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
If I Should Lose You
Nina Simone Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The stars would fall from the skies
If I should lose you
The leaves would wither and die
The birds in May time
Would sing a lonely refrain
And I would wander around
With you beside me
No wind in winter would blow
With you beside me
A rose would bloom in the snow
I gave you my love
But I was living a dream
And living would seem in vain
If I lost you
The lyrics of "If I Should Lose You" by Nina Simone are a heart-wrenching expression of the fear of losing someone. The song starts with a hyperbolic statement about the magnitude of loss, with the first two lines suggesting that if the person being addressed is lost, the very fabric of the universe would be ripped apart - the stars would fall from the skies, and the leaves would wither and die. The subsequent lines display the emotional toll of such a loss on the singer - the birdsong would sound like a lonely refrain, and even the sound of rain would become unbearable. The third stanza introduces the idea of the person being addressed as a source of comfort and stability, saying that no wind in winter would blow if they were present, and a rose would bloom in the snow, metaphorically suggesting that their presence would bring a sense of warmth and life in even the bleakest of circumstances.
The final stanza takes a poignant turn, with the singer admitting that they gave all their love to the person addressed. However, they also acknowledge that this love may have been built on an unrealistic or idealized image - by saying that they were "living a dream", they imply that the love may not have been based on a deep understanding of the person. Nevertheless, they end by saying that if they were to lose the person, life itself would seem in vain, indicating the enormous significance of this relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
If I should lose you
Life would lose its meaning without you
The stars would fall from the skies
Without you, even the most beautiful things lose their charm
If I should lose you
Losing you would be the worst thing that could happen to me
The leaves would wither and die
Losing you would make everything lose its vibrancy and wither away
The birds in May time
Even nature would mourn the loss of you
Would sing a lonely refrain
The birds would sing a sad song without you
And I would wander around
Without you, I would be lost and directionless
Hating the sound of rain
Even the sound of rain would bring me pain without you
With you beside me
Being with you makes everything better
No wind in winter would blow
With you by my side, everything would feel calm and peaceful
With you beside me
I am at my happiest when I am with you
A rose would bloom in the snow
With you, even the impossible becomes possible
I gave you my love
I have given you everything that I have
But I was living a dream
Despite everything, I was living in a make-believe world
And living would seem in vain
Without you, life would feel pointless and meaningless
If I lost you
Losing you is a fate worse than death
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: RALPH E GRAHAM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@lisau5008
If I should lose you
The stars would fall from the skies
If I should lose you
The leaves would wither and die
The birds in May time
Would sing a lonely refrain
And I would wander around
Hating the sound of rain
With you beside me
No wind in winter would blow
With you beside me
A rose would bloom in the snow
I gave you my love
But I was living a dream
And living would seem in vain
If I lost you
@leanmchungry4735
Her entrance to this song has such depth and clarity--Nina is a Goddess.
@lisau5008
If I should lose you
The stars would fall from the skies
If I should lose you
The leaves would wither and die
The birds in May time
Would sing a lonely refrain
And I would wander around
Hating the sound of rain
With you beside me
No wind in winter would blow
With you beside me
A rose would bloom in the snow
I gave you my love
But I was living a dream
And living would seem in vain
If I lost you
@JH-tu6xq
The piano….just perfect
@colsomemiah6095
Nina wrings the most minute meaning of the lyric, and every song drips with melancholia that intensifies your emotional state, and he freewheeling piano echoes with calculated perfection. Can't stand to hear I get along without you very well...a heartbuster
@leslychavez211
colsome miah great words <3
@MAAMEEMAAA
did you just type he????
@colsomemiah6095
@@MAAMEEMAAA shudda been the. I know Ms. Simone....from same hometown
@timrutter5025
I had never heard this before but it was used in the soundtrack to Mrs Biggs.....so thank you for uploading it and now I can hear it in full. Marvellous.
@josephclift3662
Tim, I am literally watching Mrs Biggs on DVD, episode 3, and heard this and came here to find it. I just sent it to my gf
@judefoote7566
beautiful just beautiful I have no words