biginniunfg
Your winning ways excited me
And all the while I was certain
That we two found a love that comes just to a few
We've reached
Fernando Cuevas
Nina Simone was one the greatest souls to express her vulnerability to us, what a beautiful person. Such a voice of sentiment and passion.
David Bluth
Such a beautiful song....jazzy but at the same time operatic
Duncan F
This mellow and bitter lament of a song has lingered in my memory since I first heard it in the time of Swinging Sixties London....it haunts, it hurts, and it hovers.....most sharply when love, once sublime, goes awry....(which has been at least once too often now that I am past my own "sixties"!.....) Heard it today for the first time in maybe 30 years, and it still cuts through with its raw simplicity and spare lyrics....a bit of a masterpiece really....and it's all in "the delivery"....Thank you again Ms. Simone....
chuck norris
This is the end of the line
I've clearly read every sign
The way you glance at me
Indifferently
And take your hand from mine
This is the end of the line
How can I ever be fine
How helpless I've become
I feel like some discarded valentine
Remember in the biginniunfg
Your winning ways excited me
And all the while I was certain
That we two found a love that comes just to a few
We've reached
Elsa A
C'est sur qu'aujourd'hui ce genre d'exception musicale n'existe plus. On nous sort des "tubes" qui n'ont que 2 mois de popularité et encore, alors que la musique de cette époque garde son exception et sa beauté pour toujours.
nk_salinger
My fav song of Nina
rinsedpie
I dont know how but i love this song. First heard as a background song at the end of the Match Of The Day 2, aired Dec 1st 2019 to announce the sacking of Marco Silva as manager of Watford FC.
TFL222
this sample is about to be real
Kaizer-Man
Word. It's so good i've managed to flip two samples out of it
Amo Poder
Nice