This month’s Fader magazine has a tribute to Nina Simone featuring some rare candid photos of the singer hanging out with friends and playing music. The photos are gorgeous, and give us a peek from a different angle at her complicated and passionate inner life.
The tribute also includes commentary from her contemporaries:
Dick Gregory, the stand-up comedian and social activist, marched with Nina many times during the civil rights era of the 1960s: “She wasn’t that visible because she came didn’t come down to sing, she came down to march. I think her nervous breakdown was probably caused by being on the frontline and seeing what actually happened to black folks.”
For all of you who have been moved by Ms. Simone’s singing over the years, this helps a bit to explain her magic. See the rest of the photos and some more commentary over at Rod 2.0.
Nina Simone in “Fader” [Rod 2.0]
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Allen
I used to idolize Ms. Simone until I met a woman who had worked for her in France at a cocktail party. This lady told me that not only did Simone have bad mental problems and was pure Hell to work for, she was REAL HOMOPHOBIC. I read one account on line somewhere a while back about a female friend who came out to Nina & she went absolutely berserk, calling her friend “disgusting”, etc…
Give me Billie, Judy and Peggy. They had no problems whatsoever back in the day with
gay folk. And hence have become icons!
Hephaestion
Wow, this is a shocker to find out how homophobic Nina Simone was! Damn!
Well, back to my Eartha Kitt records….
Rick
You guys misspelled her name in the headline – Nina, not Nine.
giovanni
Ummm… considering two of her closest friends were James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry I ‘d have to say doubt it much on the rabid homophobe theory.
aaron
Thought you and your Nina fan readers may enjoy this Simone anecdote:
http://www.aanthems.com/archives/2001/08/dishwater_gives.html
edwardclayton
yes, she didn’t agree with gay lifestyle.
she was also a true christian in that she didn’t judge other people and had many close friends who were gay i.e. j. baldwin.
GET OVER IT, SOME PEOPLE THINK DIFFERENTLY
edwardclayton
sorry that seemed rather bitter, didn’t mean to shout 😛
but still some people do just disagree with lifestyles ( makes no sense to me ) and still manage to get on very well with different people