What Happened, Miss Simone?: A Biography

What Happened, Miss Simone?: A Biography

Inspired by the Academy Award-nominated Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? , an intimate and vivid look at the legendary life of Nina Simone, the classically trained pianist who evolved into a chart-topping chanteuse and committed civil rights activist.    From music journalist and former Spin and Vibe editor-in-chief Alan Light comes a biography of incandescent soul singer and Black Power icon Nina Simone, one of the most influential, provocative, and least understood artists of our time. Drawn from a trove of rare archival footage, audio recordings and interviews (including Simone's remarkable private diaries), this nuanced examination of Nina Simone’s life highlights her musical inventiveness and unwavering quest for equality, while laying bare the personal demons that plagued her from the time of her Jim Crow childhood in North Carolina to her self-imposed exile in Liberia and Paris later in life.   Harnessing the singular voice of Miss Simone herself and incorporating candid reflections from those who knew her best, including her only daughter, Light brings us face to face with a legend, examining the very public persona and very private struggles of one of our greatest artists. Praise for What Happened, Miss Simone? and Nina Simone   “Alan Light has written an electrifying, humane, and dimensional biography of one of my favorite artists in the entire world. I learned so much about a woman I admire, the woman whose fiery piano and voice is a powerful reminder of what artists are meant to do! What Happened, Miss Simone? captures how unique and real she was on every page.” –Alicia Keys   “A spellbinding portrait of a musical genius, a woman both ahead of her time and of it. In What Happened Miss Simone? , Alan Light resurrects the High Priestess of Soul with profound sympathy and masterful storytelling.” –Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, author of Mo’ Meta Blues and Something to Food About   “Nina Simone was an overwhelming artist, piano player, and singer—the kind of artist that I loved and admired.” –Bob Dylan   “Nina Simone’s music helped us to navigate the contradictions that propelled the black struggle forward… Her phenomenal voice beckoned us toward the battle to come.” –Angela Davis “What Happened, Miss Simone?  is the engaging biography of the troubled soul heroine... As Light shows, her intensity fueled music that reflected and transformed the volatile America of her times.”  – Rolling Stone “[Nina Simone's] willingness to speak her mind shines out of every page of Alan Light's biography.” – The Times (UK) “A probing account of Simone’s inner struggles...Far from detracting from her civil rights heroism, it makes that achievement all the more astonishing.” – The New York Review of Books “Simone was a genius. Her triumphs and troubles share the stage in Light's pitch-perfect biography, What Happened, Miss Simone? .” – Elle “Cleareyed and well-balanced, respectful rather than worshipful.” – Columbus Dispatch A veteran music journalist, ALAN LIGHT is the author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" and Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain . Light was previously the editor-in-chief of Vibe and Spin and a senior writer for Rolling Stone . He is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times . CHAPTER 10   People seem to think that when she went out onstage, that was when she became  Nina Simone. My mother was Nina Simone 24/7. . . . She couldn’t be herself, and she wasn’t loved for who she was when she was not at the piano and not singing.   — LISA SIMONE KELLY     The summer of 1969 saw perhaps the most rigorous tour schedule Nina Simone ever faced. With plans put in place by Andy and spurred by her recent chart success, she played a full slate of shows in the United States (including  the Harlem Cultural Festival appearance) and also made a quick trip that took her to France  for a festival in Antibes and then to Algeria for the first Pan-African Festival. As the “folk-rock”  boom  had given way to psychedelia  and then the first  stirrings  of  the singer-songwriter  movement, pop songs had an increasing  sense of gravity and ambition that seemed  to appeal  to Simone.  She followed  her  hit from   Hair with  another single  from  a current pop  source,  covering  the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” and reaching  number 5 on the UK  charts. The  song also became  the title track for Simone’s next album,  which had the most contemporary song selection she ever attempted: three songs written by Bob Dylan (she was one of the few truly great Dylan interpreters), Leonard  Cohen’s “Suzanne,” the folk song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” (with lyrics taken from  the Bible  and  credited to Pete Seeger,  the song  had  of course been a huge hit for the Byrds a few years earlier). She also cut two more  Bee Gees compositions and a modi- fied version  of the Beatles’ “Rev