Soundtrack Of The Day: "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" - Nina Simone

I may have mentioned my obsession with Nina Simone, with her gorgeously low, sensual voice and stunningly vast catalog. But Ms. Simone never had the massive pop hit she wanted, and her 1964 recording of an original song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was to be that single that propelled her out of the jazz clubs and into pop culture's center stage.

Unfortunately for Nina her slow burning, almost classically arranged version of the song failed to chart. The Animals picked up on the track the following year and got a Top 20 hit and an oldies radio mainstay out of it. It's hard to say which version is better, Nina's is fraught with pain and regret while The Animals' infused it with a live wire of rock. Both deserve a wide audience.

Ms. Simone also recorded the folk standard "House Of The Rising Sun" a full two years before The Animals made a hit out of it. Nina couldn't catch a break!

Soundtrack Of The Day: "Mississippi Goddam" - Nina Simone

I have been quite obsessed with Nina Simone for the last couple of years, after hearing her haunting version of "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair." Her voice is deep and throaty yet warm and her arrangements of jazz and pop classics were innovative and captivating. Most people probably know her from her version of "Feeling Good" - which is the basis for most modern versions, or other jazz standards like "My Baby Just Cares For Me."

But Nina got political after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama left schoolchildren dead and a KKK member murdered Medgar Evens in Mississippi in 1963. While "Mississippi Goddam" doesn't have the subtle meditations on race in America that her later song "Four Women" does or the joy of "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," it has a heat and an anger that Nina would also channel into covers of "Pirate Jenny" and "Strange Fruit."

This isn't an easy song to hear but it's honest about the frustrations that many in the civil rights movement felt. They "dressed real fine and talked like a lady" yet still did not get the respect they deserved. They were told to "go slow" but all they wanted was "Equality for my brother, my sister, my people and me." While "threats" like "we're all gonna get it, we're all gonna die and die like flies" might alienate those whose hearts and minds need changed, that's a real feeling that others could identify with. It's very familiar to other maligned groups today, being told to wait while our rights and freedoms are put on hold. It leads to anger that isn't always productive, but it's a real emotion that is valid.

"This is a showtune, but the show hasn't been written for it yet," Nina says after the chorus. That's because she was living it then, as we are living it now.


Click on the "Four Women" link above for another brilliant performance by Nina!

Best Old Song I Discovered In 2008

Contrary to popular opinion, I have not heard every song ever recorded in human history. I know, I'm such a slacker. Sometimes I miss brilliant music for no other reason than I was born too late. That's so not fair!

Nina Simone possesses one of my favorite voices of the twentieth century. It's powerful and honest, never falling into false melisma. I bought Verve Jazz Masters 17: Nina Simone earlier this year and discovered a few of her songs I'd never heard. I've been in love with "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair" for years, and I've thought Nina's version of "I Love You Porgy" is the best I'd ever heard, but there was one song on there I'd never heard and I've since been obsessed with.

That song is "Ne Me Quitte Pas" and even though I don't speak French, I truly understand the emotion of the song. I just learned it means "If You Leave" which makes sense, the vocal suggests the end of a something wonderful. Simone's voice is so infused with passion and pain, you don't really need to know what she's saying to know what she means. The song is from 1965's I Put A Spell On You, and it's well worth discovering more than 40 years later. Listen:

Ne me quitte pas - Nina Simone

Five Ten Songs On Shuffle, Volume 21

This is the twenty-first installments of my weekly blog entry series "5 Songs On Shuffle." Normally I’d put my iTunes on shuffle and blog about the first five songs that play, but since I forgot one last week I'm doing ten songs. It's only fair!

"What I Like About You" - The Romantics The Modern Edge
Long before it was the theme to the unfortunate sitcom starring Amanda Bynes and Jenny Garth, this was a karaoke favorite and bouncy sing-along punk song. Despite the harmonica, which is my most hated instrument of all time, it's so darn fun to sing I had to have it on the 'Pod.

"Thriller" - Fall Out Boy Infinity On High
Ooh, Mr. Carter intros the best punk-pop band of the '00s! Can it get anymore celeb-centric? "Thriller" might share the title with a classic Micheal Jackson album/song/video but it's not quite the same. Almost as catchy, though.

"Streets Of Philadelphia" - Bettye LeVette Song Of America
Maybe you don't remember, but there was quite a bit of talk late last year about Janet Reno and her nephew-in-law curating this three disc collection of American music from the 1400s to the present, much of it performed by indie and folk artists. Bettye LeVette is a soul diva who was shut out of the industry as a young person in the 1970s, but has had two well reviewed discs come out in the past couple years. She brings even more emotion to this Bruce Springsteen hit, as you would expect from a big beautiful black woman.

"Love You I Do" - Jennifer Hudson Dreamgirls Motion Picture Soundtrack
Speaking of big beautiful black women, my Oscar-winning girl J.Hud sounds sooooo good in this song, written just for the film version of Dreamgirls. She has such a strong voice, perfect for this sunny Motown-biting love song.

"When In Rome" - Nickel Creek Reasons Why: The Very Best
This song was the whole reason I bought the best-of collection by the now-defunct alterna-bluegrass trio. With a writing scheme more REM than Soggy Bottom Boys, but capturing the tradition elements of fiddle and mandolin, a new sound was born. Without Nickel Creek, I don't think I could have appreciated new variations on acoustic music like Jay Brannan's stuff as much as I do.

"Anyone Else But You" - The Moldy Peaches Juno
The lo-fi acoustic sound is almost amateurish, but the sentiment and writing on this song is stellar. Just sweet but strange, just like Juno herself. And seriously, I just imported this CD from the disc I borrowed from the library this afternoon, and it's already popping up on random.

"Mississippi Goddam" - Nina Simone Verve Jazz Masters 17
After one of the many racial-related crimes in the south, Nina wrote this bitter song in response. A super-simple piano line underlines the deservedly venomous lyrics about the broken trust between African-Americans and the rest of the nation. "Everybody knows about Mississippi goddam!"

"An American Crime (End Credits)" Petra Haden, Composed By Alan Lazar An American Crime
Petra Haden is known for her a capella work, like her brilliant cover of "Don't Stop Believin'" from the Guilt By Association album. Alan Lazar takes her wordless vocals and layers them in an increasingly creepy way, building up like strings in a traditional score before breaking into a piano solo and then returning to the vocals. Seriously, one of the scariest scores I've heard in a long time.

"My Interpratation" - MIKA Life In Cartoon Motion
Not one of the best songs from his poppy debut disc, but still a serviceable adult-rock style pop song. I just unchecked from my iPod, I'm out of room and need to add some of my newer acquisitions.

"U + UR Hand" - Pink I'm Not Dead
Yeah, it's just a dirtier version of "Since U Been Gone" (Max Martin wrote both songs) but it's still a classic in the dirty-pop tradition. Also, the best masturbation song since "She Bop"

My Top Twenty: "Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair" - Nina Simone

Song: "Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair"
Artist: Nina Simone
Album: Nina Simone At Town Hall (also on Wild Is The Wind and Black Gold, remixed on Verve Remixed 2)
Year: 1959
Label: Colpix Records
Players: Nina Simone - vocals, piano; Jack Gold - producer; Bob Blake - producer


Nina Simone is a fabulous artist, who was a favorite of Bridget Fonda's character in Point Of No Return. Her husky vocals, beautiful piano work and classical training helped her create a high-art sound that combined the best of jazz, blues, gospel, folk and classical music. Her take on "I Loves You Porgy" ranks as one of the best versions of that Gershwin-penned classic, in my opinion. She is probably best known to the casual listener for her cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell on You" or the use of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" in a 1987 Chanel No. 5 commercial. But Nina Simone also wrote her own material, often controversial race-themed songs like "Four Women" "Mississippi Goddam" and "To Be Young, Gifted And Black," later covered by the Queen herself, Aretha Franklin.

"Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair" was the first Nina Simone song I ever heard. It was on a Starbucks compilation called Something To Believe In, which featured classic tracks by African-American artists like Erma Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Dionne Warwick and a liner note full of paintings by other black artists. I picked it up at a Salvation Army Thrift Store for a buck or two about five years ago. In my ignorance, I usually skipped over Nina's track, since I'd never heard of it before. Eventually, I let it play and fell in love with the dramatic contrast between the gentle piano and the throaty vocals singing an Appalachian folk song on the version from Wild Is The Wind. It's strange, a song about a Scottish lass can sound so perfect coming out of a black woman's mouth. But that was Nina Simone's gift, she inhabited her songs so brilliantly. To this day, no matter how many variations of "Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair" come around, it will be Nina's that will stay rooted in my heart. "Ooh, I love my lover, how well he knows/I love the ground on where he goes"

Five Songs On Shuffle Volume 16

This is the sixteenth installments of my weekly blog entry series "5 Songs On Shuffle." I’ll put my iTunes on shuffle and blog about the first five songs that play.

"Summertime" - Nina Simone Trouble On My Mind
This jazzy interpretation of the Gershwin classic has one of the longest instrumental intros of any song on my iPod. The vocals don't start until about halfway through the song. It has a more free form style than her version on Verve Jazz Masters 17 disc, or the Billie Holiday, Sandi Patty or Fantasia versions that are also on my iPod. I do love me some jazz standards!

"Lucky Star" - Madonna The Immaculate Collection
One of the Material Girl's earliest hits, "Lucky Star" is just post-disco fun. Bubblegummy and sweet, it just makes you want to bop around the kitchen while you do the dishes or sing along at the top of your lungs in the car. While she has had better pop hits, this one started it all and I must give my props.

"Stronger" - Britney Spears Greatest Hits: My Perogative
Not one of my favorites among Brit's pop hits, but an OK girl power/breakup song. I much prefer Kanye's Stronger to Britney's, though.

"Big Girls Don't Cry" - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons Malt Shop Memories: Save The Last Dance [Disc 1]
I just downloaded this box set on my iTunes this afternoon. I borrowed it from my Grammy, cause I don't have enough old school music in my iPod, and that just won't do. I listened to the oldies stations a lot as a teenager, and I have no patience for those who dislike the "old junk." The boy bands of today couldn't have happened with out the blueprint of groups like this, the "indie" rock scene takes a lot from the garage bands of the sixties. As Solomon said in, "There is no new thing under the sun."

"The Lighthouses Tale" - Nickel Creek Reasons Why: The Very Best
This is a sad bluegrass ballad, which tells the tale of lighthouse keeper meets girl, girl falls for keeper, girl dies at sea, keeper jumps off lighthouse. I love the more non-traditional bluegrass-meets-alternative songs of Nickel Creek, but there is nothing wrong with something more traditional and folksy.

Five Songs On Shuffle, Vol. 8

This is the eighth installment of my weekly blog entry series "5 Songs On Shuffle." I’ll put my iTunes on shuffle and blog about the first five songs that play.

"Almost Lover" - A Fine Frenzy One Cell In The Sea
This heartbreaking song is from solo act A Fine Frenzy, whose poetic lyrics bite into me every time I hear this song. "I cannot go to the ocean/I cannot drive the streets at night/I cannot wake up in the morning/Without you on my mind" and "Now your gone and I'm haunted/and I'll bet you are just fine/Do I make it that easy to walk right in and out of my life" are painful lyrics that any victim of heartache will indentify with.

"Snatch The Crystal Cat Back - Khia vs Dan Deacon" - The Hood Internet Mixtape Volume One
The Khia track is the absolute filthiest thing on my iPod. Lyrics like "I should have never let you s*** this p****/F*** this p****/Thugs love this p*****" and "You'll never find another b**** with a p**** good as mine/That's better than this/Gets more wetter than this" and "D*** for days/and your head so good and you d*** so strong/make a b**** wanna s*** and f*** you all night long" would make Howard Stern blush. And I kinda know all the words, and will sing along to it in the car. Yeah, I'm that whore...

"Mamma Mia" - ABBA ABBA Gold
Aw snap, you know ABBA is my jam! And I just saw the trailer for the movie version of the Broadway show of the same name this weekend, plus someone sang it at kareoke last week, so I am in a ABBA kinda mood. I always put ABBA Gold on when I want a pick me up, just poppy goodness.

"See-Line Woman" - Nina Simone Verve Masters 17
I am obsessed with Nina Simone, I first heard "Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair" about 5 years ago and fell in love. This is a jauntier track about a dancer and/or whore who casts a spell over every man. Feist later remade/sampled this song as "Sea Lion Woman" on The Reminder.

"Here (In Your Arms)" - Hellogoodbye Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!
Hellogoodbye confuse me. Are they an pop-punk/emo band who can bang out a dancefloor anthem like this one, or techno-lords who dabble in emoland? Buying this album didn't help me decide, it's a lot of both. But's all good, this track never fails to get my body moving on the dancefloor, and the lyrcis are emotastic.