This is one of the best films available on Netflix. I’m reposting, as a friend of mine saw it recently and was just as profoundly shaken and stirred by it. Totally absorbing.
Last night I more or less idly began watching a documentary on Netflix about Nina Simone – and was right from the start transfixed by her words: “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me – no fear!”
From those opening comments in “What happened to you Miss Simone?” I was glued to the screen. One of the words most used by the singer herself is “compelling” – and it fits her appearances.
Musically, she is electrifying: confident, powerful, emotional, unpredictable, distinctive. Like all great artists in any genre (and this is something someone needs to tell warbly teenage wannabe popstars)
she inherited powerful art skills through her family (literature words and performance as her mother was a Bible preacher)
has invested depth into her art by years of studying and acquiring classical technique (classical piano study),
responding to her times and national culture (Civil Rights),
The now-defunct online magazine, Doubletake, printed a short but very good article on lyric writing, by Carly Simon, the hugely popular song writer.
Amazingly, at one point she was so discouraged about her apparent lack of success with songwriting, that she decided to give up on that career. However, on her ferry trip home, a song from George Gershwin kept playing on the jukebox – and she found herself writing a poem in response, asking George how it was for him in his life and work.
As if he could hear me, I asked questions: “Did you buy your house in the country? Did you wait for something that never came? Did you die still waiting for your train?” Every time I asked a question, the refrain “Embrace me, my sweet, embraceable you, embrace me, you irreplaceable you” kept hitting, and as it kept hitting, I repeated it in my letter. It became a quoted chorus in a bed of my questions and observations. At the end of the letter, I vowed to go home and sit at the piano and try to write songs again. “In honor of you, George, in honor of you . . .”
This eventually became her song “In honor of you, George”. The whole article on songwriting is still here to be read – and worth reading if you write lyrics. (Thank you, Doubletake, for leaving it online.)
Creative Takeaways
If you’re feeling like giving up because no one ‘gets’ you or your art – just keep on going – pushing though discouragement has been an experience for pretty much every achiever (with the possible exception of child prodigies)
When you’re stuck and lyrics won’t come – write a response to someone who intrigues you, ask them questions. This automatically gives you a starting point.
Going back to Carly, one of the recurring questions asked about her was who she wrote her big hit ‘You’re so vain” about? Here’s the final answer….
Just watched a BBC documentary on the making of the album “No Secrets” – which includes the song “You’re so vain”. Absorbing.
We get to hear from the producer, bassist, sound engineer, drummer, lead guitarist, her manager and most of all Carly herself. What were her inspirations for her songs? What was it like to be at the centre of recording such a phenomenally successful album?
A great insight into songwriting and the team effort which is recording an album. And also of the personal and emotional toll it takes on the performer, in the concentrated pressure chamber of the studio. Should be watched by all wouldbe musicians.
Much of the documentary is about the single “You’re so vain” because there are so many little separate elements which made it special. One of these is backing vocals by a very young Mick Jagger, whom Carly randomly met at a party shortly beforehand, and brought into the studio.
Carly also talks about how she was influenced by the soul stylings of singer Odette (photo featured above). The photo on the album and its title were not chosen til the very last minute. The photo used on the front cover was literally as Carly left the photo shoot, dressed in her own favourite clothes, to go back to the studio to work.
Much of this album and its making are indeed life and art combined – the life of one particular musician, at a particular phase in her life and in the technology of sound recording.
This one hour documnetary is available to view on BBC iplayer but only until 5 June – so watch or download soon.
Brutal honesty – “that is the route – not just to a relationship with God – but it’s the route to a great song – in fact, it’s the only place you can find a great song – the only place you find any work of art of merit.” – Bono
Back in January, I more or less idly began watching a documentary on Netflix about Nina Simone – and was right from the start transfixed by her words:
“I’ll tell you what freedom is to me – no fear!” – Nina Simone
From those opening comments in “What happened to you Miss Simone?” I was glued to the screen. One of the words most used by the singer herself is “compelling” – and it fits her appearances. (I’m reposting my thoughts on it, as a friend recently saw it on Netflix and was blown away by it.)
Nina Simone as an Artist
Musically, she is electrifying: confident, powerful, emotional, unpredictable, distinctive. Like all great artists in any genre (and this is something someone needs to tell warbly teenage wannabe popstars)
she inherited powerful art skills through her family (literature words and performance as her mother was a Bible preacher)
has invested depth into her art by years of studying and acquiring classical technique (classical piano study),
responding to her times and national culture (Civil Rights),
bringing in her most personal experiences, both painful and joyful
persistence through difficult times
having a deep spiritual aspect (she began leading worship in church aged 4),
befriending and discussing with leading cultural voices (poets, writers, political activists),
pulling from an eclectic range of styles (blues, jazz, classical, pop, Broadway, film tunes, folk songs),
authoring her own songs,
working hard for decades,
having something to say and saying it without compromise….
well, by the time you put all those ingredients together and look around for someone else carrying the same mix – you are looking at a handful of people. And whether painters, writers, musicians – they are all world-class, astounding, generation-defining.
Another example would be Picasso – son of a painting tutor, by the time he was school-leaving age he had learnt, studied and absorbed all the skills and history of technique – in the next few years he developed through deep poverty and lifechanging tragedy (suicide of friend Casegemas and death from cancer of his main love) – and spent the rest of his life exploring how to paint what he felt, pulling on the past culture/spirituality of African tribal masks.
One of the outstanding comments in the film – thankfully captured on the trailer – is an interview with Nina, indoors,offstage, talking with an interviewer, out of the spotlight:
Nina Simone
“I choose to reflect the times and the situations in which I find myself – how can you be an artist and not reflect the times?”
Nina Simone – the person
Back to Nina – she is a complex personality – and one of the strengths of this movie is that her daughter, Lisa, is involved in the project – who had a ringside seat and tells of the tough times but also, above all, plays tribute to her mother’s genius. What I see of Lisa, I like. Here she is, being interviewed, together with the film’s maker, Liz Garbarus.
Reasons to watch the film
“What happened to Miss Simone” is a terrific film. Watch it if you can. It was nominated for an Academy award (Oscar) for Best Documentary, Feature. It picked up the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary – and was also nominated for nonfiction Directing, Cinematography and Sound Mixing. Which is brilliant considering that the majority of the film are old recordings of Nina Simone where you are stuck with the quality of the original, with very little fresh filming a documentary maker can make.
When Lisa Simone saw the first cut of the documentary, she responded by doing a little dance of joy, feeling that it truly showed her mother and thanking the Director. Really – that’s enough accolades all around to merit watching this film. Do not miss it.
Result!
Like all great movies, I am left wanting to know more about Nina, her daughter’s own work, the other movies made by the Director – and definitely to watch other films nominated in the same categories. Ironically, in the Oscars, the film lost out to a documentary of a more recent soul singer legend, Amy (about Amy Winehouse).
Creative Takeaways
What can creatives take away from the film and the life story of Nina Simone? Firstly, to stretch yourself as an artist means you will become an outsider – Nina learn classical music which made her strange in the contemporary Black culture but yet she also didn’t fit into the White culture because of her skin colour.
Secondly – pursue your art anyhow – life will throw you brickbats, ridicule and heckling from the front row – but you can still make timeless art, when it’s authentic.
Thirdly – look at what you’re making – does it engage with your times? The bad times as well as the good times?
