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My father always promised me that we would be free, but he did not promise me that we would live in France.” This “self-interruption” becomes punctuated by her deep laughter. At that, she deadpans, “I don’t want to sing this song-it’s not me. While holding the final note her singing dissolves leaving no trace of effort or commitment. The contour of her vocals reaches a crescendo before the piano and her singing abruptly stops at the close of the “He worked in the mines” lyric. Cheeky and seditious, the undercutting of the paternal pledge signals Simone’s infidelity to and ultimately her disinterest in the cover song shenanigans of simply inhabiting the place of the original protagonist. Settled into the melody, Simone delivers the first verse with an additional quip as an aside, “You know you don’t believe that.” The direct address to you targets the listener. Unlike the soprano intoning by Collins, Simone offers a grounding contralto in the place of soaring airiness. The echoed starkness of the production amplifies her enunciation of the song’s opening verses. A little over a minute and a half, the recording of Simone’s cover opens with her solo at the piano and chatting with others in the studio. The coal miner’s daughter remembers the promises made and dreams imparted by her father of better days to come. Once somebody’s daughter, the youngest sister and the last to leave home, the narrator thinks of her past life while now looking over the Parisian cityscape.
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4Ī paternal tribute, Collins’ song features a woman musing on her blue-collar beginnings in Ohio. 3 Simone had been performing “My Father” in concert during this time and it would remain a part of her live catalogue throughout the rest of her career. Produced and arranged by Harold Wheeler, the album of covers was recorded during the same time as “My Father” and released later that summer. The February 1971 date of the “My Father” recording session means that the song was recorded during the production of Simone’s Here Comes the Sun. During this period Simone was formulating a black liberation pop songbook. 2 Unbothered by musical categories or any other terms of confinement, her work on the label featured more inclusion of soul, blues, and pop in her repertoire. 1 Simone’s RCA recordings exhibit the continued shifting of her star persona throughout the 1960s from concert pianist to Civil Rights singer and beyond. The recording was eventually released in 1998 on The Very Best of Nina Simone: Sugar in My Bowl (1967-1972). That is, lost until it was one of four songs discovered in the RCA vaults during the preparation of a greatest hits package devoted to her tenure on the label. Listed as “My Father/Dialog,” the recording was improperly logged and subsequently lost. It resembles a failed take, or perhaps a warmup, or rehearsal. Nina Simone’s first recorded attempt to cover Judy Collins’ 1968 hit “My Father” is dated February 1971. Finally, Amy Herzog offers a love letter to Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” disco historiography, and a movement.” Sing a simple song. Michael Boyce Gillespie concentrates on Nina Simone’s attempt to perform a cover of Judy Collins’ “My Father” and the performativity of black disobedience. Peter Coviello examines how songs by Phoebe Bridgers and SZA enact an accounting of patriarchal violence and accents of a #MeToo songbook. Show (1964) and the politics of black work. Lordi considers James Brown’s performance of “Please Please Please” at the T.A.M.I.
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T his work tunes in to what we might call crisis harmonies, an attention to the contextual measure of songs and how they might devise and evince rhythms of precarity, resistance, pleasure, and cultural history. Sing a simple song ? Comprised of four short pieces, the work of this dossier submits to a deep and wild listening that considers songs and the intricac ies of their r esonance.