Fri, 05.03.2010A Fighting Life: Eunice “Queen Nina Simone” Waymon
Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone, examines the artistic legacy of Waymon/Simone while dutifully dissecting her formidable mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, shizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, late-in-life alcoholism, and the uniform rage cited by all in her satellite as overwhelming (“One of her sidemen, before playing with her each night, had to go into the men’s room and throw up”). The book was given a passable review by the New York Times, the Washington Post took their review as a means to examine her instead of it, and the San Francisco’s Chronicle summarizes it as “depressing.” However and whomever attempts to breach the wall of Simone’s life are left in quiet and melancholy reverence of someone so consistently powerful. And prideful.
The videos below shows Queen Simone in France – railing, ranting, and singing in such confident not-give-a-fuckery we’re all left to wish for one with half her presence in our time of rubbery figures all posture and no compunction. A dozen and one places and memories cross her face: her royalty and happiness and sadness and anger and laser-sharp intelligence…her terribly useful schizophrenia in full demonstration.
NOTE: Be sure to watch both segments—Nina is devastating!